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tavilach · Apr 8, 2006, 06:17 PM

I was using my external HD and I powered down my computer the "wrong" way (holding down the button). Nothing had ever gone wrong when I did that before, but this time, when my computer started up again, it said:

"Disk Insertion: The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. Initialize... Ignore Eject"

I tried Intialize, but it did not see any of my partitions, so I couldn't do anything with Disk Utility (which it opened). Ignore does nothing, and Eject obviously doesn't help.

The data must still all be on the HD, and I really want it. It's not the end of the world, since I keep all my important stuff on both my laptop and the external HD, but still...

Any ideas?

seanc · Apr 8, 2006, 08:04 PM

If you can get access to one, try mounting it in a pc running Windows with Mac Drive.

tavilach · Apr 8, 2006, 08:59 PM

What would that do?

seanc · Apr 8, 2006, 09:00 PM

Enable you to recover data and possibly format it.

tavilach · Apr 8, 2006, 09:18 PM

But why would that enable me to recover the data?

bradoesch · Apr 8, 2006, 09:49 PM

Initialize corresponds to format in the Windows world. You didn't want to do that.

tavilach · Apr 9, 2006, 04:55 AM

Any other ideas? I know my data is still there.

seanc · Apr 9, 2006, 07:40 AM

For some odd reason I was always able to recover my now dead external drive in my PC, I don't know why, but it seemed to work until the drive died completely.

bradoesch · Apr 9, 2006, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by tavilach

Any other ideas? I know my data is still there.

If you initialized your drive then you need data recovery software to get your stuff back.

analogika · Apr 9, 2006, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by tavilach

I tried Intialize, but it did not see any of my partitions, so I couldn't do anything with Disk Utility (which it opened).

If killing the machine corrupted your partition table, there isn't much you can do.

Step 1 in such a case is always DiskWarrior (at least version 3.0.3; no older one will work with Tiger volumes reliably).

Step 2 might be Data Rescue, but if it finds anything, that will give you a bunch of numbered files (no type endings) that you have to go through one by one and try to figure out what the hell it might have been.

I do hope that shutting down your machine by holding the power button is not something you ever do except when it freezes hard?

Because if it is, then be prepared for a lot more trouble of this sort, and a lot more data loss in the long run.

tavilach · Apr 9, 2006, 08:58 PM

Well, I tried the MacDrive thing with no luck. I tried a Demo of Data Rescue, and it seems to be finding everything, but I can't recover the stuff using a demo.

It seems that I should buy DiskWarrior to use for this incident and possible future ones, but $80 is just a lot of money. Are there any cheaper options?

tavilach · Apr 9, 2006, 09:40 PM

Is there a way to fix the corrupted partition table and automatically get my data back w/out "recovery"?

analogika · Apr 10, 2006, 02:40 AM

Originally Posted by tavilach

It seems that I should buy DiskWarrior to use for this incident and possible future ones, but $80 is just a lot of money. Are there any cheaper options?

In the situation where you need it, there is no alternative to DiskWarrior.

It is a worthy investment.

If there is a program that can fixed what got messed up, it will be DiskWarrior. I'm not sure how it deals with corrupted partition tables - that might be beyond its capabilities.

tavilach · 03:38 AM

I tried the Data Rescue demo, and it sees my files. I can't recover them with the demo, though. I want to get DiskWarrior since that seems like a better investment, and it actually fixes the disk so I don't need "recovery," but I'm unsure about whether it would work w/ my damaged partitions. It says: "The disk to be rebuilt must be locally connected, must not be write protected, must have a valid partition map and must have a case-insensitive directory." Does that mean it wouldn't work? Data Rescue is even more expensive. *Sigh*

Anyone know anything about TechTool?

macfly · Apr 10, 2006, 06:06 AM

i would say go with data rescue. if using the demo shows you the stuff is there then you know you will be able to retrieve it. you dont know for sure that disk warrior will work. $99 is a lot but how valuable is the stuff you want to get off the drive? if worse comes to worse you can sell the program later. sure u will take a loss but thats the price u pay for getting back your data. i have a drive now i am going to buy it for. the data is still there and i would hate to lose it. hate spending the money but the stuff i want off the drive is worth it to me.

DouglasFir · Apr 29, 2006, 04:47 PM

Hi, I have run into a similar problem. I have a Maxtor 250 external HD formated with FAT 32, and have been using it with my minimac G4 for 4 months. A few days ago I disconnected it and connected it to a windows machine to burn some dvd's (I don't have a dvd burner) and i may have incorrectly powered it off. When I plugged it into my mac, i got The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. TechTools pro sees the disk, but not any volumes. DiskWarrior doesn't even see the disk. My guess is that like tavilach, my partition info got fubar somewhere, but when I boot into linux on my minimac, it reads all my files just fine. What should I do? My phone support with apple ran out already .