Fried Logic Board, Divorce Possible
March 14, 2010 1:38 PM Subscribe
My wife's Macbook has a dead logic board. Can I get data off it?
Like an idiot, I spilled coffee near my wife's Macbook, and the mere whiff of it seems to have been enough to fry the logic board. (Upon hitting the power button, the hard disk spins for a few seconds, and then stops. Alternate non-logic board theories are welcomed.)
I'm planning to try and get it replaced on my home insurance (it's out of warranty and too expensive to repair), but: this thing contains sensitive, private, medical data about people. Best case: I need to get as much data as possible off this thing. If I've lost all her shit, she will surely divorce me! If I send it off to the insurance people with all that data on it, she will also surely divorce me, so worst case: it needs to at least be wiped. I'm pretty sure I can do at least one of these things by sticking an OS X DVD in it, but I don't have one handy, so confirmation would be appreciated before I go and procure one from somewhere. If need be, I can also get my hands on an iMac, on the off chance that some combination of wires between the two would do the trick.
Like an idiot, I spilled coffee near my wife's Macbook, and the mere whiff of it seems to have been enough to fry the logic board. (Upon hitting the power button, the hard disk spins for a few seconds, and then stops. Alternate non-logic board theories are welcomed.)
I'm planning to try and get it replaced on my home insurance (it's out of warranty and too expensive to repair), but: this thing contains sensitive, private, medical data about people. Best case: I need to get as much data as possible off this thing. If I've lost all her shit, she will surely divorce me! If I send it off to the insurance people with all that data on it, she will also surely divorce me, so worst case: it needs to at least be wiped. I'm pretty sure I can do at least one of these things by sticking an OS X DVD in it, but I don't have one handy, so confirmation would be appreciated before I go and procure one from somewhere. If need be, I can also get my hands on an iMac, on the off chance that some combination of wires between the two would do the trick.
What kind of MacBook does your wife have? Can you give us the serial number? Depending on the kind of machine she has, it may be trivial to take out the internal hard drive and recover data.
Your data isn't stored on the logic board, as you may know- it's on the hard drive. Assuming this wasn't a Major Catastrophe spill, the hard drive should be OK. The bad news is that if the Mac isn't booting, it will not be possible to recover data using the hardware of the machine. Come back with your model or serial number, and we'll tell you how to get the hard drive out, connect it to an external case, and recover the data.
By the way, please start backing up your data, and start encrypting anything even remotely sensitive. Both of these things are trivially easy to do on a Mac, and there's really no excuse for not doing them when the costs of losing data are so high.
posted by aaronbeekay at 1:52 PM on March 14, 2010
Your data isn't stored on the logic board, as you may know- it's on the hard drive. Assuming this wasn't a Major Catastrophe spill, the hard drive should be OK. The bad news is that if the Mac isn't booting, it will not be possible to recover data using the hardware of the machine. Come back with your model or serial number, and we'll tell you how to get the hard drive out, connect it to an external case, and recover the data.
By the way, please start backing up your data, and start encrypting anything even remotely sensitive. Both of these things are trivially easy to do on a Mac, and there's really no excuse for not doing them when the costs of losing data are so high.
posted by aaronbeekay at 1:52 PM on March 14, 2010
You can pull the hard drive, mount it in an external enclosure, and get the data off onto another computer.
If the logic board is fried, the OS DVD isn't going to do anything.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:53 PM on March 14, 2010
If the logic board is fried, the OS DVD isn't going to do anything.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:53 PM on March 14, 2010
If it is indeed the logic board that's fried, and not the hard drive, you can pull the hard drive and put it in an external drive enclosure. You can buy drive enclosures pretty inexpensively from OWC and then Google for instructions on how to remove the hard drive based on what specific model of Macbook you have. It isn't really very hard.
posted by spilon at 1:53 PM on March 14, 2010
posted by spilon at 1:53 PM on March 14, 2010
This should be as easy as pulling out the hard drive and sticking it into another machine, assuming the drive itself is unharmed. I believe Macbook HDs are accessible through the battery panel with nothing more than a screwdriver. Open it up, pull it out, and there's your data in-hand.
After that, you can plug that drive into a hopefully-repaired/replaced Macbook, or look into whatever sort of adapter it would take to plug that drive into the IMac (I'm assuming the Macbook is a different standard than the IMac...I don't know Apple well enough to say for certain.)
posted by Rallon at 1:53 PM on March 14, 2010
After that, you can plug that drive into a hopefully-repaired/replaced Macbook, or look into whatever sort of adapter it would take to plug that drive into the IMac (I'm assuming the Macbook is a different standard than the IMac...I don't know Apple well enough to say for certain.)
posted by Rallon at 1:53 PM on March 14, 2010
Response by poster: Totally forgot to specify the model! It's the late 2007 model.
aaronbeekay: Totally agree, of course. But this is my wife's computer, not mine. One day, she will heed my warnings. Perhaps me spilling coffee everywhere will give her a suitable glimpse of the future she has ahead of her and make her think twice.
Didn't even think to take the HD out. I've always taken a "never open it up" approach with Macs, just because I know my technical limits. (Which are good enough to dig into the guts of a PC, but I've never been inside a Mac.) Looking into that.
posted by nostrich at 2:02 PM on March 14, 2010
aaronbeekay: Totally agree, of course. But this is my wife's computer, not mine. One day, she will heed my warnings. Perhaps me spilling coffee everywhere will give her a suitable glimpse of the future she has ahead of her and make her think twice.
Didn't even think to take the HD out. I've always taken a "never open it up" approach with Macs, just because I know my technical limits. (Which are good enough to dig into the guts of a PC, but I've never been inside a Mac.) Looking into that.
posted by nostrich at 2:02 PM on March 14, 2010
Response by poster: By the way, this definitely doesn't classify as a Major Catastrophe. In fact, I'm surprised there was even any damage. The coffee pooled on the table, and the most that could have gotten inside is a few drops -- until I went to use the Macbook, I assumed the worst damage I'd done was a stain on the coffee table. I suspect this thing has been on its way out for a while though -- reduced performance, etc -- which may have been a factor.
posted by nostrich at 2:06 PM on March 14, 2010
posted by nostrich at 2:06 PM on March 14, 2010
First thing to do in these situations is to remove the unplug and kill the battery.
If you decide to crack it open there are step-by-step teardown guides at iFixit. (Ignore the ridiculous name.) It's not that difficult of a process, you just need to be methodical and organized. Wherever they mention using a "spudger" you can substitute any thin, stiff piece of plastic. I use guitar picks.
There's a slim chance you can save the machine by disassembling and cleaning. The coffee is definitely shorting stuff out, with the question being whether any components were permanently fried. Removing the coffee with paper towels and rubbing alcohol (91% from the drugstore) then allowing time to dry (maybe in a bag with rice or those little silica packs) might be enough. Before reassembly, make sure the hard drive is clean and dry and pull the data off of it elsewhere. You can zero it out, put the machine back together, and try to reinstall OSX; you can also just put it back together and try to boot up, and if it works then everything is back to normal.
Remember that if you tear it down completely, you'll need to clean off and replace the thermal paste.
posted by truex at 3:28 PM on March 14, 2010
If you decide to crack it open there are step-by-step teardown guides at iFixit. (Ignore the ridiculous name.) It's not that difficult of a process, you just need to be methodical and organized. Wherever they mention using a "spudger" you can substitute any thin, stiff piece of plastic. I use guitar picks.
There's a slim chance you can save the machine by disassembling and cleaning. The coffee is definitely shorting stuff out, with the question being whether any components were permanently fried. Removing the coffee with paper towels and rubbing alcohol (91% from the drugstore) then allowing time to dry (maybe in a bag with rice or those little silica packs) might be enough. Before reassembly, make sure the hard drive is clean and dry and pull the data off of it elsewhere. You can zero it out, put the machine back together, and try to reinstall OSX; you can also just put it back together and try to boot up, and if it works then everything is back to normal.
Remember that if you tear it down completely, you'll need to clean off and replace the thermal paste.
posted by truex at 3:28 PM on March 14, 2010
I have not torn down the model of Macbook that you have, but I have torn down a much older iBook, and it was not possible for me to extract the hard drive without destroying other parts of the computer. Happily, the computer was already a write-off. I suppose with a much better toolkit I could have extracted the hard drive non-destructively.
But yes, once you've got the drive out, it's easy to pop it into a $20 enclosure and away you go.
posted by adamrice at 3:48 PM on March 14, 2010
But yes, once you've got the drive out, it's easy to pop it into a $20 enclosure and away you go.
posted by adamrice at 3:48 PM on March 14, 2010
I have torn down both the model of MacBook that you have and a much older iBook, and the MacBook is much, much easier to extract a hard drive from. Take the battery out, unscrew and remove the L-bracket, and pull the hard drive out by the white tab on the left. It's meant to be user-replaceable.
posted by tepidmonkey at 4:33 PM on March 14, 2010
posted by tepidmonkey at 4:33 PM on March 14, 2010
It couldn't hurt to put the laptop in a big bag of rice for a couple of days. The rice may be able to dry things out inside.
posted by poppo at 5:19 PM on March 14, 2010
posted by poppo at 5:19 PM on March 14, 2010
If the logic board is dead, a repair DVD won't help you---the computer won't boot up, so having something else to read from won't work. You can pull out the hard drive and get the data off of that.
I've disassembled a number of Mac laptops, and it's not too hard, aside from keeping track of the screws. This guide from iFixit seems to imply that you can easily take out the hard drive through the battery compartment without too much disassembly, just a Phillips #00 and a T8 Torx Screwdriver.
Once you have the drive removed, an external USB case for a 2.5" SATA drive is under $10. From there, it should be easy to back up the data and replace the drive before sending it to insurance folk.
posted by JiBB at 9:07 PM on March 14, 2010
I've disassembled a number of Mac laptops, and it's not too hard, aside from keeping track of the screws. This guide from iFixit seems to imply that you can easily take out the hard drive through the battery compartment without too much disassembly, just a Phillips #00 and a T8 Torx Screwdriver.
Once you have the drive removed, an external USB case for a 2.5" SATA drive is under $10. From there, it should be easy to back up the data and replace the drive before sending it to insurance folk.
posted by JiBB at 9:07 PM on March 14, 2010
Although this model seems to be an easy one to do the pull-and-replace deal on the drive, you should also check to see if you can boot the machine in Firewire target disk mode - hold down 'T' and fire it up. If so, you should be able to mount the internal drive on another mac with a Firewire cable, port to port, and clone the drive from there to an external or to the internal drive on the hosting machine.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
posted by mwhybark at 11:51 PM on March 14, 2010
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
posted by mwhybark at 11:51 PM on March 14, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by nostrich at 1:40 PM on March 14, 2010