lobsterbouy
Level 1 (4 points)
iTunes

Q: Data recovery on external HDD

Hi guys,

 

I have a problem with an external HDD that I store my iTunes library on. I accidentally disconnected the drive while using iTunes (watching a movie) and now I can't copy or write to the external drive. The drive will mount and I can browse the files on it but I can't copy anything from it or write to it. I tried using Disk Utility but it failed to scan the drive and threw an error saying that it couldn't un-mount the drive.

 

I'm using a MacBook Pro Retina 15" mid 2014 OS X El Capitan

Seagate 1TB external drive (about 1 year old)

 

Any advise on recovery software or work-arounds would be most welcome, thanks

 

Dave

15" MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz 2GB RAM

Posted on Oct 19, 2016 8:11 PM

by Kenichi Watanabe,Solvedanswer
Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe
Level 8 (40,259 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Disk Utility but it failed to scan the drive and threw an error saying that it couldn't un-mount the drive.

That may not be related to your data corruption issue.  That error could come up, if some other process is currently accessing the external drive.  If you have not already, restart your Mac.  Then immediately run Disk Utility and try doing First Aid on the external drive.

Posted on Oct 19, 2016 10:36 PM

Close
lobsterbouy

Q: Data recovery on external HDD

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Oct 19, 2016 10:36 PM in response to lobsterbouy
    Level 9 (54,635 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 19, 2016 10:36 PM in response to lobsterbouy

    If you're willing to fork out $100 I'd say it sounds like something DiskWarrior could likely handle.  It is probably major directory corruption. Disk Utility works for low level stuff but can't handle serious stuff.  I only need DiskWarrior once a decade or so but when I do it is worth it even though it only really does one thing (directory repair).

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,Solvedanswer

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Oct 19, 2016 10:36 PM in response to lobsterbouy
    Level 8 (40,259 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 19, 2016 10:36 PM in response to lobsterbouy

    Disk Utility but it failed to scan the drive and threw an error saying that it couldn't un-mount the drive.

    That may not be related to your data corruption issue.  That error could come up, if some other process is currently accessing the external drive.  If you have not already, restart your Mac.  Then immediately run Disk Utility and try doing First Aid on the external drive.

  • by lobsterbouy,

    lobsterbouy lobsterbouy Oct 19, 2016 10:36 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 19, 2016 10:36 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    Okay, so I restarted the Mac, plugged in the drive and ran First Aid (Disk Utility) on the drive. It passed, which is great as this previously failed, and the files seem to be copying off fine now. Think it's fixed! I'll back it up and reformat it just to be sure.

     

    Thanks for your help

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Oct 19, 2016 10:46 PM in response to lobsterbouy
    Level 8 (40,259 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 19, 2016 10:46 PM in response to lobsterbouy

    That's good...   As a Mac user, you should use the built-in Time Machine feature to back up your MacBook's internal drive and that external drive with your iTunes data, to another larger external drive.  You can then easily recover, if you ever have a more serious case of data corruption.  Time Machine automatically and incrementally backs up changes to your drive volumes (in the background), every hour that your Mac is running (and the Time Machine backup drive is connected).

     

    Also, thanks for reporting back with outcome.

  • by lobsterbouy,

    lobsterbouy lobsterbouy Oct 20, 2016 2:33 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 20, 2016 2:33 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    I'm still having trouble recovering some files but most of the important data I've managed to transfer.

     

    Thanks for your advise on using TM, I'll search out some options for this.

     

    Thanks again