Category Archives: Mac

Accidentally Installed Windows On Top Of Mac OS X

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We have just completed a complex data recovery, where a Mac system had been inadvertently overwritten with Windows. The Mac drive originally had over 500GB of data, so we expected to get most of it back, we just didn’t know how good the structure would be.

It helps to visualise the layout of the data on the disk. before it was overwritten, the data would have looked something like this:

Overwrite Mac With Windows

Although the fresh Windows system is much smaller than the original data, it prevents you from seeing any of that old Mac data.

Once we made copies of the drive, we were able to reconstruct the missing parts of the Mac data, and could see all the original files and folders, with their original structure.

Luckily nobody had tried to fix the problem with this drive. Often the fixes people attempt are worse to recover from than the original problems.

What is a “Digital Negative”

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We see various types of camera media come into us for data recovery, with surprisingly many different photo image formats. Many camera manufacturers use their own particular raw format set as a default when the image is taken.

This raw format is called a “digital negative” containing untouched data straight from the camera. These raw format images are usually larger in size compared to standard compressed JPG images.

The benefits are that it allows modification of the untouched uncompressed image such as sharpness, saturation and white balance at a later date using relevant photographic software. It is surprising how many customers we see who are not even aware that their digital camera stores the images in this way. Below are a few of the different raw file types in use today

The following is a description about some RAW formats:

  • CRW - Canon Digital Camera Raw Image Format. Raw image format for some Canon digital cameras. Raw images are basically the data as it comes directly from the CCD detector in the camera. Raw files can also contain text information about the picture and conditions in the camera when the picture was taken.
  • CR2 - Canon Digital Camera Raw Image Format version 2.0. Raw files can also contain text information about the picture and conditions in the camera when the picture was taken. These images are based on the TIFF image standard. Konvertor will display these EXIF metadata.
  • NEF - Nikon Digital SLR Camera Raw Image File. Raw image format for some Nikon digital cameras. Raw images are basically the data as it comes directly from the CCD detector in the camera.
  • RAF - Fuji CCD-RAW Graphic File. Exif (Exchangeable Image File) information is within the file along with the image. Some graphics programs are starting to recognize the format; e.g., Qimage, Thumbnails for Fuji, and others.
  • X3F - Sigma Camera RAW Picture File. Use the SIGMA Photo Pro software provided with the camera to download and manipulate the photos. The Foveon X3 direct image sensor captures all three colors at every pixel location and requires special software to manipulate the RAW files.
  • BAY - Kodak/Roper Bayer Picture Sequence. A specific Kodak picture format used by some high speed video cameras such as Kodak HRC-1000.
  • ORF - Descent 3 Outrage Room Format.
  • MRW - Minolta Diamage Raw Image File. Raw image format for some Minolta digital cameras. Raw images are basically the data as it comes directly from the CCD detector in the camera. Raw files can also contain text information about the picture and conditions in the camera when the picture was taken.
  • RAW - Image Alchemy HSI Temporary Raw Bitmap
  • SRF - Sony DSC-F828 Raw Image File. CCD-Sensor RAW Data File from Sony DSC-F828 8 megapixel digital camera. Adobe Photoshop CS with Camera-RAW-Plug-In v2.2 opens this file type.

 

Hitachi Model HTS5450 Notebook Hard Drives

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We have been receiving these particular Hitachi model hard drives for data recovery since 2010. The majority of them all appear to show the same failing symptom to the customer. Resulting in access to the user data area of the hard drive becoming more and more difficult.

After several reworked hard drives we have determined that the problem appears to be the written data on the disc media. This may initially have been caused by the internal read and write heads writing bad data or the disc media itself suffering some mis-alignment.

Whatever the cause, the rework to overcome this is usually a slow and very deliberate process. To any customers with these particular hard drives, make sure you back up regularly and any signs of slow or difficult access, you may want to think about replacing the drive.

 

Apple Mac Time Machine Back Up

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I have lost count on the amount of times we have received hard drives for data recovery from Mac customers, who are not aware of the Time Machine back software. Time Machine has been preinstalled in every version of OS X since 10.5. This software is easy to setup, and once the first backup of the internal hard drive is complete, it will then carry on backing up as you create new data.

As a small business or personal user it is ideal for your everyday backup needs.

 

Finding Mac Version The Easy Way

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If you want to find out which version of Mac OS X is installed on a drive, but cannot boot into it, there is a plist file that holds the version number.

The file can be found at:
Macintosh HD > System > Library > CoreServices > SystemVersion.plist

Mac OS X System Version

Mac OS X System Version

 

 

 

The SystemVersion.plist file should look a bit like the picture below. I have outlined the relevant part in red:

System Version Plist

System Version Plist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update.

Alternatively you could paste the following command into terminal:

defaults read defaults read /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist | grep "ProductVersion"

This will show you the version of the currently booted system. You would need to change the first bit if you wanted to find out from another mounted drive.

The output will be:

    ProductVersion = "10.7.2";

In my limited testing, this seems to have an error when run from 10.5. It says the file doesn’t exist. I will look into this some more.

MacBook Pro Glitching Fix

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Just fixed an annoying problem that started when I upgraded to Lion. When dragging something to the dock from finder, or from a stack to Finder there would be a flash of strange coloured graphics at random points around the screen. It’s gone too fast for me to do a screenshot but I may try to get a small video of it.

Anyway, the fix is easy and involves turning the dock from 3D to 2D mode.

The Terminal commands are as follows:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
killall Dock

The first command sets the Dock into 2D mode, the second command resets the Dock to allow the changes to be seen.

Below is the About This Mac screen. It’s an old (Powerbook G4 Style) MacBook Pro, Core 2 Duo.

Now I just need to find out why it takes so long to boot up.

MacBook Pro - About This Mac