Hard Drives Bare After Forced Restart!!! HELP!!!

Running new Mac Pro w/ plenty of RAM, and the latest OS.
Was installing Xcode with a few programs running in the background.
Time Machine appeared to have kicked in during the install and Xcode just seemed to hang. Then, suddenly all text disappeared from all Firefox tabs, and all other programs stopped responding. I let it sit for over an hour with no response. I couldn't force quit things, though I was able to quit Mail and Calculator without issue. I could not, however, interact with their windows directly.
After another 30 minutes of total system lock-out (even the dock was stuck) I pressed and held the power button on the front of the unit to turn it off.
When I turned the machine back on it could not find the start-up disk. So, I started up with the Install DVD and ran Disk Utility...
The two internal drives on my machine both registered and were verified in good working order, but they were now BLANK DU registered them as having a tiny bit of information on them when only 2 hours before there was literally hundreds of gigs on board... years worth of valuable data.
I'm not looking for a scolding regarding my not regularly backing up, nor to be admonished for shutting the machine off the way I did.
Has anyone ever seen something like this?
I'll be calling Applecare first thing tomorrow, but am wondering if this might be something Disk Warrior can lend a hand with. Thoughts and recommendations welcome.
Thanks all for your consideration.
Best,
Jason
ps > wary of recovering from Time Machine back-up due to the fact that I'm not sure one of the drives was backing up, and I dare not overwrite the drive while the chance to recover wholesale through the use of a tool like Disk Warrior exists.
Message was edited by: jhcovert

UPDATE
I spoke with Applecare this morning and they instructed me to restore from my TimeMachine back-up and that my secondary internal drive (ie. the MORE important drive) would have definitely been backed up as well.
I restored and... voila!... my basic desktop operating system is back.
That's the good news, however, the bad is that the secondary internal drive DID NOT restore.
As I mentioned before, the drive is being read as healthy and EMPTY, which is mind boggling. I assumed that this was a directory issue, but neither DiskWarrior nor Data Rescue can determine that there is anything wrong with the directory. Data Rescue's "Quick Search" revealed no additional files save for the basics you would find on a barren drive. I am currently running their "Deep Search" which should take several hours, but my question for you guys is this: should Data Rescue come up empty is there anything else I can do? Or is the drive well and truly borked... empty... caput?!? Do I let DiskWarrior attempt to rebuild the directory or am I just throwing fuel on the fire and potentially overwriting data that might be useful in recovery.
Do I then take it to a forensic pro to go over the drive with a fine tooth comb?
Recovering this data is approaching a "no price too high" situation.

Similar Messages

  • External hard drive problem after time machine [help!]

    Hi there! Please help me.
    Last week, I partition a 320 G Samsung external hard drive into a 300G volume (format: Mac OS extended (journaled)) for Time Machine, and other 20G NTFS for data exchange between Mac and Windows. At the same time, I stored 40G IMPORTANT data in the 300G volume.
    However, I plugged in the drive. My MBP MC374 managed to mount the 20G NTFS while the 300G is missing!
    I opened up Disk Utility, it shows:
    Please help! The data matters a lot to me!!

    Specifically you screen shot does not show anything.
    Ciao.

  • External Hard Drive Unavailable After Each Restart

    Hi, everyone —
    I recently upgraded from a 2007 iMac to a 2012 iMac with a Fusion drive. I had two external drives on the old machine which are now connected to the new machine. Both are Seagate "Backup Desk" drives (2TB "Media" and 3TB "Time Machine") and are connected via USB.
    Whenever I restart the computer (or shutdown and turn back on), the Time Machine disk connects fine, but the Media one does not. Disk Utility does not even see the missing hardware, let alone mount the volume.
    To make it appear, all I need to do is disconnect and reconnect the drive.
    But it's annoying! And with my iPhoto library on the ext drive, i have to reselect my background images every time I restart.
    Any ideas?
    I've done the following things in the last day, without any improvement:
    - shut down, unplugged for 15 seconds, restarted zapping pram
    - ran "Repair Disk" on all three disks and Repair Disk Permissions on boot volume. No errors.
    - tried a different USB outlet on the iMac
    Note that despite repeated testing finding no issues, it's possible the drive my have errant sectors. I've seen i/o errors in the Console, but ran Repair Disk several times without major errors. And since the issue started when I connected it to the new machine, I'm skeptical that this particular issue is hardware-related.
    Never seen this kind of thing before – any other ideas? Thanks in advance for any help.

    I've seen i/o errors in the Console
    That's proof of a malfunctioning drive.

  • I had backed up my I-tunes files to an external hard drive but after my computer crashed when I try to reload from the hard drive the message comes up saying I-tunes library cannot be read because it was created by a newer version. Help please!

    I had backed up my I-tunes files to an external hard drive but after my computer crashed and I restored it when I try to reload from the hard drive the message comes up ""I-tunes files cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of I-tunes". Help Please

    Upgrade the version of itunes on the new computer
    Itunes.com for free download.
    Peace

  • External hard drive not recognized... help please.

    okay, well here is the story:
    my iBook G4 had its stock 30gb hard drive in it and it was running extremely low on space. so i figured i didn't want to carry around an external hard drive, therefore i would buy an internal hard drive an install it. so i purchased a new 2.5" 80gb hard drive and called up the local apple store. they told me that although it was under warranty, that it did not cover hard drive installation. so i looked it up online and found step by step instructions to install the hard drive. so after lots of hard work and many screws, i installed the new hard drive successfully... but i still had this perfect 30gb hard drive. i thought maybe to save a few bucks i could turn it into a usb external hard drive. i found an enclosure for the hard drive and a usb 2.0 cable and plugged it into my ibook. it was recognized and everything. i put some files on the external hard drive and transferred it to another mac. this is where the trouble started. i plugged the hard drive into a PowerMac G4, and it was not recognized... so i tried it on a different mac. this time on a PowerBook G4, but no luck. this issue has been troubling me for a few weeks. but then i tried it on a similar iBook G4... and it was recognized. but i don't know why it was only recognized only on the iBook G4 (not the same iBook G4 it was pulled out of) and no other macs.
    does anybody have any ideas what we can do to get this hard drive to be recognized by other macs?
    any of even the smallest ideas would be greatly appreciated.
    thanks,
    tyler
    iBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

    I can walk you through formatting the hard drive:
    1. Hook it up to an iBook that recognizes it.
    2. Go into your Applications folder, then scroll down to Utilities. Open Utilities and scroll down a bit and you should see Disk Utility. Double-click.
    3. On the left side you should see your internal hard drive and your external one. Each hard drive will have a sub-catagory with the partition indented.
    4. Your external hard drive will probably be the second catagory. Click it.
    5. In the center-top you should see the tabs First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID, and Restore. Click the Erase tab.
    6. You should see Volume Format: and then a drop down menu, and Name: and a text box. Type in the name you want the external hard drive to be named.
    7. In the drop down menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    8. Then, simply click Erase, watch the progress and it should be good to go!!
    Hope I helped you out. Oh, and it might be the enclosure...and also what OS's? Since it's USB it is probably using a USB Mass Storage driver. Mac-wise, if formatting doesn't help, I would get a FireWire enclosure because FireWire is much faster than just USB 2.0. Oh, thats nother thing...Is the enclosure Hi-Speed USB? If it isn't, I would definitely get a FireWire one...If it is, the PowerMac G4 doesn't have Hi-Speed so you're not taking full advantage..Just some insight
    iBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   512 MB Ram, CD-RW Combo Drive, 40 Gig HD, bought in October of 2005...
    Message was edited by: Hilary_Rose

  • How do I capture tape-based media to my external hard drive?  There is only one firewire 800 port on the back of my I mac.  The manual says to import tape footage directly into fcpx, but then I lose my external hard drive.   thanks for your help.

    In FCP X How do I capture tape-based media (hdv clips)- which I want to import-to my external hard drive?  There is only one firewire 800 port on the back of my I mac.  The FCPX manual says to import tape footage directly into final cut, which works, but then I lose  my external hard drive    Do I  have to import it into an event, then copy it over to an external hard drive?  On Larry Jordan's tutorial, he has 3 external hard drives that show up on his monitor WHILE he imports his tape based media.  How is that done?  I can only get either the camera to appear OR my external hard drive.   thanks for your help.

    Thanks for your response, but that doesn't solve the problem.  Yes, the LaCie hard drive has 2 firewire ports-
    I have always done what you suggest (works fine in FCP7), but in FCPX when I do that the camcorder icon
    does not appear.  It only shows up when I DIRECTLY import the footage via firewire.  ????

  • I bought Creative suite 5 a few years ago, my computer's hard drive failed, after It was fixed I re installed my program and it now says my Serial number is not valid.

    I bought Creative suite 5 a few years ago, my computer's hard drive failed, after It was fixed I re installed my program and it now says my Serial number is not valid.
    I'm on the last day of a 30 day trail... it won't take my serial number which is the same one that worked before

    Contact support by web chat.
    Mylenium

  • New Macbook Pro hard drive crash after 9 months?  How to avoid it again...?

    Hi - I've just had my hard drive replaced after it crashed - only after 9 months!!!!  How can this be?  I thought Macs were supposed to be more resilient and reliable?   I always kept the software up to date.
    Is there anything I should be doing to avoid this happening again?  
    - let the battery run down completely / always keep it charged and power source plugged in?
    - don't run too many programmes at once?
    - shut down completely rather than sleep mode?
    If anyone has any tips / advice...otherwise I'm considering selling it.
    Thanks

    You can't just take that drive from the older system and install it in the new system. Even though both run Lion the Lion install on the older system does not have the correct driver set for the new hardware. In fact Apple came out with a newer version of Lion Just For these Newer System.
    It may now be on the Apple servers bot it wasn't a few days, 5-12, ago..

  • Secondary internal hard drive disappeared from desktop after forced restart

    I have three internal hard drives, one for system, the other two for data storage. While permorming a search on one of the data drives i clicked the "X" to the right of the spinning wheel on the bottom right of the search window to stop the search but the computer froze (wheel kept spinning). I then went through the dock and quit all applications, except for InDesign which wasn't responding to force quit.
    The only way out was a force restart. Upon restart, one of the internal data hard drives did not show up on the desktop, nor after a couple more restarts, nor after restarting from the installation disk, verifying and repairing disks and permissions on the other hard drives with disk utility.
    where did it go?
    G4   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   Dual 1.25 GHz, 2MB L3 cache each, 2GB DDR SDRAM

    no it doesn't show up at all in those either.
    Hmm. Then that sounds like the interface to the drive isn't even talking. You could try opening up the computer and making sure the cables are all connected firmly (of course, it should be off).
    here's the log:
    Nothing here looks too alarming.
    Apr 21 09:51:00 Greg-Simpsons-Computer webdavd[220]:
    network_mount: WebDAV protocol not supported; file:
    mount.tproj/webdav_network.c; line: 2702
    Apr 21 09:51:07 Greg-Simpsons-Computer webdavd[245]:
    network_mount: WebDAV protocol not supported; file:
    mount.tproj/webdav_network.c; line: 2702
    Was your iDisk mounted at the time? Or another WebDAV server?
    Apr 21 09:51:20 Greg-Simpsons-Computer
    diskarbitrationd[39]: mdsyncServer [193]:28715 not
    responding.
    Apr 21 09:51:20 Greg-Simpsons-Computer
    diskarbitrationd[39]: mds [171]:28163 not
    responding.
    Hmm. These are part of Spotlight, but they don't really give any clues, just that they weren't responding. Which might be because the drive disappered during your search.
    Waiting for MirrorAgent to launch and respond to
    CFMessagePortCreateRemote(). [186]
    Again, part of iDisk.
    2007-04-21 09:52:41.360 SyndicationAgent[252]
    WARNING: BestCalendarDateFromString - can't
    interpret: 'Sat
    that last line then repeats a lot of times
    Nothing to worry about. It's badly formatted date strings from some iTunes RSS feeds. They're default bookmarks in a couple of places, which is why you see them sometimes.
    2007-04-21 11:13:12.192 Pro Tools M-Powered Demo[352]
    CFLog (21): GetDiskFragment returns -2804 for
    <Product Registration><Product
    Registration><AWSCommonSymbols.dll> when trying to
    load /Library/Application Support/Product
    Registration.app/Contents/MacOS/Product Registration
    This is ProTools trying to load a piece of code. If ProTools is working, then I'd say it's nothing to worry about. Error -2804 is "specified fragment not found", but if it handles it okay, then it could just be an informational message.
    Adobe LM Service: Started
    AdobeLM Service
    Just the Adobe license manager telling you it started. Nothing to worry about.
    Unfortunately, I don't see anything helpful here. It's just like it disappeared (or never existed) as far as the OS is concerned. If you can find your original disks that came with the computer, you could try running the hardware test and see if it kicks up any errors, either with a drive or a drive controller on the motherboard.
    charlie

  • HT203322 Still having issues with installing Yosemite after deleting "Backups.backupdb" on the internal hard drive.  I have restarted multiple times and cannot find any other back up files, yet I still receive the same error message during installation.

    I am using a 2011 iMac on 10.6.8. I recently downloaded the Yosemite upgrade and during the installation process ran into the "this disk is used for time machine backups". I ejected the external drive I use for time machine backups and turned off time machine in the application. I then followed the instructions of the help article (OS X: Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups - Apple Support) by moving the folder "Backups.backupdb" that I was able to find on my internal hard drive to the trash. I have restarted several times after completing this process. I am still running into the same error during the installation process. I have searched the hard drive for any other backups and I cannot find any. I searched the hard drive using the command cmd-shift-g and searched for “backups.backupdb” and was unable to find any folders or files. Any other suggestions?

    I have resolved the problem - I did not actually delete the "backups.backupdb" folder, I only deleted the contents of the folder.  I must have only searched on the user account for the folder after I thought I had deleted it.  Thank you for the assistance everyone and I apologize for the inconvenience!

  • Help!  Photos Library copied to external hard drive, but after preparing the library I can NOT see any pictures.

    I am having a tough time and searched, but have not found an answer that works.  Last night I copied my iPhoto Library to an external hard drive because when I initially attempted to set up Photos, I got an error that said I needed 88 GB of space for the transfer.  I got the iPhoto Library onto the hard drive and reopened the app and it prepared the library.  It was talking forever, so I went to bed.  This morning, I have this screen...
    There are NO pictures in the actual app.  I went to the external hard drive and see that the Photos Library exists...
    I have tried to hold command and option and restart Photos and I did get a prompt that it was repairing; however, this was unsuccessful.  Please help!  I know the photos are there because when I show package contents, I see them all in my Masters/Old Masters folders.
    Thank you!

    Agree with baltwo, though even if you have saved the install app I wouldn't use it unless its been used to install a known good copy of the OS already.
    In your case, that probably means start fresh:
    Restart the computer, holding down 'command' and 'r'. When the recovery disk window shows, choose 'Reinstall Mac OS X'.

  • How to change computer user name after installing a new hard drive on my computer. HELP

    TO WHOMEVER CAN HELP ME: 
    How do I change my computer user name after HP installed a new hard drive on my computer.  Now it is called TEST??  So on my C drive instead of saying my name it says TEST.  Please help???
    Thanks in advance for any help I can get.
    Christina   

    Hi, Christina:
    Go to the control panel and then to user accounts. Select the Change Your Account Name option. Change the account name from Test to Christina.
    That should do it for you.
    Paul

  • After replacing my Hard Drive... Please help

    So after replacing my hard drive I proceeded to turn on and install snow leopard on my MacBook White unibody. Once on my MacBook proceeded to have a black screen and a beeping noise proceeded with a blinking light. How do I fix this problem? Can anyone help.

    when you replaced the hdd was it formated to "mac osx extended journaled" if not, there lies your problem.

  • Help! Need to recover lost hard drive data after creating a partition!

    So, I'm the world's biggest idiot, and I was trying to reformat my hard drive so that I could bring the documents from my Mac to my PC.
    All of the docs were perfectly organized in folders and subfolders a long time ago, and once that had been done, I deleted everything off of the MacBook itself. I never thought I'd have to move all of the docs to a PC, but alas, nothing ever goes the way we plan now does it?
    Anyways, I created a FAT 32 partition not realizing it would delete everything I already had on the hard drive, so now I need to recover all of that.
    Is there ANY way that I can recover all the data I lost?
    Pls respond.

    When you create a partition, the partition is the erased so all content is lost.  There are data recovery services that may be able to recover the material, but they are very, very expensive, if they can even succeed with this kind of erasure.
    Check and see if there are any hard drive data recovery services in your area.

  • Hard drive failures after 10.6 installation, 2 library folders appear.

    I have had to erase my intel imac hard drive 3 times and reinstall 10.6.
    Each time the computer slowed to a standstill after a day or so, while using safari or mail.
    It could not be repaired with disk utility.
    After reinstalling 10.6 I have then retrieved the data from time machine. In all cases I had to update to OS 10.6.1 in order get my printer going (with the updated driver).
    The odd thing is that when checking the hard drive trying to find out what is causing the problem
    I noticed that it had
    one library folder in the system folder
    and another library folder outside the system folder
    on the internal hard drive.
    Is this the reason for the hard drive failures?
    What should I do with this?? How could this have happened?
    Please help! I've been using only Mac since 1986 more or less without any trouble,
    but now I am having the kind of problems with SL that I thought only Windows users had!

    HI,
    "*It could not be repaired with disk utility.*"
    Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
    Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
    Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
    Select First Aid in the Main panel.
    *(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)*
    Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
    If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
    *If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.*
    When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
    Select your start up disk and click Restart
    While you have the Disk Utility window open, look at the bottom of the window. *Where you see Capacity and Available. Make sure there is always 10% to 15% free disk space.*
    There should be a Library folder in the System Folder.
    Carolyn

Maybe you are looking for

  • CAPS - how to provide two input files for a web service

    Hi, We have a web service that takes two parameters. Each of those parameters come from a different file. When we provided two files corresponding to two parameters it reads the first input file but not the second. Can you please tell us how to achie

  • E61i - adobe reader le 1.5 doesn't work after firm...

    After successful firmware upgrade to 2.0633.65.01 03-10-07 RM-227, the Adobe Acrobat Reader on my E61i stopped working, i.e. will not open. I downloaded the software and tried re-installing, but E61i will not accept. I get the message "Cannot install

  • Help - Can't See any of my photos

    Hoping that someone can help me - I am really at a loss here. I am using Lightroom 1.3.1 on a Vista 64 system with 8G RAM. Things had been working fine, but suddenly I cannot see any of my picture, either in the Library module or in the Develop modul

  • My mac mini is not burning CD's.

    My mac mini is not burning CD's. It can read CD's but writing CD's doesn't work, but burning DVD's works fine. If I burn from iDVD it works fine but if I create a Burn Folder and drag Pictures from iPhoto to that folder it goes threw the process of b

  • Sudden Kernel Panicking: MacBook 3,1; 4Gb; 10.5.4

    Hi! My Macbook suddenly started kernel panicking this afternoon. It's been very stable until this point. I'm primarily wondering what steps I ought to perform before contacting Apple, as I'm still within my 1-year warranty. I've run a brief AHT run (