MacBooks are widely used for business and personal use, known for their reliability and seamless macOS experience. However, when a Mac continuously shows the spinning beach ball, it often indicates imminent hard drive failure, leading to slow performance, system crashes, and data loss.
This case study details how we successfully recovered accounting files for a local fish and chips shop in Glasgow from a MacBook hard disk, after the system became unresponsive due to severe drive degradation.
As Glasgow Data Recovery, Scotland’s oldest and best data recovery company, we have 25 years of experience using advanced drive diagnostics, sector-level cloning, and forensic data extraction techniques to restore lost business files.
MacBook Slowing Down with Constant Spinning Beach Ball
A Glasgow-based fish and chips shop owner contacted us after their MacBook became increasingly slow and unresponsive, with the following issues:
- The Mac showed the spinning beach ball constantly, making it nearly impossible to use.
- Opening files or apps took minutes, and the system frequently froze.
- The Disk Utility First Aid tool failed to repair the drive.
- The drive contained essential accounting records, invoices, and tax files.
Since continued use of a failing drive can worsen sector corruption, an immediate professional recovery solution was required.
Diagnosis & Evaluation
When the MacBook hard disk arrived at our cleanroom facility, we conducted a full hardware and file system diagnostic. Our findings:
- Increasing bad sectors – Causing system slowdowns and file access issues.
- File system corruption (APFS/HFS+) – Making some directories unreadable.
- No severe mechanical failure detected – Meaning data recovery was highly possible through logical repair.
Since macOS relies on a healthy file system to function properly, we prioritized sector-level imaging and partition repair.
The Recovery Process
1. Cloning & Imaging the Failing Hard Drive to Preserve Data Integrity
To prevent further corruption, we:
- Created a forensic sector-by-sector clone of the MacBook’s hard drive.
- Used specialised recovery tools to bypass bad sectors and extract readable data.
2. Repairing the APFS/HFS+ File System & Rebuilding the Partition Table
Since the file system was partially corrupted, we:
- Repaired the APFS volume structures to restore lost directories.
- Extracted and repaired fragmented files to regain full data access.
3. Extracting & Verifying Business Accounting Files
Once data extraction was complete, we:
- Recovered all accounting records, invoices, and spreadsheets.
- Checked all recovered financial documents for integrity and completeness.
- Transferred the fully restored data to a secure external backup device.
The Results: 99% Data Recovery Success
Thanks to our sector imaging and file system repair techniques, we successfully recovered 99% of the fish and chip shop’s lost data, including:
✅ Accounting records and tax documents
✅ Invoices, supplier transactions, and payroll data
✅ Customer orders and financial reports
The business was able to continue operations without losing any critical financial records, preventing compliance and tax filing issues.
Why Choose Us?
With 25 years of experience and tens of thousands of successful Mac recoveries, we are the leading MacBook data recovery specialists in Scotland. Our expertise includes:
✔ APFS & HFS+ file system repair & partition reconstruction
✔ Mac hard drive bad sector recovery & optimization
✔ Business accounting file retrieval & integrity verification
✔ Secure & confidential data recovery services
If your MacBook is slowing down, constantly showing the spinning beach ball, or preventing access to important business files, stop using it immediately and contact us for expert Mac data recovery.