How-To Recover Files from my WD My Passport

[macrabbit]

My 'WD 1TB My Passport' external HD recently has major issues. It's HFS+partitioned as 700/300GB, and left plugged into the rear USB2.0 of my 5th Gen Airport Extreme. I've been accessing it via WiFi for 2 years, backing up all my Videos/Photos and playing movies.

Couple days ago the Extreme flashed orange, and the desktop drive icons turned Orange. I used Mac Disk Utility, and the secondary 300gb partition had errors. I erased and reformatted the secondary partition, and then backed-up all my photos using the Flickr up-loader. Today I went to backup my videos, but it mounts maybe 1 out of 3 times, and is too slow to actually bring any files up. I downloaded the WD Mac tool and it failed the tests, as it really doesn't mount. Then I brought it to work and tried the Windows 10 tool, but it doesn't mount nor recognize it, even through Windows 10 does.

Where should I go from here? These video files are precious travel and life videos. I really would like to recover them. Any tips are appreciated!

 

[chscag]

Where should I go from here? These video files are precious travel and life videos. I really would like to recover them. Any tips are appreciated!

You might have some luck with Disk Warrior which may be able to access the drive even though it won't mount. However, Disk Warrior is expensive and they do not have a trial version to try before buying. A drive that won't mount is very difficult to repair or extract files from so you need to be aware that even Disk Warrior may not work. The only other alternative is even more expensive and that is to use a drive repair recovery service. That kind of service can run into the hundreds of dollars depending on the size of the drive.

 

[matreya]

I've been accessing it via WiFi for 2 years, backing up all my Videos/Photos and playing movies.

If you only have one copy of your videos, then it is not a backup.... it's a terrible lesson to learn.

 

[macrabbit]

If you only have one copy of your videos, then it is not a backup.... it's a terrible lesson to learn.

Thanks Captain Obvious. I'm just looking for experience or tips working data recovery at this point.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

I realize this advice doesn't help you now.
But for the future...
...I wouldn't rely on a connection via the Airport for backing up.

Instead, I'd connect the backup drive DIRECTLY to the computer (to be backed up), and then use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable cloned backup of your internal drive.

And like matreya advised, two backups are better.

To the matter at-hand:
In your original post, are you saying that you -CAN- mount the drive and see the files in Windows 10?
If so, get ANOTHER drive, and copy those files posthaste!

The name of the game is get the partition mounted ANY way you can, get a second drive, and get the files from it...

 

[macrabbit]

OP:
To the matter at-hand:
In your original post, are you saying that you -CAN- mount the drive and see the files in Windows 10?
If so, get ANOTHER drive, and copy those files posthaste!

The name of the game is get the partition mounted ANY way you can, get a second drive, and get the files from it...

It's formatted HFS+ so no, Windows cannot see the files. When I plug it into the Mac, the primary partition slowwwwly mounts on the Mac (secondary does not), but it reads too slow to copy any files off. I got Diskwarrior 5, and hit the 'Rebuild' for the Primary partition, and its been sitting for 15+ hours on stage 1, so I just hit Cancel. I was reading that if the disk hardware is malfunctioning (which I think it is), that using something like Disk Warrior to 'Rebuild' the drive isn't the best option, as the damage will get worse as it tries to rebuild. At this point, I'm looking to simply extract the Data from the Primary partition. I read something like " ddrescue " a better choice, but it looks like Command Line stuff, which I know nothing about. I'm still not sure what to do, as Disk Warrior doesn't seem to be working. I bought another External Hard Drive as well to copy too.

 

[CoastalOR]

OP: You could take a look at Data Rescue 4.

 

[macrabbit]

Tried Disk Warrior, then Data Rescue. No luck. Both indicating hardware issues as they simply can't read the drive. It does light up and spin, then slowly mount onto OSX, but then its too slow to read or copy files. Maybe I just need to wait the 1 week or whatever it might take for Disk Warrior to [maybe] save files lol? I figure doesn't your computer go into certain modes and interrupt this process anyways after extended periods?

I'm debating how much to spend at this point, as I know Data recovery services are not cheap. Praise Lord Baby Jesus that I least backed up the photos...

 

[Fishrrman]

If you can get the primary partition mounted on the desktop, can you copy files or folders from it (to another drive), even if it's just "one-at-a-time" (i.e., not a group of files)?

If you have the photos already, are the files that remain on the drive "that valuable"?
Or can they be replaced somehow?

 

[chscag]

I'm debating how much to spend at this point, as I know Data recovery services are not cheap. Praise Lord Baby Jesus that I least backed up the photos...

If you've already had no luck with either Disk Warrior 5 or Data Rescue 4, you're about at the end of the road as those apps are the best at recovery without using a data recovery service. Like the previous post stated, do you really have to have what's on that drive since you already have the photos? A data recovery service is going to be very costly.