Second Harddrive wont mount/errors
 

I bought a western digital hard drive last year and now it is not mounting?
When I run disk utility repair once i got it mounted , I get this message:

Verify and Repair disk “Art Drive”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Keys out of order
Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
The volume Art Drive could not be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
Repair attempted on 1 volume
1 volume could not be repaired


Is there anyway to fix this? Some times when I satrt my computer after it has rested for a few hours, the disk will mount and I can run Drive 10 on it which crashes at the end when doing volume structure...

Any ideas whats wrong and if I need a new drive and can I salvage the data?

do you own a copy of diskwarrior?

I assume you want to preserve the data on the drive????

No, I do not own a copy. I do want ewerything on the drive!

The filesystem on that disk is corrupted.
DiskWarrior can sometimes fix this.

Otherwise you are in data retrieval mode - try 3rd-party utilities like "Data Rescue" or "FileSalvage" or "Virtual Lab" (google to find them).

Thanks, I will get Disk Warrior and give it try!

I now have it and it says " Re- build Drive" Will I loose data when I do that?

Nope it will rebuild it, and give you an option at the end to replace the rebuilt directory.

Also, if you hold down the option key you change rebuild into scavenge....for a deeper scan to rebuild.

IME, DW is the best utility for this type stuff, and its totally worth the 80 dollar investment.

You should read the documentation that comes with DiskWarrior.

When you have a corrupted filesystem, there is always the possibility that you will lose data - some types of corruption result in that, some don't - but in the former case it is more accurate to say that you have already lost data (due to the corruption). DiskWarrior can't turn back time.

When I did freelance work for hallmark, they had several macs go down with severe data corruption. I was able to recover over 90% data using diskwarrior and the command line.

I got a case of beer on top of being paid for that job;)


and it was import!

However, Hayne is 100% correct. No matter what you always risk data loss. But thats with everything you do. You risk hosing your file system everytime you install an OS update, etc. Its just not as likely with some things over others. Just know ahead of time that there is never a 100% fix with computers. Thats why IT departments exist....

Due to your current situation diskwarrior probably could not make it any worse.

I don't mind loosing data - I'd be thrilled to save even 80 % Is It is my art
drive and a lot of it is redundant!

Well, I've recovered all my data and and transfering it to boot HD and then DVD. All the files on the my second slave drive were Art files - no OS on the Drive. Disk Warrior and now my Disk Utility say the disk was verified and repaired.
Here is the verified output info: :
Verifying volume “Art Drive”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Art Drive appears to be OK.
Mounting Disk

1 HFS volume checked
Volume passed verification

But the drive will not mount and earlier I got a "SMART failing" error.
Here are my questions.
Can I still momut the drive?
Can l erase and reuse the drive?
If not, what brand of drive (external- I think the heat caused it to fail) would you recommend?

Many thanks.

If your SMART status says that the drive is failing, and you have retrieved all of the data, then it is time to throw away this drive.

Since this is an external drive, you can keep the case that holds the drive, and just buy a new bare drive. Mount the new drive in the existing case--you'll save a lot of money.

I prefer Hitachi/IBM drives, but other's opinions will vary.

Trevor

some WD drives have a three year warranty. You could just RMA it to them for a replacement.

Seagate is reputed to have the fewest returns for failure, and Maxtor among the highest, but I don't know that the differences are enormous. Any electro-mechanical device is going to be subject to tbe possibility of failure, either from engineering problems, or unlucky environmental ones. On the whole, hard drives these days are pretty reliable; the difficulty is that it is usually catastrophic if they fail, which is why a good back-up regimen is so very important. It isn't so much that you are likely to need it, it is that when you DO need it, you REALLY need it.

Joe VanZandt

I believe my original HD that came with my mac is a Seagate. It is a 1.25 dual g4 silver door! Does anyone know? I cannot remember with I installed the second internal drive - the original is behind the faulty drive. Before I remove the bad one, should I erase/shred the data and check the jumpers? on the drive. This morning it shows the drive in disk utility as OK but it will not mount on the desktop and I do not have access to any file except through Data Rescue! Here's what it looks like:
http://thinkipm.com/screensnap001.jpg

I have a question about external Hard Drives. I would like to know if they make one that would connect via firewire and allows me to turn it on and off as needed. I would like to be able to turn it on with a button and then the external drive would mount and I could write or read files off it. Once I have finished with the drive, turn it off and it would unmount and shut down keeping it cool and turning the fan off. Is that how most of them work? I' m not sure. I was looking at the Seagate Technology Ultra 200 GB USB 2.0 and FireWire External.

Thanks!

The ST380024A drive is a Seagate. So this is an INTERNAL drive? I misinterpreted what you said as referring to it as external.

If you are concerned with anyone reading your data off your bad drive, take an electric drill with a bit designed for drilling into metal, and put a hole through the case and platter of the drive. Wear protective eyegear. There's no way anyone will get any information off of THAT.

I wouldn't worry so much about heat having damaged the Seagate (unless you've got more information that you're not telling us)--I'd just replace the internal drive if it was me. One problem does not mean you have a trend.

Trevor

Of course some do (and of course some don't as well). I would only buy a FireWire drive that gave you 1. an on/off switch, and 2. the ability to externally power it. FireWire drives without power switches and with bus powering that people hot-plug willy nilly is a perfect recipe for burning out FireWire ports.

Trevor

So what you are saying Trevor is, they do make them with on off switches and when I turn the drive on, it will mount and off, it will unmount. Correct??

1. They DO make some cases with on/off switches. This is the only type of case that I would recommend anyone buy. People who use cases without on/off switches tend to have more problems with burned out FireWire ports.

2. When you turn the drive on, it will mount.

3. When you turn the drive off without first dismounting it, you can damage open files on it, and sometimes (rarely) even damage the filesystem. The proper procedure is to dismount the drive first, most easily by dragging the icon of the drive on your desktop into the trash, or right clicking on the icon of the drive on your desktop and selecting "Eject <drivename>"

So, dismount the drive, THEN turn it off, and you're good.

Trevor

Yes, I would eject before turning off. I just did not note that key step. I just wanted to keep it cool and off until I need it. Thankss

There are no external firewire hard drives that I know of, which can be safely turned off without unmounting.

For this type of feature and for a price, you could use a network drive that connects through ethernet. While this type of drive will safely shut down without unmounting, you still run a risk of loosing open files from users.