As long as the hard drive is still good, all data can easily be salvaged. I take it you got a kernel panic? Re-installing the OS will allow access to the files (and when done by a knowledgable person not harm data).

It sucks to be without, but have hope. And even if you drive is damaged - and the data critical, there is a way to recover it. Expensive, but there is a way.

I find it confusing what people mean by "crashed".

The VMware beta currently crashes my iMac whenever I start a 64 bit guest after the iMac had been asleep since the last reboot. But those crashes (caused by the hypervisor beneath the OS, not by Mac OS X) require just a reboot.

If the machine won't reboot, the quickest way to recover is to boot from the install disc. Also, many Macs have a special Firewire mode in which they can be used as a Firewire disk by another computer to salvage data when the Mac cannot boot any more.

Good luck with the recovery!

 

I now know what you mean when you say it's confusing.  When I was trying to find out what was going on, there were so many versions of "crash" problems that it took me a long time to find applicable items.

The best explanation after reading and more attempts to fix it...

It randomly shuts off.  It just stops working.  I can turn it on, but it hardly ever gets to the log in screen so I had no chance to use recovery discs or anything. 

I took it to the genious bar at the mac store and they think there is a problem with the power source (not the plug in... I actually checked to make sure it was plugged in firmly  ) and they will back it up unless there is a hard-drive problem also.

I should have it back in 3-5 days if all goes well.

So maybe it's better to say my computer stopped working instead of crashed?

 

Thanks for the well wishes Leauki and Dr. G!

ONe of the easiest to replace and most fallible parts of a computer. And least deadly. They should be able to replace it fairly easily (it only takes a few minutes), and it will not destroy data.

INdeed, I have several spare power supplies in my house for just such occassions (and it is the power supply, not source - source is the electricity that comes into your house - supply is the thing that plugs into the source).

I should have know the difference between supply and source, but thanks for the clearing up.  See?  One can learn things everyday with blogging!

Good to know that it is an easy fix.  Maybe I can get it back by Saturday and my husband can drive me instead of me having to take a taxi.

My Mac is back safe and sound with nary a blip in the data!

 

yay!