[supertoom]

Hi, I hope someone with the knowledge has time to go through my documentation and troubleshooting steps below and maybe give a conclusion of what is wrong with the HDD (Western Digital 250 GB USB) -- and hopefully a possible solution (even if I doubt a solution..). I don't want to accept all my files are gone..

What happend was I started a song in iTunes from the HDD (connected as an AirDisk to my Airport Extreme) and the "beach ball" started to spin, nothing happend. After a while I tried to unmount the drive, nothing happend. Last resort was to unplug the cable... and when plugged back the HDD was not working anymore - "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer".

This is what I've tried so far:

DiskUtility:
DiskUtility can detect the drive, but verify and repair buttons are grayed out. This is the info it gives about the drive:

Name : WD 2500BEV External Media
Type : Disk

Partition Map Scheme : Unformatted
Disk Identifier : disk1
Media Name : WD 2500BEV External Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : USB
USB Serial Number : 575848383038413431313638
Device Tree : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/EHC1@4,1
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Location : External
Total Capacity : 250,06 GB (250 059 350 016 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 0


DiskWarrior:
Can't see the disk at all.

TechTool Pro:
Surface Scan Test -> The CPU goes to max, the program hangs and all blocks are reported as bad. Task was aborted.
SMART Check Test -> Can't see the disk at all.
Volume Structures Test -> Can't see the disk at all.
File structures Test -> Can't see the disk at all.

Nowhere under the Tools section can the disk be seen.

Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery:
Display default volume(s) -> No results
Scan for volume(s) -> No results
Raw Search -> Not working, I do not remember the exact outcome.

Stellar Phoenix Macintosh:
Quick recovery -> The drive can't be detected.
Deleted File Recovery -> The drive can't be detected.
Formatted Media/Lost File Recovery -> The drive can't be detected.
Search Lost/Deleted Volumes -> Not working, I do not remember the exact outcome.

Data Rescue 3:
Quick Scan -> "The quick scan was unable to find any files"
Deep Scan -> The scan runs but the percentage stays at 0,00% and nothing happens, CPU works like crazy. Program has to be forced to quit to continue. Task was aborted.
Clone -> creates a .dmg clone of the HDD but this results in "no mountable file systems" when opening the .dmg. Toast can mount it but the result is an Audio CD with one long (empty) AIFF file.
Analyze (quick, medium and deep) -> completes the tests but gives a blank result

TestDisk (Mac):
When I do an analyze, the progress looks likes this:

"Disk /dev/disk1 - 250 GB / 232 GiB - CHS 488397168 1 1
Analyse cylinder 20552/488397167: 00%
Read error at 20544/0/1 (lba=20544)"

With a read error on every singe cylinder. I could see the computer communicate with the HDD (light was flashing) but the disk stopped spinning after a few minutes. It took around 6,5 hours to complete only 3% so I aborted the task.

MacDrive (Windows, via VMware Fusion):
Check Mac volumes -> No drive detected
Modify Mac volumes -> Program quits when selecting the drive

Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics (Windows, via VMware Fusion):
Quick test -> "Cable Test::Read diagnostics sector error!"
Extended test -> "Cable Test::Read diagnostics sector error!"

HFSExplorer (Windows, via VMware Fusion):
"No HFS+ file systems found…"

Ontrack EasyRecovery Pro (Windows, via VMware Fusion):
Quick Diagnostic Test -> "I/O Error on sector 273985111. Error count exceeded!"
Full Diagnostic Test -> "I/O Error on sector 0-9. Error count exceeded!"
PartitionTests -> Drive not detached.

ddrescue:
Started it, but cancelled after a while as the calculated time would be several weeks. I don't remember the exact messaging.

GParted live CD (Linux):
Disk can't be found

As a last resort i tried to format the drive (to hopefully be able to recover the data again), but it just end up with the error "POSIX reports: The operation couldn't be completed. Cannot allocate memory." More info about that error here: Apple - Support - Discussions - External HD Problem in Snow Leopard ...



Any idea, anyone??

[Simon]

Sounds like the USB-SATA bridge or the drive chipset is toast.

You'll have to get a new drive and restore your files from backup.

[Constable Odo]

I've had that POSIX error before, but the way I managed to get around it was I tested putting the hard drive in two different external cases and one of them worked. I tried a USB external case, a Firewire external case, and a USB external drive adapter. I believe I also tried formatting that drive using Leopard instead of Snow Leopard. At some point, all of my switching the drive around beat the POSIX error. I'd never seen that error before in all my years of formatting many dozens of drives.

I don't think your drive is damaged at all. I think there is some problem with the way Snow Leopard or that version of Disk Utility formats hard drives. As you did, I also tried other formatting programs such as Drive Genius and iPartition and they wouldn't work and gave some error. I know I finally got the drive to format properly with Apple's Disk Utility, but I think it was under Leopard. It was months ago so I really don't remember exactly.

Instead of trying to format that drive with a running system, try formatting that drive after booting from an Install Disk if you have a computer that you can put that hard drive in directly. Try formatting that drive using Leopard or Tiger. All I know is that I got mine to work after a couple of hours or so of dicking around while it was in an external case.

I doubt you'll ever recover those files, but I honestly don't think the drive is ruined since my drive recovered from the POSIX "can't allocate memory" error.

Dammit, I hate AirDisks. The concept is great but I've had problems transferring large files and the drive just becomes unresponsive and requires an Airport Extreme reboot. All I use now is a 16GB thumb drive on that older damn Airport Extreme router. I sure hope the newer Time Capsules work better.

[supertoom]

Thanks for the advisces! I have also read reports on the the Apple forums that replacing the external case would help. And also try the formatting from an older system (most reports say pre-Tiger).

I have tried to boot from the 10.6 installation disc - same issue.
I have also tried to boot from a 10.5 installation disc - same issue (well, "Input/output error")

And I just opened up my MacBook and replaced the internal HDD with the faulty one, but the computer refused to boot with the HDD installed. It just stuck at the grey startup screen (no spinning wheel) and it won't look for a bootable DVD, even if I hold down 'C' while starting up. The DVD spins down after a minute, then waiting for a few more minutes then it restarts by itself. Too bad, cause it would be a good idea to try the formatting when installed as an internal HDD.

My next step will be to replace the external case, I will try one with FireWire, unfortunately Apple dropped the FW on my MacBook, so I need to find someone with a FW Mac.

I will also try to get hold of a computer with Tiger installed and try the formatting.

And formatting was my LAST resort, not even that seems to work...

(And don't get me started on the Airport Extreme... the new dual band model has som major flaws... works (almost) perfect on the 2,4 GHz band but the 5 GHz band is a mess. But that's another story.)

[reader50]

If it is the enclosure board failing, the disk may be completely intact. Try it in a different enclosure, or directly connect in a MacPro or PowerMac. It may read fine, or be repairable. Avoid reformatting until everything else has failed - it complicates data recovery.

Also, where is your Time Machine backup?

[supertoom]

Yeah I will try that, thanks.

And about the backup... I bought my Airport a month ago and I also bought a new 1 TB HDD which is connected to the Airport for backup and extra storage. I also connected my (now faulty) HDD to the Airport. By some navie reason I did not decide to include the faulty HDD in the TimeMachine backup, don't ask me why.. Everything else except the external HDD is backed up... That's all my ripped music CD's now lost, took me around 3 weeks to rip it. But hey, at least I still have my CD's so I can just rip them again...

[supertoom]

I just put the harddrive in a new case, now the computer does not detect it all... light is just flashing. But when I change back to the original case the error "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" is displayed. Very strange.

[reader50]

Do you have an old, spare HD available? You could put a known-good spare drive in each case for testing. To rule out the cases as the problem. Don't use a current drive with data on it.

Unfortunately, your test suggests the media drive is toast.

[supertoom]

Unfortunately I don't have any other to try.

When I use the new case the disk starts to spin and then there's a loud click after which the disk starts to spin again. Same thing happend when I used the disk the internaly on my MacBook yesterday. I could hear the disk spinning and the click. Mac OS frooze at the grey screen at startup, not even possible to boot to a install disc.

With it's regular case the disk spins normally without the click and then I see the error mesage.

I will try to get hold of a Tiger-installed Mac and see if it can detect it and format it. Then I'm giving up.

[Constable Odo]

Well, I'm glad you can replace those files with just extra work. It's not like it's some irreplaceable photos or some client's files. I always used to format my drives with a Power Mac with internal drive bays, but my G4 Dualie kicked the bucket last year and now I'm stuck with no way to do internal drive formats. I need to pick up a cheap Mac Pro just so I can use internal drive bays to format drives. I never used external cases until recently. Now I've got about four of them with multiple input ports just in case.

As a last resort before you give up, see if you can clone a known bootable drive to that messed up drive using CCCloner. Maybe that will do something to wake it up. Though I guess CCCloner will try to format it before cloning and it might just hang or give an error.

It always figures. The drive you decided not to back up has to be the one to fail. Good luck and I hope you find an answer. That POSIX "cannot allocate memory error" is insane. There is no rational reason for a disk that you are formatting to give such a stupid error when there is nothing really wrong with the drive. Once I got my drive to format I reformatted it and repartitioned it several times to make sure it was OK and it's still working just fine.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by Constable Odo 

As a last resort before you give up, see if you can clone a known bootable drive to that messed up drive using CCCloner. Maybe that will do something to wake it up. Though I guess CCCloner will try to format it before cloning and it might just hang or give an error.

You might as well try cloning, but not with CCC. CCC has caused a lot of people a lot of trouble. Just like the commercial SD.

If you want to clone a disk look no further than OS X. It's all built right into the OS. /Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility > Restore. And on every OS X install disk in the Utilities menu.

[Constable Odo]

I'm not questioning you mentioning that CCC has caused users problems, but I've used CCC for a number of years and recently have cloned about 7 or 8 drives with Leopard and Snow Leopard on it and never had any problems with it. The drives were always bootable and even my XP and Windows 7 virtual drives from Parallels and VMWare were perfect and the permissions seemed fine. I don't know that much about other things in OSX like symbolic links and stuff, so maybe those things are messed up and I just don't know it. I'll see if I can find some complaints about CCC and find out what's messed up in case it might affect my drives. Thanks for the heads up.

I've always seen the Restore option in Disk Utility, but I never used it since I'd always had other cloning software. It's good to know and I'll try it sometime.

[supertoom]

Thanks for the advises, maybe one day I will give it another try to fix the drive but now I've given up.. (and I also got the chance to format it from a Tiger-Mac, still same issue btw).

I just replaced my internal drive for a new 500 GB drive, and I will start over with the CD ripping... I will keep all my music on my internal drive and use my external 1 TB drive mainly for backup. And this time it will backup ALL my files/drives...

[Simon]

Originally Posted by supertoom 

And this time it will backup ALL my files/drives...

Sounds like a good plan.

Lycka till!