HELP! Laptop died, removed HD but can not see it when connecting

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Hi Guys

I am seriously hoping you can help. My Windows laptop died the other day and would not open again I get a message saying either " Operating system failure " or " No operating system found "

I have alot of files that I need for work on the HD not to mention photos of my kids growing up and so on. So I removed the HD and bought a HD Enclosure. In the meantime I have also bought a MacBook ( been looking to do this for a while and now had my hand kind of forced ).

So I have plugged it the HD into the Macbook and it doesn't show up at all. I have looked in all the places that you should see it but nothing. I did have one instance when it came up as a shared network and asked me to sign in when I opened it. However once I signed in it came up saying it was unavailable at this time.

I have tried plugging it into my wife's laptop but it is a work laptop and has some restrictions on it so no joy there either.

Any help would be hugely appreciated as I need these files asap.

Thanks in advance.
 

chscag

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So I have plugged it the HD into the Macbook and it doesn't show up at all. I have looked in all the places that you should see it but nothing. I did have one instance when it came up as a shared network and asked me to sign in when I opened it. However once I signed in it came up saying it was unavailable at this time.

I have tried plugging it into my wife's laptop but it is a work laptop and has some restrictions on it so no joy there either.

The fact that your Windows machine (and your wife's machine) gave you that error concerning the hard drive is a good indication that the drive is corrupt or damaged. A corrupt or damaged drive is not going to be able to be read by your Mac. The only suggestion I can give you is to try to repair the drive using Windows tools. However, if a Windows machine is unable to "see" the drive you may be out of luck if you have no backup.
 
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The fact that your Windows machine (and your wife's machine) gave you that error concerning the hard drive is a good indication that the drive is corrupt or damaged. A corrupt or damaged drive is not going to be able to be read by your Mac. The only suggestion I can give you is to try to repair the drive using Windows tools. However, if a Windows machine is unable to "see" the drive you may be out of luck if you have no backup.

I am really hoping this is not the case but you could well be right. However just to be clear, and should probably have said this, but it does show up on my wifes laptop. However due to the restrictions her work put on her laptop and because it comes up as a network I am unable to log in to it.

Hopefully this means that it is not totally corrupt!

I do have a system back up on a WD external HD but again can't access this on the Macbook as it is a Windows back up.
 

chscag

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Again, the best way to attempt repairs on that drive is from another Windows machine. So, if there is any possibility of using your wife's machine, that would be best. Also, since you have a Windows backup, you're going to need a Windows machine to restore it.
 

dtravis7


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What application did you use on Windows to back up to the external drive?
 

chscag

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It looks like from his reply above Dennis that he used the built in Windows backup application. If I remember correctly, it will only backup to a NTFS formatted external hard drive. I'm referring to the Windows 7 version as I have no knowledge of how the backups are accomplished in Windows 8.
 

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What I was trying to figure out is if it could be read on the Mac. I have never except recently worked with Windows 7 Backup. I do have a 250GB with my gaming rig backed up using it. I will mount that on a Mac and see what I can see. NTFS can be READ by OSX so unless there is some strange compression going on and it's just straight files, he should be able to get his data.

I will post back later.

I missed the Windows Backup part. I thought by Windows backup he did not mean the app but just a backup in windows.

To the OP if you see this before I reply back, did you use Windows Backup in Windows 7? Just being sure.
 

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Ok here is my report. I can access it all but the actual backup image files are Windows Backup VHD extensions. OSX can not at least default open them. I for the fun of it clicked on one from my C drive and it opened TextWrangler text editor! :D Grin

I will search to see if there is something for OSX that will open the VHD files Windows Backup creates.

Read this URL. Seems like the person here wrote a script and is opening VHD files!!!

http://serverfault.com/questions/174278/mount-an-vhd-on-mac-os-x
 

chscag

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If I'm remembering OK, the Windows 7 backup uses compression so it's unlikely that the files or file can be read by a Mac. Also the backup is in two stages (if desired). The first stage makes the backups, the second if chosen, creates a full image of the drive similar to the old Norton Ghost or Partition Magic.
 

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My files are images with that extension. It's what Microsoft uses for the image. The url above the person got it to open the images in OSX. Also my backup in W7 was one stage. I did the Image of the drive. Later restored it to the new drive and it was exactly like the old drive. Worked very much like Time Machine does without the interface in time OSX has.
 
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Hi Guys

Thank you for your responses and assistance. Just to confirm the Backup is on my WD External HD and was performed by the Windows backup application. I then have the HD from the Windows laptop in a HD enclosure.

I can not view or even see the old HD and the backup on the WD shows the files of which there is a Windows Image Backup folder that has 2 VHD files in it and a Backup Set folder with lots of backup zip files.
 

chscag

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I can not view or even see the old HD and the backup on the WD shows the files of which there is a Windows Image Backup folder that has 2 VHD files in it and a Backup Set folder with lots of backup zip files.

You're going to need a working Windows 7 machine in order to restore those backups. No way that I know to do it with a Mac (unless you have Windows 7 installed on your Mac). The normal recovery procedure for the Windows 7 image backup is to boot your Win machine with the Windows 7 DVD in order to restore. Been awhile since I had Windows 7 working here so my memory may be lacking.
 
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You're going to need a working Windows 7 machine in order to restore those backups. No way that I know to do it with a Mac (unless you have Windows 7 installed on your Mac). The normal recovery procedure for the Windows 7 image backup is to boot your Win machine with the Windows 7 DVD in order to restore. Been awhile since I had Windows 7 working here so my memory may be lacking.

Ok cool, was beginning to think this might be the only option left. Just got to find one now, most of my mates are on Macs or they have work laptops which won't let me access it.

Thanks for you help though.
 

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