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HELP - external hard drive got unplugged

T

TraceyS/FL

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jan 11, 2007
4,178
316
North Central Florida
OK, it's so NOT MY DAY.

The "precious angles" have had me make TWO computer mistakes this morning. The first was not critical - but they got in trouble nonetheless.

The next one - I pulled the wrong usb cable - not my card reader - but my NEWLY FILLED Backup Hard Drive - that I just copied crap TOO, and hadnt' burned all my backup disks from yet.

I put some other stuff on there too from the 2 other externals - 1 is my Mom's and I need to get it back to her. So i moved and deleted.

I'm just SICK. It won't mount - I ran Disk Utility against it and all it wants to do is format it.

Is there anything I can do to fix it??? I wasn't writing to it when it happened, in fact it was just sitting there idle since i started the computer up this morning. I zoned and forgot to turn it off last night, now i'm paying.

I have access to a variety of Windows Machines too if that helps....

Off to cry and do a sucky job at searching for a solution.

Pass the Chocolate - Mommy has PMS is a bad way today kids.
 
Wirelessly posted (NokiaN70-1/2.0539.1.2 Series60/2.8 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

See if it works with a windows machine.
 
Wirelessly posted (NokiaN70-1/2.0539.1.2 Series60/2.8 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Possible solution from mac format megazine.

If it is readable on a pc,it may suffer from logical damage to the filing system.
Simplest fix=copy files off it onto pc.
Format the drive as fat32 using windows.
Copy the files back.

A second possible problem is corrupted usb drivers. See if other usb devices work.
 
Wirelessly posted (Nokia6235/1.0 (S190V0300.nep) UP.Browser/6.2.3.2 MMP/2.0)

TraceyS/FL said:
OK, it's so NOT MY DAY.

The "precious angles" have had me make TWO computer mistakes this morning. The first was not critical - but they got in trouble nonetheless.

The next one - I pulled the wrong usb cable - not my card reader - but my NEWLY FILLED Backup Hard Drive - that I just copied crap TOO, and hadnt' burned all my backup disks from yet.

I put some other stuff on there too from the 2 other externals - 1 is my Mom's and I need to get it back to her. So i moved and deleted.

I'm just SICK. It won't mount - I ran Disk Utility against it and all it wants to do is format it.

Is there anything I can do to fix it??? I wasn't writing to it when it happened, in fact it was just sitting there idle since i started the computer up this morning. I zoned and forgot to turn it off last night, now i'm paying.

I have access to a variety of Windows Machines too if that helps....

Off to cry and do a sucky job at searching for a solution.

Pass the Chocolate - Mommy has PMS is a bad way today kids.
Click to expand...

Thanks
 
Had this problem before, so I literally just copied everything off it onto my Windows machine - It could read it, whereas OSX could 'see' it but not mount it. Then formatted it to HFS+ and threw everything back onto the external. Voila, not too difficult. However, you may need MacDrive software for your Windows computer if it doesn't initially recognise the external harddrive due to how its formatted.
 
acircularmotive said:
Had this problem before, so I literally just copied everything off it onto my Windows machine - It could read it, whereas OSX could 'see' it but not mount it. Then formatted it to HFS+ and threw everything back onto the external. Voila, not too difficult. However, you may need MacDrive software for your Windows computer if it doesn't initially recognise the external harddrive due to how its formatted.
Click to expand...

okay, first, STOP plugging that drive around, NOW.

find a app called data rescue... and use that to see if you can recover the files that way.. you might want to try the trial version first, before you buy it.
 
I didn't reformat it when I got it - it's a "Windows" drive (Seagate). Every other external i have I just leave formated like it came and both machines can read it.

I hadn't tried it on the XP machine though.

I'm trying sit back rationally and think about what "extras" i might have on there not backed up still (it's been a huge shuffle - internal had to be reformatted, so i shifted to the externals - and haven't gotten everything back yet).

I think the worse part is I took the time to clean up all my files on it - deleting duplicates and such, and burning a 2nd set of DVDs as backup. Technically - after the "fun" of the last 2 weeks, I should have everything backed up. Technically.

I guess I just start over.... i'm not sure it's worth the $99 for Disk Warrior to see if it fixes it, and just to have me say "gee, look, i did have everything backed up". That is all it was supposed to be - THE BACKUP.
 
acircularmotive said:
Sorry, your holiness. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

everytime the drive is connected to a computer, the computer will attempt to write preference files to that drive. especially when the computer doesn't know where to write (hence the need to format) it might over write some of your files (or HIS files) which will cause any data rescue software unable to retrieve the data.

now is that too much knowledge and information for you?

TraceyS/FL said:
I didn't reformat it when I got it - it's a "Windows" drive (Seagate). Every other external i have I just leave formated like it came and both machines can read it.

I hadn't tried it on the XP machine though.

I'm trying sit back rationally and think about what "extras" i might have on there not backed up still (it's been a huge shuffle - internal had to be reformatted, so i shifted to the externals - and haven't gotten everything back yet).

I think the worse part is I took the time to clean up all my files on it - deleting duplicates and such, and burning a 2nd set of DVDs as backup. Technically - after the "fun" of the last 2 weeks, I should have everything backed up. Technically.

I guess I just start over.... i'm not sure it's worth the $99 for Disk Warrior to see if it fixes it, and just to have me say "gee, look, i did have everything backed up". That is all it was supposed to be - THE BACKUP.
Click to expand...

did you try using the free trial to see if that can at least read your files?
 
OHHH, is Disk Warrior even going to work on the drive since i hadn't formatted it for the mac??

Should i be looking at PC Solutions? Can anyone suggest one???

I tried calling Alsoft to ask, but they must be at lunch.

What product did they used to sell i've owned in the past? Virex???
 
bearbo said:
everytime the drive is connected to a computer, the computer will attempt to write preference files to that drive. especially when the computer doesn't know where to write (hence the need to format) it might over write some of your files (or HIS files) which will cause any data rescue software unable to retrieve the data.

now is that too much knowledge and information for you?
Click to expand...

Nope, perfect for me. It's not going anywhere else.

bearbo said:
did you try using the free trial to see if that can at least read your files?
Click to expand...

For Data Rescue? I just got the link in email! I need to see if I can dig up a drive with 150gb free to recover TO though. I guess I can run it and see what it sees huh?

Thanks again -
Tracey
 
Morning update: Everything finished running about 9:30 last night.

The thorough scan seemed like it found everything, but it didn't tell me the "real" names - and frankly, the thought of having all 127gb recovered with other names makes me SICKER.

I'm going to call Disk Warrior again this morning and ask them if they think that they can fix the mucked up part (since it is NOT a Mac formatted drive), and go from there....

And try to figure out what is missing from the other 2 drives that i may lose if I just reformat it.

UGH.
 
This is why windows rocks. :) Since you say it is PC formatted, I can plug that drive in to my machine and get back at least 80% of that stuff WITH the proper file name. I've recovered data from drives with damaged or missing partitions with this software, GetDataBack. It's available for NTFS and FAT32 drives. I'm going to guess that if the mac can read it, it's in FAT32.

You can get it at www.runtime.org. They should have a trial version that will show you if it can recover your data, but it won't actually recover it unless you buy the program. Good luck! :)
 
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