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Level 1

5 points

Back-up / Retrieve Files from an external hard drive that doesn't appear in Devices

Someone please help!

I am going to write the "history" from my disk utility repair here so that other's who copy and paste into search may find it:

(PLEASE SCROLL 13 ROWS DOWN)

Verify and Repair volume “Your Hard Drive Name”

Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.

Checking extents overflow file.

Checking catalog file.

Keys out of order

Rebuilding catalog B-tree.

The volume could not be repaired.

Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

Ok. I would really love to reformat this disk, but I have stuff on here from film school that I CAN NOT lose 😟

Question:

How would I go about backing-up the disk if the image doesn't appear under devices? I went to the "Restore" tab/button, but I can not choose the hard drive in the first field. I could have sworn my hard drive was formatted for Mac, but I may have formatted it back to FAT32. I know the disk still functions because when it is powered on, it cycles with/without being connected to my MacPro, but after that, it will only cycle if connected (confirming connection). It does run again when I connect the firewire cable. Here is my equipment:

8-Core MacPro 16GB-Mem RAID
MacOSX 10.6.8 | 2 X 1TB Internal HDD

Aug-2008 15" MacBookPro

(That I used the Maxtor-External with mostly)

DEVICE IN QUESTION

500GB Maxtor One-Touch Plus

FireWire 400 6-pin Connection Bus (2 Ports)

Purchased in Early 2008 from Staples

I can fit the back-up on my 2nd HDD in my MacPro or in my other External:

2 TB G-Technology G-RAID External

1 x eSATA | 2 x FireWire 800 9-pin | 1 x USB 2.0

Self Powered DC-IN

I have had a nightmare searching for answers, so any options you might have would be tremendously helpful. I can't lose the data because I have everything I did during film school on there. That stuff is basically what you pay for when you go to film school, you pay to show what you can do and what equipment you have used. SAVE ME FELLOW APPLE PEOPLE!!!! We COMMAND, as well as CONTROL!

-RaphSai

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2x2.4GHzQuadCore 16GB-Mem 2x1TB HDD

Posted on May 13, 2012 4:36 PM

Best reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Posted on May 13, 2012 4:42 PM

Get Disk Warrior that will repair the problems without requiring that you reformat the drive - $99.00 on a bootable CD. Will not work on a FAT formatted drive.

You will need to use Drag and Drop to save your files by copying them from the bad drive to a good one.

To reprep the drive:

Drive Preparation

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

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17 replies

RaphSai Author

Level 1

5 points

May 16, 2012 7:53 PM in response to RaphSai

I decided to click Rebuild because no one responded in time, and it worked just fine.
Answer:

Purchase Disk Warrior (as of today the newest version is 4.4)

Click "Rebuild" on the drive.

Preview the drive (this is where I drag and dropped the entire thing to back it up)

After it's backed up (4hours it says it will take) I will click "Replace"

If everything is good after replace, I will delete old Back-up and create new one from the replaced version.

Thank-you everyone.

foutsd

Level 1

0 points

Jul 5, 2012 10:04 AM in response to RaphSai

I know this is late for you, but maybe helpful to others searching...

I know the most common solution for the catalog B tree is to grab diskwarrior, but here's a solution that can save money AND give you something more permanently useful if you aren't looking to get DiskWarrior for maintenance or future use anyways.

Go out and get a new external drive at least as large as the internal, if you don't have one to spare. Load from your OSX install disc and install a new OS to the external drive.

Boot the computer to the new OS installation. Hold ALT on startup to open the boot menu if necessary. Open Disk Utility, then create an additional partition on the external drive. Make the OS partition 1 as small as possible, and the new partition at least as large as the internal space taken up on your damaged drive.

To make this easier to follow, let's say disk 1 is the damaged disk you want to fix. Disk 2 is the small partition on the external drive running OS X. Disk 3 is the fresh, large partition on the external drive.

1. Download SuperDuper! evaluation version (google it). It allows full backups and will work just fine without purchase for this purpose.

2. Open SuperDuper and select the damaged drive, disk 1, as the source. Select Disk 3 as the destination.

2a. If you cannot select the damaged disk 1, click Finder, then go to Finder preferences. uncheck and recheck the "Hard Disks" under "Show these items on the desktop." You will likely get an error message, but the drive should appear and be read-only now.

2b. go back to superduper and select the disks as above.

3. Copy the full drive using the default settings.

4. When complete, restart the computer holding ALT to open the boot menu. Boot from the newly copied Disk 3 on the external drive. Make sure it boots and your data/programs are there. It should look just like it did before it broke.

5. Once confirmed working, restart holding ALT again and open Disk 2 on the external.

6. Repeat steps 2 and 3 but select disk 3 as the source and disk 1, the damaged disk, as the destination. This will take the new copied and tested drive and copy over the original damaged disk. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE TESTED IT as in step 4! You don't want to overwrite the damaged drive until you know the new one works!!!

7. When copying is complete, you should be able to restart and unplug the external drive (or hold ALT and select the internal disk 1). The system should boot just fine.

This works in much the same way as DiskWarrior, granted a different method and potentially longer time. The boot sector is rebuilt when copied, fixing the issue. I just finished my iMac fix with this issue and was not willing to pay $100 for Disk Warrior when I won't use it more than this once. I replaced my HDD a while back with a 1.5TB. I bought a 1.5TB external for $70 on sale, did the method above, and my computer boots perfectly now. OS X, BootCamp, etc all load with the settings and everything I had previously perfectly. My HDD is full, and for 1.5TB it was approximately 14 hours of copying the first time (step 3), about 11 hours the second time (step 6). Instead of spending $100 on a one use program, I spent $70 and have a new external for backup, and the computer works perfectly. If you have a smaller HDD to fix, the price will be even less. Free if you have an external for use already.

Hope this helps someone, I know a lot of people don't want to go spending $100 for a program they would't buy otherwise!

Back-up / Retrieve Files from an external hard drive that doesn't appear in Devices