Backup Hard Drive - DEAD

Rich_LRich_L Posts: 6,110
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Hello,

Everyone always goes on about keeping a backup but what do you do if you have loads of data on an external drive and that dies?

Yesterday I backed up a ton of data, almost 300 gigs worth from my macbook to an external 1tb hard drive, I've then deleted it off the Mac to make room.

This morning I've plugged the external drive back into the Mac just to check something, its dead, doesn't get picked up in Finder and when I go to disc management, tells me its full (999,999,00 used out of 1,000,000,00) but the only option is to partition it.

Plug it into a Windows pc, doesnt show up, nothing in my computer.

So what can I do? Other than panic?
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Comments

  • JustinThePubJustinThePub Posts: 3,521
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    If you "back up" files to an external drive, then delete the files from the original location, then you no longer have a backup. You should always keep at least 2 copies of all important files - that's what backups are. 3 or more if they are really important.

    Do you not have copies elsewhere? Maybe you may be lucky and some are still in the recycle bin?
  • Rich_LRich_L Posts: 6,110
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    No I dont.

    But then I wasn't expecting an external hard drive to just die after one day either.
  • barbelerbarbeler Posts: 23,827
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    I had a similar problem with a Sata drive (at least I think that's what it's called) which slides into a port on the top tray of my Medion PC. It worked fine in Windows 7, but Windows 10 Explorer couldn't see it at all, even though it was visible in device manager. To get it to work I had to physically allocate a drive letter to it and reformat it to NTFS. Luckily there was nothing on it that couldn't be replaced.
  • Rich_LRich_L Posts: 6,110
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    It says problems were found with the partition map in the first aid diagnostics.

    Its really weird, it lists the driver as untitled but if I go to erase it lists the name for the drive that I gave it yesterday.
  • anthony davidanthony david Posts: 14,461
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    Do you have a Time Machine backup as recommended by Apple? If so your files can probably be recovered from there.
  • Rich_LRich_L Posts: 6,110
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    Ha, this was / is Time machine backup!!

    Incidentally, and probably totally irrelevant, I left the hard drive plugged in to the USB port last night closed the lid on my Mac as usual went to bed.

    It's only this morning that the hard drive is no longer recognised, I'm thinking now if I'd only unplugged it...
  • max99max99 Posts: 9,002
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    It always astonishes me that so many people still think a backup means taking data off their computer and putting it onto an external drive or USB stick.

    Run some data recovery software on the Mac to see how many of the deleted files can be recovered. Do this as soon as possible, as the more you use the machine, the less chance there is of recovery.
  • anthony davidanthony david Posts: 14,461
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    I don't think that not unplugging the drive caused its failure, more likely to just be a coincidence. I don't think the Time Machine format can be recognised via a PC, I assume that when you select "enter time machine" you get no response from the drive so cannot restore files from it.
  • TelevisionUserTelevisionUser Posts: 41,395
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    max99 wrote: »
    It always astonishes me that so many people still think a backup means taking data off their computer and putting it onto an external drive or USB stick.

    Run some data recovery software on the Mac to see how many of the deleted files can be recovered. Do this as soon as possible, as the more you use the machine, the less chance there is of recovery.

    ^^^ That is an excellent suggestion.

    In addition to a general back up to an external hard drive, my most important data and documents get backed up to other media too such as DVDs and USB sticks so that multiple copies are always in existence at the same time.
  • barbelerbarbeler Posts: 23,827
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    max99 wrote: »
    It always astonishes me that so many people still think a backup means taking data off their computer and putting it onto an external drive or USB stick.
    I still think that.
  • SexbombSexbomb Posts: 20,005
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    I have 3 backups of my data, keep the original stuff on a separate drive on the pc, a portable drove and large external drive. I probably could burn TB's to blu ray discs but that would take weeks lol :D

    Could use online storage but I couldn't afford it and the upload speeds are carp.
  • TassiumTassium Posts: 31,639
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    >>>>The first thing is not to do anything to the external drive<<<<


    It might be the interface electronics rather than the hard drive itself.

    If the interface electronics were fine then I think the drive would show up on a Windows PC in some way, at the least asking to be formatted.


    I don't know Mac, but is the external drive just a standard external HDD that get's a Mac format (or something) when first used?

    If the external HDD is a standard thing then it's probably possible to swap the hard-drive to another external (empty) enclosure that can be purchased for <£10.
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    Tassium wrote: »
    >>>>The first thing is not to do anything to the external drive<<<<


    It might be the interface electronics rather than the hard drive itself.

    If the interface electronics were fine then I think the drive would show up on a Windows PC in some way, at the least asking to be formatted.


    I don't know Mac, but is the external drive just a standard external HDD that get's a Mac format (or something) when first used?

    If the external HDD is a standard thing then it's probably possible to swap the hard-drive to another external (empty) enclosure that can be purchased for <£10.

    A Windows PC won't recognise a hard drive formatted with the Mac OS file format. A Mac will read and write to a FAT format drive and read NTFS drives but not write to them. Got a mix of Mac OS and Windows at work so we have to make sure any USB drive is formatted with FAT32 file system if we want to exchange files between Mac OS and Windows machines.

    So it is possible that a Mac format drive won't show up in File Explorer on a Windows PC but would likely show up in Disk Manager at least.
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    Rich_L wrote: »
    It says problems were found with the partition map in the first aid diagnostics.

    Its really weird, it lists the driver as untitled but if I go to erase it lists the name for the drive that I gave it yesterday.

    While you were in Disk Utility did you try the Repair Disk option on the First Aid tab? If so did it have any effect?

    http://www.howtogeek.com/212836/how-to-use-your-macs-disk-utility-to-partition-wipe-repair-restore-and-copy-drives/
  • MaxatoriaMaxatoria Posts: 17,980
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    a backup is a copy of the data and not a replacement, if its important then you make copies of it and the more important the more copies you take of it.

    Depending on whats wrong it could be just a simple fix or you could have to send the drive away for the pro's and lets just say that doesn't come cheap.
  • LoobsterLoobster Posts: 11,680
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    Primary copy of all needed data on a 4TB RAID 1 set in my Synology NAS

    Backup of all the above data on a 4TB external 2.5" drive which stays in a fire resistant safe at all times other than when the backup is being run.

    Copies of critical data encrypted and backed up to Google Drive and OneDrive.

    W3rd.
  • MaxatoriaMaxatoria Posts: 17,980
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    Loobster wrote: »
    Primary copy of all needed data on a 4TB RAID 1 set in my Synology NAS

    Backup of all the above data on a 4TB external 2.5" drive which stays in a fire resistant safe at all times other than when the backup is being run.

    Copies of critical data encrypted and backed up to Google Drive and OneDrive.

    W3rd.

    I'd put the safe in another location just in case, could just be across the road but the fire service and clean up crews are not known for their subtlety when sorting out the problems and personally i'd have a 3-4 drive rotation with drives at different places so you can guarantee more chance of getting your data back

    so something like computer->nas->work locker->parents->friend and then start again.

    also does give you an advantage if you f--- something up you've got a copy a good few weeks old which might just be what you need.
  • RobinOfLoxleyRobinOfLoxley Posts: 27,040
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    Even that is no good if you are ever accused of a crime and the Feds and the ATF come in thru your door at 5am and seize all your electronic storage, physical docs and Tazer you until you say where you've got off-site copies and your Cloud logins and encryption keys.

    Even if you are innocent and co-operate, you're still looking at 30-50 in Sing Sing
  • Rich_LRich_L Posts: 6,110
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    chrisjr wrote: »
    While you were in Disk Utility did you try the Repair Disk option on the First Aid tab? If so did it have any effect?

    http://www.howtogeek.com/212836/how-to-use-your-macs-disk-utility-to-partition-wipe-repair-restore-and-copy-drives/

    Hi,

    That was / is greyed out.
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    Rich_L wrote: »
    Hi,

    That was / is greyed out.

    Just to clarify is that "Repair Disk" or "Repair Disk Permissions" that was greyed out? Though Repair Disk might be greyed out if you either haven't run Verify Disk or it's come back with no errors. Though I would have thought if Verify Disk didn't spot any errors the drive should be working.

    What version of Mac OS are you using. Just had a look in El Capitan and the Disk Utility is completely different to other versions. If you click on First Aid it prompts to do a Verify Disk straight away. You don't get any of the options as shown in the images in that How To Geek link.
  • Rich_LRich_L Posts: 6,110
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    It says problems were found with the partition map in the first aid diagnostics, repair disc is then greyed out.

    Yeah, am on El Capitan, 10.11.6
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    Rich_L wrote: »
    It says problems were found with the partition map in the first aid diagnostics, repair disc is then greyed out.

    Yeah, am on El Capitan, 10.11.6
    That is surprising. If Verify Disk found a problem you'd think it would give you the option to repair the disk. Though from what I've been reading it seems that Disk Utility in El Capitan may not be as good as previous versions.

    I have seen references to a utility called TestDisk which may be able to repair the drive.

    http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

    Download from here

    http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

    Might be worth a try.
  • Rich_LRich_L Posts: 6,110
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    Thanks, I'll give it a go.
  • ibattenibatten Posts: 418
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    My laptop has, at any one time, three image copies in various formats in three locations, plus all my files in Crashplan, plus all the photographs on iCloud. Within half an hour of altering a file, it will have been backed up on two continents. The oldest of the image copies will be about a month out of date, which makes the recovery "spin on the image copy, use Crashplan to get the last month's changes to data". If I lost all three of the image copies, I'd have to reinstall the OS, recover my home directory from Crashplan, and then scuffle about a bit to recover installed applications (I have all the license keys in Lastpass secure notes, but the media might be a bit of a pain). I'm willing to bet on the loss of three hard drives, located in three buildings several miles apart, plus my laptop itself, being the result of a nuclear holocaust after which I'm probably unconcerned about my bits.

    I am endlessly astounded by how little people care about their data so that they don't keep backups. Or that they trust hard drives not to fail. Hard drives fail.
  • Rich_LRich_L Posts: 6,110
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    ibatten wrote: »
    My laptop has, at any one time, three image copies in various formats in three locations, plus all my files in Crashplan, plus all the photographs on iCloud. Within half an hour of altering a file, it will have been backed up on two continents. The oldest of the image copies will be about a month out of date, which makes the recovery "spin on the image copy, use Crashplan to get the last month's changes to data". If I lost all three of the image copies, I'd have to reinstall the OS, recover my home directory from Crashplan, and then scuffle about a bit to recover installed applications (I have all the license keys in Lastpass secure notes, but the media might be a bit of a pain). I'm willing to bet on the loss of three hard drives, located in three buildings several miles apart, plus my laptop itself, being the result of a nuclear holocaust after which I'm probably unconcerned about my bits.

    I am endlessly astounded by how little people care about their data so that they don't keep backups. Or that they trust hard drives not to fail. Hard drives fail.

    Let me say how pleased I am that you can sit there and tell me how many backups you have, makes me feel a whole lot better to see how much better you are at everything than me.

    Can learn some valuable life lessons from you, I'll pm for some tips...
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