External H'drive problem!!!!! does not show on disk utility!

[saiyukicloud]

Hey guys! I have 2 problems actually.. well the 1st 1 is more important.

Firstly, my maxtor basic 1TB hard drive seems to be faulty or something..
Somehow my mac loads really slowly on startups sometimes... like 30mins... so once i of'fed the power supply to my mac... from then on.. my hard drive didn't seem to work. my hard drive was connected to my mac btw.. and it has an external power source. My h'drive was working previously btw... now its like 5 months old???

The problem is.. the h'drive lights up and all and it doesn't show up on my desktop nor my disk utility... I plugged it to different usb ports in my imac but it just doesn't show...

Can anyone guide me to any solutions??? My h'drive contains lots of important stuff which i rather not lose..... =.=....

Secondly... i have boot camp installed... but somehow it gets harder and harder to go to my windows side... as in the startup is damn long and i usually get some blue screen of death then the mac restarts.... are there any solutions??

~~any help is appreciated THX!~~

 

[misterredman]

Is the startup slow only with the maxtor hd connected? Or also when you disconnect it?

As far as the HD goes, there could be many reasons for it not to work. Depending on how much you value your data you may want to take it to a professional for the recovery. In such a case it's better not to fiddle too much with it as you may make the problem worse.

Anyway, are you sure the USB ports of your mac are working at all? Check that with another USB device to rule out it's a problem with your mac and not with your HD.

Do you hear the HD spin up when you connect it? Does it makes any strange noise?

 

[saiyukicloud]

For some reason after my h'drive malfunctioned, my mac's start-up is incredibly quick......

After the h'drive *spoilt* there is a ticking sound from it.... after like every few seconds...

i think i would rule out the usb problem since my ipod and keyboard connects to them well.

 

[Fishrrman]

RE:
"Firstly, my maxtor basic 1TB hard drive seems to be faulty or something..
Somehow my mac loads really slowly on startups sometimes... like 30mins... so once i of'fed the power supply to my mac... from then on.. my hard drive didn't seem to work. my hard drive was connected to my mac btw.. and it has an external power source. My h'drive was working previously btw... now its like 5 months old???
The problem is.. the h'drive lights up and all and it doesn't show up on my desktop nor my disk utility... I plugged it to different usb ports in my imac but it just doesn't show... "

At this point, hard to tell if it's a hardware failure (something wrong with the drive enclosure, or something wrong with the drive itself), OR, if it's just corrupted software files on the drive itself.

Try this:
- Unplug the drive from the Mac
- Boot the Mac
- Plug the drive in. Does it "spin up" (even if it's not yet showing up on the desktop?)
- Now, open System Profiler
- Check around the "USB" listings. Do you see anything that might indicate the presence of the Maxtor external?

If you see something that indicates that the Mac is "seeing" the connection to the Maxtor on the USB bus, then it could be that the drive enclosure is OK, but that there's a problem with the drive itself, or the files on it. Just a possibility.

If the Maxtor DOESN'T show up on the USB bus at all, it could be a problem with the physical enclosure - and the drive inside might still be OK.

The only way you're going to know this is to probably open the enclosure, take the drive out, connect it to the Mac via other means, and try mounting it that way. Of course, this is going to VOID THE WARRANTY. But I'm wondering, if you send the drive back to Maxtor, will you lose all the data on the drive anyway. So it might boil down to, losing the warranty, or preserving the warranty while losing your data.

Just for the heck of it, you might try connecting the drive to a DIFFERENT Mac if there is one available, to check what happens and assure yourself that the problem is "repeatable".

By the way, if you decide to break open the case and hook up the drive by other means, you can use one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119152&Tpk=rosewill rcw608
(if the drive uses an "IDE"/"PATA" connection,
OR
One of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
... if the drive inside is a SATA drive.
NOTE: The Rosewill adapter works with BOTH IDE/PATA and SATA drives.

Hope this helps,
- John

 

[arjen92]

For some reason after my h'drive malfunctioned, my mac's start-up is incredibly quick......

After the h'drive *spoilt* there is a ticking sound from it.... after like every few seconds...

i think i would rule out the usb problem since my ipod and keyboard connects to them well.

I don't want to be pessimistic, but when your hard drive makes a ticking sounds almost every second, it's going to die. So make a back-up for sure.

Hard drives make a ticking sound when they're very active (like rendering video or transfering files) it's normal then to hear it, but when you're doing nothing special (browsing, listening to music) and it makes a ticking sound, it means it's near death.

Make a back-up.

 

[saiyukicloud]

so there is nothing i could do to make my hard drive work???? damn... only had it for like half a year????? .....

 

[madog]

so there is nothing i could do to make my hard drive work???? damn... only had it for like half a year????? .....

Most external HD's have a three year or five year warranty for that reason. Check the manufacturer. At the very least you will have a year.

 

[dwellguy]

For some reason after my h'drive malfunctioned, my mac's start-up is incredibly quick......

After the h'drive *spoilt* there is a ticking sound from it.... after like every few seconds...

i think i would rule out the usb problem since my ipod and keyboard connects to them well.

When this happened to my newly purchased hard drive I originally thought the same thing.... that the drive was defunct. However, after reformatting the drive and adding OS9 drivers (a little check box option when using 'Disk Utility') the ticking stopped and everything worked fine. It turned out that the drive was in an endless loop looking for something that wasn't there and so it slowed everything else down.

I'm not saying that this will resolve your problem, just that what I thought was a hardware malfunction really turned out to be a software (driver) issue. I should mention that I bought a Seagate FreeAgent disk formatted for PC and when I reformatted it to Mac in Disk Utility, I originally did not add the OS9 drivers since I was running OS10.58, but for some reason it was better to have it installed.

Hope this gives you a little hope.

 

[arjen92]

When this happened to my newly purchased hard drive I originally thought the same thing.... that the drive was defunct. However, after reformatting the drive and adding OS9 drivers (a little check box option when using 'Disk Utility') the ticking stopped and everything worked fine. It turned out that the drive was in an endless loop looking for something that wasn't there and so it slowed everything else down.

I'm not saying that this will resolve your problem, just that what I thought was a hardware malfunction really turned out to be a software (driver) issue. I should mention that I bought a Seagate FreeAgent disk formatted for PC and when I reformatted it to Mac in Disk Utility, I originally did not add the OS9 drivers since I was running OS10.58, but for some reason it was better to have it installed.

Hope this gives you a little hope.

That is quite some good advice. Never knew that.

 

[saiyukicloud]

okay, i'm back after exams.

So yea, i won't harbour any hope of my h'drive actually working.. it just doesn't show, on anywhere, system profiler or another windows pc, though my h'drive is mac partitioned.

i am wondering if i could somehow salvage all the really important and useful date i have on my h'drive.

 

[saiyukicloud]

errr so is there anyway i can salvage my data??

 

[madog]

okay, i'm back after exams.

So yea, i won't harbour any hope of my h'drive actually working.. it just doesn't show, on anywhere, system profiler or another windows pc, though my h'drive is mac partitioned.

i am wondering if i could somehow salvage all the really important and useful date i have on my h'drive.

There are apps like Data Rescue, Phoenix (something or other), and another popular one I can't think of at the moment. Because the drive is Mac formatted, your best bet is to look for non-corporate Apple service techs (because the Apple store doesn't do data recovery). However, the chances of software based data recovery is a crap shoot. There's never a guarantee for recovery, only a guarantee that you'll pay someone to try if you go that route.

The only mostly sure-fire method is hardware based recovery from a place like DriveSavers, however those typically start out at $800+.

It's worth it to look into the drive manufacturer and see if they offer or recommend a data recovery service. Unless it's some sort of mass defective drive then it won't be covered by them.

As someone else said, it might be worth it in the long run to remove the drive from its current enclosure (most liekly voiding the warranty, but drives are cheap, data isn't) and try it in another, and then using data recovery software from there.

Good luck.

 

[AppleNewton]

if you have the latest Bootcamp 3.0 Software the drive should show up under Windows.

What i would do is contact the manufacture of the drive itself and get a replacement.

in the meantime you can check NewEgg.com for a good deal on a 1TB drive, I'd go after brands like Western Digital.

it sounds like either the drive is delaying the start up of your machine and/or the enclosure has a goofed up chipset (some on occasion do have issues like that)


goodluck

 

[Larima]

RE:
"
The only way you're going to know this is to probably open the enclosure, take the drive out, connect it to the Mac via other means, and try mounting it that way. Of course, this is going to VOID THE WARRANTY. But I'm wondering, if you send the drive back to Maxtor, will you lose all the data on the drive anyway. So it might boil down to, losing the warranty, or preserving the warranty while losing your data.

Just for the heck of it, you might try connecting the drive to a DIFFERENT Mac if there is one available, to check what happens and assure yourself that the problem is "repeatable".

By the way, if you decide to break open the case and hook up the drive by other means, you can use one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119152&Tpk=rosewill rcw608
(if the drive uses an "IDE"/"PATA" connection,
OR
One of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
... if the drive inside is a SATA drive.
NOTE: The Rosewill adapter works with BOTH IDE/PATA and SATA drives.

Hope this helps,
- John

Thank you so much John. My external drive wasn't being recognized by any means on my iMac, MacBook Pro or Windows even thought the power light came on and I could hear it spinning. Instead of bringing it into a repair shop that would cost me hundreds of dollars, I hooked up the external drive to a docking station that you recommended and it works! Thank you, thank you, thank you!