Recovering data from a Mac hard drive to a PC

Myrmex

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Nov 5, 2014
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My girlfriend's Macbook stopped working, and the Mac store determined it was a hard drive problem. I'm trying to save the data from the hard drive because she hadn't backed up her files recently.

I put the HD in an enclosure, and connected it to my PC. The drive doesn't show up in My Computer, but it does in Device Manager as an unallocated drive. I tried using MiniTools Partition Wizard to recover the partition, but it didn't find anything.

Is that because it's a Mac hard drive? I can't use something like HFS Explorer because the drive doesn't even show up or have a letter assigned to it, and Device Manager won't let me assign it a letter.

I have tried using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, but it doesn't come up with anything that looks like the original data.

What should I do to try to recover the data?
 
Solution
HSF explorer should be able to mount the volume as a drive if the drives HSF volume is working fine.
If it can't then I would give Testdisk or R-Studio a shot at recovering the files.
Well, if you've already determined that the problem is with the hard drive you shouldn't be too surprised that you can't read it on the PC. That's just adding an extra level of complication.

I would forget about using a PC; make a mistake and you are liable to knock on the head any chance that you may still have of recovering the data. Install OS X on a USB drive, preferably a hard disk, on the Mac and see if the drive is visible. If not then it's probably toast.
 

trekzone

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Mar 31, 2014
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I would second this as a good advice..Try installing HFS drivers first.
 
Hey there, Myrmex!

I know there's a Windows-based utility that reads Mac files, it might get your drive detected as well, if HSF explorer didn't work. Check this thread's solution: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/253350-32-using-windows-recovering-data-apple-hard-drive

Another alternative to retrieve the data is by using a Linux-based utility. Creating a Ubuntu LiveCD might help you recover your data. (I wouldn't recommend it, if you don't have previous experience with Linux though!)
If none of all the suggested solutions helped, you might want to consider contacting a professional data recovery company for assistance.

Hope this helped. :)
SuperSoph_WD
 

Myrmex

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Nov 5, 2014
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I always do! It's my girlfriend and her Mac and she always forgets no matter how many times I remind her!