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WOW! Please Help (Hard Drive)

M

MBP123

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 26, 2006
192
0
So I restarted my computer, and my external Hard drive doesn't mount. I restart again, doesnt mount. I try a different cable, different port, usb and firewire, different computer....still doesnt mount. i try opening disk utility and it doesnt load. then i unplug it, open disk util, and it loads. I plug it back in, and it shows up in the left side of disk utility, but when i click it, i cant repair the permissions, and it says under total capacity "0 bytes"

is all my data completely gone?
 
hopefully it's your enclosure that dead/dieing. Can you take the drive out and mount it directly onto IDE? (or swap it for another drive in the same enclosure and see if that's dead too)
 
i really cant do that, as the only comps i have are laptops and an imac, so itd be REALLY hard to mount it via IDE
 
anything else? this is absolutely awful. i feel like im going to be sick
 
ah.
can you borrow another enclosure.
or something like this?

You could try something like Disk Warrior, but it's $100 and won't help if it's the enclosure that's the problem.

I know the sick feeling...

don't push it too hard with Disk Utility - if it is the enclosure, trying to rescue the drive could create more problems than it will solve
 
i dont understand how the enclosure could cause this?.....so if i take it out, id have to mount it IDE style? its a lacie 500gb big disk extreme
 
the enclosure has an interface in that "translates" from IDE to USB or Firewire. If that interface craps out, your drive won't mount or will start sending garbled information. I'm not saying that it is the enclosure, but that's the first thing I'd check, mainly because if that is the problem, trying to "fix" the drive might screw it up.

You can either mount the bare disk directly onto the internal IDE (not really an option for you) or in another enclosure, or use a translating cable (also maybe not an option because it would have to have "big disk" -over 120GB- ATA-6 support) .
 
also, wouldnt i have to reformat it if i mounted it ide on a PC?

and would opening it void my warranty with lacie?
 
if it's mac formatted you won't be able to mount it on a PC - i meant internally on a mac (in which case it should just mount normally if it's ok)

opening the LAcie probably will void the warranty - which if you still have it, you should use - take it in and let them look at it.

One other possibility is that it's too hot - was it running for a while before you restarted? Maybe just try letting it cool down for a bit.
 
its not hot at all.......but if i send it back to lacie, dont they just erase it to begin with?
 
If you're still under warranty, calling them is your best bet in any case. I don't imagine they guarantee your data, but I wouldn't think they'd erase it for the hell of it either.
 
I had a similar problem the other day. I couldn't get my drive to show up on any computer. It would show up in Disk Utility but would not mount. Only eject. I inserted Disk Warrior and ran it on the hard drive. It fixed it. It reported that there were more or less items represented than it said were on it. But you might have a different issue.

A month ago a co-workers LaCie drive went down. Started smoking. So I would call LaCie if you have a warrenty. If not, open that thing up. Get another enclosure or try Disk Warrior. Good luck.
 
did yours say capacity zero bytes when you saw it in disk util? now its not even showing up there
 
MBP123 said:
So I restarted my computer, and my external Hard drive doesn't mount. I restart again, doesnt mount. I try a different cable, different port, usb and firewire, different computer....still doesnt mount. i try opening disk utility and it doesnt load. then i unplug it, open disk util, and it loads. I plug it back in, and it shows up in the left side of disk utility, but when i click it, i cant repair the permissions, and it says under total capacity "0 bytes"

is all my data completely gone?
Click to expand...

Time to get Data Rescue II. This is the only way to know if your data is gone or not.
 
its not universal.....

will it still run under rosetta


its also $100....could i sell it on ebay when im done?

which is better, disk warrior or data recovery II
 
and also, if it isnt mounting at all anymore in disk utility, will it still work?
 
Data Rescue is THE program for desperate situations. It's almost as good as one of those several-thousand-dollar data recovery services. Saved my bacon big time long, long ago when it was a brand new app.

Something like DiskWarrior or TechToolPro would be far more useful in general terms, but for deseperate situations, DataRescue is the only way to go.

And first of all, Data Rescue II does indeed have a Universal version of the latest release. Second, if you're worried about the cost, download the demo--it'll show you whether it's going to be able to get anything off the drive or not before you spend a penny. How can you lose?

MBP123 said:
and also, if it isnt mounting at all anymore in disk utility, will it still work?
Click to expand...
Maybe, maybe not, but I'd lean toward not. Again, download the Data Rescue II demo and find out.

Also, you said Big Disk Extreme--aren't those RAID0 boxes with two disks? If that's the case, you're probably in deep trouble, since whether it's the interface or one of the drives that went, your data is toast. That's the problem with RAID0--fast, but when something goes wrong, there goes your data if you didn't back up. If this is what happened to you, a very expensive data recovery house is going to be your only hope, but that's going to cost some serious money--how much is your data worth?
 
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