So to make a long story short I have a hard drive with 1.5tb of data I DO NOT want to lose, and when plugged in it looks like the attached picture. A format that my mac can't read, and I would obviously like to recover this data in the cheapest way possible. I don't know if this is enough info so if you need more I have a great long story how this all happened.
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Help me recover 1.5tb of data please!
- Thread starter jbweld42
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"So to make a long story short I have a hard drive with 1.5tb of data I DO NOT want to lose, and when plugged in it looks like the attached picture. A format that my mac can't read, and I would obviously like to recover this data in the cheapest way possible. I don't know if this is enough info so if you need more I have a great long story how this all happened."
If you want some help, perhaps you better post "the long story". The information you're offering doesn't seem to be enough.
But in response to your original question, here's a relatively "short" answer:
- Try Disk Utility's "repair disk" option first.
- If that doesn't work, try DiskWarrior to rebuild the directories.
- If that doesn't work, and your directories and/or partitions are damaged, try this:
1. Buy ANOTHER 1.5 or 2.0gig "bare drive" (you will ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO HAVE another "empty" drive to which to recover your data)
2. Get one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connecla...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253062702&sr=1-22
3. Get an app like "Data Rescue 3" or "Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery"
4. Recover the data from the "bad" drive to the new drive.
This assumes you can get the bad drive and its partitions to mount in the Finder. Not sure if either of the above apps will be able to access the bad drive UNTIL it's mounted on the desktop.
IF ALL THE ABOVE FAILS, don't give up hope. It's still possible to get at the data. I was in the exact situation, trying to access a damaged partition that seemed impoosible to mount.
My solution was radical, but it worked. I COMPLETELY RE-INITIALIZED the entire drive (damaged partitions and all) into a new, single, Mac partition.
BUT WAIT! Doesn't "wiping the directories out" destroy the data, too?
Nope. Remember that directories (and partition info) is located on a separate area of the drive platters, AWAY FROM the actual sectors that contain the data. When a partition or directory becomes "damaged", that doesn't mean that the data itself is disturbed -- only the "pathways" to the data is lost. Even a re-initializaion will not touch the data, but only those pathways. So long as you don't write anything new to the drive after the re-initialization, that data remains intact and "recoverable".
The "magic" of apps like DataRescue3 and Stellar Phoenix is that they don't try to "repair" the directories or partitions. Rather, they just "scavenge" the drives for whatever _data_ is there, then they re-assemble it into meaningful pieces. They "work around" the reality that the directory/partition may not have "pathways" to the data. In fact, they seem to "ignore" the directories altogether.
Thus, if you can't "mount" a drive due to bad directories/partitions, a last resort might be to re-initialize it so that it CAN be mounted, and THEN "attack it" with data scavenging software.
But again, you MUST have a second drive that is able to receive that data.
It may take some time and involve some learning, too. But it CAN be done. I did it. In my case, it took 3 "attempts", but I got most of what I needed back. And that's with no prior experience or expertise at data recovery.
If you want some help, perhaps you better post "the long story". The information you're offering doesn't seem to be enough.
But in response to your original question, here's a relatively "short" answer:
- Try Disk Utility's "repair disk" option first.
- If that doesn't work, try DiskWarrior to rebuild the directories.
- If that doesn't work, and your directories and/or partitions are damaged, try this:
1. Buy ANOTHER 1.5 or 2.0gig "bare drive" (you will ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO HAVE another "empty" drive to which to recover your data)
2. Get one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connecla...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253062702&sr=1-22
3. Get an app like "Data Rescue 3" or "Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery"
4. Recover the data from the "bad" drive to the new drive.
This assumes you can get the bad drive and its partitions to mount in the Finder. Not sure if either of the above apps will be able to access the bad drive UNTIL it's mounted on the desktop.
IF ALL THE ABOVE FAILS, don't give up hope. It's still possible to get at the data. I was in the exact situation, trying to access a damaged partition that seemed impoosible to mount.
My solution was radical, but it worked. I COMPLETELY RE-INITIALIZED the entire drive (damaged partitions and all) into a new, single, Mac partition.
BUT WAIT! Doesn't "wiping the directories out" destroy the data, too?
Nope. Remember that directories (and partition info) is located on a separate area of the drive platters, AWAY FROM the actual sectors that contain the data. When a partition or directory becomes "damaged", that doesn't mean that the data itself is disturbed -- only the "pathways" to the data is lost. Even a re-initializaion will not touch the data, but only those pathways. So long as you don't write anything new to the drive after the re-initialization, that data remains intact and "recoverable".
The "magic" of apps like DataRescue3 and Stellar Phoenix is that they don't try to "repair" the directories or partitions. Rather, they just "scavenge" the drives for whatever _data_ is there, then they re-assemble it into meaningful pieces. They "work around" the reality that the directory/partition may not have "pathways" to the data. In fact, they seem to "ignore" the directories altogether.
Thus, if you can't "mount" a drive due to bad directories/partitions, a last resort might be to re-initialize it so that it CAN be mounted, and THEN "attack it" with data scavenging software.
But again, you MUST have a second drive that is able to receive that data.
It may take some time and involve some learning, too. But it CAN be done. I did it. In my case, it took 3 "attempts", but I got most of what I needed back. And that's with no prior experience or expertise at data recovery.
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To start I had a 2tb time capsule that had hard drive failure. I bought another 2tb hard drive and a 2 bay dock and with the help of disk warrior I recovered everything. Next I bought a synology nas enclosure, and I have no clue what happened other then I apparently exceeded my limits with technology and I now have an empty 2tb hard drive in this format my computer cannot understand. I have tried disk warrior and countless hours of searching the synology website. I just started running data rescue, the quick scan couldn't find anything and the deep scan is going now and it looks like it's working for the most part. Thanks for the help thus far it means so much, please continue as I am still in shock.
"To start I had a 2tb time capsule that had hard drive failure. I bought another 2tb hard drive and a 2 bay dock and with the help of disk warrior I recovered everything. Next I bought a synology nas enclosure, and I have no clue what happened other then I apparently exceeded my limits with technology and I now have an empty 2tb hard drive in this format my computer cannot understand. I have tried disk warrior and countless hours of searching the synology website. I just started running data rescue, the quick scan couldn't find anything and the deep scan is going now and it looks like it's working for the most part. Thanks for the help thus far it means so much, please continue as I am still in shock."
My advice for the future:
1. Throw the Time Capsule away. They are unreliable and prone to failure -- read the reports of many, many failures here. Bad design to be avoided.
2. Forget about "NAS storage". You have seen what can happen. If you want to back up securely, stick with ordinary non-RAID Mac-formatted drives in either USB or Firewire enclosures (don't rule out the "dock" setup that makes swapping drives around easy). Don't complicate things -- if you want your backup data to be "easy to get at" when you most need it, then keep it in a hardware/software format that is easy to get at!
3. Forget about Time Machine. It eats up disk space, burns out drives from overuse, and "locks up" your data in a format that can make it unreachable "in a moment of need" (TM backups are NOT bootable). Stick with backup software that produces "bootable clones", and establish a manual backup routine (YES, this takes more effort) to maintain the clones. With a clone, you ALWAYS have a second bootable drive you can reach for in a moment of extreme need.
Others will disagree, but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
My advice for the future:
1. Throw the Time Capsule away. They are unreliable and prone to failure -- read the reports of many, many failures here. Bad design to be avoided.
2. Forget about "NAS storage". You have seen what can happen. If you want to back up securely, stick with ordinary non-RAID Mac-formatted drives in either USB or Firewire enclosures (don't rule out the "dock" setup that makes swapping drives around easy). Don't complicate things -- if you want your backup data to be "easy to get at" when you most need it, then keep it in a hardware/software format that is easy to get at!
3. Forget about Time Machine. It eats up disk space, burns out drives from overuse, and "locks up" your data in a format that can make it unreachable "in a moment of need" (TM backups are NOT bootable). Stick with backup software that produces "bootable clones", and establish a manual backup routine (YES, this takes more effort) to maintain the clones. With a clone, you ALWAYS have a second bootable drive you can reach for in a moment of extreme need.
Others will disagree, but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
Thanks for the help man! Data Rescue failed me about 50% of the way through just about 10 minutes ago, so I am going to try disk utility again, since data rescue will take 4 solid days basically. Ya, I think I am gonna go with the DROBO 4-bay, the time capsule was perfect until this all happened, so I overcompensated and bought NAS and now I'm stuck.
Re:
When you have make your mind to recover the data which might be very precious then why don't you try Stellar Phoenix Mac which can help you alot.Please make sure that you had not overwritten your data either no one recovery program can help you...
When you have make your mind to recover the data which might be very precious then why don't you try Stellar Phoenix Mac which can help you alot.Please make sure that you had not overwritten your data either no one recovery program can help you...
jbweld42,
Waityou said "Data Rescue failed me about 50% of the way through".
Can you describe exactly what happened? If the drive has a mechanical failure, running more recovery software is not going to help; it will only make things worse.
If Data Rescue gave you an error message, let us know what it said. It might be very helpful in determine whether you should keep running recovery software or send the drive to a cleanroom recovery center.
Waityou said "Data Rescue failed me about 50% of the way through".
Can you describe exactly what happened? If the drive has a mechanical failure, running more recovery software is not going to help; it will only make things worse.
If Data Rescue gave you an error message, let us know what it said. It might be very helpful in determine whether you should keep running recovery software or send the drive to a cleanroom recovery center.
Try plugging it into a PC, or a linux machine. I have a few HDD's that OS X can't read, that work just fine on every non-mac computer I own.
Yup I disagree.
TM burns on external HD from overuse? lol
SO TM which backups on external HD every hour burns out external HD?
What crappy external HDs do you buy?
TM is a great backing software with a nice interface.
Yes it does it take HD space if you use Parrells or Entourage,since it can't tell the difference of its updated file.
Only knock I have on TM backups,they are not bootable.