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Help! I need to copy important data off a slow and failing portable external hard drive

S

Sossity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 12, 2010
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I think my portable 4 TB hard drive is failing, I can still access some stuff on it, but it takes forever to mount, and forever to open folders and files. I want to copy and get the data off it, but it hangs.

I have tried a different data cable, same thing, it hangs a-lot.

I tried to copy its data onto a newer portable hard drive with Carbon Copy Cloner, but it aborted the process due to the Os or filesytem not responding on the source drive.

Is there a way to recover the drive so I can get my data off it?

I am running MacOS High Sierra on a mid 2010 mac pro that has been updated.

The hard drive is a Western Digital MyPassport 4 terabyte 2.5 inch portable USB 3.0 that I formatted to HFS Journaled Extended with disk utility a couple of years ago.
 
Have you tried running Disk Utility First Aid on it to see what's going on with it?
 
I would try copying things off of it "a little at a time".
Keep notes.
Try getting the most important stuff off first.
Go forward with the realization that the drive may fail before you "get everything".

If it's physical failure, you need to keep trying while you still can (before COMPLETE failure).
After that, the only way to access the files may be professional data recovery.
And that is very VERY expensive...
 
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I have attempted to open folders and files to copy, but when I try to copy, the process just hangs on preparing to copy.
 
Which drive do you have? The data on the drive might be okay but it may be the enclosure electronics that are failing. Most drives nowadays have poorly built enclosures even though the spinning components are okay. If your drive is no longer under warranty you may be able to remove the enclosure and rescue all your data.

But first, try to extract what data you can before taking things apart.

If it's an SSD, ignore all the above!
 
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The best tool for drive analysis is DriveDX. I think they have a trial period.

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Your Passport might still be under warranty. I believe Western Digital warrants their drives for 3 years. If and when you can extract your data, you should contact WD and ask for a RMA. Make sure you have your Amazon receipt. Amazon should have a copy of the sale in case you don't.
 
Thank you, does anybody know of a good data rescue app, since I am in that mode.
 
I looked at it again in disk sensi, and it shows varying amounts of read errors; yesterday, it was 28, then at one point, 6, and then it was 16.

I did manage to get some folders off of it, then finder would being to just hang on even just copying 2 or 3 files. I would then abort or try to abort the copy process, and finder then becomes unresponsive.

I can feel the vibration of the external hard drive, as it seems to be spinning its wheels in mud. At one point, it seemed to opening files and folders ok, not super fast, and the copying process was somewhat snappy even, then things would start to bog down, and I had to stop, as things were hanging; finder, and chrome browser, so I kept having to go into activity monitor and force quitting finder and chrome.

Should I try getting the drive out of its enclosure? and placing it in a different one to see if it works better? or just keep plugging it in my mac each day to try to get my files off it?
 
Sossity said:
Should I try getting the drive out of its enclosure? and placing it in a different one to see if it works better? or just keep plugging it in my mac each day to try to get my files off it?
Click to expand...

Once you remove the drive from the enclosure, your warranty is void. As long as you realize that and have another enclosure or adapter to use, you can give it a try.

By the way, Mac Sales (OWC) sells a powered adapter which can be used to connect a bare drive to USB. I have one and it works great.

Only remove the drive from the enclosure as a last resort after you have exhausted trying to extract the data using the Finder or any other data rescue software.
 
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Do you have the ability to plug the drive into a different Mac? If so, this can sometimes sort things. If, as it sounds, the answer is no then I have found Data Rescue to be my first port of call as it is the most straightforward to understand. Run a deep scan. But stop it after about 10 mins and follow the instructions. This should then show you the directory. Then if you are happy run a ful deep scan. 4TB is going to take you about two days, literally, so get it all set up and everything prepared. Also, you're going to need another hard drive onto which to dump what Data Rescue finds. With a bit of luck you'll get it all back and all properly named and in the right folders. If you get a message something like 'Data Rescue has had trouble reading some blocks, recommend you stop' then what I do is click the option to carry on and not stop. Reading will slow down to absolutely nothing but them once those blocks are cleared it will speed up again. What Data Rescue is doing is reading the Raw Data (1s and 0s) and putting it all back together. Hopefully intact.
 
I have downloaded Data rescue app, using the free version? or so I have not been prompted to buy anything yet, and and currently into about 24 hours of cloning the drive. Upon launching the app after downloading, it began to scan my drive, and pulled up all sorts of error messages, saying it had trouble accessing the drive, readouts taking too long or something like that, and then a screen came up with some choices, and I chose to clone all the drive contents to a new one. This seemed like a good choice, since data rescue showed this chive as for those drive that are showing signs of failing, but have not completely failed.

It has been going a whole day solid, and still has a way to go, cloning a 4TB hard drive that was maybe half full.
 
OP:
Let us know the results you get with Data Rescue, when the cloning is completed...
 
then a screen came up with some choices, and I chose to clone all the drive contents to a new one. This seemed like a good choice, since data rescue showed this chive as for those drive that are showing signs of failing, but have not completely failed.

It has been going a whole day solid, and still has a way to go, cloning a 4TB hard drive that was maybe half full.
Click to expand...

Yes, it will take days, so no need to worry. The trouble with cloning the drive is, I fear, that you end up with another drive containing all the data problems afflicting the original one. But nothing wrong with having a spare to work on. Once the clone is complete then run Data Rescue on that. This time, when you get all the warning messages, pile on through them, ignoring them, as you want to pull of as much data as yu can. Another problem this time is that now you're going to need a third drive on which to dump all the data pulled off the clone!
 
Probably too late now, but I would not have recommend using Data Rescue as the app is dated and has always been slow. And what it usually recovers can be quite confusing as it sometimes does not retain the original file name.

A better and faster app for recovery is Disk Drill (which is updated often).

www.cleverfiles.com

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Oh my, well, I will just have to let the cloning app do it's thing now, and see what happens. Maybe I can then use Disk Drill to recover those files on the newer cloned drive?

I think I tired this at one time, and the drive did not even show up among all my drives, so I could not do any rescues or operations, since it was not even being seen by Disk Drill.
 
Poncho said:
Yes, it will take days, so no need to worry. The trouble with cloning the drive is, I fear, that you end up with another drive containing all the data problems afflicting the original one. But nothing wrong with having a spare to work on. Once the clone is complete then run Data Rescue on that. This time, when you get all the warning messages, pile on through them, ignoring them, as you want to pull of as much data as yu can. Another problem this time is that now you're going to need a third drive on which to dump all the data pulled off the clone!
Click to expand...

oh no, oh well, should I just let the app finish cloning? it is more than half done. I am thinking, then maybe try disk Drill one poster has just suggested, on the clone.
 
I think I tired this at one time, and the drive did not even show up among all my drives, so I could not do any rescues or operations, since it was not even being seen by Disk Drill.
Click to expand...

If your drive didn't show up under Disk Drill it might be be because you have to download and install (through DiskDrill) an extra helper tool. I can't remember the name of it now but it is explained somewhere on their site, probably under something like 'Not all my drives are showing'. I said to use Data Rescue because to my mind it is the most straightforward to use. I think Disk Drill can be confusing, which is not great when you are in a panic over potential loss of data.

oh no, oh well, should I just let the app finish cloning? it is more than half done. I am thinking, then maybe try disk Drill one poster has just suggested, on the clone.
Click to expand...

Let Data Rescue finish cloning and see what you've got. You may have recovered everything. Then report back.
I've had several drives go bad on me over the years and pretty much got everything back using Data Rescue. But I'm not criticising Disk Drill. I have used it too.
 
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There's a lesson here for the future:
NEVER trust important data to only one drive.
It should exist on at least TWO drives, preferably on THREE.
 
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Well, it is still cloning, with a read failure message every now and then, it seems to be so close, showing clone in progress, 4tb of 4tb, but is still cloning, I am not sure this will ever finish, my desktop has been on now cloning for 3 days straight.
 
Well, it is still cloning, with a read failure message every now and then, it seems to be so close, showing clone in progress, 4tb of 4tb, but is still cloning, I am not sure this will ever finish, my desktop has been on now cloning for 3 days straight.
Click to expand...
.
Hold tight and don't give up. I had a 2TB drive I set Data Rescue to work on and it took two days plus, so I guess you can double that for 4TB. Actually, Data Rescue says it usually takes 3 mins per gigabyte, which I think equals 2000 hours for 4TB, which I think means 8 days. can't see it taking that long, especially as you say you are nearly there. Also, I think what you end up with is a disk image on the new 'Target' drive. So when it's all finished you can click on this and mount it and see what you have rescued.
 
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Well, it seems to still be right at the end and still cloning 4tb of 4tb in progress, with hundreds of fail read messages slow reads ins, I am afraid of burning out my desktop, there has been record heat in my area, and more heat to come, we are having heat wave after heatwave, and fear my desktop burning out, there is no air conditioning in my home, and it gets very hot in my home in the summer; 80-100 degrees F outside and 80+ degrees in my house, for weeks on end, we get very long intense heatwaves. I am not sure what to do, I can't leave my desktop on indefinitely, having it on for days on end must not be good for it. It seems to be hanging right at 4tb of 4tb. I don't if any progress is being done at all.

My monitor goes dark, I am not sure if the drive or the mac is going into sleep mode and slowing things down.

What should I do?

The light is blinking on the bad hard drive, so I guess there is activity, but not sure if it means anything at this point, and I need to use my desktop for other things like my homework.
 
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Fishrrman said:
There's a lesson here for the future:
NEVER trust important data to only one drive.
It should exist on at least TWO drives, preferably on THREE.
Click to expand...

Yep, I know that at this point, that water has crossed the bridge, at this point I am trying to move foreward with a solution, thanks, for the app suggestion, but am not sure if it working or not, been cloning for about 8+ days now with no end in sight, not sure what to do.
 
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