What errors did it have and how did you fix it?
The disk will not show on a PC is you formatted it for Mac, that may be normal depending on how you set it up. Avoid trying to fix on the PC unless you know it is setup for PC use.
Start with the simple things - reboot everything. Check cables, check power, try other ports.
Post back with more info on the errors.
What Mac?
What disk?
How old is it?
Is it backed up?
The "energy port" (where the USB cable goes) got unwelded from the SATA card, so I had a technician weld it again. (I'm sure I'm making up the names of these parts).
Contact the technician - maybe they failed to test or didn't correctly weld the ports back together.
It really isn't clear on what you re talking about - is this inside the hard drive or the Mac? You may be able to put a disk into another case to read it.
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)
The external HD is LaCie 1 TB, it has two years I believe. It's partially backed up, it has some personal info which isn't copied in any other of my disks 😟
The technician replaced the broken part with another piece for the SATA card, which is was what was broken. He tried it out on his PC, and it will launch a message saying the disk is unreconizable, but on my mac, it would run (the external disk is actually running/spinning normally without weird sounds) but it won't even show up on my devices.
I don't know how to make it to show up?
Before I went to see a technician, I thought it was just some simple error, until, I saw my HD will connect and disconnect even if "touched by air", until eventually it stopped showing. But it seems it was a little "leg" of this part that was broken so that's why it will have connection errors.
I don't know if its not showing due to his constant connecting and disconnecting? How can I make it to show again? Is there a way?
I've realised I'm not being very eloquent on this matter, but it's really hard to describe what is happening for me. I hope any of you can help me out, if you had a similar situation to this?
Thanks a billion times!
ki
Hi Drew,
He weld another new pice for the Saca card.
I'm not being very clear, I understand, so I will try harder to explain this better.
It's an external hard drive, Lacie 1TB, it has two years old, my MAC is a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011); we tried the External HD on a PC, and a message will pop saying it is an unrecognisable device - we believe it is due to its formatting (MAC only). But in my MAC it won't even show on the finder, neither on the Disk Utility. So I don't know how to make it show. The disk runs smoothly, and is spinning without any weird sound. (the sound of death, or clicking , etc); I believe it has stopped showing due to the constant connecting and disconnecting of the external hard drive without a safe removal (due to the broken leg on the chip part of the SATA board -which is now replaced and new).
I want to know if there is a way to make it appear again? I mean, at least on a PC, it shows.. but on my MAC, is like nothing is happening, not even an "unrecognisable device has been connected" message.
The disk is partially backed up, but there are some files that are only stored in there.
Thank you so much!
The problem you appear to have seems to be two possible points of failure…
This will help with number 2…
Get another disk or USB stick - format it on a Mac using the default Mac settings in Disk Utility (GUID partition table, Mac OS Extended volume). Then connect that to the PC. If that works you know that the PC can read Mac disks. PC's require third party software to read a Mac disk as far as I can tell. If that is not installed the PC can't help at all.
The disk won't mount in Finder if the filesystem is too damaged if it can appear in Disk Utility you can try the repair option, however that may not fix every problem.
I'm also unsure if you are using another external case - sometimes they can fail. It is a good idea to try another if possible.
Hey Drew!
I'm impressed, you are so fast!
Well, I don't think his PC can read Mac formats, and how will it help me if it can or cannot? I mean, at least it recognises it is connected. My Mac just ignores it.
The HD is still running and spinning. I'm now afraid to keep connecting it and disconnecting it, since it doesn't show, there is no way to do a safe removal anymore. It doesn't appear in Disk Utility at all.
He tried with another external case, but the same will happen. it won't reconize it. I mean, he tried it before changing the chip on the SATA card, to test if the Hard drive was good and spinning, or it was the card.
So, I don't know what else to do...
Again, Thanks a lot!
There is nothing you can do if you do not know that the PC can read Mac formatted disks.
A PC cannot fix a Mac disk unless it understands how to read that file system format. That is why I think you need to test a Mac disk that works.
You could try the damaged disk on another Mac to see if it works on different hardware & software or boot the Mac into recovery mode then try accessing the disk in Disk Utility. About macOS Recovery - Apple Support
I don't really understand what 'changing the chip on the sata card' means. If the technician has been soldering new connections then it can easily be one of those that is faulty. I think you need advanced tools & training to modify or repair modern disks. It is difficult to know if the technician is actually trained at fixing disk or just someone who is trying various things. Disks are incredibly fragile if handled incorrectly. It may just be the sata case that was changed which could be fine but even that requires care & some knowledge to do correctly & safely.
You may want to consider taking it to another company, ideally a professional data recovery service, I really can't tell what is being done here.
My external Hard drive had some errors and couldn't connect. Now it's fixed but my Mac wont recognize it, it won't even show.
