External Hard disks corrupted
Hello,
2 external hard disks and a USB of mine has been corrupted out of sudden over a time span of 2 months, the hard disks I only connect them to my Macbook Air, the USB I connect to many computers.
I took my mac to the apple care they have ran all tests and it passed them all. I was wondering if my mac is the one causing my external disks to get corrupted out of sudden.
Please help as I am losing lots of data, and I cant keep changing external hard disks and USBs....
Help..
The external hard disks mostly gets corrupted incase of a power outage or power failure when the external hard disk and mac are transferring some files.
In that case only the cache files are transferred and not the data files which may corrupt the files.
HDD corruption can also be caused due to some already corrupted files sitting and corrupting the other files.
It can also be caused due to Viruses or Malwares. But here the chances are very rare as there are very very few viruses ever created for Mac OS.
It can also be caused due to physical shock damage by damaging the main platters in the hard disk.
Try to repair the Hard disk by running Disk utility. Applications > Utilities folder > Disk Utility. Then select your external drive on the left hand column and select the Verify disk option and later after the verification select the repair disk option and try to repair it. If that doesn’t help then you will need to buy Disk Warrior.
Disk Warrior is an excellent Disk Directory repair tool......http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
Never doubt Disk Warriors potentials as it has helped many users.
Hope this helps.....
Similar Messages
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Disk write cache corruption on an external hard disk
Recently I purchased an external hard disk, to put all of my pictures of my baby due to space limitations on my internal laptop drive. Since my Canon camera 10 megapixel pictures take up a ton of space this was occurring at an alarming rate. My intention was also to back up to DVD but never got to it. This is both a comment and a question.
Now said baby, is getting really good at pulling cords etc. He managed to do this on the external drive firewire cable. As far as i know the drive was not in the process of actually writing. However, after a few minutes and trying to re-plug the drive the OS crashed with a Grey Screen of Death hardware error that tells you that you need to push the power button..
This apparently corrupted the drive's directory. Upon reboot the drive would not mount. Since there were time machine backups on the drive too Diskwarrior was not able to reconstruct the drive in the built in memory available on the computer. Time machine stores millions of files and Diskwarrior apparently wants to keep it all in memory at once. Since my computer has 2GB you would hope that would be enough but apparently not. So that failed. Other utilities seemed to be able to find the files but not restore the directory. I also took it to the apple store they were not able to recover it.
I have to say this is extremely distressing, and hard to believe that a simple accident like this could cost the loss of thousands of pictures. I did send it to a rescue company but that was expensive but I think apple needs to do something about this situation.
On Windows there is a way to disable the write cache for external drives. This is not available for Mac OS X. This would prevent this rather common occurrence of a plug accidentally becoming disengaged when the drive is not in the process of writing. This reduces the odds but I still think apple, in order to become clearly superior, needs a better solution.
I know Apple has experimented with ZFS would this not eliminate this possibility of this kind of disaster? Is this in Snow Leopard desktop? I know they are thinking this is a business customer focused technology but clearly if it can eliminate this kind of thing then I think it is extremely useful to their non server customers. Perhaps there are other ways of dealing with this issue but ZFS is designed to deal with these issues. HFS+ is extremely fragile to disk corruption.
I know my situation is not that uncommon and this is not the first time this has happened to me with an external drive. You would think I had learned. I hate to think of how many other people have had the same thing happen to them.Disabling a write cache would not help you with the problem you are having. Besides the write cache is on the hard drive and operates independently of the operating system. But nothing can protect you from disconnected an external drive improperly, and if the drive is in the process of being written to, and the problem comes from directory corruption, not file corruption, as in the case you have described, disabling a write cache would not have made any difference.
For the future the magic word is: Backups.
< Edited by Host > -
This external hard disk used to serve as the main drive of my mbp. It got corrupted and the OSX would no longer load. I upgraded to a 500gb hd and used the old hd as an external drive. I tried to copy my files but i could not access them because of the filevault encryption. 110gb of hd space appears as used which means that my files are still in the drive. Is there a way to retrieve these files? thanks
According to your post, you're using Leopard, so FileVault only encrypts your user folder (unlike Lion). On the mounted external drive, in your user folder, you should see a file called username.sparsebundle, with username being your user name. Double-click that file to open it and it should prompt you for a password. Type in your password and the file will mount as a volume in Finder. You should be able to copy all of your files over.
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External Hard disk not being detected.
External Hard disk is corrupt. It was plugged into an Xbox and fidgetted around. I think the kid playing with it clicked on format but before it could do anything i unplugged it. But in the process this drive is not getting detected any more and all the data on the drive is non accessable. Is there anything that can be done to recover the data?
but no partition
Yes, you interrupted a formatting.
Since the "other person" commanded a format (why?), which is very quick operation, youve got a nasty mess as per the HD.
This is why having a minimum secondary redundancy of all data on an external HD is necessity.
Remaining option is pricey data recovery specialists. -
Hi there! Yesterday, I installed Mavericks on my Macbook. Since then, it doesn't recognize my external hard disk drive anymore (at least not on the desktop. In Germany they call it "it doens't mount it". I don't know if it's the same expression in english?)
I just used it a week ago, before I did the update and it worked perfectly fine.
Is there anyone out there who knows a solution for this problem? I've been googleing for hours now and can't find any answer.
Thank you!!!Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test. -
Dear all,
What should I do? I keep getting the "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files and documents to an external hard disk.
Thanks a heap.For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size with the largest at the top. It may take a few minutes for ODS to finish scanning your files.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal. -
NTFS formatted external hard disks?
does mountain lion supports writing on NTFS formatted external hard disks?
I'm getting immense slow-downs using Tuxera NTFS (latest release as of August 2012). I moved my home folder to an NTFS shared drive. Reading/writing to the cache while browsing in Safari is slow. Takes about 30 seconds for Finder to open my NTFS drive, takes about 1 minute to open an app and close the app. If I disable Tuxera NTFS and make my drive read-only, everything goes back to snappy performance (except for write-errors, since disabling Tuxera means I can't write to my home folder).
What shocks me the most is that if you visit the Tuxera community forum on their corporate website, none of their support representatives have helped their customers since the release of Tuxera NTFS for OS X Mountain Lion. It's as if the company realized they messed up, so they went silent.
I'm about to try the latest version of Paragon. I had it for OS X Lion, but it corrupted my entire drive after 2 months of use, which is why I tried to give Tuxera a shot. Here's to hoping Paragon has fixed their issues. -
hi
i used windows 7 at home, and imac at school. LOTS of files (and folders) are missing from my external hard disk when i connect it to my mac. what happened? are they hidden? are they corrupted?
what can i do other than reformatting my external HD? i cant do it (i.e. reformat) everytime it happened!
please help..
p/s: i hope this question is on the right topic.This partly depends on the Mac OS version in the School iMacs, and on the kind of files you need to access, two things we do not yet know from your initial post.
I would not reformat the drive yet. Unless the Mac OS at school is extremely old, it should be able to read a disk formatted for Windows.
Macs and PCs can share a number of data files: most of the MS Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) produce true, cross-platform documents. All pdf files should be cross-platform.
On the other hand, a Windoze-only application like Microsoft Publisher creates a file that Macs do not recognize. The Mac should be able to "see" the file on the drive but cannot associate it with a Mac app for opening.
The myriad of system files from either OS may or may not be hidden. You would seldom need access to those files on either system.
If you post what OS is on the iMacs at your school and what types of file are on the hard drive that you need to access at school, then I think people here can better help.
newblexx wrote:
p/s: i hope this question is on the right topic.
It is if the iMacs at school are the ones with an articulated display arm and the half-dome base. In the long run, you may be better off posting in the forum section for whatever OS is on the school's iMacs, but continue here for now. -
Hi,
I am using Windows 8.1
I have an External Hard Disk i have partitioned it to 4 parts.
One drive is now inaccessible due to sudden power failure while listening Music from that drive few days ago.
Now it shows "Data error (Cyclic redundancy check)".
I tried all the procedures provided here like
chkdsk /f, diskpart, rescan etc
but no result :( (i mean all processes failed. They could not detect the drive).
Please help me to get those data, pictures and project files.
thank youThen why aren't you posting this in the Windows 8 forums found @
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/home?category=w8itpro
This is a Windows 7 forum for discussion about Windows 7.
Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. ” -
Want to use a Lacie External Hard Disk with Windows and Mac? Can I?...
Hi, I've just purchased a Lacie Extreme D2 external hard disk, I'm looking to use it to move film clips from my Mac G5 to my Sony Vaio laptop. I'll connect the Mac using Firewire 1 and the PC using USB 1.
I understand there is an issue with setting the compaitibility of the hard disk to either Mac or Windows format but I'm wondering if I can set it to both, so it's possible to transfer these files? The hard disk is Windows and Mac compatible but does it have to be partitioned a certain way?
Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks,
AlexFormat the drive as FAT or use the Mac format (HFS Extended) and install MacDrive on the PC.
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I am trying to save memory on my iPhone 4S/ ios6.
1) Can I back up all photos to icloud and the external hard disk I normally use for photos? If I then delete photos from the iPhone do the get deleted on iCloud?
2) Can I back up the newsstand to iCloud and save memory on the iPhone?
3) Can I back up the bookshelf to icloud and save memory on the iPhone?1. What format is the external drive? It sounds like it's ina format that Macs can't write to. Is it a NAS or NTFS?
2. Easiest thing: just move your iPhoto Library to the external
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD -
Unable to capture files into external hard disk because of 'drop frames '
I haven't been able to capture footage from my DV camcoder thru firewire to an external hard disk in FCP because i get a message saying 'drop frames were detected'.
This happens when i selected this external hard drive as the scratch disk in FCP.
When i deslect it and select my user hard disk as the scratch disk, the capturing works perfectly. But i just want to capture all my capture files into the external hard disk, not my user hard disk.
The external hard disk's speed is 3500 - could that be the problem? Is it too slow? Its connected thru USB and it is Mac Os Extended Journaled. Its got 250gb of space, so that's not the issue.
Can anybody help me?
Thank you.No, its a Panasonic gs180, a really good camera.
The camera itself is connected to my computer through firewire. Its the hard disk enclosure that is connected to my emac through USB. Anyway, i'm sure that's not the problem, casue like i said, the capturing works fine when i use my user hard disk as the FCP scratch disk.
The problem i have is when i try to capture footage from my camera to the external hard disk enclosure. When i press 'capture now' and press play, the playback stutters and a messsage appears saying, "drop frames detected" and the capturing stops.
I feel like i need to adjust something in FCP itself - like a preference or something - just not sure what.
Thnx for your suggestion though and if you know what i should do, please let me know. -
Imposible continue the installation of Snow leopard 10.6 on a 1TB external hard disk, what can I do?
Imposible continue with the installation of Snow leopard 10.6 on a 1TB external hard disk. I did the same last year and I continued working but suddenly appeared the simbol with a folder and a question mark and I know this is a problem so I click in the format option to the hard disk and when I tried to install again Snow Leopard, 'cause I want to recover my backups with Time Machine, I couldn't continue because the installation didn't respond to the click in the Utilities option or to next step > continue . Please, What can I do? I'll wait for your answers. Thank you so much in advance.
Hello Melophage,
It is the original hard drive which should have been erased by the previous owner. The problem is, I cannot access it without any OS installed. Or maybe there is a bootable USB or DVD that can do it ?
Just an indication: when I boot without CD inserted in it, it shows a grey folder icon with a questionmark like this one:
Thank you for your help
PS: Yes, I am interested by the replacement pair of grey installation DVDs for my model. Where can I purchase this ? -
Not able to delete file from external hard disk
I connected my external hard disk to my macbook pro. But am not able to delete any file since it says the file cannot be deleted when I move it to trash. Could you let me know how to delete a file from the external hard disk?
How is your HDD formatted? NTFS? FAT?
Did you write files with rights? When you strike +I on any file, you can see its rights; if you're read-only, you may change your file's rights. -
How to take backup of database on external hard disk
Hi Team,
We have a server with three instances SOX,GRC and SM2. We have attached
a external hard disk to take backup of database. While taking backup of
any database it gives error as attached. We can take backup of
transaction log on server's disk but not on external disk. Kindly have
a look on attached error and advice us.We are taking backup at sql
server level.
version: SQL SERVER 2005 64 bit
Regards,
DigambarHi Markus,
>You can´t backup a 210 GB database on a 200 GB disk...
We learn a lot every day on these Expert Forums !
In fact, it could even be possible if it's the database enveloppe which is 210 GB and the actual data is less than 200 GB !
I dare to hope that it's not a production system which is backed up with an external disk...
Regards,
Olivier
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