External Hard Drive Issue

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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Oct 5, 2017
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I have an issue and was wondering if anyone on the board would know what to do. My external hard drive that has all sorts of stuff is no longer connecting to my computer. What I am sure happened is my cord had been having issues and reading improperly ejected despite still being in my USB port.

Anyways, does anyone know what I can do to at the very least recover the data if not fix the external drive? I've seen some things online about using the disk utility on my Mac, but disk utility is very simple (my mac laptop is 10 years old) and doesn't have the features that are in the screen shots.

Any help would be appreciated!
 

TLB

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DOH...Mac? Sorry, go fish. PC's I'd tell you you can pull the HD out and wire it inside the box to recover. Mac I don't mess with the insides.

Next best solution, IMO, is if you are confident it is the cord, chances are the HD is ok. How old is it, btw?

For your current equipment - is the cord hard wired into the external housing (usually not)? And can you try a different cord?

Second choice is two swap bodies (usually straight forward on taking the case apart and removing the HD, then putting it in another case.
 

NVGator

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PC's I'd tell you you can pull the HD out and wire it inside the box to recover. Mac I don't mess with the insides.

He said it’s his external HD.
 

NVGator

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I have an issue and was wondering if anyone on the board would know what to do. My external hard drive that has all sorts of stuff is no longer connecting to my computer. What I am sure happened is my cord had been having issues and reading improperly ejected despite still being in my USB port.

Anyways, does anyone know what I can do to at the very least recover the data if not fix the external drive? I've seen some things online about using the disk utility on my Mac, but disk utility is very simple (my mac laptop is 10 years old) and doesn't have the features that are in the screen shots.

Any help would be appreciated!

I don’t want to assume anything, but have you tried using a different cable? What about a different Mac, does it mount with another computer?

If all else fails, there’s Drive Savers.
https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/
 

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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I don’t want to assume anything, but have you tried using a different cable? What about a different Mac, does it mount with another computer?

If all else fails, there’s Drive Savers.
https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/

Yes, I tried a different cable and tried a different Mac. The cable issue is what I think caused the disconnect leading to this issue.

Have you used drive savers?
 

NVGator

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Yes, I tried a different cable and tried a different Mac. The cable issue is what I think caused the disconnect leading to this issue.

Have you used drive savers?
Yes, I’ve used drive savers. It’s the only company I’d recommend. If they can’t get your data back, no one will.

Back to the HD.... does it get power? Is it making any noise? Click or can you hear the discs move? Is it a flash or solid state drive?
 

Detroitgator

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Yes, I tried a different cable and tried a different Mac. The cable issue is what I think caused the disconnect leading to this issue.

Have you used drive savers?
I was a happy drive savers customer a few years ago too.
 

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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NV asked some good questions about the drive. Does the drive show any life, light, noise?
Most drive cases have a adapter/interface board inside to mate your computer.

Sorry, I got extra busy at work all of a sudden. I do get lights, and then they go off. However, the inside you can hear the spinning if you put your ear to it or feel the vibration if holding it.

When I go to disk utility it shows the drive, but the partition is greyed out. I'm currently trying a recoverit search.
 

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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Okay, about 10% into the scan the light went off, just went back on and back off 2 minutes later. No update on the progress bar. This is the alternate cord that hasn't given me problems (that I know about).
 

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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I think it is the partition.

Has anyone used EaseUS? I see mixed reviews online. I downloaded the free trial and a significant amount of my files showed up in the search almost immediately. Not everything, but most of the stuff I was looking for. I wouldn't mind paying $90 to get it recovered if for sure.
 

deuce

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I think it is the partition.

Has anyone used EaseUS? I see mixed reviews online. I downloaded the free trial and a significant amount of my files showed up in the search almost immediately. Not everything, but most of the stuff I was looking for. I wouldn't mind paying $90 to get it recovered if for sure.

90 Bucks, big spender here......
 

deuce

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Nice input....

I've got a nice keyboard.

Just to be clear, he has a hard drive full of important info that he wants/needs and he's willing to pay 90 to get it all back.
The last time I destroyed a partition on a POS computer, I paid almost a grand to get almost all the info. I now backup everything locally or to the cloud.
His statement just seemed funny to me.
 

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