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It will happen to all of us- a hard drive crash. Here are some steps to follow
1. You may be lucky and your drive is ok. The first thing to check is your drive’s directory. The directory is like a map of all your data and where it is. If that map gets corrupted, the computer may not be able to find data. If this data is part of your operating system, the computer may not boot. The number of files on your drive is probably 75% operating system files. I am not talking about the space, as the operating system is usually under 10 gigs, but the number of files on your drive. Therefore, its likely the operating system would be affected. There are many utilities that we recommend, but there are two we really like. One is DiskWarrior by Alsoft and the other is TechToolPro by Micromat. You should have one or both of these with you on an external media like a flash drive, CD, DVD, or hard drive at all times. Boot from that device and run one of these. It will attempt to repair your drive. If it is successful try to boot. If it won’t boot and it was successful in repairing, the OS is most likely corrupted. Proceed to step 2.
2. Sometimes its not the drive but the OS. You may reinstall the OS from the original disc that came with your mac and then make sure to run all the software updates. With OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion (Due summer 2012), you can use the recovery partition to restore the disc. Please note that this ONLY WORKS if you purchased Lion or Mountain Lion from your apple ID and you know your Apple ID and password. If reinstalling the OS fixes your problem then you are done, but if not proceed to step 3.
3. Now its time for the professionals. Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc. (www.midatlanticconsulting.com) provides minor data recovery services as part of its Macintosh Support. Since they offer Onsite Macintosh Support in the Washington, DC area, they could pick up your computer. If you are outside the Washington, DC area then you would have to send your drive in. Data Recovery can take hours, to days, and even weeks depending on how bad the drive is. So you have to be patient and the entire job will not be possible onsite. About 75% of the time, Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc. can get your data back. The key is we need to be able to access the drive somehow in conventional methods. If that is not possible, then you need to go to step 3. Average cost for data recovery from Mid Atlantic Consulting can be $100-$1000 dollars. If you want Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc. to look at your drive, please email them by filling out this form http://midatlanticconsulting.com/contact.php
4. The last step are companies that specialize in one thing- DATA RECOVERY. HotMacNews and Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc. have partnered with Drive Savers to bring you the following: 1. 10% off your repair 2. Free Estimate (normally about $500.00) 3. Once you approve the estimate which can range from $500-$5000 dollars (or more), then they will recover your data. You will provide them with a list of the files you need and no recovery-no fee. DriveSavers has been 100% with our customers so far. If you are interested in DriveSavers, you may contact them directly at www.drivesavers.com, but make sure and use discount code DS12858 to get your 10% off and the other deals. Otherwise you can still contact Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc. and they will handle this for you. Again to contact Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc. fill out this form http://midatlanticconsulting.com/contact.php
We hope this helps. Please remember if you need Apple Authorized Macintosh OS X and Macintosh OS X Server Help, Consulting, Service, or support onsite in the Washington, DC Metro area and via remote screen sharing, phone, and email world-wide, to contact Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc. (Www.midatlanticconsulting.com)
Safari 5.2, currently in beta, removes the activity menu item under the Windows Menu. For those of you who don’t know, the activity menu showed you what a site was loading and from where. Through this if you had a website with a video or image, you could get the exact URL of that video and download it to your computer. This worked with most video sites including You Tube. I hope this is a temporary thing as I use that all the time and will miss it forever. If they do remove it, I will keep an old hard drive with Safari 5.1.7 (not 5.2). Mountain Lion will require Safari 5.2.
We are proud to announce that Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc. in conjunction with Magican Software has released Mac Malware Remover (MMR). If you are a parent you know of the MMR Shot (measles, mumps, and rubella) that all children in the USA are required to get. So why not give your Mac some MMR too? MacMalwareRemover (MMR) will detect and remove all current Trojans for the Mac and will be updated to support new Trojans as they come out.
MMR has already helped many Mac users get rid of the threat of Flashback Trojans. Besides protecting Mac from Flashback Trojans, it could also detect and delete MacKontrol, Sabpab and Olyx from your Mac. In each update, it will enable users to check and remove more Trojans.
How do you check if your Mac is infected by Trojans? You will find that MMR is very easy to use. All you have to do is click “Start scan” and “Clean” (if needed), and then the whole process will be finished in seconds.
If you feel that your Mac is infected by something, then you can choose MMR to check whether your Mac is infected by Trojans. This free antivirus app will keep updating to protect the security of your Mac. (Requires 64 Bit Intel Processor) ***All Users of v1.1.0 or 1.1.1 will have to manually update to 1.1.3 or later for AutoUpdate to work. (1.1.2 will update fine)
WHAT’S NEW
Version 1.1.3:
Note: All users of 1.1.1 or earlier will have to manually update to version 1.1.3 for AutoUpdate to work.
Fixes minor bugs and grammatical errors. It still detects and removes FlashBack, MacKontrol, Sabpab and Olyx. All users will have to manually update
REQUIREMENTS
Intel
Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later
64-bit processor
Apple has posted version 5.01 update. Here are the notes from Apple
Feature Summary
• iTunes previews: Previews for movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store can now be viewed in HD.
• AirPlay: Fixes an issue that caused some iOS apps to have trouble connecting via AirPlay.
• Home Sharing: Improves the reliability of Home Sharing connections.
• Netflix: Addresses an issue affecting Netflix login and navigation.
• Stability and performance: Includes fixes for issues affecting stability and performance.
To update your Apple TV to the current software version:
1. Select Settings > General > Update Software. Apple TV checks to see if an update is available and a download message should appear if an update is available.
2. Click Download and Install to start the download process.
Important: Do not disconnect your Apple TV during the update process. The Apple TV status light may flash slowly during the update and restart process; this is expected behavior.
