So. One of the guys who I work with has an external FireWire hard drive on which he has hundreds of gigabytes of stuff. Business stuff, personal stuff, original artwork stuff, photography stuff, company Web site stuff, corporate flyer stuff, and much other stuff.
This stuff is not backed up.
Today he tells me the drive won’t mount. A quick sniff with a disk repair program suggests that the drive’s partition map is gone. Not corrupt, not garbled, gone.
I’m running a surface scan with a file salvaging program now. It’s gonna take all night.
*sigh*
Yeah, I really ought to get some sort of backup system for my external drive sometime soon.
At least I finally bought a UPS for the computer and drive so I won’t get zapped by power surges and power flickers.
Yeah, I really ought to get some sort of backup system for my external drive sometime soon.
At least I finally bought a UPS for the computer and drive so I won’t get zapped by power surges and power flickers.
oh
yes
binderdundat
now when people tell me their tales of woe and look at me hopefully I smile blondely and say something inane like “oh I think I just got a text message – excuse me while I take it in private” and then I run off.
oh
yes
binderdundat
now when people tell me their tales of woe and look at me hopefully I smile blondely and say something inane like “oh I think I just got a text message – excuse me while I take it in private” and then I run off.
Is there a Mac disk repair/recovery utility that you’d recommend? I have TechTool Deluxe, the one that comes with AppleCare, but nothing more heavyweight. (I have a pretty good backup strategy at this point, but even so.)
I swear by DiskWarrior for disk directory problems, and Prosoft Data Rescue for scavenging the remains on those days when it looks like a bomb has gone off in the b-tree.
Is there a Mac disk repair/recovery utility that you’d recommend? I have TechTool Deluxe, the one that comes with AppleCare, but nothing more heavyweight. (I have a pretty good backup strategy at this point, but even so.)
I swear by DiskWarrior for disk directory problems, and Prosoft Data Rescue for scavenging the remains on those days when it looks like a bomb has gone off in the b-tree.
Years ago I was doing some computer work for a company and they didn’t really listen when I advised them to have a backup for their files. Well, they kind of listened but didn’t really understand what I told them. Then the day came that someone broke into the office and wrecked the computers. They also found a binder of CD-Rs and broke them.
Turns out the CD-Rs were the “backup”…and by backup I mean the only copy of their data. They thought MOVING everything to CD was a backup. I had to sit down with the head of the company and explain to him what it meant to have redundant data storage. I had told them before, but the manager I had to deal with didn’t know what redundant meant and didn’t want to admit it!
Years ago I was doing some computer work for a company and they didn’t really listen when I advised them to have a backup for their files. Well, they kind of listened but didn’t really understand what I told them. Then the day came that someone broke into the office and wrecked the computers. They also found a binder of CD-Rs and broke them.
Turns out the CD-Rs were the “backup”…and by backup I mean the only copy of their data. They thought MOVING everything to CD was a backup. I had to sit down with the head of the company and explain to him what it meant to have redundant data storage. I had told them before, but the manager I had to deal with didn’t know what redundant meant and didn’t want to admit it!
Neither FAT nor NTFS; it’s a Mac (HFS+) drive. The GUID partition table just…isn’t there. It’s like a million bytes suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. No sign of any of the data structures that ought to be there; most of my disk repair utilities report that the drive is unformatted.
Tomorrow morning I’ll see if the scavenger was able to find any files.
Neither FAT nor NTFS; it’s a Mac (HFS+) drive. The GUID partition table just…isn’t there. It’s like a million bytes suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. No sign of any of the data structures that ought to be there; most of my disk repair utilities report that the drive is unformatted.
Tomorrow morning I’ll see if the scavenger was able to find any files.
The Snarky comeback to this situation is: Jesus saves and so should you. ^_^
I’m sorry for your friend but… well… please get him a backdup drive? Drive him to the store, put it in his hot little hands and make him pay for it.
There are some things too precious to loose.
The Snarky comeback to this situation is: Jesus saves and so should you. ^_^
I’m sorry for your friend but… well… please get him a backdup drive? Drive him to the store, put it in his hot little hands and make him pay for it.
There are some things too precious to loose.
*headdesk*
I have to agree with. Take him to the store and force him to buy a backup drive. Then loom over him while he backs up all his stuff.
(On the upside, at least you had power last night. Mine was out. FOR 4 HOURS. I was not a happy camper.)
*headdesk*
I have to agree with. Take him to the store and force him to buy a backup drive. Then loom over him while he backs up all his stuff.
(On the upside, at least you had power last night. Mine was out. FOR 4 HOURS. I was not a happy camper.)
think how FREE he is now
total data purges are amazingly liberating
after the panic, binge and self-loathing cycle wears off, i mean
think how FREE he is now
total data purges are amazingly liberating
after the panic, binge and self-loathing cycle wears off, i mean
I’m clearly late for the party here, but have you investigated the possibility that the problem isn’t the drive, but rather the FireWire controller in the external enclosure? It’s probably a long shot, but it may be worthwhile to move the drive to a different enclosure. Something similar happened to me and Kim recently, though after switching enclosures it looks like we’ll be able to recover all of the data (and move it to the RAID that I built. Yay!).
That’s a possibility, but one I can’t test. In fact, I think it’s likely, since the drive has spontaneously started working fine again.
I’m clearly late for the party here, but have you investigated the possibility that the problem isn’t the drive, but rather the FireWire controller in the external enclosure? It’s probably a long shot, but it may be worthwhile to move the drive to a different enclosure. Something similar happened to me and Kim recently, though after switching enclosures it looks like we’ll be able to recover all of the data (and move it to the RAID that I built. Yay!).
That’s a possibility, but one I can’t test. In fact, I think it’s likely, since the drive has spontaneously started working fine again.
well what happened to the drive
Howdy,
Was it the enclosure? please?
I don’t come by here much but I always read something good on this journal.
This issue caught my attention because the same thing happened to me and it turned out to be the enclosure. Of course I toasted my drive with reformatting before I discovered the failed controller, so I was just going to warn against taking and drastic action before swapping out the drive.
L8r
unanamoose
Re: well what happened to the drive
Don’t know yet. The drive spontaneously started working again, which leads me to suspect a physical failure in the drive or the FireWire enclosure, but I don’t have physical possession of the drive itself. I’ve ordered a replacement drive and will need to walk the owner through the process of cloning the failing drive onto the new drive when it arrives. At that point, I’m going to have him pack up the failing drive and send it to me.
I’ve been working on the problem using screen-sharing software, but it’s frustrating not being able to take the enclosure apart.
well what happened to the drive
Howdy,
Was it the enclosure? please?
I don’t come by here much but I always read something good on this journal.
This issue caught my attention because the same thing happened to me and it turned out to be the enclosure. Of course I toasted my drive with reformatting before I discovered the failed controller, so I was just going to warn against taking and drastic action before swapping out the drive.
L8r
unanamoose
Re: well what happened to the drive
Don’t know yet. The drive spontaneously started working again, which leads me to suspect a physical failure in the drive or the FireWire enclosure, but I don’t have physical possession of the drive itself. I’ve ordered a replacement drive and will need to walk the owner through the process of cloning the failing drive onto the new drive when it arrives. At that point, I’m going to have him pack up the failing drive and send it to me.
I’ve been working on the problem using screen-sharing software, but it’s frustrating not being able to take the enclosure apart.