LaCie Rugged Key FAT32 not able to see files on my mac anymore

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Level 1

4 points

LaCie Rugged Key FAT32 not able to see files on my mac anymore

I initially used my Rugged key on my Macbook Pro. After running a presentation from this on a PC I now when I plug in my drive I cannot see any files and the title reads "Utility" instead of "Rugged Key" like before. When I run the disk utility it reads FAT32 MS-DOS. Does this mean my files have been erased?? How do I recover these? And once that happens, is there a way to prevent this happening when I go from one operating system to another?

null-OTHER, iOS 10.1.1, LaCie Rugged Key

Posted on Nov 15, 2016 6:18 AM

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Answer 1

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,306 points

Nov 15, 2016 6:33 AM in response to hhrose

the File Allocation Tables may have been altered when Windows managed the drive.

I suggest trying to plug the drive into another mac computer and testing it. If you can't get any Mac to read it then try copying the data (when connected to a windows computer) to a CD or DVD which use ISO format and can be read on Mac or Windows, or to another drive, device or cloud storage, then once you verify the data is backed up you can reformatt the drive for Fat32 or ExFat. If you need to use it on Mac AND Windows or simply Mac Extended if you choose to use it with just Mac.

I would suggest in the future for presentations maybe copying them to flash drive so the PC as it would be difficult to guess if the PC has some other software that could be trying to manage the device or part of a Windows Group Policy that might cause a problem, especially if it's a work computer given to you by a corporation with existing policies you can not change.

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