I deleted my external drive, lost all content - how do I recover

[addictive]

I'm happy to accept I've been stupid but I need the help and advice of the forum members.

I was needing to transfer files from my macbook to an external drive.

The external drive is a 1TB Freecom HDD. I had split it into two partitions. One for time machine updates and the other for TV shows and other media I didn't want/have the space to store on my Mac.

I thought it would be simple to delete one partition, the Time Machine one. I have not been using it as my main Time Machine back up. I have another external for that.

However, after I deleted one partition I found I had deleted both partitions and therefore lost about 700GB of home media which I had on the external.

I do realise the data/home media is recoverable as long as I don't copy anything onto the external drive. I did download a trial piece of software which was able to identify my data is recoverable. However, in order to retrieve the data I would need to buy the full version of the software for about $100. However, my external drive then seemed to eject itself.

I have the issue now of the 1TB Freecom HDD not mounting. Despite the light of the external coming on when it it plugged in via USB. When I plug the external drive in it is not being read.

Could any forum members give me some helpful suggestions of what I need to do or download in order to complete the recovery. Given I'm abroad travelling at the moment will I need access to other computers/external drives to copy the recoverable data?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[blueroom]

What was your plan if the external drive failed, which it appears to be doing now?

 

[addictive]

The back ups of my Mac are stored on other external HDDs using Time Machine.

Some of my home media is saved on other external HDDs

However, not all of my home media is on other external HDDs and that is why I would like to recover the data.

 

[blueroom]

If the drive won't stay mounted there's not much you can do. You could try another Mac to see if it's a problem with the USB port.

As for $100 data recovery software, they all charge $$$ and there's no guarantee.

 

[lnels]

Use DiskDrill, I used it on my friends external after she formatted and it found everything that wasn't written over, and then you will have to sort through it.

 

[addictive]

Update

I recovered all my data and have now backed up the data onto multiple different external drives.

Today I reformatted the Freecom 1TB External drive using a Mac-Mini. After being reformatted and having the partition removed it shows up on the Mac Mini as a 1TB external. Perfect.

However, when I insert the Freecom external HDD into my Macbook it still does not mount (or register with disk utility). The light on the external is on when connected to my Macbook.

I don't understand how it can mount on the Mac Mini but it remains invisible on my Macbook.

Any suggestions? I'd love someone to be able to help me.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I recovered all my data and have now backed up the data onto multiple different external drives.

Today I reformatted the Freecom 1TB External drive using a Mac-Mini. After being reformatted and having the partition removed it shows up on the Mac Mini as a 1TB external. Perfect.

However, when I insert the Freecom external HDD into my Macbook it still does not mount (or register with disk utility). The light on the external is on when connected to my Macbook.

I don't understand how it can mount on the Mac Mini but it remains invisible on my Macbook.

Any suggestions? I'd love someone to be able to help me.

Try a different USB port on your MacBook.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote above:
[[ However, when I insert the Freecom external HDD into my Macbook it still does not mount (or register with disk utility). The light on the external is on when connected to my Macbook.
I don't understand how it can mount on the Mac Mini but it remains invisible on my Macbook.
Any suggestions? I'd love someone to be able to help me. ]]

There's a high probability that the MacBook USB port is not supplying enough "USB bus power" to get the drive fully "spun up and mounted".

As the poster above suggested, try a DIFFERENT USB port on the MacBook.
Also, remove any other connected USB devices first.

If this still doesn't work...
Does the drive have an external power supply?
Are you using it?

If the drive DOES NOT have an external power supply, is there a "port" on the back of it to which you might add one?

 

[addictive]

It was the USB cable which was faulty

I phoned Freecom the makers of the HDD and when I read them the serial number they told me the external drive was just outside of their warranty window and they would not be able to help me.

I briefly described my problem and the rep from Freecom on the end of the phone suggested it was a USB cable problem. He suggested since it was a standard 2.5inch HDD inside that I remove the enclosure and hook up the drive to a new USB cable.

I have done that and the drive works perfectly just as before. Now i'm going to buy a new enclosure for it.

Thanks for all the help forum members.

Very strange that the moment I delete some data from the HDD the USB cable becomes faulty. Strange co-incidence and it made me think the drive was faulty and not the cable.