External Drive Failure

Hi all excuse me if I'm in the wrong place but whilst running Techtool Pro my perfectly running Ext Firewire hard drive has failed to display a desktop icon, is not recognised anywhere and now runs at full speed from power on, I have tried all the usual tricks of disconnecting to no avail.
Have I lost all my access and is the data on the Hard drive recoverable?

johnnol1:
Here are the possibilities as I see them:
*Most obvious is the FW cable. Try different ports, and a different cable, if available.
*Check the Firewire port on your computer. Go to Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > Hardware > Firewire. If Firewire is working it should list something likeFireWire Bus:
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/secIf it is reading your external FW HDD you should see something similar to mine which looks like this:FireWire Bus:
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
OWC Neptune:
Manufacturer: Other World Computing
Model: 0x0
GUID: 0x1D2020066013B
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec*If the drive is spinning it might well be that the drive itself is sound and you have a failed Firewire Bridge. You can purchase a Firewire encosure like one of these from OWC. Whatever enclosure you get make sure you get one with the more reliable Oxford 911 chipset.
*Remove the Drive from the old enclosure and place in the the new enclosure.
Please post back with an update or further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius

Similar Messages

External Drive failure. How do I recover the data?

Western Digital "My Passport" USB 3.0 External Drive failure message "the disk you inserted was not recordable by this computer". I have Aperture masters, the Vault and other valuable data on this WD drive. How do I recover the data?

In these situations the usual choices are:
(1) Recover data from your backup.
(2) Recover data from a commercial service ($$$).

Program won't load due to external drive failure

I thought I was doing a smart thing when my laptop began getting a little too full by setting up the installation of Photoshop to use a Seagate hard drive as my preferences and scratch disk, with my computer's drive as the second choice. Now the Seagate has failed and Photoshop won't load! I get error messages saying the preferences file is missing and the loading terminates.
How can I fix this? I have a new drive, 1.5 terabytes, which I would still like to use for that. It's drive F, the old one was drive E. So I cannot rename the F to E, unless there's something I don't yet understand.
I just hope I won't have to completely reinstall the program. Any advice?

What possessed me to also set the preferences file on the external drive? I didn't realize I did.
Thanks for your help. I really appreciate fast and knowledgeable help.
But I stumbled on a solution. Since posting in this forum, I tried loading the program again. I don't know why but I just happened to think of holding down the Ctrl key while it loaded.
Sure enough, it worked!
I immediately changed the settings and have restarted the program several times without any problem.
All I can figure is that I must have read somewhere something about overriding settings by using the Ctrl key. I really didn't know this when I wrote my first post but anyway, it works.
Thanks again for your help!

External drive failures

I've gone thru three external Seagate and one WesternDigital USB3 drives. They all seem to function fine under Mavericks and then inexplicablly 'die' out wherein the parition can't be mounted. I'm able to completely format the drive and use it for Time Machine again which proves that the drive doesn't have any physical problem but rather a software one. I've completely uninstalled all Seagate and WD components which leads me to believe that Mavericks is significantly buggy to allow such an oversigh as the corruption of external drives (especially ones designated as Time Machine backups).
<Edited by Host>

Sunadmn,
I'm not sure what is going on however I would recommend reposting your question in the *Time Machine* forum. You can find it by click the Discussions link in the upper left of this page, then click *Snow Leopard* and you will find the TM forum. Before posting though read the:
Time Machine FAQ and Troubleshooting Time Machine articles, you may find your answers there.
Roger

Help with Organizer (Ver 11) after hard drive failure

I have Elements 11 and am an experienced user. Problem is with the Organizer program. Hard drive (Network attached drive) with 16,000+ images failed. Actual Organizer catalog is stored on my regular computer C:\ drive. ONLY the photos were stored on the external drive. I replaced drive with a new drive (also external network attached). When I run Organizer, all the thumbnails indicate the files are "offline." When I run "reconnect files" from the menu bar, it tells me there are no missing files. If I use the file info window (in Organizer) and click on "Location" it tells me the file location ON THE ORIGINAL DRIVE is offline. If I go ahead and reconnect the file from that window, it does ok... BUT... when I go back to the Organizer and open that image full screen, it does NOT show the name tags of the subject when you mouse-over the displayed image. The "name" tags are still listed in the tag window, but no name on the screen. It looks as if the catalog is somehow looking for that very specific old drive, and that the tag database can't connect to the image on the replacement drive.
What happened to the database of all the people's names that are actually shown on-screen for each image?? The catalog on C:\ is intact and untouched by the external drive failure. How can I get Organizer to recognize all the image files on the new hard drive? I have screen shots of all the messages, etc., if that would help.
Thanks..... Earl

First of all, did you backup your catalog/media files via the catalog manager ? In that case the answer is to do a restore to the new custom location.
Since you are asking for help, I presume you have no backup available.
Now, the explanation for the problem. Network drives are considered 'offline' just like CD or DVDs when there are not active. On the other hand, each of those removable storage media are identified in the catalog database with a unique internal identifier which has the letter drive, device serial number, name and type of device. I am not competent about network drives, but I am sure that pluging another network drive will show different properties. Your drive will be considered offline.
Then, when you want to reconnect, the organizer does not consider the files are missing, it waits for you to plug in the original drive.
What solution ?
What could you do to enforce the Organizer to recognize the new drive as the old one ?
Let's suppose your files had not been on a network drive, but on an external USB drive. Then all your files would have been seen as 'missing' because the recorded paths of your media files would have been different for thedrive identifier, and reconnecting could have been a solution.
The main problem I see is that I am pretty sure that you can't tell the catalog manager how to change the identifier of the offline drive, and I can't see any easy workaround. If someone knows a way, I would be extremely interested! Would it be possible to fool the Organizer to identify the new network drive with the same parameters as the old one?
So, what I would do in your case would be to use an external sqlite database manager to look at the catalog.pse11db file and see how I could change directly the identification of the new drive.
I am pretty sure I could do that if the files had been on an external USB drive (not considered 'offline'). It's worth trying that for a network drive.
Tell me if you want to try such a solution. Otherwise, if you have 'written metadata to files', your only immediate chance is to start a new catalog and import from the new drive.

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation it gives me an input/output error and stops. Any tips?

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation and after having selected both my destination and source drives, the operation begins but soon fails due to input/output error. If I try to create an image of the drive it gives me the same error message. Any help would be much appreciated.

Disk Utility only creates a image of the drive, so it's no help getting exactly what you want, which is your files. If the file structure is messed up or the drive is failing then it's no help.
If you have a external boot drive and you can't access the internal non-booting drive though the typical Finder and windows to transfer your files via drag and drop methods, then you need to install Data Rescue on the external boot drive and it will do as best as it can to recover your files. (works on non-encrypted/non-Filevaulted drives only)
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Are you sure you have hard drive failure, or that OS X isn't merely not booting?
Because if the drive is working physically, then there is a host of fixes
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/

IMac drive failure? Consider running off a Firewire 800 external

This is an informational post, but worth sharing I believe.
My 2009 iMac 1TB Seagate (ST31000528ASQ) has failed.
For the SECOND time. When the first one failed at 1.5 y Apple charged me $200+ ($40 service, which is a bargain, and $160+ for the drive which was excessive) to put this one in. I was later reimbursed when Apple extended its recall range.
Now, at age 1.5 y, the second one of this wretched line has failed. I could pay another $200+ to Apple, assuming they'd still service my 4 yo iMac. Or I could bit the bullet, pay $650 for an SSD, and then pay $240 for an independent to work on the disgustingly unserviceable iMac. With the SSD I'd probably extend the machines useable lifespan another 2 years, and I'd get far higher reliability. The latter is very important to me.
Except, there's another option. One that is much cheaper.
My drive wasn't quite dead, so I was able to use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable external drive. It sits in a Firewire 800 cradle, I used a 7200 rpm 1TB Samsung - one of my offsite backup rotation drives. I booted off this drive and use Disk Utility to unmount my internal. I figured I'd do this while I decided which option to pursue.
Weird thing is, the iMac 2009 works rather well this way. If anything, it's FASTER than it was running off the internal drive. Aperture is MUCH smoother.
If your internal drive fails in this old machine, I think switching to a fast, big external drive is a good option to consider.

Since the Mac is set to boot off the external, i was suprised a complete failure of the internal would make a difference. How does that happen? (I unmount using Disk Utility, it presumably remounts when I restart. But I supposed if it died it couldn't remount :-).

Failure to connect to an external drive

I have saved a number of files from my old PC to an external drive (WD) to tranfer them to my Mac. Trying to connect the drive the drive gets recognised in Finder (get a number a identity in Finder but also the message "Connection Failure". Trying to click "Connect as" I am asked for the Password to the "server" but I have not set up a password. Tried wit hthe Admin Passwords for bot my Mac and my PC without success. Would appreciate some advice on how to resolve this.

In your case the drive could be internal........
The advantage to use several disks stands in the fact that the program and the OS will access at the first disk, the loops and samples will be read from the second and the audio data flow will have the third disk completely dedicated to that job.
But this arguments are right only if you work with lots of tracks, sampled sounds and loops, otherwise it's pretty useless to have all those HDs.
The effects must stay where they are (/Library/Audio/Plugins/Components)!
cheers
rob

Time Machine index failures and external drives

Greetings,
I have been running into a number of failures with Time Machine on an Intel Core i7 iMac running Mac OS X 10.6.4. The external hard drive is an iOmega "eGo" 2 TB desktop drive connected with USB 2.0. I have used this kind of hard drive before for TIme Machine successfully, on this machine which has as far as I know always run Snow Leopard.
Unfortunately, I cannot put a date or event to when these Time Machine errors began (whether coincident with an OS upgrade or what); the iMac belongs to my research group, and is located in a meeting room where it is used by several people. I'd estimate the TM failures began maybe 3 months ago, after the drive and Time Machine having worked fine for several months before then.
I've already used Disk Utility to repair and/or re-format (remake single partition) the external drive, and checked the iMac's HD for errors. The external is a brand-new drive; I just recently exchanged the previous same-model drive for a replacement, since the previous one failed some kind of diagnostics they performed back at the shop (I don't know what the problem was, there). The first eGo drive was the one that worked for a while with Time Machine. Since I replaced it with a new one, TM has never successfully completed a back-up.
Time Machine's error message is the usual "The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk" along with the "The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk." that comes up when I click for more info in the control panel. Below, I've also copied typical outputs from "Time Machine Buddy" and from "system.log" read in Console.
I've tried working through some of the suggested actions at http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/ (specifically: "full reset," item A4; suggestions at the bottom of D4; and C3), with no luck so far. I also tried using a different external drive (an OWC Mercury Elite Pro 2TB), and tried it connected either with USB 2.0 (a new cable) or FireWire 800; both ways it returned the same "indexing a file failed"-type messages in the TM Buddy and system.log.
Any further suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks!
(example) from the Time Machine Buddy widget:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/[BackupVolumeNameHere]/Backups.backupdb
Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 63.75 GB requested (including padding), 1.57 TB available
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Indexer unavailable (1)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
... (and on like that)
from system.log (filtered with search, "backupd"):
Sep 28 00:31:54 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 00:32:21 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Indexer unavailable (1)
... and on like that, until ...
Sep 28 04:32:16 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 04:33:16 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 04:34:16 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 04:35:16 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 04:36:16 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 04:37:16 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 04:38:16 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 04:39:16 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 04:40:16 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 04:40:22 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Copied 0 bytes of 53.1 GB, 0 of 939187 items
Sep 28 05:19:02 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CarbonC ore.framework/Versions/A/_CodeSignature/CodeResources, /Volumes/[BackupVolumeNameHere]/Backups.backupdb/[iMacNameHere]/2010-09-27-1826 58.inProgress/CB67F2B5-BB62-471C-832F-0E7FD1E8C4A6/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Carbo nCore.framework/Versions/A/_CodeSignature/CodeResources
Sep 28 05:19:02 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Aborting backup because indexing a file failed.
Sep 28 05:19:02 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Stopping backup.
Sep 28 05:19:02 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Copied 126680 files (20.9 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Sep 28 05:19:02 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Copy stage failed with error:11
Sep 28 05:19:07 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Backup failed with error: 11
Sep 28 05:25:28 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Starting standard backup
Sep 28 05:25:28 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Backing up to: /Volumes/[BackupVolumeNameHere]/Backups.backupdb
Sep 28 05:25:29 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
Sep 28 05:25:29 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 39.99 GB requested (including padding), 1.73 TB available
Sep 28 05:25:29 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 05:26:29 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 05:27:29 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Indexer unavailable (1)
... and on like that again, until ...
Sep 28 08:22:10 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Copied 0 bytes of 27.8 GB, 0 of 939187 items
Sep 28 08:31:15 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Indexing a file failed. Returned 1 for: /Library/Application Support/iPhoto/Themes/Shared/Card/PaperHearts/Icons/paper_hearts-V-oustide-roun d-text-red.tiff, /Volumes/[BackupVolumeNameHere]/Backups.backupdb/[iMacNameHere]/2010-09-27-1826 58.inProgress/91C738D1-2AB3-481D-861F-9A5FBEC2B546/Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/iPhoto/Themes/Shared/Card/PaperHearts/Icons/paper_hearts-V-oustide-roun d-text-red.tiff
Sep 28 08:31:15 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Aborting backup because indexing a file failed.
Sep 28 08:31:15 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Stopping backup.
Sep 28 08:31:15 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Copied 89460 files (229 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Sep 28 08:31:15 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Copy stage failed with error:11
Sep 28 08:31:20 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Backup failed with error: 11
Sep 28 09:25:28 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Starting standard backup
Sep 28 09:25:28 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Backing up to: /Volumes/[BackupVolumeNameHere]/Backups.backupdb
Sep 28 09:25:28 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
Sep 28 09:25:28 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 33.41 GB requested (including padding), 1.72 TB available
Sep 28 09:25:28 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 09:26:28 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
... and on like that again, until ...
Sep 28 11:21:30 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Sep 28 11:22:04 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Copied 0 bytes of 27.8 GB, 0 of 939187 items
Sep 28 11:31:09 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Indexing a file failed. Returned 1 for: /Library/Application Support/iPhoto/Themes/Shared/Card/SimpleParchment/SimpleParchmentHM_FrontV.png, /Volumes/[BackupVolumeNameHere]/Backups.backupdb/[iMacNameHere]/2010-09-27-1826 58.inProgress/E252969A-FF5D-418A-B61C-15EFC7784C20/Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/iPhoto/Themes/Shared/Card/SimpleParchment/SimpleParchmentHM_FrontV.png
Sep 28 11:31:09 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Aborting backup because indexing a file failed.
Sep 28 11:31:09 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Stopping backup.
Sep 28 11:31:09 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Copied 90086 files (37.7 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Sep 28 11:31:09 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Copy stage failed with error:11
Sep 28 11:31:14 [ComputerNameHere] com.apple.backupd[252]: Backup failed with error: 11

Hello again,
I ran the 10.6.4 Combo update installer, and followed up with Repair Permissions. There was one issue in the latter that I was curious about:
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
I'm guessing that's not really related. In any case, I started running a new initial backup in TM which got hung up with the following:
messages from the Time Machine Buddy widget:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/(backupvolume)/Backups.backupdb
Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
Backup content size: 64.7 GB excluded items size: 15.7 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 58.82 GB requested (including padding), 1.70 TB available
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Indexer unavailable (1)
Indexing a file failed. Returned 1 for: /Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Magic GarageBand/06. Funk.mwand, /Volumes/(backupvolume)/Backups.backupdb/(computername)/2010-10-15-151841.inPro gress/8CB20070-9CFE-4667-A590-17730C868861/Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Magic GarageBand/06. Funk.mwand
Aborting backup because indexing of file failed.
Stopping backup.
Copied 74447 files (15.2 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11
messages in system.log (filtered with search "backupd"):
Oct 15 15:18:40 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Starting standard backup
Oct 15 15:18:40 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Backing up to: /Volumes/(backupvolume)/Backups.backupdb
Oct 15 15:18:41 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Error parsing SystemMigration.log to determine source volume of system migration.
Oct 15 15:18:42 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Backup content size: 64.7 GB excluded items size: 15.7 GB for volume Macintosh HD
Oct 15 15:18:42 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 58.82 GB requested (including padding), 1.70 TB available
Oct 15 15:18:42 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Oct 15 15:19:42 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
Oct 15 15:19:51 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Indexer unavailable (1)
Oct 15 15:19:53 (computername) mds[475]: (Normal) DiskStore: Creating index for /Volumes/(backupvolume)/Backups.backupdb
Oct 15 15:39:55 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Indexing a file failed. Returned 1 for: /Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Magic GarageBand/06. Funk.mwand, /Volumes/(backupvolume)/Backups.backupdb/(computername)/2010-10-15-151841.inPro gress/8CB20070-9CFE-4667-A590-17730C868861/Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Magic GarageBand/06. Funk.mwand
Oct 15 15:39:55 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Aborting backup because indexing of file failed.
Oct 15 15:39:55 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Stopping backup.
Oct 15 15:39:56 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Copied 74447 files (15.2 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Oct 15 15:39:56 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Copy stage failed with error:11
Oct 15 15:40:01 (computername) com.apple.backupd[470]: Backup failed with error: 11
Currently, TM is attempting to (resume?) back up again. Would you suggest leaving it alone, or proceeding next with a re-install of Snow Leopard from the install DVD (followed by 10.6.4 again)?
Thanks again!

I had a HD failure on my MBP, luckily i had a full backup on an external drive. However, my new drive had Maverick installed, my photo's were in a 9.2.3 version of iPhoto. Now I can't move my library across. Help !

I had a HD failure on my MBP, luckily i had a full backup on an external drive. However, my new drive had Maverick installed, my photo's were in a 9.2.3 version of iPhoto. Now I can't move my library across. Help !

my photo's were in a 9.2.3 version of iPhoto. Now I can't move my library across. Help
What exactly is the problem?
You are now running Mavericks. What version of iPhoto do you now have installed? If you restored an iPhoto 9.2.3 version, it will not work with Mavericks, you first need to update iPhoto to the current version 9.5.1. Check, if you are seeing an update on the "updates" tab of the App Store, when you sign in with your Apple iD, or on the "Purchased" tab in the "Accept" portion of the tab.
What kind of backup of your iPhoto library do you have?

Restore Failure when backing up to external drive

Hi,
I have been trying to backup my hard drive onto an external drive, but I keep receiving the following error when the backup is about 3/4 done:
Restore Failure
An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
I am backing up onto a 300 gig Seagate harddrive that is partitioned in half.
I took it into the apple store and the guy told me to download super duper or another backup software, but this did not work either. I get the same error.

bump

Can losing connection with an external drive lead to its failure?

My iTunes library is currently wireless, through my Airport Extreme, so I can use it both with my Macbook Air and my iMac. Of course the downside is only one computer can access it at a time and I'm limited by the range of the Airport, but it works for me... Since my library is too big for iTunes Match anyways and I live in a small appartment it's perfect.
Anyways, my problem is, this setup is fairly new, and a few times yesterday while I was working on adding new music to my library (ripping my CDs in lossless), I got the error message that connection was lost with my iTunes drive!
My internet didn't seem to flinch though, which is weird. But it doesn't seem to be the "the disk was not ejected properly" external disk error that's been going around, as I HAVE that **** problem with another of my drives... (connected via cable) and it's not the same error message.
This one is just saying the connection was lost... like Airport had the hiccups or something.
Time for me to click on "ignore" and I could go back to what I was doing.
Except twice, this happened WHILE a track was importing into iTunes!
The first time, I got an error message saying it was impossible to read or write to the device... I was scared... closed iTunes, re-opened... and it looked like nothing happened! Phew. Even the freshly imported tracks were there, up the to one that was importing when it lost connection, which of course wasn't imported.
But then it happened again... while it was, again, importing...
This time, restarting iTunes didn't cut it.
When I opened Airport Utility to check, I had yellow question mark, and a message saying the attached drive was failing, or corrupted, something like that (can't remember), to plug it directly in my computer and repair it!
I did that, opened Disk Utility... and the drive won't mount.
I tried the few tricks I know, still won't mount.
So now I'm in the middle of creating a disk image on one of my other external drives (it's been hours and only a third has been done, I'm crossing my fingers it doesn't just freeze, give me an error message or tell me there's not enough space... because I couldn't check how much space was used since it wouldn't mount... and it has been a while since I checked).
I'm also in the middle of checking for data recovery with my old StellarPhoenix app... not even sure what it could do or if it still works...
But all that to wonder : can a simple network disconnection be enough to do that???
If so, how come people rely on NAS, how come so many use Airport in conjunction with external drives?! It just doesn't make sense to me...
Maybe this was just a weird coincidence? Or maybe I'm taking the problem the wrong way, and the lost connection happened because the drive was failing? In that case I just find it weird that I didn't see any sign of that while it was connected directly to my iMac, right until a few days ago!
...Gee, I'm tired of buying external drives!
For the curious, this one is a 2TB Samsung (Iomega), bought in december 2010, so just 2 years old.

Thanks edex67!
Now the question would be, are numerous losses of connection in a day normal for Airport Extreme, or is mine failing?
Can't find a model number and the serial doesn't lead anywhere, but I'm pretty sure it dates back to 2008, the second generation.
A small update: Problem seems to definitely be just in the filesystem since after formatting all seems well, while I can't restore with my disk image, as after hours of scanning it, I now get the error message that Disk Utility can't scan it because of an internal error.
Now let's hope I can save the data, because even though I regularly did backups of that disk, I would still lose those hours of new imports and organization I had just done when it failed...
I'l look for Gparted also... thanks!

How to retrieve a backup of an external hard drive from time machine if there is a drive failure of the external HD?

Hi,
I have a time caspule that I use as my backup for Time machine.
My itunes folder is on an external drive and When I do my backups, I connect my external to my mac so that my itunes folder will be backed up.
When I do the back up, I know its backing up the external due to the size of the backup.
but if my external were to fail, how do I retrieve the back up of the external? From what I can tell the drive has to be connected to the mac when connecting to time machine to access the back up files for the external. But if the drive is dead, how do I retrieve my files?

budden10, please try this:
Disconnect the external drive to simulate it not working or having failed
Open Time Machine on your Mac and wait a few minutes for your backups to load fully
Go back in time and select a date when you were backing up the external drive
Now look at the Finder window and locate your Mac on the left side of the window under DEVICES
Click on your Mac
What do you see in the window there just to the right?

External firewire hard-drive failure

Hi about two weeks ago I purchased a 250GB Lacie Porsche firewire drive. Everything has been fine, and it is mainly used to auto backup with backup 3. It is usually switched off and unplugged. I came to plug it in last night and turn it on, and the icon didn't appear - I assume that means the drive hasn't mounted (still fairly new to the joys of macs). I've fiddled with the wires, turned it on and off but nothing. The light on the drive works, but it doesn't sound as though it is actually spinning - anyone any ideas?
I know I can return it but wondered if I was doing something wrong!
Many thanks.

I'm not insulted at all! No it's all plugged in - just wondered if it was something I had missed with the ibook - can you recommend an external drive that perhaps won't fail in two weeks - Ihave all my 50GB of music and photos to store!
I take it that if by mistake my wife had pulled out the firewire cable (when the drive was mounted but not doing anything) this wouldn't have affected anything? She is sure she didn't but I just wondered - I know my camera has a dickie-fit if I forget to eject it!
Thanks for your help!

MBP internal drive failure causes external drive probs. Weird...

I've been booting off an external drive for some months now. I figured it would save wear on the internal drive, and when my boot drive eventually failed (the external one) it would be quicker and a lot cheaper to swap that out with another external one than to have to change the internal drive. I use FW800 and not seen any performance hit.
Yesterday (with the whole system booted from the external drive) it started going really buggy, everything was painfully slow - like, virtually at a standstill, and with a very slow wi-fi internet connection.
I tried rebooting. It would only boot from the external drive, and only if I held down the option key and selected a boot from the options that appear. Otherwise just the apple symbol and an endless twirly. It wouldn't boot from the internal drive +at all.+
Eventually I booted from the SL disk and ran disk utilities. To my surprise the internal drive was corrupted in some way and couldn't be repaired. I wiped the drive and restored it using Time Machine (stored on yet another drive). Everything then worked fine, except for the slow wi-fi.
So, +why should a corrupted internal drive stop the MBP booting from an external drive?+ This is worrying for me if the machine ever goes down at work and I have to rely on booting from another drive, which then might not boot properly and is buggy.
To complicate matters (or does it offer a clue?) this morning I booted from the usual external drive. It worked ok, but wi-fi was still slow. Another Mac here was showing the same internet slowness, so I figured it was maybe the ISP.
Then the MBP itself started going slow n buggy again. A check on the internal drive showed no return of yesterday's probs. On a hunch I unplugged the router from the mains and plugged it in again. The wi-fi then worked properly as did everything else.
+Why would a buggy router affect my MBP? Could it have corrupted the internal drive?? Why should any of that affect the machine's ability to boot from an external drive..?+
Thoughts anyone?

clicked 'solved' but the credit went to the wrong place!
it's solved, thanks to clinton:
Re: Re: clone no longer sees MBP internal drive

External Drive Failure

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