How do I retrieve my data from external hard drive?

I have tried to search for an answer to this, but have yet to do so and really getting freaked out...
I had to take my iBook to the Genius Bar today to have everything wiped out and reinstalled due to some issues I was having. I wasn't worried because I had (or thought I did) everything on my SmartDisk Firewire 40 external hard drive.
Now I cannot figure out how retrieve my applications, documents and files! I open Firewire, and I can see when all my backups occurred but I have no idea how to retrieve them. I tried dragging a file to my desktop and that got me nowhere...PLEASE help! I'm not sure what to do.

How did you copy the things onto the external drive in the first place? To some extent this will affect recommendations to get things back onto your drive. For example, all of my backups are done with a cloning application, so the get everything back I would boot from my external drive and then clone everything back. If you didn't clone then it doesn't make sense to clone back. If all you did was drag files over then you can just drag them back. Note that some things use hidden files that may not have been copied over if all you did was drag, and those files are now gone and may have to have the application reinstalled from the installer disc.
If you used some backup program to do the backups then that program probably has a restore feature. That can vary greatly from program to program and may require somebody who knows the specifics of the program used.

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After a Lion clean install, how do I retrieve my data from external hard drive?
Following Apple advice I used Migration Assistant which crashed new system twice which is why I had to clean install Lion in the first place.
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I have only a few programs that I will have to install myself and that should not be a problem.
I just want my data, music and photos back where I can use them.

Time machine backups. I went to migration assistant a few hours ago and limited my selection to "users", no need for applications, settings and other files. Stuff started moving over at a fast pace but has now seemed to stall.
I will let it run overnight as there are lots of songs and photos as well as a few movies.
If that does not work, then I will go into TM and try restore. I have restored some things in the past such a mail files and it has worked well.
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http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html
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Very similar with your experience
Last time when I was in Rio, I took part in the famous Carnival there with my boyfriend and we took a lot of interesting photos there. About one week ago, one of my friends asked me to show her the photos. However, it turned out to be inaccessible and the PC can not read the data on the drive. And the PC suggested me to format the external hard drive for reusing it again.
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https://youtu.be/ZA4XzL1mD1s

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Hi there this is my first question here!
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If the Apple Store couldn't get files off of the drive, it is unlikely that you will be able to. If you have backups, those would be the best way to go. You could also try booting up the computer and holding down T to boot into Target Disk Mode. Plug the broken computer into another one with FireWire and see if it works to recover data from external hard drive. If you can see it, try booting up the broken computer while holding down Option. Choose Recovery HD from the menu, then choose to Reinstall OS X.
It is unlikely that this will work, because I'm pretty sure that the Apple Store would have tried this. You could try using expensive software to get files off the drive, but it would be risky and the results might not be any good.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4273

How do I retrieve data from external hard drive

How do I retrieve data from external hard drive

What problem are you encountering?
Normally you would connect it to your Mac and just drag and drop.

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If you think about it logically if you want to move something from one place to another well do just exactly that
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My wife and I both have computers. Heres what i would like to do:
A. sell my computer and buy an ipad
B. Hook up a wireless external hard drive that can connect to the internet (do these exist?)and just leave it at home with it connected to the internet 24/7
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thanks for the quick responces philly fan you were especially hepful.
Huh, sence of humor, nice.
I found this little guy http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=280 looks like exactly what i want. BUT i dont think i can edit docs and put them back on the server. Anybody know of anything that can?
sure we do, people call those things computers.

How do I retrieve my data from external hard drive?

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