External HD Help

[cmac89]

Hey new here and I have tried google and every search means necessary to try and find the answer to my questions.

I have a SimpleTech mini external drive for my Macbook as Time Machine backup and storage and it has worked fine until today.

When i plug it in it wont automatically show my files i have to leave the Finder open and then it shows the main folders. To see any files I have to click the particular folder and again leave it open for the files to load. This is usually about a 5 minute or longer (depending on how many files are in that folder) wait. Obviously not normal.

I thought well I can run Disk Utility to see if it can be repair but when I do that it gets an error and says the disk is unmountable even though I havent opened anything from drive.

I have just about given up and any advice would be helpful!

 

[crazycat]

Format the hard drive, if that does not solve the problem try and use the hard drive with another computer and check if it is still slow.

 

[miles01110]

You could try using a more powerful tool than DU like Techtool or Diskwarrior, but in my experience the symptoms you describe have all been due to bad drives.

 

[cmac89]

Format the hard drive, if that does not solve the problem try and use the hard drive with another computer and check if it is still slow.

I am hesitant to format because I have important files on there. :-/

You could try using a more powerful tool than DU like Techtool or Diskwarrior, but in my experience the symptoms you describe have all been due to bad drives.

I will see if I can try those.

I'm so sad. lol

 

[miles01110]

Yeah, losing a hard drive sucks.