Samsung ssd 256 gb connected with usb clone cable, formatted with the macbook pro, two partitions, 40 gb copied from the original hard drive on to the ssd. Then the ssd is connected with usb to a pc to free space, drivers are installed and the result: ssd is not recognised by pc, and the partitions and files are seemingly gone when attempting to connect to mac. ???
SSD-trouble
- Thread starter are.voll
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2009
- Messages
- 15,765
- Reaction score
- 2,105
- Points
- 113
- Location
- MA
- Your Mac's Specs
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
Welcome to Mac-Forums..
In what format was the SSD formatted? If in OS X's native format, then a Windows PC will not be able to see it and should have prompted you about it being needed to be initialized and if you said yes to that, it will have made it a NTFS or FAT32 or exFAT partition to be compatible with itself and in turn lost any data you transferred from the Mac.
If you intend to share a drive between Windows, Linux and OS X. You should use exFAT as the filesystem type to avoid this problem..
In what format was the SSD formatted? If in OS X's native format, then a Windows PC will not be able to see it and should have prompted you about it being needed to be initialized and if you said yes to that, it will have made it a NTFS or FAT32 or exFAT partition to be compatible with itself and in turn lost any data you transferred from the Mac.
If you intend to share a drive between Windows, Linux and OS X. You should use exFAT as the filesystem type to avoid this problem..
Thank you for instant reply. It leaves no hope for the contents on the disk though.
When connecting the drive to the pc, I was not prompted or asked to confirm anything, the driver intallation process carried on and finished without me interfering. I find it a bit strange that all the files are deleted in practically no time, especially since no information of this process was presented. But as you imply, it the pc does not understand the disks language as it was Os extended (journaled), then there is no reason to inform the user of the forthcoming process.
Thanks anyway.
When connecting the drive to the pc, I was not prompted or asked to confirm anything, the driver intallation process carried on and finished without me interfering. I find it a bit strange that all the files are deleted in practically no time, especially since no information of this process was presented. But as you imply, it the pc does not understand the disks language as it was Os extended (journaled), then there is no reason to inform the user of the forthcoming process.
Thanks anyway.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2009
- Messages
- 15,765
- Reaction score
- 2,105
- Points
- 113
- Location
- MA
- Your Mac's Specs
- 2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
Going back as far as I can remember, Windows has always prompted about a unreadable media and asking if you wanted to initialize it.
Hopefully, that hasn't changed in the more recent versions of Windows to try to make it "easier" for the users.
Either way, if you can remember the steps you went through when you had the SSD initially connected to the Mac, we can figure out what partition type was used and then try to extrapolate what might have happened on Windows.
Now, if you have intact copies of the file you had copied over the SSD on the Mac still, then all is not lost and you can go back into Disk Utility within the Mac and re-format the SSD taking care to choose exFat from the available option as shown in the image below. Now you can share this SSD with Windows, Linux and OS X without any problems..
Hopefully, that hasn't changed in the more recent versions of Windows to try to make it "easier" for the users.
Either way, if you can remember the steps you went through when you had the SSD initially connected to the Mac, we can figure out what partition type was used and then try to extrapolate what might have happened on Windows.
Now, if you have intact copies of the file you had copied over the SSD on the Mac still, then all is not lost and you can go back into Disk Utility within the Mac and re-format the SSD taking care to choose exFat from the available option as shown in the image below. Now you can share this SSD with Windows, Linux and OS X without any problems..
I moved files to obtain available space to reinstall OS, and thus none files left behind on the old hard drive.
But, as I mentioned I was not promted to accept formatting of the disk. After having googled "file recover software mac" I found a program called Disk Drill. After having used this for 2 hours it located and restored 62 out of 69 gb, and I am very pleased. My assumption was correct in the way that it was hard to believe that the files was deleted.
Posting the problem here led to a solution and for that I am thankful.
Another question. What are the reasons for choosing one file-system instead of another apart from the fact that Exfat enables understandable language for both mac and pc.
Mac OS extended (journaled)
Mac OS extended (journaled, encrypted)
Mac OS extended (case sensitive, journaled)
Mac OS extended (case sensitive, journaled, encrypted)
MS-DOS FAT
ExFAT
Windows NT filesystem (tuxera NTFS)
Windows NT filesystem (NTFS 3G)
But, as I mentioned I was not promted to accept formatting of the disk. After having googled "file recover software mac" I found a program called Disk Drill. After having used this for 2 hours it located and restored 62 out of 69 gb, and I am very pleased. My assumption was correct in the way that it was hard to believe that the files was deleted.
Posting the problem here led to a solution and for that I am thankful.
Another question. What are the reasons for choosing one file-system instead of another apart from the fact that Exfat enables understandable language for both mac and pc.
Mac OS extended (journaled)
Mac OS extended (journaled, encrypted)
Mac OS extended (case sensitive, journaled)
Mac OS extended (case sensitive, journaled, encrypted)
MS-DOS FAT
ExFAT
Windows NT filesystem (tuxera NTFS)
Windows NT filesystem (NTFS 3G)
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2006
- Messages
- 26,561
- Reaction score
- 677
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Texas, where else?
- Your Mac's Specs
- 15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
Personally, I format all drives that will go back and forth between OS X and Windows as NTFS.
Don't use FAT32 (MS-DOS FAT in that list) nor do I use ExFAT due to being non-journaled.
However, I have to recommend you get rid of Tuxera and NTFS 3G. My guess, you used one of those to format the drive. There are lots of posts around the web referencing data loss from those using them - including one here just in the last couple of weeks.
Get Paragon's NTFS for Mac. Been using it since the first beta (around 7 years now) and don't believe I've ever even read about an issue with it. It is well worth the $20. I have formatted drives as NTFS on my Macs when I was too lazy to walk to the other side of the house, but I'd say best practice would be to format them in Windows.
Don't use FAT32 (MS-DOS FAT in that list) nor do I use ExFAT due to being non-journaled.
However, I have to recommend you get rid of Tuxera and NTFS 3G. My guess, you used one of those to format the drive. There are lots of posts around the web referencing data loss from those using them - including one here just in the last couple of weeks.
Get Paragon's NTFS for Mac. Been using it since the first beta (around 7 years now) and don't believe I've ever even read about an issue with it. It is well worth the $20. I have formatted drives as NTFS on my Macs when I was too lazy to walk to the other side of the house, but I'd say best practice would be to format them in Windows.
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.