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View Full Version : External hard drive has failed, but I don't think it's dead.

Feek
09-08-2008, 23:19
I grabbed my WD Mybook thingie from the Xbox and dragged it up here to put some media on it, plugged it in, deleted some stuff I didn't want and then went to empty the trash.

It started deleting but seemed to sit there for ages, in the meantime I copied the file on I wanted but the delete was still happening.

I ended up forcing a restart on Finder and then rebooting the computer.

Now it won't recognise that the external drive is readable at all. I get a message saying it doesn't recognise it. Disk Utility sometimes sees that it's there but not every time.

Tried plugging it into a PC but because the drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended, it doesn't even see it attached.

Any suggestions? I'm not happy if this drive is corrupted, it's got all of CSI (all versions), Doctor Who, Black Books, all of Enterprise and a load of HD movies on it. Of course, as it's just media none of it is backed up.
SidewinderINC
09-08-2008, 23:32
Does it work on the Xbox?

Do you have anything like Drive Genius on the mac?
Feek
09-08-2008, 23:33
No, the Xbox doesn't even recognise that there's a drive plugged in.

And no to anything like Drive Genius. Is that a utility to try and fix this sort of thing?
Dr. Z
09-08-2008, 23:34
Take out the drive and pop it into a PC to eliminate the controller? or do it the other way around, I know on Linux it wont mount the drive if its fecked but an lsusb -v will show you the controller is there and fine.

Pop it in the freezer and then try and use something like dd to pull the data from the drive?
SidewinderINC
09-08-2008, 23:36
It's like diskutility+

I use it for modifying/defragging my external disks, not sure whehther it'll help with your problem though.
Feek
09-08-2008, 23:37
Ahah, Data Rescue II by the same people that do Drive Genius may be the tool I need...
Feek
10-08-2008, 00:07
It claims to be "Recovering Files" so I'm off to bed and hope it'll have recovered them by the morning.
SidewinderINC
10-08-2008, 00:11
good luck squire!!!
leowyatt
10-08-2008, 00:16
Data Rescue II has saved my bacon before now :)
Feek
10-08-2008, 10:17
Well I was greated with this message this morning.

http://www.ukrm.org/feek/temp/dr2-20080810-101554.png

Which pleased me, however in the recovery directory a lot of files are showing red in the Finder. I suspect it means that they've got errors. At least I've got some stuff back and I know what I need to try and find again.