Need help with USB Hard Drive HD - HD wont load after plugging it back into my MAC

[rosiakgraphics]

I have a Western Digital 1TB external USB HD that I've been using about a year but it has 14 years of files backed up on it that I've used running my own graphic design business. My uncle brought a PC over and I was attempting to install Windows on it but it couldnt recognize a hard drive so I grabbed the Western Digital just to see if the installer would see it as a HD. I plugged it into the PC and it showed up fine in the installer. So then I knew the internal HD in the PC was shot.

Long story short - HD wont load after plugging it back into my MAC. I plugged the External back into my 1 GHZ PowerBook G4 running OS X 10.4.11 and it has the pop up "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" - Buttons read "Initialize" "Ignore" or "Eject"

I ignored the message and opened DISK UTILITY and it sees the drive as a 931.5 GB WD External but then grayed out under the drive it says disk1s1 and after clicking on that on the left the info at the bottom says partition type: Windows_NTFS.

I know the drive must still have all of my data on it, because it was only plugged in a second into the PC. I just need my MAC to read it so I have access to all my saved files, artwork, etc.

Can someone help me out?

Below are screen shots of the disk utility window as each part of this drive are clicked on the left hand side.

 

[djackmac]

I plugged it into the PC and it showed up fine in the installer. So then I knew the internal HD in the PC was shot.

partition type: Windows_NTFS.

Looks like you accidentally repartitioned/reformatted the drive. Your best option besides spending several hundred dollars on professional data recovery is Data Rescue III. Even so you might get the files back, but the directory structure and names are gone so you will essentially need to figure out what everything is again.

 

[rosiakgraphics]

I'm sure someone has done the same thing...hoping that they can post what they did to help me out. I'd hate to lose all of these files. I appreciate the software recovery suggestions, but hope someone can help me out. Where are the MAC guru's?!?

 

[djackmac]

I appreciate the software recovery suggestions, but hope someone can help me out. Where are the MAC guru's?!?

That was an answer from a "MAC guru". Sorry, no easy way out. The drive has went from a presumably APM partitoned/Mac OS extended (journaled) volume to a MBR partitoned/NTFS volume. The drive has been repartitioned and reformatted or short answer, wiped! The best thing you can hope for is you left it alone after realizing you screwed up and didn't happen to overwrite anything. Like I said before, without spending several hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars for a company like DriveSavers or OnTrack, then Data Rescue III is probably your best option. Also like mentioned before, you will lose all filenames and folders and will essentially get back raw data sorted by file type that is assigned file names that are a sequence of numbers and letters.

Good Luck getting an answer you want to hear besides the real story.

 

[rosiakgraphics]

Thanks for your help djackmac. I wasnt trying to not call you a guru, just saying somebody else has done this same thing i guarantee it and will have a better answer. I see that from your stats you have 1080 posts and only gave thanks to 6 people. You seem like an arrogant prick to me but the drive hasn't been "wiped". My files are on it, I just need to figure out how to get it to mount without formatting it. I've already viewed my files/folders using Data Rescue and everything is there and the structure seems decent. Thanks again for your help.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Was your drive formatted as HFS+ before you hooked it up to the Windows PC? Or did you leave the drive in the default format it came in when you first bought it?

The reason I ask is because your screenshots show that the partition scheme is "MBR" or "Master Boot Record" and the format of the partition itself is "NTFS." MBR is typically only used for FAT32 or NTFS formatted drives (in other words, "non-Mac" formats) and the NTFS partition is decidedly a Windows format (Mac OS X can only read from NTFS drives without 3rd-party add-ons or Terminal "hacks").

It does appear as if you destroyed the partition information, or you reformatted the drive (wittingly or unwittingly) when you connected it to the Windows PC. In this case, there really is not much you can do at home with the drive.

I would suggest software called "DiskWarrior" which performs magic on corrupt or dying drives, or drives that have had their directory structure altered. I dom't think DiskWarrior will fix the issue of having destroyed the partition -- but then again, I don't know. I don't think so. It's up to you if it's worth a try -- the software is $100.

Barring DiskWarrior, my only other suggestion would be professional data recovery -- like drivesavers.com.

Can you provide a screenshot of the list of files on your drive that you obtained with Data Rescue?

 

[djackmac]

I wasnt trying to not call you a guru, just saying somebody else has done this same thing i guarantee it and will have a better answer. I see that from your stats you have 1080 posts and only gave thanks to 6 people. You seem like an arrogant prick to me but the drive hasn't been "wiped".

I'm an arrogant prick because I've only thanked 6 people or because your too stupid to listen to the best answer you will get? I've only thanked 6 people because I mainly troll these boards to give free advice, not receive it. If I need help and someone responds with a good answer like the one I gave you, then I'll gladly thank them. Another recovery software program I've heard great things about from fellow Windows techs is R-Studio. As you see they have a Mac version.

I would suggest software called "DiskWarrior" which performs magic on corrupt or dying drives, or drives that have had their directory structure altered. I dom't think DiskWarrior will fix the issue of having destroyed the partition -- but then again, I don't know. I don't think so.

The drive is now NTFS so DiskWarrior won't do anything with it. DiskWarrior doesn't work on NTFS volumes.

 

[rosiakgraphics]

Below is the Date Rescue Window showing a few of the valuable folders but looks like everything is there. Seems to me that files with 32 or more characters are there but cut of and missing the file extensions so hopefully these will be the only files that are some what of a pain but only for having to rename them.

I apologize for my snappy remarks earlier, I'm just really frustrated. To think 14 years of graphics, files, jobs, photos, artwork, etc. Might have been down the drain just because I offered to help out a PC user. Lesson learned.

I havent started extracting the files yet. I will once I have another external HD to copy all these files onto as I read somewhere its best to do it in one batch.

Thanks again for any help, comments, etc. I appreciate you guys offering to help even though I lost my cool.

When I format this drive, what setting should I use?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Is Data Rescue able to retrieve any of those files/folders successfully? I believe the trial version will allow you to retrieve some limited number of files, or some limited amount of data to see if the retrieval process will work.

If it does, I highly recommend purchasing the program and recovering the files to another drive. When done successfully, you can re-format the drive back to a more Mac-friendly format, then move the files back to the drive.

Keep us posted on the progress.