Is it possible to recover data from this drive?

[vorbius]

Hi,
My mid 2017 iMac drive is failing. The computer reboots upon logging into the OS, sometimes when I get to the desktop, sometimes at the login screen. I pulled it out and hooked it up to my old Mac via an OWC external enclosure. Dusk utility sees it but I cannot access it. It shows disk is not mounted. I tried to mount it but I am unable to do it.
I scanned it with Drive Dx and here is what I got. Does anyone have any idea how to go about it without spending money on professional services?
Thank you in advance.

 

[Bigwaff]

2017 iMac ... was this part of a Fusion Drive?

 

[vorbius]

I guess so. I bought it second hand 2 years ago and never did any upgrades to it.

 

[Bigwaff]

Do you happen to know what version of macOS was installed on your 2017 iMac and whether the Fusion Drive was formatted APFS or HFS+ ?

 

[vorbius]

I had Catalina OS.Not sure about the file format, I think it was APFS, but would not bet my arm on it.

 

[Bigwaff]

Without the SSD half of the Fusion Drive, you don’t have a working file system. Based on the DriveDx report, your HDD is toast. Even if you took the SSD and the HDD to a data recovery service, you are definitely going to lose some data.

 

[vorbius]

Ok, thank you for your help.

 

[Fishrrman]

"The computer reboots upon logging into the OS, sometimes when I get to the desktop, sometimes at the login screen"

What SIZE is the iMac?
24"?
Did this come with a standalone platter-based HDD? (i.e., NOT a fusion drive)

What are you booting and running from NOW?
The old HDD, now in the external enclosure?
Is that the drive that is rebooting "intermittently"?

If you want to keep the iMac running, get a USB3.1 gen2 SSD.
Something like this:

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, Portable SSD, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0R/AM, 2022), Blue

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water** and dust* resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe™ achieve soaring sequential read/write...

www.amazon.com

Plug it into a USBc port (NOT into a USBa port, it will be faster with USBc).

Set it up to be your new external boot drive. You'll probably need to install a fresh copy of the OS onto it.

It will run MUCH faster than the platter-based HDD.
It will give the iMac a completely "new life".

You want to be careful about what you buy.
Buy a USB3.1 gen2 drive, NOT a "USB3" drive (only).
The 3.1 gen2 drives are TWICE AS FAST as the older USB3 drives, when connected to a USBc port using the proper cable (needs to be "high speed, charging" USBc cable capable of supporting 10gbs.

 

[JustAnExpat]

To answer your question, I would say no. I would continue trying to mount it. If you can, pull whatever you can off ASAP. When you try to mount it, what does it say?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Needless to say, your HDD has a mechanical failure.
If your data is precious enough, you'd better bring it to professional data recovery service.
Attempt to mount it or read it will just make the matter worse.
It would take the technician 2,3 days to completely read and save whatever readable data available on the disk with special software.

 

[HDFan]

Attempt to mount it or read it will just make the matter worse.

Why is that?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

OP, I'm guessing you don't have a Time Machine (or similar) backup but, if you do, you can recover most of what is on this disk from the backup. Your loss will be reduced to whatever new (files) you added since the last backup. If Time Machine, that might as little as one hour before this disaster.

If you have no backup, you are learning a painful lesson countless others have learned before you. Let it be the motivation to never let this happen again by reviving that Mac with a new drive as recommended in post #8 AND getting at least one more drive in place as a TM backup drive.

TM is super easy to turn on and basically forget but it will almost completely remedy this sequence of events the NEXT time it occurs. And all drives will die at some point, so it WILL happen again.

Better Option: Get TWO+ backup discs for TM, with one always stored offsite. Swap onsite with offsite regularly. With one recent TM backup stored offsite, you would be further protected from fire/flood/theft scenarios. Regular rotation is key to having fresh files/folders on the last resort recovery drive not actively attached at home.

Sorry if you have no backup in place now. You would be farrrrrrrrrrr from the first person to be in this spot. I would even guess MOST learn the importance of computer backups from this happening to them. Hopefully, you get lucky and it mounts one more time and you can then grab as much off of it as possible.

 

[Bigwaff]

Attempt to mount it or read it will just make the matter worse.

Why is that?

When the disk is powered on and spinning, the data corruption will continue. Why make the situation worse if the goal is to recover data.

 

[Fishrrman]

I guess it's me, but from the original post it's hard to tell what the OP is booting from.
Is it the [formerly] internal drive, now mounted in an external enclosure?
Or... is he booting from another drive?

A 2017 iMac isn't really that old, and still can be a very usable Mac.
Especially with something like a Samsung t7 shield (which is USB3.1 gen2) plugged into a USB port on the back, as a new external boot drive.

The OP needs to get up-and-running reliably, after which he can "attack" the problems with the old Seagate HDD. Even if it doesn't boot right any longer, it may still be possible to get it mounted and get SOME data from it...

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Why is that?

From the image attached to the first post, it's clearly that at least 1 cluster on the HDD was scrapped.
This is most likely occurred because the reading/writing head failed.
Attemping to mount the disk and read/scan the disk just forces the reading/writing head to contact with the disk surface more and it might create more scratches on the disk surface => losing more data.