[davis449]

I figured by page two of this thread I wouldn't even need to reply because, literally, everything I could imagine being posted in a thread like this has been posted.

OP, you're HDD is effed, time to pony up for a new one. They're cheap these days, just go buy a new one and, at the very least, a large capacity USB drive for performing regular backups of your most crucial data. The end.

FL335, you're a delusional idiot.

[zx10guy]

Every time I see posts/comments by people like FL335, I always think about this:

As far as data recovery services, there are reputable companies. Some of these companies provide a free version of their utility to determine if data can be recovered before spending any money. An example of one is Ontrack that has been around forever:

http://www.krollontrack.com/data-recovery/

If your data can't be recovered via self service software methods, there is escalated services by companies which has a stockpile of parts of most if not all hard drives ever produced. These companies will disassemble your drive in a clean room replace any failed components or even move your data platters to a working hard drive shell. Of course, these companies will charge for this service but then you have to figure out how precious your data is to you.

Here's an article about Seagate's data recovery service:

http://www.tomshardware.com/pictures...e-failure.html

With regards to SSDs, they are not without fault. They're based on the same flash technology used in USB thumb drives and SD cards. I can say I have had USB and SD cards fail on me. Every time a write is performed on a flash drive, wear is created in the storage medium. Here's an article that discusses the differences in different SSDs (SLC vs MLC).

http://www.computerweekly.com/featur...-right-for-you

[1077CJ]

install new hard drive. download crystal disk info to monitor SMART info, temp & health status. use cable from visiontek to connect old hard drive to computer to try to recover data. if you have windows 8 and dont like it down load classic shell.

http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

https://www.visiontek.com/cables-acc...it-detail.html

http://www.classicshell.net/downloads/

[deeLow]

I had a HDD problem with my daughters win8 Dell laptop. One day it just decided it wouldn't boot, neither would recovery and my USB installer wouldn't write to the disk. Took it out and put in my media HDD that I had a good 200GB of movies and documentaries on. Saw that it worked fine, hit format and then it hit me.... I suddenly lost all my media.

Anyway, I popped the HDD that went bad into my USB enclosure, went to my Mac and formatted it. Works great now--
I have no clue why it crashed in the Dell laptop and wouldn't recover or format at all.

[NEFARIOUS]

As someone who has been in IT for 9 years and fixing computers since I was 15, I've seen plenty of Macs and Windows alike. The difference? Like other people have said, Windows is modular enough to just disconnect a few cables and swap out a part, making it more expensive if something DOES go wrong. Mobo or "logic board" has something wonky going on? Hope you like the idea of the expenses associated with the usual board components PLUS its memory and processor in one go.

Also, most components in a modern Mac are made by the same manufacturer as PC components, and the last major component proprietary to Apple was phased out in favor of Intel starting in the mid-2000s, and only smaller components are unique to Apple... So to say it's some superior hardware that is ONLY made by Apple is just simply bullcrap.

Easier? I doubt it... I had a client with a 2012 MacBook, and I had to spend 2 hours upgrading the ENTIRE OS just for it to open Java, so that that poor schmuck can conduct a interview for an out-of-state job (which he eventually got, but still)... PC? www.java.com and hit "download" even on a machine running Vista SP2 (released 2009). I rest my case.

Also, I cordially invite you to check this out...
https://www.technibble.com/top-5-myt...t-going-apple/

Sorry fanboys... Other than that, I have nothing against Apple and Mac, nor am I claiming M$ products to be superior, but if you're so stuck on Apple products that you don't consider the reality, I hope that this at least offers an alternate perspective.

[P1]

Lol at all the idiots saying "buy a Mac".

[Taskmaster]

Well...this escalated quickly.