Hi

Don't know if anyone has any suggestions, but I can't seem to access my external Western drive... tried it on another Mac and it doesn't see it either... I've turned it off, back on... held the button..... restarted.... unplugged, plugged-in....

There's power but nothing is seeing it!

Any ideas?!

Thanks!

Ben

Is it an HDD inside a case or is it a little box and all enclosed with screws etc...

Also, have you tried it in a PC or anything?

If you can take the drive out of the enclosure then try it on a sata connection maybe.

If it's spinning up (can you hear it?) but there is still no recognition then it sounds like it could be the USB isn't connected to the drive properly.

Are there any weird sounds coming from it (scratching etc...)?

Does it have its own power supply, or if it's a portable drive does it draw its power from the USB cable? I've had a drive before that looked like it was receiving power (in that the power light glowed on the drive itself) but wasn't receiving enough power to spin the drive and mount it - try a fresh USB cable and check the power supply?

Also, make sure it's connected directly to the Mac and not through a USB hub.

It's a MyBook Pro 500gb - so all enclosed.... not tried it on a PC yet... will give that a go. I use it over firewire, but USB didn't work either. It's powered by mains... and all lights glowing....

I think it's spinning, but it's pretty quiet anyway.... it's not making the low drive reading rumble it normally does... but it guess that's because it's not being read....? Lisening carefully.. there is a strange repetitive high-pitched clicking – is that not a good sound?

I think it may have stopped showing after I ran some repairs in my internal Mac drive (which is dying I think)... but not sure why that would affect it?

Are there any scripts or freeware bits to help pick up/search for a missing drive?

High-pitched squeaks, clicks or scratchy noises are not a good sign in hard drives - sounds like a hardware failure.

You could try the old trick of placing it in a sealed plastic bag (and it must be completely sealed to avoid moisture getting in) and stick it in the freezer for an hour or so. Take it out, making sure there's no moisture on it, connect it up quickly and try it again - might last long enough to get your data off*, but don't count on it lasting long term.

*If you suspect your internal drive is also failing, then it would be wise not to copy the data off the external drive onto the internal one! It would also be a good plan to buy another drive to backup both external and internal drives.

Is that likely to work?! Not heard of that one, but anything's worth a try.

If that doesn't will there be anyway to retrieve the data? All (if not the vast majority) of my important stuff like photo's etc, are also copied on my home drive (this failed one is at work) but there is a lot of stuff that would be, while not life or death, a ball-ache to lose!

I'll have to invest in a new drive quickly then... I had been looking to get a 1TB as it was filling quickly... shame I didn't do it earlier....

I might give our Mac guys a ring in the morning - see if they might be able to help at all.

Thanks for the help so far!

Does it show up in Disk Utility (found in your Utilities folder)? Even if it doesn't mount in Finder, if the device shows up in Disk Utility then it *might* be fixable, if only for long enough to extract the data off it. Long term, though, this shouldn't be relied on with your only copy of files as it sounds like a fatal, or impending, hardware fault.

I've read that the freezer trick can sometimes work in rare cases - as long as the disk spins up - but it's very much a last resort! Never had to try it myself.

If it's a directory problem, then both Disk Warrier and Drive Genius are recommended - but not exactly cheap. But these are unlikely to help if the fault is a hardware one - the clicky noise is a sign that this could be the case unfortunately.

The freezer trick does work.

It is the only thing that allowed my friend to recover his data.

Just be sure to double bag the HDD. One plastic bag (no holes) tied off so it's air tight. And then another bag around that tied off (also airtight).

That way you stop any risk of condensation.

Those airtight freezer bags with the zip across seal would be perfect - you can get these in most supermarkets, though you might need the medium/large size rather than the small ones. And yes, as Olly says I'd double-bag it, just to ensure no moisture gets in! Try to handle the HDD with a cloth or gloves when you put it in the bag to avoid moisture from your hands entering the bag.

Nope - didn't show in Disk Utility... all in all, not sounding very promising....

I'll get a new HD then and try the freezer trick.... if that doesn't work then I'll try to find a genius that might be able to help!

Thanks guys!

Just as an update... any recommendations for a 1TB USB drive? I'm only think that as we 'might' be upgrading our Macs here soon – in which case I may get an iMac instead of a PowerMac – so no firewire?

And it's be cheaper so for the same money as the firewire one I could get a smaller one for my time machine back ups at home...

I'd be happy to go Western again, but those Lacie Neil Poulton drives look pretty cool....

Scrub that - just checked the iMac here and it has firewire, so will most likely stick with that.

The new iMacs come with one Firewire 800 port, although most new Firewire drives will come with the 800 variety, there might be some that use the older Firewire 400 port so just check the specs of new drives carefully. You can get converter cables and adapters though, so it's not a major problem.

Given the choice, I'd go for Firewire drives over USB 2 - even a Firewire 400 drive will probably be faster than a USB 2 connection in the real world (despite USB 2 being theoretically faster on paper).

I'm probably going to get the same as I have at home – a MyBook Studio 1tb, which has firewire 800. I'd just thought about USB as it's a lot cheaper, and maybe I don't need super-speed... but then it's nice when copying large batches of photos for it to be quick.

I am tempted to go larger as my new Canon has much bigger filesizes... 1.5 or 2tb... but then if it goes again then that's more to recover

I've just a recovery quote... 460 quid! Wowzers.....