freewheelin
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Not recognising external HD ...

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Mid 2015

Processor 3.3 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 MB

 

 

Yes, I know there are lots of topics about this, but mine does appear to be different.

I took the HD out of my old G5 which had died suddenly overnight and connected it to my new 27" iMac with a Dynamode caddy.

 

All I get is a quick flash of recognition occasionally. It appears on my desktop for about a second, during which the power light on the caddy turns amber.

(I clicked the icon during that second and I get a quick, frustrating, glimpse of the drive's content before it goes again)

I then get the error message "Eject Mackintosh HD before disconnecting or turning it off" and it's gone again.

 

Any suggestions, please?

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Jan 28, 2016 12:29 PM

by my ginger,Solvedanswer
my ginger my ginger
Level 4 (2,472 points)
A:

Do ether of the drives have jumper pins? Normally there would be none.  Is the inclosure cable usb 3 or usb 2? Sometimes it can be a bad cable.

Posted on Jan 29, 2016 3:22 PM

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freewheelin

Q: Not recognising external HD ...

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  • Helpful answers

  • by KimUserName,

    KimUserName KimUserName Jan 28, 2016 1:51 PM in response to freewheelin
    Level 4 (1,400 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 28, 2016 1:51 PM in response to freewheelin

    Any chance that when your old G5 died that it may have been the Hard Drive which failed.

    Now your trying to access a failed hard drive from another computer.

     

    Try replacing the hard drive.

     

    Kim

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Jan 28, 2016 1:57 PM in response to freewheelin
    Level 9 (53,695 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 28, 2016 1:57 PM in response to freewheelin

    Which type of caddy?  Is it independently powered?

     

    Your hard drive might have failed and is probably the reason why your G5 failed. Does it appear in Disk Utility?

  • by freewheelin,

    freewheelin freewheelin Jan 28, 2016 1:59 PM in response to KimUserName
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 1:59 PM in response to KimUserName

    Thank you.

    I thought that, but I had a second HD in the G5 and that does exactly the same thing - surely they would not have both died at exactly the same time?

    I suppose I need to try a HD that I know is good, or try connecting one of the G5 HDs to  someone else's computer.

     

    The point, anyway, is to recover photographs from the G5 HD.

  • by freewheelin,

    freewheelin freewheelin Jan 28, 2016 2:04 PM in response to Limnos
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 2:04 PM in response to Limnos

    It is a Dynamode caddy, independently powered, which allegedly should do the trick.

    The HD may have failed as it appears nowhere except for one second at a time. Long enough for me to see that the files are all still there.

  • by my ginger,

    my ginger my ginger Jan 28, 2016 3:03 PM in response to freewheelin
    Level 4 (2,472 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 3:03 PM in response to freewheelin

    I have had hard drives not appear on the desktop, show in disk utilities. have you tried that. Do you have in finder preferences,general. External disks checked.

  • by freewheelin,

    freewheelin freewheelin Jan 28, 2016 11:08 PM in response to my ginger
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 11:08 PM in response to my ginger

    No, and yes.

  • by K Shaffer,Helpful

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Jan 29, 2016 10:55 PM in response to freewheelin
    Level 6 (14,294 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 29, 2016 10:55 PM in response to freewheelin

    Some versions of hard drives have a component on the drive that will fail.

    The drive won't also work if moved to an external powered drive enclosure.

     

    So the enclosure may be OK for one brand of drive (or same brand) but

    not for the other one, if the connector component has failed. This is an

    opposite one may expect when troubleshooting an externally enclosed

    hard drive; since the enclosures have been known to fail first.

     

    Is the drive from the G5 iMac a WD brand or Toshiba? They are ones that

    had been using these components as part of the hard drive...

     

     

    • about 'dead' externally enclosed hard drive...
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6121

     

     

    If the enclosure has a failed component and the drive &/or
    data is not accessible, if the enclosed HDD brand is not WD
    or Toshiba (& perhaps another) your luck may be changed.

     

     

    A bare drive may be accessed by use of "universal drive adapter USB"
    or a bare-drive dock; the drive adapter is just a cable kit w/ power supply
    and good for temporary data rescue or to set up replacement HDDs.

     

     

    • An example -- universal drive adapter kit w/ power supply:
    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/

     

     

    • Drive Docks and related topics at OWC macsales:
    http://eshop.macsales.com/search/drive+dock

     

    • Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck - Apple Support

    • Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks - Apple Support

     

    While macsales does have some fine examples of gear, someone gave

    me several with defects; external drive enclosures can be troublesome

    to troubleshoot, unless known good or new parts are available to swap.

     

    Good luck in this matter!

  • by my ginger,Solvedanswer

    my ginger my ginger Jan 29, 2016 3:22 PM in response to freewheelin
    Level 4 (2,472 points)
    Jan 29, 2016 3:22 PM in response to freewheelin

    Do ether of the drives have jumper pins? Normally there would be none.  Is the inclosure cable usb 3 or usb 2? Sometimes it can be a bad cable.

  • by freewheelin,

    freewheelin freewheelin Jan 29, 2016 3:28 PM in response to my ginger
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 29, 2016 3:28 PM in response to my ginger

    "Sometimes it can be a bad cable."


    And that's exactly what it was.

    The cable that came with the caddy just wasn't up the job. I replaced it with a more robust cable from an old Canon scanner and Bingo! there were all my files.

     

    Thank you for your replies which were all helpful as I have learned a lot about this subject - what a great community we have here.

    I hope my experience and the replies here will be of some use to someone else in the future.

     

    Best wishes all,

    Peter.

  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Jan 29, 2016 6:56 PM in response to freewheelin
    Level 6 (14,294 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 29, 2016 6:56 PM in response to freewheelin

    Always, a good idea is to have spare peripherals, cables, mouse, keyboard; also

    if the computer needs an occasional clock - pram battery (that you can replace)

    those are also good to keep a known-good spare, by date, on hand. ~ As I do.

     

    Usually I assume most would check the obvious; as I am used to troubleshooting

    these relatively simple possibilities first since they are easy and fast.

     

    Glad to hear you did not have to dissect the drive enclosure, to find you had one of

    those hard drive brands with a 'failed interface card, or SATA bridge card'  built-in...

    Or swap a drive to an external enclosure and learn the same kind of thing.