Hard Drive appears dead

My hard drive ( WD 1.5 TB) has apparently died. When I start the computer I get nothing but the fans. The hard drive does nothing. I replaced the hard drive (HD 500GB) and now need help installing the new drive and booting, and reloading the OS (win 7).
I do have access to the recovery partition of the old (WD 1.5 TB) drive. How would I get the recovery partition to the new drive?
ALSO Must I have the keyboard plugged in for the computer to boot? I tried just installing the new drive and tried booting without the keyboard and also got nothing.
I also tried to use a recovery disk in the CD drive and the computer would not even "go to" the CD drive
Thanks
stuballocean
it's an HP Desktop Pavilion Elite

Stuballocean, welcome to the forum.
When requesting help you should always include the make/model of the computer and/or monitor. This information is necessary for us to review the specifications of them.
If you are replacing the 1.5TB drive with a 500GB drive, I don't believe that it will work. The Recovery Discs are setup to look for a drive of equal or larger size to the OEM. Once I have the model of the computer, I will see what I can do to help you.
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Similar Messages

Hard Drive is dead - deciding what to do next

Hi all,
My computer is a 12 inch Powerbook G4. My hard drive is dead.
Here's what happened. Night before last my powerbook was freezing randomly. In retrospect the HDD was making some clicking noises but not consistently. Following morning it freezes one last time. On reboot, it won't finish starting up.
I run Tech Tool and all the HDD scans fail. I use Disk Utility on the Tiger OS CD and it also comes back saying that the HDD has failed. All the repair attempts by these tools fail. I read some articles here in the forum that led me to pay the $5 and download Data Rescue II boot cd file to try and see if I can recover anything. I'm burn the disk image to a cd, but am unable to boot off the disc.
I make an appointment at the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store to basically confirm what I think has happened. They hookup their firewire drive and see that basically there is nothing viewable on the HDD and that it is dead. Since I'm out of warranty, Apple's repair option is to pay around $300 to send it to their repair facility. I'm thinking I may do the replacement myself.
So, my understanding is that the drive that's in there is a 60GB 4200-rpm Ultra ATA/100 hard drive. My question is can I upgrade to faster, larger capacity drive? How do I know what drive will work?
Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

If you want size, definitely get the 250GB drive. It is the largest-to-date drive. I remember just "weeks" ago when I recommended this option to some folks, people thought I was fibbing since the previous option for largest drive was 160GB.
They also thought I might have been confusing it with the SATA drive for MacBook and MacBook Pro computers.
If you're looking at speed, then it's the 100GB drive at 7200RPMs. I'm sure eventually, they will come out with a higher capacity for the 7200RPMs, much like the 250GB story.
I debated over that myself, when I decided to tackle upgrading the drive on my other PowerBook, the 15-inch one. Those are easier. I don't think I will ever pop open the 12-inch PowerBook to do any work on it.
250GB gets space. I wanted it, but at the time, didn't have the money. I got a great deal on a Seagate 160GB 5400.3 RPM drive (the ".3" stand for the version drive you get). It was less than retail because of a price match, plus a store credit coupon I had.
So I went for it. Plus, this drive had Seagate's "perpendicular recording" technology that makes it just as fast--so reviews said--as the 100GB 7200RPM drives.
And 5400RPM vs. 7200RPM drives are really nominal in speed difference. It's not noticeable, according to my research. Where it is noticeable is video editing, and intense tasks. Then there's the factor of higher capacity drives with slower speeds, beating out lower capacity drives with higher speeds.
But I don't want to go in to that. I'll be talking all day!

I have 4 devices on an iTunes whose computer hard drive is dead. How do I get my devices on a new iTunes on a different computer and not wipe out my contents?

I have 4 devices (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4s, iPad2, Mini iPad) on an iTunes whose computer hard drive is dead. How do I get my devices on a new iTunes on a different computer and not wipe out my contents?

This should be of great help to you.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991
Or this one.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141

My hard drive is DEAD.I have to reinstall all my Adobe programms and I need to know exactly the correct process to do ( Indesign CS6-Photoshop CS6 - Photoshop CS5 -Illustrator CS6 - Ligntroom 4 )....

My hard drive is DEAD.I have to reinstall all my Adobe programms and I need to know exactly the correct process to do ( Indesign CS6-Photoshop CS6 - Photoshop CS5 -Illustrator CS6 - Ligntroom 4 )....
is any friendly tutorial available ?
Thank you
Albert

If you didn't have the opportunity to deactivate the installations then you should contact Adobe Support thru chat and ask them to reset your activations for all the serial numbers involved.
Chat support - For the link below click the Still Need Help? option in the blue area at the bottom and choose the chat option...
Make sure you are logged in to the Adobe site, have cookies enabled, clear your cookie cache. If it continues to fail try using a different browser.
Serial number and activation chat support (non-CC)
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/service1.html ( http://adobe.ly/1aYjbSC )
Then you just reinstall the programs and activate using the same serial numbers. If you need to download you can find download available thru the following links...
CS5 - http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/cs5-product-downloads.html
CS6 - http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/cs6-product-downloads.html
Lightroom - all versions
Windows
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=113&platform=Windows
Mac
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=113&platform=Macintosh
You might also find the following helpful...
Download and Installation Help -
https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install.html

My new external hard drive appears in Finder, but none of the files show up in recent documents (today/yesterday/past week)

My new external hard drive appears in Finder, but none of the files stored on it show up in recent documents (today/yesterday/past week).

what format is the external drive? How is it connected?
The drive must be formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) - if it is try Back up your iPhoto library, Depress and hold the option (alt) and command keys and launch iPhoto - from the resulting first aid window repair permissions and if necessary rebuild your database
Note that multiple libraries is not necessary and is generally a bad idea.
LN

Does this mean whether the IPOD's battery or hard drive is dead?

Hi there,
My IPOD Photo when plugged into the AC adapter charger, will show the same three screens again and again
(1) Black Screen with Apple Logo
(2) Sad IPOD icon
(3) Battery icon (looks like a low-battery icon) with exclamation point
I have tried the 5Rs procedure on this site to put the IPOD in disk mode but to no avail.
This IPOD is only 2 years old and has been in great condition. Does the above mean that its hard drive or battery is dead? Or both?
Thanks

Does the above mean that its hard drive or battery is dead? Or both?
It could either be
a. The battery is dead (normally it should work around 18 months), the low battery level caused the Head of the HD of your iPod get frozen.
b. The iPod does not get charged at all due to hardware/software problem.
Have a read of the following
If a sad iPod icon or an exclamation point and folder icon appears on your iPod’s screen, or with sounds of clicking or HD whirring, it is usually the sign of a hard drive problem and you have the power to do something about it now. Your silver bullet of resolving your iPod issue – is to restore your iPod to factory settings.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60983
If you're having trouble, try these steps at different levels one at a time until the issue is resolved. These steps will often whip your iPod back into shape.
Make sure you do all the following “TRYs”
A. Try to wait 30 minutes while iPod is charging.
B. Try another FireWire or USB through Dock Connector cable.
C. Try another FireWire or USB port on your computer .
D. Try to disconnect all devices from your computer's FireWire and USB ports.
E. Try to download and install the latest version of iPod software and iTunes
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
For old and other versions of iPod updater for window you can get here
http://www.ipodwizard.net/showthread.php?t=7369
F. Try these five steps (known as the five Rs) and it would conquer most iPod issues.
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/
G. Try to put the iPod into Disk Mode if it fails to appear on the desktop
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93651
If none of these steps address the issue, you may need to go to Intermediate level listed below in logical order. Check from the top of the lists to see if that is what keeping iPod from appearing on your computer in order for doing the Restore.
Intermediate Level
A. Try to connect your iPod with another computer with the iPod updater pre-installed.
B. Still can’t see your iPod, put it in Disk Mode and connect with a computer, instead of doing a Restore on iPod Updater. Go and format the iPod instead.
For Mac computer
1. Open the disk utility, hope your iPod appears there (left hand side), highlight it
2. Go to Tab “Partition”, click either “Delete” or “Partition”, if fails, skip this step and go to 3
3. Go to Tab “Erase” , choose Volume Format as “MAC OS Extended (Journaled), and click Erase, again if fails, skip it and go to 4
4. Same as step 3, but open the “Security Options....” and choose “Zero Out Data” before click Erase. It will take 1 to 2 hours to complete.
5. Eject your iPod and do a Reset
6. Open the iTunes 7 and click “Restore”
For Window computer
Go to folder “My Computer”
Hope you can see your iPod there and right click on the iPod
Choose “Format”. Ensure the settings are at “Default” and that “Quick Format” is not checked
Now select “Format”
Eject your iPod and do a Reset
Open the iTunes 7 and click “Restore”
In case you do not manage to do a “Format” on a window computer, try to use some 3rd party disk utility software, e.g.“HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool”.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=501330&tstart=0
C. Windows users having trouble with their iPods should locate a Mac user. In many cases when an iPod won't show up on a PC that it will show up on the Mac. Then it can be restored. When the PC user returns to his computer the iPod will be recognized by the PC, reformatted for the PC, and usable again. By the way, it works in reverse too. A Mac user often can get his iPod back by connecting it to a PC and restoring it.
Tips
a. It does not matter whether the format is completed or not, the key is to erase (or partly) the corrupted firmware files on the Hard Drive of the iPod. After that, when the iPod re-connected with a computer, it will be recognized as an fresh external hard drive, it will show up on the iTunes 7.
b. It is not a difficult issue for a Mac user to find a window base computer, for a PC user, if they can’t find any Mac user, they can go to a nearest Apple Shop for a favor.
c. You may need to switch around the PC and Mac, try to do several attempts between “Format” and “Restore”
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2364921&#2364921
Advance Level
A. Diagnostic mode solution
If you have tried trouble shooting your iPod to no avail after all the steps above, chances are your iPod has a hardware problem. The iPod's built-in Diagnostic Mode is a quick and easy way to determine if you have a "bad" iPod.
You need to restart your iPod before putting it into Diagnostic Mode. Check that your hold switch is off by sliding the switch away from the headphone jack. Toggle it on and off to be safe.
Press and hold the following combination of buttons simultaneously for approximately 10 seconds to reset the iPod.
iPod 1G to 3G: "Menu" and "Play/Pause"
iPod 4G+ (includes Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini): "Menu" and "Select"
The Apple logo will appear and you should feel the hard drive spinning up. Press and hold the following sequence of buttons:
iPod 1G to 3G: "REW", "FFW" and "Select"
iPod 4G+ (includes Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini): "Back" and "Select"
You will hear an audible chirp sound (3G models and higher) and the Apple logo should appear backwards. You are now in Diagnostic Mode. Navigate the list of tests using "REW" and "FFW". The scroll wheel will not function while in diagnostic mode. For further details on Diagnostic mode can be found at http://www.methodshop.com/mp3/ipodsupport/diagnosticmode/
Try to do the 5in1, HDD R/W and HDD scan tests. Some successful cases have been reported after the running the few tests under the Diagnostic mode. In case it does not work in your case, and the scan tests reports show some errors then it proves your iPod has a hardware problem and it needs a repairing service.
B. Format your iPod with a start disk
I have not tried this solution myself, I heard that there were few successful cases that the users managed to get their iPod (you must put your iPod in disk mode before connecting with a computer) mounted by the computer, which was booted by a system startup disk. For Mac, you can use the Disk Utility (on the Tiger OS system disk), for PC user, you can use the window OS system disk. Try to find a way to reformat your iPod, again it does not matter which format (FAT32, NTFS or HFS+) you choose, the key is to erase the corrupted system files on the iPod. Then eject your iPod and do a Reset to switch out from Disk Mode. Reboot your computer at the normal way, connect your iPod back with it, open the iPod updater, and hopefully your iPod will appear there for the Restore.
If none of these steps address the issue, your iPod may need to be repaired.
Consider setting up a mail-in repair for your iPod http://depot.info.apple.com/ipod/
Or visit your local Apple Retail Store http://www.apple.com/retail/
In case your iPod is no longer covered by the warranty and you want to find a second repairing company, you can try iPodResQ at your own risk
http://www.ipodresq.com/index.php
Just in case that you are at the following situation
Your iPod warranty is expired
You don’t want to pay any service charges
You are prepared to buy a new one
You can’t accept the re-sell value of your broken iPod
Rather than leave your iPod as paper-weight or throw it away.
You can try the following, but again, only do it as your last resort and at your own risk.
Warning !!!! – It may or may not manage to solve your problem, and with a risk that you may further damage your iPod, which end up as an expensive paper weight or you need to pay more higher repairing cost. Therefore, please re-consider again whether you want to try the next level
Last Resort Level
1. . Disconnecting the Hard Drive and battery inside the iPod – Warning !! Your iPod warranty will be waived once you open the iPod.
In Hong Kong there are some electronic shops offering an iPod service for Sad iPod, the first thing they do is to open up the iPod’s case and disconnecting the battery and the Hard Drive from the main board of the iPod. Wait for 5-10 minutes and reconnecting them back. The reason behind which I can think of is to do a fully reset of a processor of the iPod. In case you want do it itself and you believe that you are good on fixing the electronics devices and have experience to deal with small bits of electronic parts, then you can read the following of how to open the iPod case for battery and HDD replacement (with Quicktimes)
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/directory.html
2.Press the reset button on the Hard Drive inside the iPod – Suggestion from Kill8joy
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2438774#2438774
Have I tried these myself? No, I am afraid to do it myself as I am squeamish about tinkering inside electronic devices, I have few experiences that either I broke the parts (which are normally tiny or fragile) or failed to put the parts back to the main case. Therefore, I agree with suggestion to have it fixed by a Pro.
2. Do a search on Google and some topics on this discussion forum about “Sad iPod”
Exclamation point and folder and nothing else
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3597173#3597173
Exclamation point and folder and nothing else
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2831962#2831962
What should I do with my iPod? Send it or keep it?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=469080&tstart=0
Strange error on iPod (probably death)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435160&start=0&tstart=0
Sad Face on iPod for no apparent reason
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=336342&start=0&tstart=0
Meeting the Sad iPod icon
http://askpang.typepad.com/relevanthistory/2004/11/meeting_thesad.html#comment-10519524
Sad faced iPod, but my computer won’t recognize it?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2236095#2236095
iPod Photo: unhappy icon + warranty question
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2233746#2233746
4th Gen iPod Users - are we all having the same problem?
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2235623#2235623
Low Battery, and clicking sounds
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2237714#2237714
Sad faced iPod, but my computer won’t recognize it
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2242018#2242018
Sad iPod solution
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=412033&tstart=0
Re: try to restore ipod and it says "can't mount ipod"
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=443659&tstart=30
iPod making clicking noise and is frozen
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2420150#2420150
Cant put it into disk mode
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3786084#3786084
I think my iPod just died its final death
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3813051
Apple logo & monochrome battery stay
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3827167#3827167
I am not suggesting that you should follow as well, but just read them as your reference. You are the person to make the call.
Finally, I read a fair comments from dwb, regarding of slapping the back of the iPod multiple times
Quote “This has been discussed numerous times as a 'fix'. It does work, at least for a while. In fact I remember using the same basic trick to revive Seagate and Quantam drives back in the mid to late 1980's. Why these tiny hard drives go bad I don't know - could be the actuator gets stuck in place or misaligned. Could be the platter gets stuck or the motor gets stuck. 'Stiction' was a problem for drives back in the 80's. Unfortunately the fix can cause damage to the platter so we temporarily fix one problem by creating another. But I know of two instances where a little slap onto the table revived the iPods and they are still worked a year or more later.”UnQuote

How to get data from hard drive in dead iMac?

I have an old slot-loading iMac (350Mhz G3 blueberry) that just died, probably a dead power supply or something. Won't turn on at all. I don't care about restoring it, I just want to take the hard drive out and grab data from it. I've found instructions for removing the HD ... but any tips on the best/cheapest way to hook it up to get data from it? It's EIDE I believe from what I've read so far. Thanks for any help.

Hey Richard.....Thanks for the reply to my question about my wife's dead iMac.....
Her iMac had been acting up lately, mostly to do with her Outlook Express freezing up in OS9. I dunno if OS9 was freezing or if the application was failing. Regardless, I would have to quit OS9, restart Outlook which at the same time restarted OS9. All would be fine for a while, a day or two and then the scene would repeat itself. But I think that issue is separate from the iMac being "dead". Often we have power outages in the area, more than we should. I had the iMac plugged into a battery backup, some APS product I think it is. I believe it is only good for less than an hour as we have other devices drawing on it too. Most of our power outages are of short duration, just enough to be aggravating, sometimes having to reset clocks, etc...And a couple times, I would have to reset the time and date on the iMac so this told me that the PRAM battery was below minimum voltage. But the iMac would ALWAYS restart, even with the low battery. But the most recent outage, about one hour duration, did in the iMac, somehow or other. I do believe the battery backup basically fully discharged. So I removed the battery, could not find a new battery locally so I drove to the big city and paid the local Apple service dealer a visit. I got ripped big time price wise, embarrassed to say. So I get home, put the battery in the holder, depressed the CMU reset, the powerbutton illuminated as did a green LED by the memory modules for less than three seconds and then quit. I also heard the HD trying to spin up and a high voltage THUMP which I assume is the CRT trying to ignite. If I unplugged the iMac, removed the battery, plug in the power again and hit the power button, the iMac would repeat the same short on period and then quit. So it did not seem to make any difference if there was a battery in place. I read somewhere to pull the battery, pull the AC cord, hold down the power button to dump any current (?) and let the unit sit for 24hrs. After that length of time, I was supposed to replace the battery, depress the CMU reset, wait ten seconds and then feed it AC. Well, when I pressed the power button, I heard life for maybe five seconds, maybe a second longer, then a beep and then it shut down. I pulled the AC cord, pulled the battery, re-inserted the battery, depressed the CMU reset, waited a few seconds, plugged in the AC cord, depressed the power button and I am back at the under three seconds of "power-up" and then nothing, dead, no beep, nothing. I think maybe it is a waste of time trying to mess with this unit, looking for a newer iMac on eBay, the snowball series with the 17" LCD, might be time better spent. Hate throwing stuff away, that's why I am up to my ears in junk, maybe u know that scenario. The wife likes my 19" ACER LCD screen, hooked up to this old dual 800mhz, though she dislikes the noise and the tower. But we both agree the large LCD screen is much easier on our aging eyes than the old iMac CRT. Anyway, I appreciate your help, always GREAT to correspond with an Apple fan.....John Bauer

Why do files on an external hard drive appear as alias when connected to Time Capsual's USB?

Situation:
I have an old MacBook Pro (2008) and all of its USB and CD ports have stopped working (only the Ethernet port works). As a workaround, I purchased a 2TB Time Capsule, connected it via Ethernet to the MacBook Pro, and set up a wireless network that my MacBook Air (2010), ipads/pods, can connect.
Attempting to Accomplish:
1. Provide a back-up for my Pro since I cannot connect via USB
2. Move photos off my Air (to free up space) and combine with my Pro's library
3. Share files, music, and photos between all my devices (stored on both my Pro, Time Capsule, and external Maxtor hard drive)
Problem:
My last Pro back-up was to a Maxtor external hard drive. Also, all my Air photos are on the same external hard drive. I connected this hardrive to the Time Capsule. When I accessed the Maxtor from the Pro (through my new airport network) I can see the file hirearchy, but when I drill down to my Air's iPhoto library (back-up, latest, user, x, photos) the files appear with the alias symbol on them. The message I get when clicking is something about them being no longer connected. HOWEVER, when I attach this Maxtor via direct USB to my Air, both the Air backups and the Pro back ups appear as real files (no alias icon) and can be opened and transferred. When my Pro's ports worked I frequently shared files this way with no alias icons.
Disclaimer: I'm mac-savy enough that the genius bar is adding no real value/help, but not nearly as technical as most people on this board. And I'm very un-technical with networking. So if you can point me in the right direction, please "speak" simply =)

Ok, confirmed. It is NTFS and according to the permissions I can only read it. The frustrating thing is that it says:
    - Capacity: 74.53 GB
    - Available: 50.35 GB
    - Used: 24.18 GB on disk
and yet at the bottom of the file list it shows "0 items"
Now the dilemma. The harddrive on my Windows laptop is very small (30GB) so I cannot copy all of my pictures to it. I could hook the old harddrive and the new harddrive up to it at the same time and move them from old to new, however...
The new harddrive is supposed to only be for the Mac so my intention was to format it that way. Because I am not sure if/how I am going to need it to resolve this issue, the box hasn't even been opened...so the first question is long term would it be better to have the new harddrive MAC or FAT32 formatted?
I have been assuming that Mac formatting was the preferred route so I am still brainstorming on ways to get the files straight from the old harddrive to the Mac. Could it just be a matter of the files being hidden on the old harddrive? How do I unhide them?

How do install windows hard drive (from dead pc) into boot camp partition

My Windows 7 desktop died recently, so I took the opportunity to buy a Mac Mini (latest version as of Feb 2012) as a replacement. I want to transfer the Windows 7 installation (from the dead PC) including all applications, accounts, settings, user files, etc to the Boot Camp Partition. Can someone please provide the steps on how to perform the Win 7 migration to the Mac Mini.

Just to clarify:
I want to install the Windows 7 installation from dead the PC into the Mac Mini's Boot Camp partition.
I installed the PC's hard drive into an enclosure and connected it to the Mac Mini via the USB port.
What I want to do is the following:
1) Do a Windows 7 "fresh" install in the Mac Mini Boot Camp partition.
2) Migrate all the applications installed on the Windows 7 PC and their associated data.
3) Migrate all user accounts and data.
Is there a tool that can transfer all applications and user accounts from the Windows 7 Hard Drive to the Boot Camp partition on the Mini?
Based on the documentation the Window Migration tool is Lion OS utility and does not perform a complete migration of all applications installed on the Windows machine.
thank you.

Hard drives appear on desktop, but are inaccessible

Hi.
I recently bought a 17' macbook pro 2.6. I previously had a g4 with four hard drives in it, so I took a couple of them out and put them in external cases. I also have a few external hard drives that were always externals (never in the g4).
The problem I have is that I cannot access one of the formerly internal hard drives. It appears in disk utility and I verified it and there was a minor repair needed (I forget what), so I used the repair function and nothing has changed. The drive icon appears on the desktop, but not under "devices" in the finder window. When I double click on the drive on the desktop, any open finder windows disappear for a few seconds, then reappear, but the drive does not open.
The same thing happens about half of the time with another external drive that was always an external drive. The strange thing is that, even if I can't open the drive, iTunes can access the music files and library on that drive. These drives work fine on my wife's macbook (2.16, running 10.4).
And as if that weren't strange enough, about half of the times that I select "documents" from the "places" menu in the finder window, the same thing happens (finder windows disappear for a few seconds and the documents folder doesn't open), yet I can access my documents folder through my home folder.
The other drive I pulled from my g4 is currently my time machine drive and has no similar problems. Two other external drives also have no problems.
Does this ring any bells?
Thanks,
Bruce

rebuild the directory with Disk Warrior ... works wonders

External hard drive is dead

Mine died. (Iomega MDHD 10T) It's less than a year, but I can't find the receipt.
I've gotten another ext hard drive but I'm wondering is there any way to fix the Iomega one that died? And if I can fix it, is it safe to use or will it crash again? I hate to toss it, if it can be fixed.
I tried Disk Utility and Data Rescue to try to find the drive but neither could see it. It doesn't show up on my desktop or laptop. It seems dead.
Thanks for any suggestions.

if DU can't see the drive, it's quite dead. it's certainly not usable. and the only way to get any info off it is to use very expensive professional data recovery services.
P.S. there is some chance that the problem is with the drive enclosure and not the drive itself. in that case you can crack open the enclosure, take out the drive and put it into a different enclosure.
Message was edited by: V.K.

I want to transfer my Windows files from my Clickfree external drive to my new iMac. iMac recognizes the drive but won't read the files. What should I do? My PC hard drive is dead so I can't hook up my iMac to that.

I'm switching from Windows to iOS. But my new iMac won't allow me to transfer my Windows files on my Clickfree HD425 over to the iMac. It initialy didn't even recognize my hard drive during set up, so I manually went through Finder where it recognized the Clickfree drive. But my files wouldn't appear. I can't go back to my original Windows computer because the hard drive crashed, and that's why I bought this new iMac in the first place. What should I do? As a Mac newbie who was reluctant to exit the Windows world, I don't want my original babystep into the iOS world soured by my first experience.

Hi Rick, & a warm welcome!
In Disk Utility on the Mac, what Format does it say the drive is?

Single external hard drive appearing as two drives in Disk Utility

I have a single 3TB hard drive in an enclosure that is appearing as two phyiscal hard drives in Disk Utility (1 "drive" is 2.2 TB, the other "drive is 800MB, give or take). I attached a screen shot so you all can see what I see. This is definitely a single drive (as opposed to some of those MyBook options that actually have two physical drives in one enclosure).
I'm aware that I can concatenate the drives together to make one logical volume, but I'm trying to figure out why on earth this happened.
To give you a picture of the drive's history, it was previously mounted in a Synology 4 bay NAS as part of a RAID 5 configuration. A few weeks ago, the Synology told me that this disk was having issues, so I replaced it, ran a few rounds of disk repair, and it has been working fine since. I'm not going to put it back in my NAS, since the replacement drive is working fine, and I'd like to use this disk for completely non-essential data (as you can see from the screen shot, I have a few smaller drives in use for 'scratch' work, and I'd like to free those up to use as photo/essential data backups).
As stated before, I'm really just trying to figure out how this could happen, and if there's a way to have the single drive be actually recognized as a single drive, without having to concat or anything.
Thanks in advance.

Thank you.
As I originally stated, I took this disk out when it gave me a generic "drive-has-problems" warning, and then put it into a separate (lets call it a quarantine) enclosure, and ran extensive testing and 'repairing,' without actually finding any problems.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm considering the initial error message to be a 'false-positive' of sorts, due to repeated diagnostics not being able to find any acutal errors, logically or physically.
That being said, I have no reason to 'replace' this drive, as it's original function has already been replaced by a new drive. As I originally stated (twice, actually), I'm really just trying to figure out how this might have happened, and if there are any steps (aside from just concat-ing the two 'disks') to to have the disk function as one physical, rather than two physical, disks.

How do I make the photos on my external hard drive appear in the iPhoto screen

I recently had my hard drive "wiped" at the Apple store to speed it up. In the process I lost a lot which I am now restoring. Prior to the wipe the photos stored in my EHD appeared in the iPhoto screen by default. I have lost that and don't know how to restore it
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poppi

Are they in an iPhoto Library?
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
If not: import them.
Regards
TD

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I have an Iomega 320GB SPHDU external hard drive which I was using as my backup disk for Time Machine and also to store other files (documents, photos, etc.). I have been using for some time now and never had any problems, however this morning, I plugged the hard drive into my MacBook Pro, which is from early 2011 and on operating system OS X 10.9.4, using the USB ports and the hard drive did not appear in Finder. I checked to see if it had appeared in Disk Utility which it does, but Disk Utility is telling me that the hard drive needs repairing. When I try to repair the hard drive, I get the message 'Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed up files.' As I said I have never had any problems with it before, but this has just occurred this morning and I'm unsure why it has happened.

Because there's a problem with the disk's directory structure; these are often the result of improperly unplugging drives or forcing a computer to shut down. Proceed as instructed, or try using a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior to repair it.
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