Hard drive shows empty

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Level 1

8 points

Hard drive shows empty

My hard drive won't work anymore, and shows empty when I open it. Although if I keep it plugged in long enough, I am able to view my folders, but they are still empty when I open them. I believe the problem started at first with the drive becoming "Read Only" (may be a result of not ejecting it properly and I tend to do it regularly....but that's just a guess).

I checked my drive on a windows computer and said I need to format my disk.

I tried disk utility but sadly I do not get the disk repair option. And I just noticed that all my file types have have turned to "Other".

I don't know if anyone has faced the same problem before. I have some important files in there and I desperately need some help. Here's a screenshot of what it looks like on Disk Utility.

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Posted on Apr 8, 2017 11:02 AM

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Answer 1

tsheringd Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 10, 2017 4:46 AM in response to dot.com

Interesting development since I posted this two days ago and now. My hard drive won't mount anymore. And when I checked under Disk Utility, it looks entirely different. This is not recognized by Paragon either. Here's the screen shot.

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Answer 2

Apr 8, 2017 12:12 PM in response to tsheringd

I had similar problems with my WD MyBook Studio. Every time the hd went to sleep, it didn't show to have any content after. But when I restarted my Mac, everything was ok. I made two things after that: 1) gave everybody read and write privileges for the hd (right click for hd info) and 2) threw the WD Drive Utilities -program away (I think that was the guilty party). Now everything is ok. Hope this helps.

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Answer 3

dot.com

Level 4

2,455 points

Apr 8, 2017 1:59 PM in response to tsheringd

Your TDorji volume is an NTFS volume - this cannot be mounted by macOS so that it's writeable, only read-only, unless you get some third-party NTFS software like Paragon or someone else. NTFS is the format that Windows computers use, not Apple Mac systems.

The reason your mac thinks that files on this NTFS volume are "other" is because it doesn't understand or keep-track of files on NTFS volumes the same that it does with mac formatted volumes, like HFS+ volumes. Even with Paragon, don't think this will work the way you are hoping (keeping track of apps, photos, etc).

I think you could import this NTFS volume into another HFS+ volume using the Migration Assistant and possibly get what you're wanting, but without testing (which I can't because don't have any NTFS volumes or Windows computers) can't be certain of this, but I do recall seeing this sort of option when setting up a new Mac system (it asks if you wish to import your files from a Windows computer as one of the options, but not certain).

Good luck...

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Answer 4

dot.com

Level 4

2,455 points

Apr 10, 2017 9:22 AM in response to tsheringd

Well, it sees that it's a MBR volume, so that's normal, but the fact it's not even mounting now is troubling. Do you get any error message when trying to mount with either Paragon or with MacOS (by the way what version of OS are you running)?

Good luck...

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Answer 5

tsheringd Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 8, 2017 1:20 PM in response to Maclarean

Thank you for the response but my drive is write-protected and there is nothing I am able to do about it. And how do I execute number 2?

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Answer 6

Apr 8, 2017 10:54 PM in response to tsheringd

dot.com is right. I didn't notice that NTFS in your screenshot. So this is a different case.

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Answer 7

tsheringd Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 10, 2017 11:03 AM in response to dot.com

I am on El Capitan. I dont really know why my disk wont mount. So I tried the "Verify" in Paragon, and it said it failed because my filetype wasn't NTFS. Disk repair also didn't work.

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Answer 8

dot.com

Level 4

2,455 points

Apr 10, 2017 2:29 PM in response to tsheringd

What do these Terminal commands return:

diskutil list

diskutil info disk1

The second command is a guess -- assuming the problem drive is disk1 - change if needed

Good luck...

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