Mac vs. PC Hardrive

[bryceray1121]

My girlfriends macbook died today. She couldn't tell me the specific reason and i've not checked back with the IT department yet, she said something about motherboard so i guess it just failed. Anyways, they said it would cost $1000 to fix it; this is low-level macbook so it is not worth it. I have not opened up her macbook and wanted to ask before i go to the trouble. I have a pc desktop. Am i able to connect her hardrive to my computer to get her files (hardrive is still good)? or are mac hardrives non-compatible with non-mac computers.

 

[rabidbunny]

Ok, well one thing for sure is that the hard drive should either be ide or sata. So, hardware wise, you should be able to hook up the hard drive to another computer. However, i have no idea if you can read the drive from a windows pc. If you had an external adapter and connected the drive to another mac, it would for sure work.

Besides the point, it would be interesting to find out why it would cost $1k to fix a macbook. that's rediculous for a price just to fix a stinking laptop. Unless they were planning on getting a new system in and salvaging the hardware XD wow.

 

[xxjudgmentxx]

I have a pc desktop. Am i able to connect her hardrive to my computer to get her files (hardrive is still good)? or are mac hardrives non-compatible with non-mac computers.

you can if you get MacDrive which will allow reading/writing of Macintosh filesystems (in particular HFS+). Think of it as a driver for Mac HDDs.

Available here for $50: http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

Very good program (Not sure if they updated it to work with Vista/XP 64-bit, so if you have a 64-bit OS you may want to check. If you have 32-bit you're good to go.)

 

[rabidbunny]

wow...that's freaking insane. Hope my mobo in my laptop never goes haywire (crosses fingers).