disconnecting external hard drive error - PLS HELP!

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disconnecting external hard drive error - PLS HELP!

im an iMac newbie so i didnt know i was gonna encounter a problem when i manually disconnected my external hard drive from the USB port. when i disconnected it, an error message popped up saying something like the USB device was not properly disconnected..make sure to eject the device... this may cause loss of data, etc. So when i tried to plug in my external hard drive again, a message box popped up saying something like "the device is not compatible with this computer.." so i went and tried to connect the external hard drive on to my PC... as i expected, an error message popped up saying that it is not formatted yet and it was asking me if i want to reformat it..

what should i do??? did i permanently lose all the data in my external hard drive?? is there any way to restore the files?? please help..

iMac Intel based, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on May 6, 2007 7:09 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 9

77,182 points

May 6, 2007 8:22 PM in response to krstna21

Welcome to Discussions

Restart your iMac and then plug the drive in to see if it will mount.

You can click the eject button for the drive in the open window or close the window and then drag the drives icon to the trash.

For more info on USB and FireWire devices look here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303598#trouble

Dennis

17" iMac Intel Core Duo 1.5GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.9) Maxtor 300GB FireWire Creative Inspire 2.1 2G Nano

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Answer 2

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

May 6, 2007 9:41 PM in response to krstna21

As indicated in the previous post, you need to 'eject' the drive before you disconnect the cable or power down the external drive.

to eject:
click on the drive icon then press command-e
right click or control click on the drive icon then select eject

plus other methods

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I'd plug in the device & power up the device before starting the mac. This will force a drive check.

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With the device connected & power up, then run disk repair.

harddrive > applications > utilities > Disk Utility

On the left you will see a list of devices with the partitions on the device below the device icon. Select the device icon of the external device. Be sure to select the device not the partition on the device.

Select the First Aid tab. See lower right.
run verify
run repair
run verify

what should i do??? did i permanently lose all the data > in my external hard drive?? is there any way to restore > the files?? please help..

If the repair doesn't work you need to try a utility like disk warrior. If that dosn't work, you will need to try a commercial recovery firm.

Robert

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