URGENT Help RE: External Hard drive!

cableliquid

cableliquid

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510
Name
Tom
Edit My Images
Yes
Hey guys, my external hard drive has all past images on it and all my college work, today it stopped working, it powers on but no icon on my macbook. I have tried different cables etc to check its not that and eventually had a look in Disk Utilities - it comes up and is recognised however when i "Verify Disk" it says: "Verify and Repair disk “FREECOM HDD”
** /dev/disk2s1
** Phase 1 - Read FAT
Unable to read FAT (Input/output error)
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 non HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
"

I have tried repairing it but it always fails, i want to know if theres a way i can get all my stuff off it and then format it. I've tried using the "New Image" icon but it says "input/ouput error" so wont do it?! Any ideas you lovely mac people!? Please reply ASAP i have a project due in tomorrow!
 
errmmm..... sounds like it is kind of permanently broken. you did have backups of your stuff didn't you?

I would find someone with a proper computer ;) and see if that can access the device.

Unfortunately Macs, whilst good at the fluffy bunny stuff, seem to think all users are idiots and hide the good diagnostic stuff away.

From what you have said so far the prognosis is not good.

B.
 
You need to first get the disk out of the caddy and connected properly - that will let you check that it isnt just the external bit that is causing the problem. swapping cable doesnt deal with the hardware on the external unit.

Does it spin up? You need a better idea of what the problem is
What formats do macs use? Is the partition table OK? I'm confused about the FAT reference - Do macs use FAT? I would think a better file system than that.

Then you are into disk recovery - but careful - I would use read only stuff.
I'd be considering what the value of the data is. I'd be sourcing an identical drive with a view to possibly swapping the controllers around.
 
>>stick it in the freezer for a bit

I have used that for real - and it does work, however you have to be quick to get stuff off before things warm up again and, of course, the device has to be in the freezer for ages to ensure it is all at -18 or so. The effectiveness of the freezer approach also depends a lot on what is actually wrong with the drive...

B.
 
Freezing it is ONLY any good when the fault is a thermal one (drive overheats and stops reading data, or controller on the card gets warm and a bad joint separates)

For anything else it is worthless.

You need to find a friend with a PC - they are much better than Macs at sorting this sort of problem out because it is relatively easy to get at the drive. Mac OsX hides all the good stuff away because it would scare most of the target users.

Sorry to be not much help :(

B.
 
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