Any Mac IT guys or gals here? Help!

**Blatman** · 4th May 2009, 13:32

Daughter's friend spilled wine on her iBook G4 which is now dead. Probably shorted the motherboard I guess. Is there anyone here (in Auck) who could extract the data off the hardrive?? It's needed urgently for uni.
I suppose it will be cheaper to buy a secondhand G4 and sell the dead one on Trademe, but if there's someone here who could do the repair as well (and not charge a fortune) that would be cool.
Cheers!

**Drunken Monkey** · 4th May 2009, 13:35

If it's just the data you want off the hard drive, anyone should be able to do it. You don't need a mac specialist. If you have trouble finding someone, our data forensics guy can do it, but we normally charge at least $300 for the service, so I wouldn't recommend us for a home job. If you're desperate though, drop me a pm, we can do a same day turn around if you give us enough notice.

**Blatman** · 4th May 2009, 13:40

Originally Posted by Drunken Monkey

If it's just the data you want off the hard drive, anyone should be able to do it. You don't need a mac specialist. If you have trouble finding someone, our data forensics guy can do it, but we normally charge at least $300 for the service, so I wouldn't recommend us for a home job. If you're desperate though, drop me a pm, we can do a same day turn around if you give us enough notice.

Thanks, yeah $300 probably out of her budget (spent it all on wine..grrrrrr) but nice to know if we get stuck, cheers

**Big Dave** · 4th May 2009, 13:44

I would swap the drive into a different machine to see if it is still viable.

Ezra (that's his name) at Logical systems is a good mac hardware man.

http://www.logicalsystems.co.nz/

**Blatman** · 4th May 2009, 13:44

Hey Drunken Monkey - if we bought a secondhand G4 can we just swap harddrives, or is it not that simple?

**Blatman** · 4th May 2009, 13:45

Thanks Dave, I'll google him

**Big Dave** · 4th May 2009, 13:48

Originally Posted by Blatman

Thanks Dave, I'll google him

Forgot to put the link - there now.

**xwhatsit** · 4th May 2009, 13:48

Originally Posted by Blatman

Hey Drunken Monkey - if we bought a secondhand G4 can we just swap harddrives, or is it not that simple?

Well you could do that. But the hard drive is a standard laptop drive anyway; it'll fit into any computer, even a Windows/Linux laptop.

If it were a desktop, you'd just take the drive out and stick it into any old other desktop and copy the data across. Only thing is, laptops only room to plug in one drive at a time. So you want to buy a $20 external 2.5" USB drive enclosure from tardme and plug the drive into that. Then you can access the data from any computer.

**Squiggles** · 4th May 2009, 13:48

I can remove the hd and put it one one of our externals to transfer the stuff across... Its not a big job to have done but can be quite time consuming (there are alot of shields to remove). Have had to do more of these jobs @ work recently as the ibook fleet ages

**Blatman** · 4th May 2009, 13:54

Dave, I talked to Ezra. He seems pretty on to it. He agreed the best thing is to buy secondhand and swap drives. His charge about $150 so that sounds pretty resonable. Thanks to you other guys too! I could do it myself if it was a desktop, but frickin' laptops.....

**Squiggles** · 4th May 2009, 14:02

Originally Posted by Blatman

Dave, I talked to Ezra. He seems pretty on to it. He agreed the best thing is to buy secondhand and swap drives. His charge about $150 so that sounds pretty resonable. Thanks to you other guys too! I could do it myself if it was a desktop, but frickin' laptops.....

Id just chuck the old drive in an enclosure and use the migration tool to bring all the stuff over...
If he's going to open up the secondhand lappy you might as well have a new drive put in, the old one is at least 3 years old now
Ther guides i've used in the past are here: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/i...lacement/189/1