Lost external hard drive

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I had to turn off my iMac because the power company was shutting down our electric. When I restarted it there is no EHD on the desktop. I discovered this because I cannot open iPhoto (files stored on that EHD). I have tried searching everywhere to no avail and have checked all the connections. Any suggestions where it might have gone?

Thank you

poppi
 

pigoo3

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Have you tried unplugging the external HD from the computer…then plugging it back in?

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Trust you powered down and dismounted the external first. Just pulling the plug with it connected can corrupt the drive same as in Windows. Turn off your iMac, remove plug from mains for ten minutes, reconnect, power up, connect external by USB or whatever, and see if it is recognised in Disk utility.

If you are lucky enough to see it there check it out. It may well need erasing and formatting alas.
 
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Trust you powered down and dismounted the external first. Just pulling the plug with it connected can corrupt the drive same as in Windows. Turn off your iMac, remove plug from mains for ten minutes, reconnect, power up, connect external by USB or whatever, and see if it is recognised in Disk utility.

If you are lucky enough to see it there check it out. It may well need erasing and formatting alas.

Thanx for the suggestion. I tried as you suggested - powered down the iMac, unplugged 15 minutes, turned off and disconnected both external hard drives (see below), re powered the iMac, reconnected the 2 EHDs, and looked at disk utility. Only the iMac hard drive and my G tech show up, not the La Cie EHD.

Forgot to mention that I have two EHDs. The missing Lacie which houses my iPhoto files is plugged int the G tech which is plugged into the iMac.

I am baffled. This all happened with a simple shut down and restart of the iMac.
 

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Does the same thing happen if the missing drive is connected directly to the Mac (without plugging into the G Tech)?
 
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chas_m

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That's how hard drives die. Usually with little warning. I hope you had a backup of those important photos.
 
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Doesn't sound good. Have you tried connecting the HD to another port on your iMac? Also, is the HD bus powered, or does it have an external mains power supply? If you listen with your ear held against the HD case, can you hear the drive spindle motor running? If your HD normally has a power light indicator, is this illuminated? If you launch Disk Utility can you see the HD, if you can, is the volume grayed out? Answering these questions will help determine what has happened and possibly provide a recovery solution.
 
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Sadly think you have killed it.
 
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Your drive *might* be OK. When an external HDD fails, it's one of two things: the drive itself, or the electronics in the housing. You could try removing the drive from its housing and placing it in another third-party housing and reconnecting it. Drive housings are cheap so it's worth checking.

I recall a batch of Lacie drives some years ago that were plagued by housing failures. Give it a go.
 
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+1.

Plus their often failing power supplies if they were used.


... ...
I recall a batch of Lacie drives some years ago that were plagued by housing failures. Give it a go.
 
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Lost external ahrd drive

Doesn't sound good. 1) Have you tried connecting the HD to another port on your iMac? 2) Also, is the HD bus powered, or does it have an external mains power supply? 3) If you listen with your ear held against the HD case, can you hear the drive spindle motor running? If your HD normally has a power light indicator, is this illuminated? 4) If you launch Disk Utility can you see the HD, if you can, is the volume grayed out? Answering these questions will help determine what has happened and possibly provide a recovery solution.

1) Tried connecting the LaCie directly to the iMac (not through the G Drive) but it still does not show on the desk top

2) Not sure what this means. The LaCie is powered directly from a surge protector

3) I can hear (and feel) the hard drive spinning. The blue power light is illuminated

4) With disk utility open the LaCie HD is not displayed

Perhaps a dumb question - our power company scheduled a power outage so I shut down the iMac but did not think to shut down my two EHDs. All 3 are powered through a surge protector. Is it possible that when power was resumed a surge fried the LaCie?

Will welcome any further suggestions

poppi
 
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Almost anything can go goofy when it comes to electricity and electronics and it's almost like Murphy's Law takes over, and it also depends on the quality and speed of the surge protector to do its work properly.

Have you tried another good cable or different ports? Even brand new cables can be goofy as I've discovered.

As suggested, pull the drive from the Lacie enclosure and get a new enclosure and stick it in that. Just make sure you get the correct enclosure for a SATA or maybe even an older PATA IDE drive.
 
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I think I need to accept the fact that my LaCie EHD has died. The drive appears to be spinning but I cannot communicate with it. Let me describe my setup and then ask a few questions.

I have a 6 year old 500 GB LaCie quadra which I use for iPhoto storage. I also have a one year old 4 TB G Drive which I use for Time Machine and to backup the LaCie. The iMac goes to the LaCie (FW 800/800) and the LaCie then goes to the G Drive (FW 800/800).

I first noted my problem when I tried to open iPhoto from the dock and got a message "Library not found", not surprising if the LaCie is dead.

In later attempts to open iPhoto I got a different message

"You can’t open your current photo library using this version of iPhoto.

You have made changes to your photo library using a newer version of iPhoto. Please quit and use the latest version of iPhoto."

I am currently at iPhoto v 7.1.5 and have been for a long time.

I then went to time machine, went back to 9/27/14 (before the problem) and "restored" iPhoto from that date. When I tried to open I first got the cannot find library message and lately the message about earlier/later versions.

Finally I went to the G Drive > Backups.backupdb > johnhendriesiMac > 2014-09-27-000111 > iPhoto library > click. When done earlier I got the cannot find library message and lately the message about earlier/later versions.

Questions:

Why did the error massage change from the cannot find library message to the message about earlier/later versions?

Why can I not recover the iPhoto program from either Time Machine or directly from G Drive > Backups?

Can I "create"a new iPhoto in the iMac to recover the files to?

Recommendations for a low cost 500 GB or 1 TB EHD and from whom?

Sorry for the rambling and probably confusing diatribe. I am obviously ignorant in this area

Tank you for any guidance you can provide

poppi
 
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****, I just lost my reply with a message:
"Your submission could not be processed because the token has expired.

Please push the back button and reload the previous window."

I may try again tomorrow if you really need one. Sorry, and too close to my bedtime right now. ;)
 
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****, I just lost my reply with a message:
"Your submission could not be processed because the token has expired.

Please push the back button and reload the previous window."

I may try again tomorrow if you really need one. Sorry, and too close to my bedtime right now. ;)

I would love to rea dyuor reply. Thanx for trying

poppi
 
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OK, I'll try again with a quick summary and parts that I recall.

As mentioned, your Lacie HDD may not be dead, and you could try installing its drive into another known good enclosure.

As for your iPhoto and its libraries, and I'm guessing that you might be using SL 10.6.8 or??, but make sure you've only got one version that you're using and that it's up to date.

The messages you're getting may be correct, or your libraries could be corrupt.

A Google search on the errors you get should provide some solutions.

Basically, and I'm not sure if it works with all versions, but:
Rebuild iPhoto Library
Quit iPhoto if it is open.
Hold down the Command and Option keys on the keyboard.
Open iPhoto.
Keep the keys held down until you are prompted to rebuild the library.
A dialog will appear with rebuild options. Select all the options/checkboxes
Click Rebuild to begin the rebuild process. This may take a few minutes to complete.

You can use different iPhoto libraries by holding down the option key when opening iPhoto and select the one you want to use.

If that didn't worked then rebuild your iPhoto Library with this application, iPhoto Library Manager (just try the trial version) : Fat Cat Software
SL 10.6.8 version available here:
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7158/iphoto-library-manager

EDIT: Opps, i see it says it's for "iPhoto v8.1.2, but maybe another version is available if you need it.

As for drives, I prefer to use Western Digital, but also use Buffalo and G-Drive external drives.

Now to post before I get timed out again. Good luck.
 
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