External hard drive no longer appears. How to try to recover contained data

[michelangelo]

Yes, I know I was not prudent. My 2008 LaCie external hard drive (probably one To capacity), seems normal when I feed it with electricity, but still does not appear on the finder, nor on the disk utility nor anywhere I can think of, either connected with USB, or fireWire. I have not used it for years and it may be grumpy (then offering flowers may be an option). As it contains movies (I think), I would like to recover its content. Any suggestions worth trying (except back-up all drives with CCC - beyond MacBook Pro only with Time Machine; which I am presently in the process of implementing) ? TIA

 

[lclev]

If the drive will not mount and won't show in disk utility (which it won't if not mounted), it is probably dead. Can you feel it spinning up if you hold it? You could try giving it a shake - believe it or not, I have done that and it worked long enough to get data off of it. But if you can convince it to work get what you can because it is probably dead.

The only other option would be an expensive data recovery service. If you have not looked at what is on the drive for years I would not suggest spending the money.

Lisa

 

[vansmith]

Open up Terminal (with the drive plugged in) and execute the following:

diskutil list

That should list any and all recognized disks. If it shows it, we can go from there.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If the drive doesn't show up through the normal means and the available cables, then you might have to break into the enclosure to take the HD out an put into another enclosure to see if its just the enclosure that's failed on the drive itself. Hopefully its the enclosure, but if its the HD and you absolutely need the data on there, you might have to go down the data recovery route which can be quite expensive..

 

[techiesteve]

Re Lacie D2 drives I see more power supply failures than actual drives dying. The fact that the PSU light might be on doesn't mean it is good.

 

[pm-r]

Re Lacie D2 drives I see more power supply failures than actual drives dying. The fact that the PSU light might be on doesn't mean it is good.

+1!!!

Let me count the times…. aghhhhhh!!!!

 

[michelangelo]

Open up Terminal (with the drive plugged in) and execute the following:

diskutil list

That should list any and all recognized disks. If it shows it, we can go from there.

Thanks. Terminal is alien territory for me. The PSU light is on and the fan makes wobbling fan noises (up and down). No big nasty mechanical noises. After trying to boot on both macs by normal means, using all available cables and connectors (USB and firewire 800), and failing at that, I connected the LaCie drive through Firewire on the big iMac (one internal hard drive, 500 TB capacity, and only one). I then tried terminal on the big iMac. The lost LaCie drive appears to show to my untrained eyes (copy below). I recall this big external LaCie drive was intended for backup ("sauvegarde" in french) but never used for that. I believe its size was about 1 TB. Name and size seem to match.

Last login: Sat Aug 22 16:56:59 on console
[iMac-de-Jean-Pierre-Smith:~] jeanpierresmith% diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 499.1 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *998.1 GB disk2
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS Copies de sauvegarde... 997.7 GB disk2s2
[iMac-de-Jean-Pierre-Smith:~] jeanpierresmith%

Can we go from here ? TIA

 

[michelangelo]

If the drive doesn't show up through the normal means and the available cables, then you might have to break into the enclosure to take the HD out an put into another enclosure to see if its just the enclosure that's failed on the drive itself. Hopefully its the enclosure, but if its the HD and you absolutely need the data on there, you might have to go down the data recovery route which can be quite expensive..

Hmmmmm... Suppose it is just the enclosure. I have in the same family of drives a failed 250 GB LaCie drive and this 1 TB LaCie drive. Their shapes are not identical: the 1TB is a lot longer than the 250 GB. Also, I am not a screwdriver expert. I could do with a suggestion.

 

[michelangelo]

Progress... I went on the LaCie website in search of assistance. Their robot suggested to try everything possible, including plugging the outer alim from another Lacie drive. I did that. The disk behavior changed a bit. It did not mount but was visible by Disk Utility. I hit "verify". It said "you must repair". I hit "repair". It said "I fail, save what you can and reformat".

I did the terminal entry (distill list) again. It better recognizes the drive (better than before). Its name was indeed LaCie_maus. The drive still does not mount. I cannot recover anything from it yet.

Last login: Tue Aug 25 23:13:24 on console
[MacBookPro-de-Jean-Pierre-Smith:~] jeanpierresmith% diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *320.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 319.2 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *318.8 GB disk1
Logical Volume on disk0s2
AE692332-D6CE-4D1E-9349-8EB0D2BDB24C
Unencrypted
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2
1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS LaCie_maus 1.0 TB disk2s3
[MacBookPro-de-Jean-Pierre-Smith:~] jeanpierresmith%

Any suggestion now to move forward ?

 

[vansmith]

The disk is alive and is recognized so that's a good start. Let's try another Terminal command:

diskutil mount /dev/disk2s2

Explanation: in Unix, devices are files in the broadest sense of the term. Each of your disks is recognized as a file that can be manipulated. In OS X, each disk's "file" is in /dev and is called diskX where X is a number. Each disk is partitioned or "sliced" and this is where the "s" comes from in diskXsX. In the command above, /dev/disk2s2 is the second disk (the first one is your internal) and for our purposes, you want to mount the second slice (the first is the partition map).

 

[michelangelo]

Sorry for taking time to reply. Things got out of control here. I believe I did a mistake. In addition to the disk (Lacie), the drive it contains (LaCie_maus) was visible on disk utility and I tried a repair with disk utility. It failed. From that moment, it is even harder than before to see the disk on the finder. Here is the sequence I see on terminal with «*diskutil list*» followed by «*diskutil mount /dev/disk2s2*»

Last login: Fri Aug 28 16:56:18 on ttys000
[MacBookPro-de-Jean-Pierre-Smith:~] jeanpierresmith% diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *320.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 319.2 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *318.8 GB disk1
Logical Volume on disk0s2
AE692332-D6CE-4D1E-9349-8EB0D2BDB24C
Unencrypted
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2
1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS LaCie_maus 1.0 TB disk2s3
/dev/disk3
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1
2: Apple_HFS G Drive JPS 999.9 GB disk3s2

[MacBookPro-de-Jean-Pierre-Smith:~] jeanpierresmith% diskutil mount /dev/disk2s2
Unable to find disk for /dev/disk2s2
[MacBookPro-de-Jean-Pierre-Smith:~] jeanpierresmith%

The disk (LaCie_maus) is presently mounted on the finder. I can hear the fan (stable) and clicking noises from time to time. I can open the disk on the finder, revealing its content. I can try to copy all or part of its content on another drive (G Drive JPS) but it copies nothing (zero octets) and states after a very long time (like 5 minutes) that it is unable to do so (error code -36: certain data cannot be read or written).

I have not tried yet diskwarrior. Should I try it ?

 

[michelangelo]

Additional info

My mac is presently only reserved for this repair. Time Machine is Off. Dropbox is Off. All network drives are disconnected. The sick Lacie disk is connected to the mac via Firewire and the sick LaCie_maus drive is mounted on the desktop. The expected recipient drive (G Drive JPS) is connected to the mac via USB. Mail is off. Only Safari and TextEdit are running.

The drive LaCie_maus mounts on the desktop. I can open its windows to show its content (but cannot copy, error code -36).

Disk Inventory X has shown once the content of the drive. This was before I used disk utility in an attempt to fix the LaCie_maus drive (and failed at it). Now it does not seem to succeed anymore.

In Terminal, the command: diskutil mount /dev/disk2s2 receives the reply: Unable to find disk for /dev/disk2s2.

Looking into this forum, I saw two general directions that I could follow:

Try to fix the drive. Diskwarrior seems to be recommended for that (I have its current issue and not tried it yet, by prudence, on the sick drive); or

Try to simply recover the data. Data Rescue 4 seems to be recommended for that;

There could be other options or other diagnostic tasks useful first.

Any advice will be appreciated. TIA

 

[michelangelo]

End of story.

On advice from the [young] laCie tech, avoided inflicting my OS 10.10 to the old laCie Big drive in an attempt to appease it. Booted from an OS 10.8 Flash drive, using the DiskWarrior rebuilt directory and luck, I asked CCC to do a clone of the laCie drive from that perspective. CCC took its time and, 36 hours later, I had recovered in the "clone" about 10 files out of over 200. Sad conclusion.

The only alien attempt I have not made was trying SpinRite from a Windows box, which non-attempt I regret.

The drive appeared to be a slowly dying old drive, past retirement age. Nevertheless, I reformatted it and now use it as my clone #2 in an automated CCC cloning, every night. Not so old, apparently, not dead, yet.

This forced me into developing a true backup strategy, now in place, for all my data. I followed advices from this forum and the Joe tech book on backup. I now combine wifi incremental backup on my time Capsule with wifi bootable cloning, on two clones attached to the iMac or in the safe.

My warmest thanks to iclev, vansmith, RazOrEdge, techiesteve and pm-r, whose support was invaluable.

Hope this can be helpful, to others.

 

[pm-r]

Maybe a bit late now, considering it's been reformatted, but just curious if you tried to use DiskWarrior to have a look and attempted any recovery which is an optional step?

And BTW? Did you use the zero-out or one pass security write/wipe when you did the reformat? If not I'd suggest doing so as it will map out any bad sectors and lessen any new problems.

 

[michelangelo]

Maybe a bit late now, considering it's been reformatted, but just curious if you tried to use DiskWarrior to have a look and attempted any recovery which is an optional step?

Yes I did and attempted to do the recovery from the DiskWarrior rebuilt directory. There, instead of doing a copy through the finder, I was advised to use CCC as CCC is more forgiving that the finder when a copy of a file fails in between, CCC may even be kind enough to retry copying the file from the beginning (not sure), and ultimately resorts to moving on to the next file copying task ahead instead of hanging there (sure). Al in all, it about doubled my success rate (10 files recovered by the DiskWarrior + CCC routine instead of 5 simply trying my luck with the finder).

And BTW? Did you use the zero-out or one pass security write/wipe when you did the reformat? If not I'd suggest doing so as it will map out any bad sectors and lessen any new problems.

No, I did not and still can do it (since this is my 2nd clone, I can reformat it at will without losing anything). But ... I don't know what a zero-out or one pass security write/wipe is. Please explain. TIA

 

[pm-r]

I'd agree with what you found and discovered with DW and CCC, and a Finder copy, from my own experiences.

For the "zero out" formatting option, have a look here:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1141358/securely_wipe_hard_drive.html
and close by here:
http://www.mac-forums.com/os-x-operating-system/319844-disk-utility-zero-data-yosemite.html

PS: a zero-out or one pass security write/wipe is basically doing the same thing. And don't even think of or bother or doing an absurd 7 pass, that's just super overkill and there for the government paranoid folks!!!

 

[michelangelo]

Thanks for the tip. I did zero out all of the data using disk utility. One pass. 7 hours for 2 TB. Then I redid my two partitions and two clones (each a clone, respectively, of my internal HD and my external HD). Not very difficult, quite time consuming for the mac (not for me, I was sleeping). After that, I did not notice any difference. If I get it right, the objective of this move was to zero all of the data which would map the bad sectors on the reformatted (resurrected) drive, hence my drive would be a more reliable clone after than before. How can I test that this objective (reliability) is achieved ?

Would I have attained the same results with one full defrag (in each of the two partitions) with iDefrag ?

How about Spinrite ?

 

[pm-r]

You got the objective of exercise correct and I have no idea if iDefrag or Spinrite could do the same, but I very much doubt it and I don't know of any testing software you could use. But that's why one needs to have a backup and if the HDD starts acting goofy, you and Disk Utility will probably know.

Actually the wipe/write/read "one pass process" would probably have let you know if some part had failed, and as it didn't I gather, I'd say it passed.

PS: Can you imagine doing the absurd "US military standard" 7-pass wipe??? That's gotta be such a typical military super overkill operation — big understatement!!

 

[michelangelo]

Thanks.

 

[smorrison01]

Similar problem

Hi,

I found this thread where the original post seems quite close to the issue I'm dealing with.

I have a Lacie external USB drive that stopped mounting on my MacBook Pro about a week ago. It lights up, makes noises, and spins just as it did when it was working normally; it just won't show up in the Finder. I've switched USB cables and even switched Macs, trying to mount the drive both on my old laptop and the one I got a few months ago.

I used the Terminal commands that were suggested on the first page of this thread. The "diskutil list" does show the LaCie drive when it's plugged in, appearing thus:
/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk2
1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS LaCie 2.0 TB disk2s3

The "diskutil mount /dev/disk2s2" command returns the following:
"Unable to find disk for /dev/disk2s2"

Since the volume shows up in the Diskutil List as "slice 3" (disk2s3), I tried the above command twice with "disk2s3" as well, and both times got the following:
"Volume on disk2s3 timed out waiting to mount"


Can anyone please help interpret this? I get that in a general sense, the computer recognizes the disk in some way but not in a way that will allow the disk to mount and me to work with its contents.


Also, FWIW, when I open the Disk Utility app with the drive already plugged in, it says it's searching for disks and shows the spinning wheel, but as soon as I turn off the drive, it immediately shows the internal HD normally.


Any help is much appreciated!