Pull the drive out of the failed machine and into a firewire enclosure to run the usual disk warrior tools. I'm also eyeing another tool that is PC based called Spinrite. It can help in the odd situation now but some owners balk at the cost of case and tools. You?
In closing where is the backup? It seems strange to know about a machine's issues yet trust it with files you apparently can't lose.
Bob
My dual-usb ibook is not recognizing the hard drive. The problem started after having to manually shut down and restart from the power button several times in a row due to the bad logic board causing the screen to freeze. Now when I turn the computer on I get the first gray screen, the little folder icon comes up with the question mark then switches between the ? and the finder icon and goes no further. I booted from the tiger DVD and tried disk utility, but it does not even "see" the hard drive, nor does system profiler or startup disk. I have had to crack open my laptop several times to replace or adjust the shim I installed just below the gpu on the magnetic shield (a temporary solution to my logic board issues). I'm going to get a new computer soon but I need the data off this HDD. Is there any way it can be retrieved? Thanks.

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