Can't mount Time Machine external drive

dazzzed wrote:

I've tried many different data recovery softwares but I can't see the real photos or videos, only a bunch of .swf files.

Is there a way I can recover my data from here?

So, there is no way I can recover my data?

Catalina will change .sparsebundle to .backupbundle. in the Time Machine **.

This does not really lend itself to recoverable data outside the TM interface.

If you want to pursue Recovery—

Try the "consumer grade" DataRescue5 https://www.prosofteng.com/mac-data-recovery/

or

Other professional data recovery service such as:

Ontrack Data a Professional Data Recovery Service: https://www.ontrack.com/

 Drive Savers  https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/

vendors provide free estimates and both are recommended by Apple.

Always work from a copy if possible, you do not want to risk further damage the original files or drive.

dazzzed wrote:

I have an external drive which I was using as external drive, but then I disabled the back up automatically, ad I'm not sure what else I've done, but right now I can't access the data I have in there.

Disk Utility shows it's not mounted:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/f25f623a-593c-4a70-abba-3747ebfc208e

First Aid shows an error:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/e51dd1e1-88ba-4e8f-99d1-e1a2b03cf4cb

fsck shows:

fsck_hfs -fy /dev/disk2

** /dev/rdisk2 (NO WRITE)

  Executing fsck_hfs (version hfs-407.200.4).

volumeType is 0

0000: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000    |................|

. . .

01b0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 00fe    |................|

01c0: ffff eefe ffff 0100 0000 af6d 7074 0000    |...........mpt..|

01d0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000    |................|

. . .

01f0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 55aa    |..............U.|

I've tried many different data recovery softwares but I can't see the real photos or videos, only a bunch of .swf files.

Is there a way I can recover my data from here?

If you can not repair/mount or r/w to the drive, then it it has failed.

YOu can try reformatting the drive—erase/reformat/initialize losing all data in the process.

Part of a robust backup plan is having redundancy built in to your strategy. You should never put yourself in a situation where you are desperate to recovery data from a failed drive.

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

Boot clone https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-10081

How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

Use DiskUtility Restore feature https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/restore-a-disk-dskutl14062/mac

note: >System Preferences>Security & Privacy >Privacy>Full Disk Access

unlock the padlock, press the + button and add Disk Utility