Can't Read Windows Hard Drive :: DiskUtility can't mount it

[LimeiBook86]

I have a 3.1GB IDE Hard Drive with Windows 98 on it. I have a bunch of old files I need to get off of it. I plugged the drive into my external FireWire case and a Dialog in Mac OS X pops up asking if I want to erase the drive because it can't read any of the Volumes on the drive. I opened up DiskUtility and it can read the drive but not the Volumes. I believe the Hard Drive is Fat32. I need to erase this drive but I need to get the files off first. I'm running Mac OS X 10.3.3 on a 12'' PowerBook.

Any help would be wonderful.

-Limey

 

[Horrortaxi]

Try making an image of the drive in Disk Utility.

 

[LimeiBook86]

That's a good idea but I don't know if it will still read the volumes. I'll try it though.

 

[LimeiBook86]

Disk Imaging

Ok I made a disk image of the whole drive and it tried to mount but then said "Attaching" and it didn't do anything but sit there. After a restart I trashed the image and now I am making an image of "disk1s1", the name of the Volume. It now says "Creating Image "disk1s1.dmg" Reading MS-DOS (0)... So maybe it wasn't Fat32. Here is a screen shot, I'll let you know what happens.

EDIT: YAY IT WORKS!! Thanks man, it worked just fine

 

[Horrortaxi]

Cool. I'm glad.

 

[neoelectronaut]

I say that with patience, almost anything can be overcome.

As an alternative, I suppose you could have went over to a buddie's house, shoved the HD into his PC (Assuming he has one.) Networked your Mac with the PC, and dumped all the files off of it onto a shared folder, which you could then open on your Mac and copy to the Mac's HD.

At least, that was another idea I had.

 

[LimeiBook86]

I say that with patience, almost anything can be overcome.

As an alternative, I suppose you could have went over to a buddie's house, shoved the HD into his PC (Assuming he has one.) Networked your Mac with the PC, and dumped all the files off of it onto a shared folder, which you could then open on your Mac and copy to the Mac's HD.

At least, that was another idea I had.

I have my PC networked but If I added this Hard Drive in it would try and boot off of it and screw up. Also I can't even connect to the machine, I click on it in the Finder and it says it does not exist. The PC is a mess. Luckily I'm getting a new one to play games on. Thanks anyway!

 

[Skiniftz]

I have a 3.1GB IDE Hard Drive with Windows 98 on it. I have a bunch of old files I need to get off of it. I plugged the drive into my external FireWire case and a Dialog in Mac OS X pops up asking if I want to erase the drive because it can't read any of the Volumes on the drive. I opened up DiskUtility and it can read the drive but not the Volumes. I believe the Hard Drive is Fat32. I need to erase this drive but I need to get the files off first. I'm running Mac OS X 10.3.3 on a 12'' PowerBook.

Any help would be wonderful.

OSX will not read FAT32 or FAT or NTFS which are the Windows formats. As you have discovered OSX will talk to the drive just fine, but your actual problem is the disk format.

The only way you are going to get your data off is this:

Find a PC. Connect the drive to the PC and transfer the files to another medium - burn them to CDROM or something. A PC burned CDROM will work just fine in the Mac because the filing system is an ISO standard which the Mac supports. (Note: Mac HFS CDROMS will not work in a PC).

If you want to use it in a Mac you are going to have to format it using a Mac filing system (i.e. HFS etc).

 

[LimeiBook86]

OSX will not read FAT32 or FAT or NTFS which are the Windows formats. As you have discovered OSX will talk to the drive just fine, but your actual problem is the disk forma.

Well how I copied my data off was using DiskUtility. I made a disk image of the Hard Drive. Then I was able to open, view, and edit my files from the image I made. I'm happy now. Thanks again "horrortaxi"!!

 

[Horrortaxi]

OSX will not read FAT32 or FAT or NTFS which are the Windows formats.

If you want to use it in a Mac you are going to have to format it using a Mac filing system (i.e. HFS etc).

Not true at all. Macs have always been able to read PC formatted disks. If Macs couldn't read Windows formatted disks then they couldn't be on a network together, but obviously they can. As a matter of fact, in OS X you can format a drive to FAT 32. That's how I formatted my thumb drive and it works just fine in every Mac I've used it with--even beige ones running OS9.

 

[thecombatwombat]

If Macs couldn't read Windows formatted disks then they couldn't be on a network together, but obviously they can..

What? I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

If you mean they wouldn't be able to share files, then that's incorrect. Sharing on a windows network/with NFS is as far as I know *completely* file system transparent. I used to share files with my roommate on an XP box running NTFS to my debian box running XFS. The Debian box couldn't read NTFS and the XP box definitely knew nothing of XFS but it worked just fine. I'm sure this is the case with the great majority of *nix systems acting as file servers for windows. Similarly, XP sure can't read HFS+ right?

 

[iriejedi]

Mac and PC file transfers

I just bought a HP pavillion a520n - as a back up for my aging G3 b/w - for $650 I got athalon 3200+ AMD chip, a dvd-rw/cr -rw and cd burner (dual drives) and a hard disk 5x the size of my current G3 disk. (not to mention potential with an empty 8X graphinc slot. (I'm not bragging I'm still justifying to myself it was cheaper this way then a exturnal DVD burner for mac)

Also, since a lot of my UC clss texts book software needs Windows.. yadda yadda yadda... so all that considered it was a good fix til the new G5's and virtual PC 7 come out... I died inside a little yesterday... damn you Satan.. I digress...

So my problem - I have a router and they both surf internet just fine... HOW can I transfer all my digital photos over to it (Mac to PC). I am confident it can be done but being so mac centric I'm a little behind the PC network learning curve.

I'd be grateful for a semi detailed instruction set or a t least a good strong nudge in the righ direction of where to look.

Thanks you in advance

Iriejedi

I say that with patience, almost anything can be overcome.

As an alternative, I suppose you could have went over to a buddie's house, shoved the HD into his PC (Assuming he has one.) Networked your Mac with the PC, and dumped all the files off of it onto a shared folder, which you could then open on your Mac and copy to the Mac's HD.

At least, that was another idea I had.

 

[neoelectronaut]

Check out the "HOW TO NETWORK MAC OS X WITH WINDOWS" topic, it'll tell you all you need to know.

Really, all you need is to set up the shared folder on the Windows machine, and access the files from the Mac. You don't need to do it the other way around also. It's a little overkill.

If you have any questions, feel free to IM me.

 

[Horrortaxi]

What? I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

That was a case of me posting again before the morning coffee. I really shouldn't do that because I'm not thinking properly. You caught me talking out of my ass.

But a Mac can read Fat32 disks, that was my point.

 

[iriejedi]

Hww about OS 9.2.2 with windows?

Check out the "HOW TO NETWORK MAC OS X WITH WINDOWS" topic, it'll tell you all you need to know.

Really, all you need is to set up the shared folder on the Windows machine, and access the files from the Mac. You don't need to do it the other way around also. It's a little overkill.

If you have any questions, feel free to IM me.

that sounds doable - I assume with chooser I can possibly do the same thing with OS 9?

Thank you for the input.

IJ

 

[ingenious]

Not true at all. Macs have always been able to read PC formatted disks. If Macs couldn't read Windows formatted disks then they couldn't be on a network together, but obviously they can. As a matter of fact, in OS X you can format a drive to FAT 32. That's how I formatted my thumb drive and it works just fine in every Mac I've used it with--even beige ones running OS9.

actually its the NIC that allows diff formats to talk to one another i believe.

 

[thecombatwombat]

That was a case of me posting again before the morning coffee. I really shouldn't do that because I'm not thinking properly. You caught me talking out of my ass.

But a Mac can read Fat32 disks, that was my point.

Heh, yes coffee is important. Just wanted to make sure no one got mislead.