[SOLVED] Damaged hard drive can I partition a rotational HD? MacBook Pro

[ABell7]

Hi all,
this is my first thread, glad to be here. I need help!
my hard drive was damaged by an impact. It is not an old hard drive so it should have many years life and it, if I can fix it or partition it in disk utilities. Someone I'm taking a class with, who seems to know computers, has said that he has done this. Is it true that a rotational hard drive can be fixed this way?
The computer is working, but working rather poorly slow sluggish difficult to use it does not read certain things but reads others. I'm getting the Beachball too often and the hard drive is making a noise . Sounds like a fan going. Tag like safari in doc are blank. Craigslist is full of repeated AAAAA
This rotational hard drive is 499 (Storage) GB. I have filled very little of it.

Hope you can help, you may ask me any questions you wish (in order to help me further) otherwise I will have to buy a new hard drive. I have an SSD coming in the mail, but would rather fix this if I can.

Thanks
Alex

 

[USAFRet]

It is toast. Partitioning won't fix it.

Replace soonest, or before. It may last a week, it may last a year. It may die as I'm typing this.

 

[ABell7]

Ug, thanks . Now the first thing to do is to back up my files with the Lacie external hard drive any advice on the best procedure to do that. I suppose I closedown Safari or any other running operating systems and follow directions after I plug in Lacey?

 

[USAFRet]

Ug, thanks . Now the first thing to do is to back up my files with the Lacie external hard drive any advice on the best procedure to do that. I suppose I closedown Safari or any other running operating systems and follow directions after I plug in Lacey?

Personally, I strictly avoid any 'backup' routines provided by the external drive makers. WD, LaCie, whoever. Proprietary, and if anything goes wrong with the drive or enclosure...poof.

Just copy the straight files over. Those can be read on any machine.

 

[ABell7]

Oh...... very interesting, but a little over my pay grade. Now, how do we do this?{{{"Just copy the straight files over"}}. Please explain the procedure and to where and how to copy them (files). So if I use the lacy it may not be such a good idea?
Thanks so much for your Quick answer.

Alex

 

[USAFRet]

Oh...... very interesting, but a little over my pay grade. Now, how do we do this?{{{"Just copy the straight files over"}}. Please explain the procedure and to where and how to copy them (files). So if I use the lacy it may not be such a good idea?
Thanks so much for your Quick answer.

Alex

I'm not a Mac guy, so....
But...depending on the level of damage and what is/is not readable, you might be able to make an image of that drive.
That image could then be applied to a new drive.

 

[ABell7]

Holy....... I never heard of this. How and where can I make an image of the drive please. There should be a Mac guy on the forum that could guide me, if you're not sure of the exact procedure, That is if I have the equipment to do it.

 

[USAFRet]

Holy....... I never heard of this. How and where can I make an image of the drive please. There should be a Mac guy on the forum that could guide me, if you're not sure of the exact procedure, That is if I have the equipment to do it.

Read through this:
http://lifehacker.com/5839185/the-best-disk-cloning-app-for-mac-os-x

 

[USAFRet]

And this:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2461362/drive-cloning-utilities-the-best-mac-apps-for-making-a-bootable-backup.html

 

[ABell7]

Thank you so much,
the MacWorld article, I can't even load the page, the hard drive is so screwy. the other one easily loaded instantly but it's $40(I think) and I was wondering if you knew a free alternative. Or another way.

Alex

 

[USAFRet]

However...from a damaged drive, your results may not be great.

 

[ABell7]

Who knows if the computer will download the app. But I could try. is there a free one that I could clone the hard drive as you say. Am I wrong that it is $40 there's a slash through the word free so it might be an offer that has expired. Take a look if you please.

Alex

 

[USAFRet]

From the MacWorld link:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2461362/drive-cloning-utilities-the-best-mac-apps-for-making-a-bootable-backup.html

"More than two dozen third-party backup apps can make bootable duplicates. (You can see a list in the online appendix to my book Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac.) It’s also possible (if not especially convenient) to clone a drive using Disk Utility or by using the diskutil command in Terminal. Most of these apps and processes do an entirely respectable job, but two cloning utilities—Shirt Pocket’s $28 SuperDuper and Bombich Software’s $40 Carbon Copy Cloner—stand above the rest. Each has a long history, focuses on cloning, presents a simple and clear user interface, and includes unusual features that make it an especially good choice for creating and maintaining bootable duplicates. "

See the bolded part.

 

[ABell7]

Thanks again , sorry for the delay in my answering, just got a phone call from Europe. I'm at such constraints financially that I'm wondering if there might be a special offer to do the cloning otherwise I will try to use use disk utility.Oh.. I am now in disk utility everything is gray except for ''verify'' and where it says to select a disk,... the list is blank. Should I create a new disk image? Which is an option in this utilities I don't know what it means.

Alex

 

[USAFRet]

Moving this to Mac OS X to see if there are any better comments.

 

[ABell7]

None I'm sure will be better in quality of thought.

Alex