| Author |
Message |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1852
Reg: 04-2006
|
I have a WD 250gb slim external HD and its suddenly stopped working. It has been working fine and when i reconnected it an hour ago it failed to mount. I have run the Dick Utility, tried to verify, repair and mount it but it comes up with "error to mount"
All my work is on it, Software backups, files, films, my professional photography portfolio, EVERYTHING 
Any help is appreciated. |
Adam Lonergan
DieHard
Victoria
UZZ32 #369 (V8)
Posts: 812
Reg: 08-2005
|
Disconnect drive. Turn drive power switch off. Restart computer. Plug in the drive into a USB port AT THE BACK of the computer. Turn on drive power.
On a side note most computer stores will have no trouble reading the drive if there is something wrong with the enclosure. There is also expert options if the drive has failed. Check the yellowpages. |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1853
Reg: 04-2006
|
Adam, tried that, no luck
Im on a laptop G4.
This is the unit
|
David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual
Posts: 4084
Reg: 07-2005
|
What errors did Disk Utility report before the "error to mount"? What exactly was the message anyway, given "error to mount" does not appear to be a wording used by DU?
Did you open DU then attach the disk rather than the opposite order?
Have you tried the drive on a different computer, or verified that computer can read other USB drives? |
David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual
Posts: 4085
Reg: 07-2005
|
I use the same drive, incidentally. |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1854
Reg: 04-2006
|
David, i have tried opening DU and connecting and reverse.
Here is a screen shot:
|
Adam Lonergan
DieHard
Victoria
UZZ32 #369 (V8)
Posts: 813
Reg: 08-2005
|
Try powering it from a different source (i.e. 240 volts). Seems the problem is with the underpowered G4 USB port.
http://store.apple.com/us/reviews/TR892ZM/A |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1855
Reg: 04-2006
|
I have tried it on my gf's Macbook Pro - same issue.
Ive been using it for 8 months without any problem until now.
Last time i used it i ejected it and it was off the desktop, then i unplugged it and a window appeared telling me i have disconnected a device. I realised that was weird for i did everything correct to unmount it in the first place. |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1856
Reg: 04-2006
|
Adam Lonergan wrote on Saturday, December 13, 2008 - 08:00 pm:Try powering it from a different source (i.e. 240 volts). Seems the problem is with the underpowered G4 USB port.
http://store.apple.com/us/reviews/TR892ZM/A
that issue was resolved when i bought it. I have a Y adaptor cable to operate it successfully 
But thats not the problem here |
Adam Lonergan
DieHard
Victoria
UZZ32 #369 (V8)
Posts: 814
Reg: 08-2005
|
Don't worry too much it's formated as FAT by the look of things so it's an easy job for a computer store to recover the data. Might destroy the enclosure or at least void the warranty but that should be the least of your concerns.
I know you probably don't want to hear right now this but I recommend sticking to Seagate drives and always go for big enclosures that require 240v and have some active cooling. |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1857
Reg: 04-2006
|
Ads, im on a laptop which i carry with me around. Thats why i use this little USB drive. I have looked at powered devices but they're unpractical for me atm.
Will Norton Ghost fix it ? |
Adam Lonergan
DieHard
Victoria
UZZ32 #369 (V8)
Posts: 815
Reg: 08-2005
|
Norton systemworks should do it. Ghost is only for making backups (a bit like a a propriety zip file that includes more than just the data files). |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1858
Reg: 04-2006
|
I have been told too many times to steer clear of any Norton products on OSX. |
David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual
Posts: 4086
Reg: 07-2005
|
This next paragraph is not helpful now, but will be for the future.
Did you use this drive for moving data to and from Windows machines? if not, using FAT was a really, really bad idea. Always reformat anything to the GUID partition scheme and HFS Journalled, and just keep a FAT USB stick for the Windows transfers. Apart from greater reliability and recoverability, you will also get significantly higher performance out of the drive, especially when transferring many files.
Essentially, you appear to have a Windows directory problem. If you have Virtual PC or Parallels on your machine then I would get hold of suitable Windows rather than OS X tools and run them in that environment to try to repair the drive. If you lack those environments, then try a Norton product on OS X or take it to a PC store, hand over money and ask for directory repair before they do anything destructive. I never use FAT on anything that matters. Neither do a lot of Windows users, for that matter.
From the circumstances you describe, I expect you have only a directory corruption rather than drive failure and therefore it may be repairable. I have found it helps to add a second of time before removing the drive even after the icon disappears. Watch for the drive light to be quiescent. I have never had a consequential problem from being too quick but, did I mention? I don't use FAT. |
Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31
Posts: 3959
Reg: 10-2005
|
In other words, plug it into a PC and get a useful error message rather than the typical mac "The underlying task reported failure on exit" nonsense. |
David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual
Posts: 4087
Reg: 07-2005
|
So, tell me about the informative messages native PC utilities provide when dealing with Mac file systems, Matthew?
Here we were dealing with the converse which is why I told him to go "native" one way or another.
One's expectations are better moderated by facts than the usual prejudices. |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1860
Reg: 04-2006
|
Dave,
I have had the drive since May and it has solely been for the use of backing up files from my Powerbook G4. It has been connected to a PC laptop of late to transfer files from the drive. So perhaps thats the problem.
I will try this program [http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4021974/Runtime_GetDataBack_for_FAT_and_NTFS_3.30] and see how it goes. Firstly i need to wait till tues before i get a PC handy.
So once everything all works (assuming i get full recovery) i go to the DU and reformat the drive.
Which option in DU do i use though ? |
David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual
Posts: 4088
Reg: 07-2005
|
If you want to use it on a PC then you will have to use MBR (FDISK) and FAT. I strongly recommend you buy a cheap USB stick for file transfers and format your backup drive as "HFS Extended Journalled". If you need to use the drive with a PowerPC Mac then first partition it using Apple Partition Scheme otherwise use GUID for Intel, then format it as HFS.
There are drives, and I think the WD is one of them, where switching from MBR to GUID does not always "take" unless you also resize the partition. Having repartitioned and formatted, just do it again to get the right size once more.
Are you using Time Machine for backups? They require an Apple format and it is an easier way to back up. I use TM for incrementals and SuperDuper for a bootable clone, but the latter needs a Firewire disk to boot. Multiple backups by multiple methods reduces risk of data loss and of common mode failure.
Think of it like this: You never care whether you have a backup until you lose data or a drive. At that point, you want two copies of your data for safety, not one. Therefore, you need two backups of your main drive, not one. Not all backups need to be comprehensive if you have a copy of most of your stuff elsewhere. On the road I back up business data to two USB sticks configured as a single drive in RAID 0 for double the speed and capacity.
Good luck with the recovery. |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1864
Reg: 04-2006
|
David, no im not using Time Machine. Im still on 10.4.11.
I dont want to continue connecting it for PC
I have a feeling it has crossed over to PC format but retained the data. I will connect it to a PC tomorrow and see what happens. I will grab a spindle of DVDs and do some further backups on those. |
Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31
Posts: 3962
Reg: 10-2005
|
David Vaughan wrote on Sunday, December 14, 2008 - 06:18 pm:One's expectations are better moderated by facts than the usual prejudices.
Don't mind me David, I've just been working with Apple as a distributor too long and have come to resent their terrible arrogant corporate culture and undeserved smugness. Their products just aren't that good. I do like my iphone though, but I'd never have bought one myself. |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1867
Reg: 04-2006
|
Well im a mac person regardless |
David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual
Posts: 4089
Reg: 07-2005
|
No worries, Matthew, I understand problems dealing with Apple in the distributor/reseller chain. |
Matthew Sharpe
Goo Roo
North Island
JZZ31
Posts: 3964
Reg: 10-2005
|
I hate that they always try and avoid paying licensing fees too, and go propriatory to avoid it, like the whole display port fiasco. And here I am posting this from my iPhone ha! |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1883
Reg: 04-2006
|
I have decided to go to a PC shop and buy a new casing. I have tried more software with no success.
My friend with the PC had dropped his from the height of 6 inches and he had the same issue. So im guessing mine was dropped too or accidently knocked around.. |
Adam Peterson
Goo Roo
Western Australia
Supercharged & Intercooled V8 coming
Posts: 1885
Reg: 04-2006
|
Well the new casing has also failed. |
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