Ticket Options

Question Profile

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> Data Recovery

nickinc - Feb 28, 2008 - 4:51 pm

I have a Lacie too big eSata drive (RAIDed 500GB) that contained half of a documentary that I have been working on. Since upgrading the OS on my MacBookPro I have had trouble with the ExpressCard and the eSata Connection. So, I am trying to get the info off that drive onto a FW800, and now I cannot access the eSata drive. I can see it, but the computer says it is unreadable and do I want to initialize it? (of course not)

So just to be safe, I created a disk image - hoping, hoping, hoping - that months of work would not be lost. I cannot mount the disk image. It says "No Mountable File Systems" which I understand usually indicates a corrupt file...

Any data recovery genius's out there that want to make my life? Please?

macbri - Feb 28, 2008 - 5:12 pm

Hi Nick -

Since the issue began after an OS upgrade, is it possible to revert back to the older O/S? I know it sounds like a pain, but it mightn't be too bad. Did you upgrade from 10.4 to 10.5?

For example, if your FW800 drive is free, you could install the previous OS on that. This would allow you to preserve everything on your internal drive without mucking it up, and would give the option of booting
into the older O/S long enough to rescue your data.

I have a MBP with 10.4 on it, which I need to keep for work. I bought 10.5 and installed on an external FW drive so I could try it out. With the drive connected, switch on the MBP and hold down the Option key.

- Brian

nickinc - Feb 28, 2008 - 6:54 pm

Yeah, I have access to many different machines, and I have tried the drive with a few different configurations, including an older OS.

I am convinced this is a drive problem, that it is corrupted and I need to do some sort of data recovery, but that process is beyond me.

Thanks for the quick response!

nhmac - Feb 29, 2008 - 9:12 am

I've unfortunately seen many hardware problems with LaCie drives. With half a documentary at stake, it would be worth it to try to rebuild the directory with DiskWarrior, and if that didn't work, I'd suggest ProSoft Data Rescue II. You'd need to buy one or both of these programs, but the cost is pretty reasonable in my estimation given the circumstances, and they are both pretty straightforward to use.

-Beverly

nickinc - Mar 1, 2008 - 11:38 am

I got real excited about DiskWarrior, it ran all night long and in the morning told me the drive was too damaged to repair! So. On to ProSoft - thanks for the tips.

nhmac - Mar 1, 2008 - 11:42 am

Please let me know how you make out with the Prosoft.

--Beverly

nickinc - Mar 2, 2008 - 12:45 pm

Ok. So I got the Prosoft and did the scan. It was able to find 110GB of info on the drive (which is GREAT!). Which I restored to another drive, but the files are all unreadable. They look like Quicktime files, and Final Cut Pro files, but then the programs cannot read them.

Any further suggestions?

I am trying the scan again just in case...

nhmac - Mar 2, 2008 - 1:36 pm

Are those the file types the files you had are supposed to have? You might want to look at them with FileXaminer http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10281
and if the creator or type differ from what the files are supposed to be, you could change them. I will say that unfortunately one time I had a similar experience while trying to get someone's iMovie files off a crashed external drive, many gigs of files were 'restored' but many of those were not subsequently readable. A subsequent scan got more files but even fewer of those were readable. I think it doesn't take very many bad sectors corrupting data to trash the readability of the files. I tried changing file types as mentioned above but in that case it did not help on many if any of the files.

We are now at the end of anything I have experience with in this regard, and I'm very sorry we haven't got your project back yet! I will put your question back in the open pool in case anyone else has more input on this here at MacOSX.com. The next place I would suggest you visit would be the MacDV list: maybe someone there knows something that has helped in similar circumstances. Info for MacDV:

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://listserver.themacintoshguy.co...listinfo/macdv
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
macdv-request@listserver.themacintoshguy.com

thanks, and I hope you get your files back one way or the other! (Still got the tapes??)

--Beverly
beverlywoods.net

Serenak - Mar 2, 2008 - 4:21 pm

Oh dear, very sorry to hear your trouble

Unfortunately Disk Warrior and Prosoft's Rescue are pretty much the ultimate in consumer fixing and recovery.

If the data is really valuable you may have to consider professional data recovery services - but they don't come cheap. Sorry.

Best of luck

nickinc - Mar 2, 2008 - 8:53 pm

Sure I still have the tapes, so all is not completely lost - but the idea of going back into some pretty serious sound engineering and graphic work.... wow. Im trying to restore the files scanned on the root drive this time - found 160 GB of files, so maybe there is something we missed. Thans for all your advice!

Nick