External Hard Drive Problem!
by Natasha Paulson
on
Sep 5, 2009 at 12:41:48 am
Hello! I have a Maxtor external hard drive, which I have formatted for both MAC and PC (by partitioning). In the past, it worked great in both, but I haven't used it in awhile. I'm trying to get some files off of it to make a demo reel, but suddenly neither my MAC or PC will recognize it.
In the MAC, I have opened Disk Utility and it does not show up on the left hand side. However, the light in the hard drive is on and it sounds like it's trying to work.
In the PC, the light doesn't even come on, the drive won't even boot up.
At this point, I'm thinking perhaps I formatted it wrong initially, but that was quite sometime ago. I want to know if there is any way to get my files off of my hard drive without having to buy expensive software.
Re: External Hard Drive Problem! by Zane Barker on Sep 7, 2009 at 4:39:48 am
[Natasha Paulson]"In the MAC, I have opened Disk Utility and it does not show up on the left hand side"
[Natasha Paulson]"At this point, I'm thinking perhaps I formatted it wrong initially"
I dont think so. If it was a formatting issue then it would still show up in disk utility.
Sounds like ether the hard drive enclosure or the drive itself has physically failed.
[Natasha Paulson]"I want to know if there is any way to get my files off of my hard drive without having to buy expensive software"
Well even expensive software can't do anything if the computer cannot see the drive.
You could pull the drive out of the enclosure and try it in a different one, that will tell you if it is the drive or the enclosure. But really all that software can do is attempt to recover deleted files from drive that will show up. And that software is not really expensive, I have seen it for about $100.
If the drive still does not show up the the computer then are going to go with the even more expensive then software often of sending it to a data recovery specialist. I knew a guy who literally had to spend like 3-4 thousand dollars with a data recovery specialist.
There are no "technical solutions" to your "artistic problems".
Don't let technology get in the way of your creativity!
