Problems with external hard drive

[trevor2005]

Hello.

I have problems seeing my external hard drive, can anyone help please?

To explain (sorry I am not IT minded so apologies if I don't explain things technically or in a correct manner just trying to be as clear as possible).

I use a MacPro running OSX10.4.11 and my external hard drive is an oldish Lacie D2 80GB drive which I partitioned into two 40GB drives (A and B). A while ago it just stopped showing up on my desktop and to cut a long story short I removed the drive from the casing and attached a Nikkai USB 2.0 to SATA and IDE Hard Disk Adaptor to it and hey presto I could see the external drive again. All was working well until this week when I came to start-up my MacPro it was making a load single bleep noise and the screen remained grey, I quickly pressed the button to shut it back down again and then pressed it to re-start again and it started up but not my external hard drive.

Sometimes the external hard drive does load up but only one of the partitions (A) and of course I need to get to B. However, now it won't load at all and doesn't even make a noise at all when plugged in (there is a green light n the power supply but no noise).

I am thinking to buy another Nikkai Hard Disk Adaptor and give that a go but was wondering if anyone could help or give any advice first?

All the best.

Trevor

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_4_11; en) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/530.17

[Antony]

Hello Trevor,

The files or partition in the external HDD may be sort of damaged. Have you tried running Disk Utility (under Applications > Utilities)? (on Verify Disk or Repair Disk)

Frequently maintain the external HDD is something necessary. If you think the current casting (and the small IC part of it) is not working, then, buying Hard Disk Adaptor may help. However, if the hard disk itself is damaged, there's no much point on doing so.

There are third party software such as DiskWarrior which might be your last resort, unless you want to pay a lot of money and get it recovered by professional.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

[trevor2005]

Hello.

Thank you for the reply, appreciate it.

Well I did try Disk Utility when the external hard drive partition A came on my desktop and ran the Disk Utility but it didn't say anything needed repairing although I did not run it on partition B as it did not show up on my desktop, how do I do that?

I will consider getting Disk Warrior but may just try buying a new Nikkai Hard Disk Adaptor anyway to convince myself.

Thanks again.

Trevor

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_4_11; en) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/530.17

[Antony]

Did partition B show up on Disk Utility?

Are you able to find another Mac (or a friend's Mac) with OS X 10.5 or 10.6 and see if you can see partition B? If so, copy out the content straight away.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

[trevor2005]

Hello.

Well I bought another Hard Disk Adaptor but now it doesn't appear on the desktop not even partition A.

If I buy Disk Warrior will I still be able to use it if I can't see the external hard drive on my desk top?

Sorry don't know anyone with OSX10.5 or 10.6.

I am so fed-up!

Regards
Trevor

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_4_11; en) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/530.17

[PaulD]

Considering the sequence of events that you have reported, it is improbable that you will be able to recover any data.

There are several possibilities here, as Antony has already mentioned: the electronics (circuit board) have failed, the drive motor has failed, the disk sector(s) that contain critical configuration information has/have been corrupted, or there has been a 'disk crash'. Or some combination, probably in a cascading sequence. Note that with a drive failure, the adapter (USB <--> IDE) is irrelevant.

Also as Antony suggested, you will need professional assistance at this point: either a suitable repair shop to diagnose the real problem(s) (and possibly repair it/them), or a data recovery service. This latter likely will cost several hundred units of whatever your currency is.

I didn't see anything helpful at the LaCie site.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.14) Gecko/2009082707 Firefox/3.0.14

[Mandrake]

If you need that data back badly, these folks will probably be able to help you out.

FWIW, I had a friend that used them a few years back and they charged $1200 USD for the recovery of some documents from his dead hard disk. It is a lot of money, you simply need to decide whether the data is that important to you.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

[Antony]

If I buy Disk Warrior will I still be able to use it if I can't see the external hard drive on my desk top?

That I really don't know.

We you able to see the partition under Disk Utility?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3