wraggy78

hi all aswell as the pc which i use now i used to use an imac. still have it lying around.
problem i have is there is about 900 photos of when my daughter was first born and the following 6 months or so. i updated to ilife and from then i could not get iphoto to open.
anyway cut a long and sad story short. I cannot find the photos anywhere and am absolutely gutted does anybody know anyone/anywhere that would be able to help me oh and another thing i turned it on tonight after about 6 months and i think the hard drive has died as it does not load up now it was fine last time i used it.
do i stand any chance as my wife and i are absolutely gutted.
thanks in advance for any advice.
carl

RichB

What type of iMac is it?
What version of Mac OS is it?
Does it have Firewire?
Do you have access to any other Macs with Firewire?

If iPhoto was configured to copy files then the pics will be in your Users->iPhoto folder inside the subfolders named by the dates...(Cant check - I dont do it like that...)

Can you boot off the install DVD and run Disk Utility? Does it see the disk?

Marcus will be along shortly with a more detailed and no doubt more helpful suggestion

I would say all is not lost yet.

wraggy78

Hi thanks for the reply
it is and old imac g3
its got osx ???? the one before tiger
not sure about firewire
as for access to another my dad has a g5
i will try and get some more info on the operating software.
I have not tried the disc as my dad has it this was his comp before he got his new one.
I can get it to came up with an option telling me to type
mac-boot or mac-close something like that anyway but when I type to boot it comes up with a little square in the centre of the screen flicking between a question mark and the mac face symbol.
Sorry for being a bit vague I have not used it for a while.
carl

Markus

Ok, sounds like you're running Mac OS X 10.3.

The screen you are seeing is the Open Firmware screen, which you should only normally see if you boot up holding down the command (Apple) + Option (Alt) + O + F keys. If it's booting into Open Firmware then it does not seem at all happy. The symbol you are seeing usually indicates it cannot find a bootable system on the hard drive.

It may just be the internal battery has failed and it does not know where the startup drive is, so here is something to try...

Reboot the machine and as soon as it makes the startup sound, hold down, and keep held down the following keys:

Command (Apple) + Option (alt) + P + R

With them held down, wait until you hear the reboot sound, and still keep them held down, wait until you hear the reboot sound again and then let go. This will have reset the PRAM and it may well then boot.

If it does not, reboot, wait for the chime and press and hold down the option (alt) key and keep it held down. It should show the startup manager screen (it'll be a blue screen with two buttons on it). This screen should display any bootable drives. If it shows the hard drive, click on it, then click the button with the right pointing arrow and the machine should boot from the hard drive.

If no drives are shown it's not game over yet, could be the machine just does not want to see the drive as being bootable. What you want to do is grab the OS X boot CD from your Dad for this machine, and that's the important bit, it MUST be the disk for this machine UNLESS he's got a full installer disk for 10.3/10.4, as in he purchased OS X 10.3 or 10.4 separately from the machine. Typically Apple sets up the install disks that come with machines so they will only boot the machine type they came with, so a G5 disk won't boot a G3.

With that disk, boot up from it. Look at the menu's, there should be under the apple or utilities menu a "Disk Utility" option, you may need to click through a few screens before you can select things, but once you can select Disk Utility from the menu, do so.

It should show the hard drive. If it does not, well, we'll get to that in a moment. If the drive shows up, select it and use the Repair Disk option and see if it'll repair the disk. If it does, reboot the computer and see if it boots on it's own.

If the drive showed up, did not need repair, or it would not let you repair it then it probably means it cannot find a valid system on it, at which point we could do a couple of things.

My first choice would be to use Firewire Target Disk mode, but you must check the iMac to see if it has firewire, not all of them did. My G3 iMac does have firewire on it, so yours might. Have a look at the ports on the side. Easy way to tell which is USB and which is Firewire is to look at the shape of the connection on the computer for the keyboard, that's USB. If you only have connections like that you don't have firewire. If you have other connections, that aren't the modem or ethernet port, then it's more than likey it'll be firewire.

In which case, here's what you do. Get a firewire cable. Take the iMac round to your dads. Turn on your machine, as soon as you hear the chime, hold down and keep held down the T key. This will put the machine into Target Disk Mode, basically meaning your machine will act as though it's just an external hard drive. Plug the firewire cable into a firewire port on your machine, then plug the other end into a firewire port on your dad's machine. You should, hopefully, see your machine's hard drive appear on the G5's desktop, at which point copy the data off. They will normally be in your home folder.
If you open your hard drive you'll see a Users folder, inside there is a folder with your username, inside that folder should be a Pictures folder, you want that, and probably take the Documents folder as well.

The other option would be to purchase something like Alsoft's diskwarrior, or TechTool Pro and see if that will see/repair the disk. There is no guarantee that it will though, so it could be wasted money. Other options are to take it to a data recovery place and see what they can do with it.

There is also another option. Run the installer and try and perform an Archive and Install. This will maintain your data, but put a new system on the machine allowing it to boot.

Any questions, just ask

wraggy78

wow you know your stuff.
Okay I will try this and update asap
thanks again
update soon.

wraggy78

update :-
tried all the rebooting options holdimg down keys etc.
Still nothing.
have spoken to dad and am getting the disk also going to take it over there and link to his.
I did check and it has firewire.
Thanks again will update.

Markus

Ok, sounds like the drive isn't bootable then.

My first step would be to chuck in the installer disk and see if Disk Utility will pick up the disk, if it does not see it, it's not a good sign. If it does, then I'd try the Firewire Target Disk Mode thing I mentioned. all you'll need is a firewire cable to link the machines together and hopefully the drive will appear and you'll be able to pull that data off the the iMac.

BuRR

wraggy - don't do anything more with the disk

If you can get over to Leeds at some point, I'll have a go for you using my forensic software. All it will cost you is your fuel to get here, and maybe a beer - you can email me at burratha<at>gmail<dot>com

I just need the disk itself or the computer its installed in. The more you do to it, there's potentially more chance of losing the data.

Can't promise anything, but you never know.