Please help with problems formatting of external 1 TB harddrive

[Right2596]

Hello everyone,

Today, when I plugged in my external 1 TB harddrive, it did not show up immediately on my Macbook Air. When I opened it in Disk Utility, it first told me to repair the disk, but when I tried, I got the message:
Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

I want to back up the files, but I cannot seem to access them. They are still not coming up in Finder. The first time I got the message, the disk was showed in Finder, but I didn't make a back up then on another harddrive. Now, nothing happens when I plug it in.

What can I do to make a back up of the files on the external harddrive?

I recently bought an external harddrive for a back up of my files. It's relatively new and contains about 40 GB of files. I have ejected the external harddrive in the incorrect way three times last week, because it was taking a long time.

Thank you so much for any help or tips that you may be able to offer!

 

[Fishrrman]

[[ I recently bought an external harddrive for a back up of my files. It's relatively new and contains about 40 GB of files. I have ejected the external harddrive in the incorrect way three times last week, because it was taking a long time. ]]

This could be why the drive is acting up.
You DO NOT want to "eject the external drive the incorrect way", EVER. Because if you do that, you're inviting the problems that you're experiencing right now.

First, try this:
- Power the MacBook down, right to "off".
- Connect the drive
- Power the MacBook on.
- Let it sit for a while
(Reason: sometimes when the finder tries to mount an external drive and can't, it will try to repair it "behind the scenes". Give it some time. This may help, or it may do nothing, but it's worth a try.)

If the drive's directory is hopelessly munged, you -might- be able to repair it using "DiskWarrior".
BUT -- be aware that DW might work, or it might not. DW can repair and rebuild directories, but that's all it does.

If DW doesn't do the job, you may have to resort to "data recovery" to get the data back.
Be aware this is going to cost you:
- Money, and
- Time.

There are professional data recovery companies that specialize in retrieving lost data, but be aware that the cost for such services may run into the thousands of dollars. Is the data that's on the drive -really- worth that much to you?

BUT -- you can try recovering the data yourself, using data recovery software.
I recommend "DataRescue3" as one of the best.

To properly use DR3, you will need to buy ANOTHER external drive to serve as the "recovery drive". Not really any way around this.

The way DR3 works (same as ALL the "data recovery apps" out there):
1. You download the app for free
2. You launch the app and "aim it" at the problem drive (try "deep scan")
3. DR3 will attempt to scan the drive, scavenge around, and will present you with a list of files that it believes are "recoverable"
4. At this point DR3 will allow you to recover ONE file (and one file only). This is to demonstrate that it has a chance of doing the job BEFORE you pay the registration fee.
5. You now pay the registration, get a code, enter it, and DR3 will "go to work" on the drive, recovering the files and writing them to the "scratch drive" (second drive).

Be aware that you are going to lose all your previous folder hierarchies and probably most or all of you original file names. This is "par for the course" with data recovery, but at least you get the files themselves back.

Got all this?