External Mirrored drive failed Maxtor.

[SILVERFOX]

Hi.

I would be very grateful if somebody could advise me before I go to data recovery.

I have a maxtor one touch 3 turbo drive that contains two 750gb drives that are mirrored. My MacBook Pro will not recognise it as of today. I have tried lots of software. Disk Warrior, Techtool and I have looked at the bus in FILE about this mac more info, its just no there. It makes two clicks every 3 seconds or so as if it is trying to mount but can't.

Now I know I mirrored the drives for a situation just like this but I have no idea what to do now. I can't see anything. It is out of warranty and I'd rather get a little advice before I hand it over to data recovery.

Should I open up the drive and remove them from the enclosure? Then plug them in another external enclosure or is the fact that they are invisible mean that the problem is with both disks.

Helpme please. I am a photographer and have urgent work to do on the files. I have lost a drive before and and recovery wasn't possible but that was a long time ago. Many thanks in advance.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Two clicks could mean one of two things:

1) Both drives have failed, and each is clicking once as they try to spin up and mount, or
2) One drive has failed and is clicking twice as it tries to spin up and mount.

If you're of technologically sound mind, opening up the enclosure and removing the drives to put in another enclosure sounds like the best plan to me. As you know, they're mirrored, so if one drive fails, the other drive should have an exact replica of the data on it.

Once you've extracted the drives, then I think it's best to go along with your plan -- acquire another, single-drive external enclosure and install a drive in there. If that drive fails to mount, then it's time to try the other. Two drives failing simultaneously is about as likely as winning the lottery, so chances are that you'll be able to extract the data off of the "good" drive that way.

Failing that, there's not really much else you can do without a bunch of equipment and a "clean room" for doing drive forensics. Be aware that data recovery specialists charge an arm and a leg to recover data from dead and/or dying drives. It can be anywhere from a few hundred bucks up into the thousands of dollars for a single drive.

There is one other thing you can try if both drives appear to have failed. If the fail is due to a "stuck" read/write head or a platter that's refusing to spin up, then you can try the following procedure -- out of 4 or so times I've tried it, it worked on one drive and allowed me enough time to recover the data before it failed again. The procedure is as follows, and is strictly a "do at your own risk" type of operation:

Double-bag the drive in airtight Ziplock bags, removing as much air as possible. Place the double-bagged, bare drive in the freezer and leave it in there for a few hours -- 2 or 3 should suffice. Remove the drive from the freezer, remove the bags, and immediately place the drive in an enclosure and/or connect it to your computer somehow and fire up the enclosure and/or computer. See if the drive mounts, and if so, recover the data from it as quickly as possible before the drive fails again (and it WILL fail again).

What this does is take the laws of thermodynamics into play, as well as a little magic. The freezing process causes the metal parts of the drive to slightly contract in size and/or shape, which may free up a stuck read/write head or allow a platter to spin up. If it works, then it's only a matter of time before the metals return to room temperature and possibly seize up and/or freeze again.

 

[SGilbert]

No help here, but in 20 years of using HD's, only ONE has ever failed----A 1 year & 1 month old Maxtor that they declined to warrant! NEVER again!