looking for Macbook savior... (home, buying, cost of)

[jolien]

Can anyone recommend a computer repair specialist for MAC?

my 2006 (i know, i know) laptop hard drive crashed. i don't care about any of the files, I just want someone to boot it up, take all the music from itunes and install on my husbands ipod. I tried rebooting the laptop from the CD's and it doesn't recognize them.

In the past I've used an apple place off nakoma (mactek?) just wanted to see if anyone had any better (or independent- work from home type- consultants) suggestions. Thanks!

[Zone Read]

If the hard drive crashed, you'd still most likely be able to boot up from the install CDs, so its probably not the drive. What kind of Mac laptop is it? You might be able to pull the hard drive and access it from another Mac.

I guess this would be a bad time to remind you of the importance of backing up, especially since Apple makes it so easy with its Time Machine application.

[Zone Read]

Also, if your mac has a firewire port, you may be able to boot up in "Target Disk Mode," which would allow you to access the mac as a firewire hard drive and pull files onto another mac.

[CyVaquero]

I feel for you, lost my '06 MBP last Christmas - motherboard gave up the ghost.

(Free way)
This will also tell you whether the problem is actually the hard drive.
1. Download Knoppix and burn to CD-ROM (I may be wrong but I think that the firmware on the '06 wasn't yet USB bootable.
2. Boot the MBP from the Knoppix disk.
3. Attach a USB/Flash drive large enough for the iTunes library.
4. Follow these instructions for mounting the HFS+ hard drive - Mount an Apple HFS+ Hard Drive Parition using Knoppix | WLACS Tech Blog (outdated, so may now be more automated).
5. Copy your files off.

If you are unable to boot with the Knoppix disk, then your issue isn't the hard drive. Try this method:
(Cheap $15 way, requires something like this - Amazon.com: USB 2.0 to SATA + IDE (2.5 / 3.5 / 5.25") Cable Adapter: Computers & Accessories)
1. Pull the hard drive.
2. Mount it in the USB adapter.
3. Attach it to another Mac (assuming that the drive is formatted HFS+/OSX Journaled).
4. You may need to change some permissions.

If the hard drive is unreadable through either of the previous methods you may have catastrophic hard drive failure, which leads to . . .
(The Expensive way)
1. Pay someone else to recover the data. At this point you have to figure out whether the data is worth the cost of recovery.

Now for the soapbox - backup, backup, backup! 3-2-1!
3 copies - 1 original, 1 copy on-site, 1 copy off-site
2 different media - A copy on the same hard drive only protects against accidental erasure. Apple gave you Time Machine, use it or any other option (CCC, Super Duper, etc.)
1 off-site - Use an online backup service. I use CrashPlan+ ($5/month, unlimited storage), there are plenty of options out there.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by jolien

In the past I've used an apple place off nakoma (mactek?) just wanted to see if anyone had any better (or independent- work from home type- consultants) suggestions. Thanks!

MacTLC on Nakoma is the best in town. Another option would be the Apple Stores at La Cantera and North Star.

Originally Posted by Zone Read

Also, if your mac has a firewire port, you may be able to boot up in "Target Disk Mode," which would allow you to access the mac as a firewire hard drive and pull files onto another mac.

I agree with this advice. If I were facing the OP's situation, this is how I would fix it. The catch is that this requires another Mac to pull the data off of the 2006 Mac. New Macs don't have FireWire 400 ports, so the fix requires buying adapters or a special cable to get from the 2006 Mac's Firewire to the newer Mac's Firewire 800 or Thunderbolt port in Target Disk mode.