subject: Crashed Mac - Blue Screen Of Death [print this page] Its a computer error event that has almost become iconic in the industry. Jokes and parodies have been made about this frustrating and annoying incident, even though it the outcome can be serious. Of course, the event in question is the Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD. There is probably nothing that causes a computer owner to slump in his seat more than the dreaded BSOD. If the incident happens during use, all of the work could be lost if it hadnt been saved before the crash.
While Windows-based machines usually bear the brunt of BSOD jokes, Mac computer are not immune to the situation. Even though hardware problems and failures can cause computer errors, the culprit is often a glitch in the operating system or in a software installation. It is sometime possible to clear the error by rebooting the machine. Even so, some errors persist, rendering the computer inoperable until the situation is corrected. This may entail the reinstallation of the operating system and programs.
The computer user might panic and immediately try to repair the operating system. Unfortunately, this will probably make the situation worse. Drive formatting is a part of OS installation, and the very act of repair will overwrite the users files. The computer may become operable, but the files generated on the machine will be gone forever. Unless an effective data backup plan has been implemented, everything on the drive will need to be reconstructed. Unfortunately, studies show that the majority of computer users dont have a backup plan in place, even though it has been touted as a necessity for years.
Its time to take a page from the professional hard disk data recovery engineers handbook. Every competent recovery engineer will tell you that file recovery always precedes computer or operating system repair. The vary act of repair can, in most cases, render the files inaccessible. Data recovery software can be installed that will recover the missing files safely. Even so, there is a chance that some files will be overwritten during the recovery software installation. This is one reason that this writer encourages the installation of recovery software before the incident occurs.
However, installed software for disk data recovery cant be used if the computer wont boot into the operating system. If the error message displays before booting, the program cannot be accessed and recovery is not possible. Fortunately, there is a method that still might salvage lost files. Some file recovery programs ship with an emergency boot disk. This disk usually contains a separate, bootable operating system that will run the computer from a DVD or CD. Once up and running, the software will recover salvageable files to secondary or external storage media.
