Imac couldn't read external HD the second time. Might be gone. Got hope?
My iMac couldn’t read the HD the following day after I plugged it in. The HD contains pics uploaded from my friend’s non-imac laptop during a trip to Europe. Got the HD 10 months ago. In that 10 months, I moved house so the HD was moved around a bit, not to mention the Europe trip. And I didn’t use that HD at all after my Europe trip.
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Is it showing in the computer? Recuva by piriform has a mac version I think. Aside from that, there’s not much I can do over the PC, You don’t live in canada by any chance do you?
There is always hope. Even if the drive is physically damaged. Please be careful with attempts to access the data. They may actually make it worse. If photos are important to you. Stop all you do and contact a professional
Did the friend who loaded the drive format it? If it is formatted as ntfs, the Mac will have difficulty reading. FAT/FAT32 are the only interchangeable formats.
My first guess is that that this is a compatibility issue, not a hardware problem.
The easiest fix would probably be to transfer the files from the HD to one of your own (that you know works with your iMac), but using a PC. Try a friend’s, or go to the library. I wouldn’t use recovery software except as a last resort.
First step is to have someone that has a PC try and read the HD, if that works it becomes a format issue.
“Couldn’t read the HD the following day after I plugged it in” Was it able to read the drive aok when you first plugged it in? Then it’s probably not a Windows/MacOS compatibility problem. If it wasn’t readable at all then I agree with the suggestions to try it on a Windows machine.
If it did work on your iMac but now doesn’t then I’m going to suggest a SATA/IDE to USB adapter because out of four failed external hard drives folks have brought to me for investigation, every one of them had a blown USB interface and the hard drive itself was fine. The adapter I linked to has both the older style IDE connector and the current SATA connector on it. You probably have a SATA drive and there are slightly cheaper adapters that only connect to SATA if you want to save a few bucks.
You’ll have to open the external drive case and remove the drive to plug it into the adapter.
Thanks everyone. Gonna try for an adapter or as someone else said, clean the connection. Last resort: the IT guy!
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