Need help with "The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer"

[wlow3]

External hard drive

I have an external disk that I have not used in a while (an older G tech with FW800 ports). Recently I plugged it in and my 2008 iMac (10.8.5) reported, "The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer."

If I leave the external disk in, my iMac won't get past the white screen with the Apple logo on boot up.

With Disk Arbitrator, Disk Utility sees it but reports that it has zero bytes and the Verify and repair disk options are greyed out. DiskWarrior does not see it and if I start Disk Arbitrator up first and then Disk Warrior, everything but the cursor freezes and I have to hold the power button down to restart the computer.

I tried listening to the disk on start up and it makes a fan-like noise and has a slight vibration but I don't think I hear the click-ity click noise of the head reading the drive.

Any tips on trying to salvage its contents?

 

[Fishrrman]

[[ Any tips on trying to salvage its contents? ]]

My suggestion (will cost you about $25):

- Open the case and take the hard drive out.

- Get a USB3/SATA "docking station". If you don't know what these are, go to amazon.com and enter "usb3 sata dock" in the search box -- you will get many hits. (I suggest a plugable.com dock, NFI)

- Put the drive into the dock, connect it to the Mac, turn it on.

- What happens now?

(If the enclosure has gone bad on you, but the internal drive itself is still good, you should be able to mount it from the dock. This won't work if the drive itself has an internal hardware failure -- however, the dock will still come in useful with any other bare drive you have to use)