External Hard drive not showing any of my data when i open it.

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Hello Guys, I am a tech noob to say the least so i'm going to try my best to explain my situation as i can.


I had an imac late 2009 model that would no longer boot. I finally figured the hard drive was dead. I decided to open the imac and remove the hard drive so that i can connect it via usb and sata cable to my macbook pro. I've succesfully connected the hard drive to my macbook pro. However i receive an error message once the hard drive mounts.

something like mac osx cannot repair etc.. so i figured ok my hard drive is fried and all my data is lost.. But i decided to start messing with some of the options and viola.. when i go to open the hard drive mounted on my desktop a few of the folders and items appear in the window. i successfully recover a music file then accidentally unplug the hard drive from the power supply. (my luck)

now when i repeat the process the HD shows up on my desktop like before but i cannot get it to show any of the contents in the HD. Its just blank?

I'm really new to anything like this and have no idea what to do. I've tried youtube and google but can't seem to find the answers i'm looking for. Any help?

I simply just want to recover some photos and logic pro sessions i had on this drive. I was able to recover a music file so i feel like it's still possible. If anyone has a video or some advice to help out would be great. Before i take it somewhere and they charge me for service.
 

chscag

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When you pulled the hard drive from the power supply while it was mounted, chances are it caused corruption. And since the drive was already sick to begin with, chances of recovery of anything is slim. You don't want to take your drive to a recovery service before asking how much it will cost. Those services are very expensive. You may be able to recover some data using software but that too is expensive as that type of software is generally around $100 with no trial period offered.
 
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Thank you for your response. I kind of had a feeling that something went wrong when I pulled the plug, I will look into recovery software etc..
 
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You may be able to recover some data using software but that too is expensive as that type of software is generally around $100 with no trial period offered.


Just thought I'd mention that Data Rescue 5 for Mac has a trial version. I think some others do as well, but they will limit what can be salvaged normally.
https://www.prosofteng.com/mac-data-recovery/



- Patrick
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chscag

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Actually with Data Rescue 5 trial version you can only "see" what you might recover but not actually recover it. Most recovery software if they have a trial works the same way. Also, if Data Rescue 5 can not mount your hard drive, it can not recover anything even with the Pro version. It is on sale right now for $79.00 so maybe that's a plus?
 
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Great advice guys! I’ll definitely give data rescue a try and let you guys know how it works out. Keep the ideas coming lol
 
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Great advice guys! I’ll definitely give data rescue a try and let you guys know how it works out. Keep the ideas coming lol

If you know any Mac user who has DiskWarrior, maybe they could use it on your Mac's drive to repair and/or recover the data.

I don't think there's any way to run it in any "free" mode and I think they now use a goofy flash drive install method.
But you can check:
https://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/...IJNQV7321FStJ1EhZm7nqBX_gFtuLNhUaAm-qEALw_wcB




- Patrick
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