[zoink]

I'm running leopard. the second HD is a relatively new HD. seagate 500. no issue until today. boot up the computer.... it's gone!?!?!?


I unplugged the HD. replugged. nothing. use other hd cable plug. moved the jumper around. no use... i'm gutted. how can a HD disappear just like that. it's nowhere in the system profiler. it shows one ATA which is the macHD. which is fine.

i also have a WD external which work fine. i run time machine on it. the screwed up thing is that now, even though i backed up all my second internal HD in time machine it wont find any data. time looks like nothing was backep before today. what kind of backup is that???

please help!!!

[anthology123]

Can you hear the drive spin up as it powers up? The drive could be dead. Since it has a warranty, Seagate should replace it.

[zoink]

i've got 15 years worth of work on this hard drive. i can't afford to lose this data.


and it looks like time machine only works if your HD still works.

[himself]

Open up Disk Utility, and see if the drive is visible there. If so, you may be able to select it, and then click the "Mount" button to mount it. You should also verify the disk to see if there are any problems that prevent is from mounting.

[OreoCookie]

Since you have backed up your data with Time Machine, nothing is lost (since the last backup, that is). The reason it won't show up in `Time Machine mode' is that the faulty harddrive is not mounted. Your data is resting save on the external and has not been deleted. You can directly access your Time Machine backup via the Finder. Select the Time Machine drive > Backup.db > name of computer > name of volume. You should copy everything in `latest'.

If your 500 GB drive was your boot drive, you can recover from a Time Machine backup via Migration Assistant. If the broken drive was not your boot drive, the simplest way to recover your files is to do it manually.

Faulty drive is not boot volume
Disable Time Machine and put in the new harddrive. Switch on your machine and manually copy your files from your Time Machine backup to your new drive. Now switch Time Machine back on. If you choose the same name of the volume, Time Machine will continue to use your `old backups'. If you give your volume a new name, Time Machine will start a new backup series (because it thinks this volume is different from the old one).

[zoink]

well that's a good news. my data should still be on the time machine ext drive. my faulty drive is a second int drive that is not the bootable one. it is not the boot volume.

if i can recover this data you will have made a very VERY happy man. indeed.

[OreoCookie]

Of course you can. Just hook it up and check it out for yourself.

Just for your information: you should disable Time Machine (for non-bootable data recovery) so that it doesn't make a new backup of your empty drive (which may interfere with your copy process).