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My Book Studio connected via Airport Extreme - suddenly died

Y

yano729

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 19, 2011
86
1
I have a 2TB My Book Studio connected via USB to an airport extreme.I have been using my mybook (sounds redundant lol) with my airport extreme to back up automatically through time machine for over a year now. All of a sudden the other day it stopped working. The Airport utility kicks in and advised that there was a problem with the attached hard drive, connect it to the computer to fix. So I unplug from the airport and airport immedately starts responding again.I also connect my itunes through the hard drive. I really really hope my hard drive is not f'ed because I have about 200 gigs of music on there that I would be very upset if I had to replace.

When I plug the hard drive into my MacBook the WD SmartWare logo appears in the top right corner as normal but the hard drive does not appear on the screen or in finder. The disk mounts in disk utility when I connect it striaght to my macbook. Under 2 TB WD My Book, there is a sub hard drive called "disk1s2". When I do the run repair and run verify on the main 2 TB WD My Book, its says both are ok.

WHen I run those test under the "disk1s2" it says Invalid key length, could not be verified completely. UNder disk repair it says cant repair this disk, Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

PLease tell me this isnt my worse nightmare, I mean who makes a back up of their back ups.
 
ok so its not backed up per-say. but its on my external hard drive so I figured it would be safe to house there. The reason I have it on there cause the 200 gigs on music combined with the 162 gigs used on my macbook, is too much to be contained on just my macbook. So I figured it would be safe on there. Sorry for the mix up.

What do you think? Did my hard drive crash?
 
yano729 said:
PLease tell me this isnt my worse nightmare, I mean who makes a back up of their back ups.
Click to expand...
I do.
I have my photos stored on one HDD (digital and analog photos), and I have my own video footage stored on another HDD, both 500 GB HDDs.
Both HDDs get backed up to one 1 TB HDD.
That 1 TB HDD gets backed up to another 1 TB HDD.
My music (from my CDs) is stored on two HDDs, one for usage and one as backup.
My text documents are backed up via Dropbox.
Other and not important documents and files don't get backed up, if they can be lost or easily recreated or easily re-procured.

To retrieve files:
Data Rescue 3 (trial lets you scan the HDD and see, if data is recoverable, but to actually recover files, you need to buy the full version for 99 USD) or
FileSalvage (trial lets you scan the HDD and see, if data is recoverable, but to actually recover files, you need to buy the full version for 89.95 USD).
DiskDrill - lets you recover data from HFS/HFS+, FAT, NTFS & other file systems right on your Mac., for free.​

Also know, that you should immediately stop any writing processes to the actual HDD. If it is the same HDD as the one your operating system (OS) resides on, it is better to use an external HDD with Mac OS X on to boot from and install Data Rescue or FileSalvage onto to scan the HDD from which the data has been accidentally deleted.
 
ok, so lets say that my music is recoverable, if so will I be able to recover them and store them on the same hard drive this is malfunctioning, or would I need to purchase a new back up, and recover the iTunes folder from the broken hard drive to the new one, because that music will not currently fit on my comp.
 
yano729 said:
ok, so lets say that my music is recoverable, if so will I be able to recover them and store them on the same hard drive this is malfunctioning, or would I need to purchase a new back up, and recover the iTunes folder from the broken hard drive to the new one, because that music will not currently fit on my comp.
Click to expand...

You need to purchase an extra HDD to recover the files onto.
Just use one of the applications I linked to scan the MyBook Studio and see, if they can find anything. If they find enough for your to recover, buy that other HDD and use that to recover files onto.
 
you guys are right about making back up of your back ups, I realize that now. Well hopefully I can at least recover my iTunes folder from the messed up HD, then I can purchase a new one to recover the folder and reformat the old one, so then I will effectively have two hard drives.

One last thing before I try all this out, any recommendations as to which HD I should purchase that is easy to use, reliable, and will be able to connect to my airport extreme for time machine back ups?

Thanks for your help everyone
 
My Book drives have worked for me in the past, I'd get another.

Just remember ALL hard drives will fail eventually. I generally replace my externals (or at least start thinking about replacing) every 18 months. In that time, I have been able to get larger drives for the same price as one half the size 18 months prior. (Of course, flooding in SE Asia has affected prices recently, so this may no longer be true right this second, but the generalization is).

Next time, make sure you have 2 drives, one that is PURELY a Time Machine backup of not only your MacBook, but also your iTunes drive (the second HDD you need to purchase). Make sure the TM drive is the larger of the two.

This is my setup and has served me well for a few years now. I have a 1TB external for iTunes and a 2.0TB for TM backup of iTunes AND my internal. In that way, in the event of a failure I still have all of my data.

I don't have a backup of my backup, per se...just have a backup of ALL of my data. Your process failed to backup your iTunes data.
 
yano729 said:
you guys are right about making back up of your back ups, I realize that now. Well hopefully I can at least recover my iTunes folder from the messed up HD, then I can purchase a new one to recover the folder and reformat the old one, so then I will effectively have two hard drives.

One last thing before I try all this out, any recommendations as to which HD I should purchase that is easy to use, reliable, and will be able to connect to my airport extreme for time machine back ups?

Thanks for your help everyone
Click to expand...

Any hard drive can fail at any time. Western Digital is my drive of choice when it comes to external drives. I've used them since the very first Passport was released. Now about ten drives later, they're all up & running just fine.

If you exhaust all options, here's a company to send you're drive to. They can recover you're data.

http://www.werecoverdata.com/
 
Ok, so I installed FileSalvage and its currently scanning my back up hard drive, and luck for me its not totally wiped out as its is receiving files. So that makes me a happy little boy.

My question is, if it is recovering files and such, then why isn't my hard drive mounting to my mac, without this program. I just don't get it.

On my back up I had two things. One was a .dmg file that was the back up of my computer and the other was the iTunes music folder. If I just want to recover that iTunes music folder what is the best way to go about this. The .dmg file I don't really care about cause I can just back up my comp again and have the exact same thing.

Thanks guys I am a music junkie and just happy that my hard drive didn't crash completely.
 
Just an update, called WD. They are sending me a new drive because the partitions are messed up on the one I currently have. From there I will use a third party app to send my recovered files to the new one they send me from the old one, and Im gonna send the old one back then purchase a new one to keep as my double backup. Thanks for you help guys.
 
yano729 said:
Just an update, called WD. They are sending me a new drive because the partitions are messed up on the one I currently have. From there I will use a third party app to send my recovered files to the new one they send me from the old one, and Im gonna send the old one back then purchase a new one to keep as my double backup. Thanks for you help guys.
Click to expand...

A 'double backup'? Or are you finally going to actually be backing up the iTunes data?

You really don't need a double backup. Think about it: If your pure Time Machine drive was the one that went belly-up, you would have no issues right now. It's the un-backed-up iTunes stuff that is giving you the headaches. Keep iTunes on one drive and keep the other as an 'only' Time Machine backup (which includes backing up the iTunes drive). If you absolutely want a backup of the backup, buy a third drive.

Glad to hear things are going well for you.
 
mstrze said:
A 'double backup'? Or are you finally going to actually be backing up the iTunes data?

You really don't need a double backup. Think about it: If your pure Time Machine drive was the one that went belly-up, you would have no issues right now. It's the un-backed-up iTunes stuff that is giving you the headaches. Keep iTunes on one drive and keep the other as an 'only' Time Machine backup (which includes backing up the iTunes drive). If you absolutely want a backup of the backup, buy a third drive.

Glad to hear things are going well for you.
Click to expand...

Hey not really sure what you are talking about. Maybe it wont be a double backup I guess. I will have one hard drive with my comp back up and iTunes folder which will be connected to my airport extreme for time machine back ups, and then the other hard drive will just hold my iTunes folder that I will update prob about once a week.
 
yano729 said:
Hey not really sure what you are talking about. Maybe it wont be a double backup I guess. I will have one hard drive with my comp back up and iTunes folder which will be connected to my airport extreme for time machine back ups, and then the other hard drive will just hold my iTunes folder that I will update prob about once a week.
Click to expand...

Too complicated and a bad setup in my opinion.

One external is your iTunes external, connected to Airport...only iTunes media on this drive.

Other external (the larger of the two) is your Time Machine drive attached to the airport as well (use a USB 2.0 hub)...automatically backing up BOTH your MacBook and the iTunes external each and every hour.
 
mstrze said:
Too complicated and a bad setup in my opinion.

One external is your iTunes external, connected to Airport...only iTunes media on this drive.

Other external (the larger of the two) is your Time Machine drive attached to the airport as well (use a USB 2.0 hub)...automatically backing up BOTH your MacBook and the iTunes external each and every hour.
Click to expand...


Definitely intrigued by the concept of using a usb hub (didn't know you could on an Airport) but isn't it still the same. If my iTunes folder goes belly up then I am screwed because that is the only copy of my iTunes folder.

I have no iTunes file on my comp, I set up a server through my airport that "Steams" my iTunes from the backup hard drive though my airport to my comp.
 
mstrze said:
Too complicated and a bad setup in my opinion.

One external is your iTunes external, connected to Airport...only iTunes media on this drive.

Other external (the larger of the two) is your Time Machine drive attached to the airport as well (use a USB 2.0 hub)...automatically backing up BOTH your MacBook and the iTunes external each and every hour.
Click to expand...

does anyone have an answer to this, I'm still a little confused by this concept.
 
yano729 said:
Definitely intrigued by the concept of using a usb hub (didn't know you could on an Airport) but isn't it still the same. If my iTunes folder goes belly up then I am screwed because that is the only copy of my iTunes folder.

I have no iTunes file on my comp, I set up a server through my airport that "Steams" my iTunes from the backup hard drive though my airport to my comp.
Click to expand...

If iTunes drive goes belly up in my setup, you have it backed up on your Time Machine drive. Just copy the iTunes files from the Time Machine backup on the TM drive over to a brand new replacement drive and you are back in business.

If your Time Machine drive in this setup dies, you still have your files on the laptop and your iTunes drive. Just buy a new external for Time Machine and restart. the only thing you lose is your ability to recover older backed-up files through Time Machine.

Time Machine can back up multiple drives. My home setup is exactly this way. I can go into Time Machine and look for old files on either my internal or my iTunes drive.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'setting up a server through my airport that "Streams" my iTunes'. Do you have another computer in this mix?
 
Last edited:
mstrze said:
Time Machine can back up multiple drives. My home setup is exactly this way. I can go into Time Machine and look for old files on either my internal or my iTunes drive.
Click to expand...

Hey so I have the two hard drives up and running one right now is just a back up and the other one has my iTunes, they are both connoted to my airport extreme by a usb hub. How exactly do you have time machine back up two drives, and how do i go about setting it up the way you described.

Should I just drag my iTunes folder in the other hard drive to the one that is also my time machine back up? thanks for your help.
 
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