Data Loss on Secondary Internal Drive?

Question

Data Loss on Secondary Internal Drive?

I have a Mac Pro with 4 bays and I use 3 of them. I have:

1) Bootable SSD drive with OS and apps and some items. (1TB)

2) Secondary SATA HD with all of my files. mp3s, phone backups, iPad backups, all work, etc, backed up to the cloud using BackBlaze. It also houses my Kodi movie server database -- GB of DVDs in a library. (1TB)

3) A new drive exclusively for my photos so they don't bog down the boot drive or the file drive (2TB)

When I was pulling bays and loading the new drive and cloning the Photos from one to the other, I think something happened.

From what I can see, the folder marked "Movies" which held all my Kodi movies is now missing. Not empty, just not there. Searching by file size, the movies aren't there either. This is the only folder that isn't backed up to BackBlaze simply because of the file sizes and because they're ripped DVDs from my collection.

The odd thing is that my drive still shows that 600GB are used on this drive, like the files are still on it. Before I give up, is this a thing that I can recover from? Disk Utility First Aid fixed some hierarchy, but didn't have errors.

Also, before I had this issue, that drive was password protected -- password to mount. Now it just loads to my desktop without a prompt.

Any ideas?

Mac Pro, 10.11

Posted on Jan 26, 2019 3:13 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

127,945 points

Jan 26, 2019 5:04 PM in response to LouIsFatAndSassy

The Mac Pro over tower features standard "live plug" connectors on its drive bays.

However, MacOS is NOT prepared to deal with live plugging, and really weird things can happen if you plug and unplug drives with MacOS running.

If you did this, be sure to power down your Mac and restart before assessing the damage.

If there still appears to be damage, stop using those drive for anything else and get a program like data rescue to attempt to salvage the missing files.

Then get over your misguided love affair with BackBlaze and buy enough local disk Drives to back up EVERYTHING to disk.

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Answer 2

Jan 26, 2019 5:53 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I have shut down and rebooted more than once in my repair efforts, but have not yet resorted to 3rd party software.

Why the hate for BackBlaze? I do it to back up files only. The cost of drives to duplicate files would be more than four years of BackBlaze (@ $5 a month).

I won't add or move anything on that drive and will look into Data Rescue for now.

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Answer 3

Jan 26, 2019 6:13 PM in response to LouIsFatAndSassy

I have no hatred for Backblaze or any other web-based storage method. My hatred is for their being pushed as a BACKUP mechanism.

"On the cloud" is great for sharing photos, but is not a viable backup solution for everything you have. The stuff is not under your control, and is subject to sloppy handling, arbitrary changes in policy, theft, data loss, and bankruptcy of the company that holds it. It can easily take three days to restore it at ordinary Internet speeds.

If you are using another direct-to-disk backup method that you prefer, and you currently have a recent backup, that is great. If not, you should consider using Built-in Time Machine. Take steps to acquire an external drive as soon as possible. If you buy one, a drive 2 to 3 times or larger than what you need to back up is preferable for long term trouble-free operation. Do not pay extra for a drive that is fast. (You can get by for a while with a "found" smaller drive if necessary, but it will eventually become annoying).

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Answer 4

Jan 26, 2019 6:11 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

BINGO. The Quick Review on Data Rescue handled it nicely. Thank you.

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Data Loss on Secondary Internal Drive?

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