MacBook recovery hard drive crash need help!

[FlikTheBlue]

It looks like the hard drive on my MacBook Pro has crashed. I’ve looked up the steps to do a recovery of some files, and I’ve gotten stuck. I’ve started in safe mode using command R. I have a thumb drive attached. I’ve found the documents folder with the files. Now my question is how do I move the files to the thumb drive? The screen I’m looking at has a window on the right that says Macintosh HD and right under that is the name of the thumb drive. The files are their with the names, but they aren’t clickable. Any advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[beowulff]

OK.
Command-R boots in Recovery mode, not Safe mode.

There are a limited number of things you can do in Recovery mode:

Restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup.
Verify and repair connected drives using Disk Utility.
Check your Internet connection or get help online using Safari.
Install or reinstall OS X.

Recovery mode doesn’t have a “Finder,” so you can’t copy files. You can use the Terminal to do that, but it’s really for experts.

I would use disk utility to try to repair your boot volume (the Hard Drive), and see if the machine will boot. It that point, copy the files you want, then you can decide whether to just keep using the machine as is, or replace your drive, or re-install the OS.

ETA: You should have a backup plan. The time to have backups is BEFORE the hard drive crashes!

[Kenm]

Try restarting in
safe mode.

•    Verifies your startup disk, and attempts to repair directory issues if needed
•    Loads only required kernel extensions
•    Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
•    Disables user-installed fonts 
•    Deletes font caches, Kernel cache and other system cache files

Together, these changes can help resolve or isolate issues related to your startup disk.

<snip>

1.    Start or restart your Mac. 
2.    Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key.
3.    Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.

After the Apple logo appears, it might take longer than usual to reach the login screen or your desktop. This is because your Mac performs a directory check of your startup disk as part of safe mode.

To leave safe mode, restart your computer without pressing any keys during startup.

“Longer than usual,” above, means a helluva lot longer than usual, so don’t be concerned.