I recently had a sad event happen where the power supply burned up for my 12" Powerbook. So, what could I do? Well, what I'm about to document here is my little journey into getting back on my feet. The reason why I did this & not simply try to buy a new power supply is that a) my wife & I are about to make an international move, so time is short where we are, b) I didn't have time to wait for a power supply, since I had some pending projects that needed to get finished & I needed to get the hard drive out, so that I could get to those projects & c) I didn't have access to another Mac to connect my Powerbook hard drive to.

So, here we go!

Since Mac OS X is a BSD (Unix) derivative, it is completely compatible with Linux OSes. This is why this process is possible.

There are several things that you will need, in order to accomplish this, so if you're lacking any of these things, you might just want to find someone who can help you with this instead.

Items needed:

• Patience
• Determination
• Phillips #00 Screwdriver - You can find them cheaper on other sites
• T6 Torx Screwdriver - You can find them cheaper on other sites
• PC powerful enough to run a Kubuntu Live CD - I downloaded 8.04, since I didn't want to bother wasting system resources running KDE4 in 9.04.
• Bootable CD containing Kubuntu 8.04
• Hard Drive that is formatted using the FAT32 file system & has enough space for the data you need to transfer - The reason you need to have FAT32 as the file system is so that both Windows & Linux can read the drive.
• 2.5" USB Hard Drive enclosure - something like this

And so begins the journey:

1. Check out ifixit.com & choose Mac. Find your Mac model & follow the instructions on Hard Drive Replacement. NOTE: Make sure you have a clean & static-free area to work & can keep your parts & screws organized.
2. Once you got your Hard Drive removed, you might as well put your computer back together, so you don't lose any parts or screws.
3. Install your hard drive into the USB enclosure.
4. Boot your PC from CD & choose "Test Kubuntu" from the menu - I did this on the PC that had Windows XP Pro loaded up. I chose not to install Kubuntu as dual-boot, since I was trying to save time, as well as because of the fact that the PC owner won't want Linux on it.
5. After Kubuntu fully boots, plug in your USB hard drive enclosure. Kubuntu should find & mount your drive automatically.
6. Double-click on the new icon for your Mac drive to browse the files using Dolphin.
7. You might notice that some of your folders have a lock on the icon. This is a permissions issue that can easily be overcome. In the Dolphin window, on the right, you should see a link to "Open as Root". Click on this & it will open a new window. This new window will now remove the locks from the folders & allow you to browse your Mac files freely.
8. Follow the above two steps for your destination drive, including "Open as Root". If you don't do this, you won't be able to copy your files to your destination drive.
9. Copy your necessary files over to your destination drive.

After this is finished, you can logout of Kubuntu by choosing "restart" & then removing the CD at the prompt. When you computer restarts, it will boot into your Windows OS.

I hope this is helpful. At least it can make the loss of your Mac a little less painful & save a bit of money along the way.

Of course, if your Mac dies because of a hard drive failure, then this process won't help you & you'll need to find a data recovery service, which can cost a bit of money.