External hard-drive dilemma.

[HowlinWolf]

OK, so it's my user error that has caused the problem, but maybe someone here can offer some advice. I accidentally turned off my external hard-drive without ejecting it first. Now the computer does not recognise the drive. My current computer is an iMac. If I connect the external hard-drive to my PC it wants to format the drive with loss of any data if I take that option. The Mac offers no such option.
Is this a lost cause with any data that was on the drive, or does anyone know of, or have any experience with, any software that may be able to retreive the files? Failing that, I'll just put it down to experience and sharpen up my computing technique to make sure it doesn't happen again.

[Beryl]

You can download programs for retreving files. I can't think off habnd what they are called.
Don't worry to much , even if you wipe a hard drive the files are still there, they are just made re-writeable.
Try typing into google file retreve file program or file back . I just can't remember what the prog is called there is more than one any way. Hope this helps.
When you get your files back. Back them up on disc

[lewisa]

The reason the PC wants to format the drive is probably becuase the drive was previously formatted using a file system other than FAT32 or NTFS.

If the iMac had anything to do with the formatting of the external drive and was running OS X then the file system will probably be HFS+, but I dont know if that would happen, it could have be handled by a drive controller within the external unit, or preformatted in the factory using something else.

Before you attemp to use recovery software it would be good to know what file system the drive is formatted with as different packages will work with different file systems.

If you dont know what a file system is and find this post a bit full of jargon you might find it diffuclt to recover files even with a package. The FAT32/NTFS ones I have experience of usually boot a PC into MS-DOS mode in memory and allow you to retrieve files via command line. There may be more user friendly options but you might have to pay for those, its a while since ive messed with recovery so im not sure.

[HowlinWolf]

The file system was FAT 32 (known fact) and was formatted on the PC. It operated without problems on the Mac until I intervened with my user error. I'll see what I can do with the PC, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I'll keep this thread informed of any progress I make.
Thanks for your input so far.

HW

[Beryl]

You could try safe mode.

[eeyore]

do you know anyone else who has a mac ? - if so try it on their machine which will tell you whether it is the computer or the drive that is at fault

[HowlinWolf]

Yes, eeyore. I have a friend who uses Macs: in fact, he runs three of them. He convinced me late last year to convert to all things AppleMac in preference to PC's, and so far (apart from the stumbling block of an Internet connection) he's right. However, I digress: unfortunately he's away touring until mid January, so until then I'll just have to sit this one out.

HW

[Chris_Johnstone]

I'm not sure if this applies to iMacs but with my Macbook, I formatted an external drive using disk utility (in your apps folder) to an MS-DOS volume (as opposed to a Mac volume eg: Journaled etc). The advantage is I can 'see' the drive on Macs and PCs. I know this doesn't really help your situation but it might help later on if the same thing happens.

To the point - if you're mac can 'see' the disc but can't access it try repairing it with disk utility.

Chris

[HowlinWolf]

Problem solved! A workmate of mine lent me the software to retreive the files on my external hard-drive. I was sceptical that it would work at first, but I can't argue with results.
Thanks to those who gave advice.

HW

[lou_the_lightman]

hi wolf,
i've got a very similar problem at hand!

could you tell me the name of the software that helped you out?

thanx in advance,
lou