Can't access external hard drive after plugging it in to a mac

  • Thread starter Thread starter RJ
  • Start date Start date
R

RJ

Is it possible to recover the files from an external hard drive after
plugging it into a mac? Window Vista sees the drive and assigns it a
drive letter, but I can't access any of the files and it keeps telling
me to format the drive. I have files on it that I don't want to lose.

Thanks,
RJ
 
Is it possible to recover the files from an external hard drive after
plugging it into a mac? Window Vista sees the drive and assigns it a
drive letter, but I can't access any of the files and it keeps telling
me to format the drive. I have files on it that I don't want to lose.

Thanks,
RJ
Click to expand...

I have plugged drives into a Mac and then a PC without a problem, so
something else might be happening here.

I have plugged both FAT32 drives and NTFS drives into the Mac, which was an
Intel Mac. I have written to the FAT32 drives natively on the Mac, and to
the NTFS drives using some free software, as well as both Parallels and
VMware virtual machines.

Never a problem.

Did you try to format or otherwise manipulate the drive (other than just
writing to a FAT32 systemn)?

Try plugging the drive into another PC, just in case something is screwy on
yours.
 
I have plugged drives into a Mac and then a PC without a problem, so
something else might be happening here.

I have plugged both FAT32 drives and NTFS drives into the Mac, which was an
Intel Mac. I have written to the FAT32 drives natively on the Mac, and to
the NTFS drives using some free software, as well as both Parallels and
VMware virtual machines.

Never a problem.

Did you try to format or otherwise manipulate the drive (other than just
writing to a FAT32 systemn)?

Try plugging the drive into another PC, just in case something is screwy on
yours.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I have tried plugging the drive into a couple
different windows machines and they appear to recognize the drive, but
not the file system. I am asked if I want to format the drive. I am
going to try connecting the drive to a mac today. I can browse the
files with some recovery software and I did find some software to
recover the data, however, it only recovers the files and doesn't
maintain the folder structure. When I look at the drive properties
under disk management it says the disk is in a RAW state rather than
NTFS or FAT32. I would like to recover the files before I reformat
the drive. Do you know of any good inexpensive or free file recovery
software?
 
RJ said:
Thanks for your reply. I have tried plugging the drive into a couple
different windows machines and they appear to recognize the drive, but
not the file system. I am asked if I want to format the drive. I am
going to try connecting the drive to a mac today. I can browse the
files with some recovery software and I did find some software to
recover the data, however, it only recovers the files and doesn't
maintain the folder structure. When I look at the drive properties
under disk management it says the disk is in a RAW state rather than
NTFS or FAT32. I would like to recover the files before I reformat
the drive. Do you know of any good inexpensive or free file recovery
software?
.
Click to expand...

Recuva by the people who make Ccleaner.
 
Thanks for your reply.  I have tried plugging the drive into a couple
different windows machines and they appear to recognize the drive, but
not the file system.  I am asked if I want to format the drive. I am
going to try connecting the drive to a mac today.  I can browse the
files with some recovery software and I did find some software to
recover the data, however, it only recovers the files and doesn't
maintain the folder structure. When I look at the drive properties
under disk management it says the disk is in a RAW state rather than
NTFS or FAT32.  I would like to recover the files before I reformat
the drive. Do you know of any good inexpensive or free file recovery
software?
Click to expand...

More information: I plugged the hard drive into a mac and I am able
to access the files. I talked to a co-worker of mine who has the same
issue with a thumb drive.
 
More information: I plugged the hard drive into a mac and I am able
to access the files. I talked to a co-worker of mine who has the same
issue with a thumb drive.
Click to expand...

I defer to the others about recovery software, since I haven't used any
in over 5 years.

Please do *not* do anything that writes to your hard drive until after
you have recovered your files. There is always a risk that something
further will go wrong, especially if you end up trying to recover
deleted files or files that seem to be deleted - the recovery software
must be installed on and run from a different drive, and the recovered
data must be written to a different drive. By "different drive" I mean
something other than the problem drive.

It may be possible, on a Mac, to copy the entire drive to a new drive
that you can read in Windows (i.e., FAT32).

There is also software available online that lets a Windows computer
read a Mac drive. Look here (or Google):
http://ogasawalrus.com/blog/node/208

The link is for HFS Explorer, which I have used; it's free. There are
others, not all free.

I wish you luck - it seems like a real bug in the Mac system, and not
easy to fix.
 
Hi !

Yes , sure you can recovers all your lost data using the Kernel for mac software that performs a quick scan of your corrupt Mac drive to locate deleted files, formatted and corrupted partitions. Kernel Macintosh Data Recovery software is a non-destructive utility that helps you to recover your precious data from deleted, formatted and corrupted mac partitions.You can find it from http://www.datarecoverymac.com

Thanks
 
Hi !

Yes , sure you can recovers all your lost data using the Kernel for mac software that performs a quick scan of your corrupt Mac drive to locate deleted files, formatted and corrupted partitions. Kernel Macintosh Data Recovery software is a non-destructive utility that helps you to recover your precious data from deleted, formatted and corrupted mac partitions.You can find it from http://www.datarecoverymac.com

Thanks
 
Hi !

Yes , sure you can recovers all your lost data using the Kernel for mac software that performs a quick scan of your corrupt Mac drive to locate deleted files, formatted and corrupted partitions. Kernel Macintosh Data Recovery software is a non-destructive utility that helps you to recover your precious data from deleted, formatted and corrupted mac partitions.You can find it from http://www.datarecoverymac.com

Thanks
 
Hi !

Yes , sure you can recovers all your lost data using the Kernel for mac software that performs a quick scan of your corrupt Mac drive to locate deleted files, formatted and corrupted partitions. Kernel Macintosh Data Recovery software is a non-destructive utility that helps you to recover your precious data from deleted, formatted and corrupted mac partitions.You can find it from http://www.datarecoverymac.com
 
Hi buddy,

You have said that each time you insert the drive it asks for format.In that case you cant get your files back because there is a change in the file system of the drive which restricts access .It is better go with the format option and after that use this recovery tool for formatted hard drive recovery mac but dont reuse the drive until the data is retrieved .Provided the links below..

http://www.bestmacdatarecovery.net/formatted.html

http://www.bestmacdatarecovery.net/download/bestmacdatarecovery-mac.zip
 
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