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Had a tech nightmare - iMac graphic card failed (on a v old Mac), so currently trying to pull out the hard drive so as I can retrieve the data.
But everything's backed up on a WD Passport 1TB drive ... but, plugged it in, and not being seen in Finder on my MacAir. V odd, as usually v reliable. Tried it on son's Chromebook and the TV and it's been seen, but timing out on loading.
Plugged back into MacAir and on terminal distil list, I get to see it. By messing with Finder (shutting it down and relaunching), it's seeing it but can't access it - it seems to be 100% full and only 2 folders are showing. It is only 40% full with my stuff. Why would it suddenly seem 100% full, and is this what is preventing it loading/been accessible?
The drive is humming v nicely and smoothly as usual, so assume the heads are OK. Tried different cables.
So I can't access it to explore what's on there, any idiot's guide as to what to do (I could do with accessing some data pronto for work as my iMac is being dismantled). Yikes.
Do you know what format the drive is in? If you can see it via diskutil (is that what you meant?) in the terminal, do you know how to also find it & hopefully view the contents via the command line?
Quick Google brings up quite a few hits, possibly the drive is failing to mount properly for some reason? Maybe some tips here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/149067/external-hdd-can-be-seen-in-disk-utility-but-not-in-finder
Just to confirm, when you say the external drive is "v reliable", does that mean you've plugged it into your Mac Air before & been able to see/use it ok? As that would point (barring some weird issue with your Air) to the external drive having failed/corrupted in some way?
Are you doing anything different to the last time you did a test restore to check your backups were functional?
Zilog - thanks, I've tried working through a few of these options with no success. I think
- diskutil list finds it, and suggests it's mounted. But then in terminal I can't get it to mount.
- over numerous attempts, I got it to show in disk utility and it showed a full disk, but would not let me unmount it
- have tried ejecting in terminal but fails or times out
- it's been in use with me, weekly/monthly for the last few years on my iMac and MacAir and always been seen, reliable
So yep, guess it's got corrupted!
captmorgan - I don't think so. I generally back up stuff, say monthly, and some big files, I keep on the external hard rive and then access as I need them. Nothing unusual or different I can think of
could well be the case unfortunately. I've actually (touch wood!!) never had a factory, internal drive fail on a computer, but have had plenty of external drives fail! Cloud backup all the way for me now (opens can of worms 😂).So yep, guess it’s got corrupted!
Hopefully you have some luck pulling the working drive from your iMac! Just a thought - is the graphic card issue on the iMac stopping it booting? Or just resulting in a black screen? Or can't you tell? If it has a Thunderbolt port (and assuming you have the right cable and the right port on another Mac) have you tried booting the iMac into Target Disk Mode? (from memory, this is a very limited boot & I think doesn't load the GUI so may still work)?
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1443/mac
these 2 utils have helped me previously, bit of reading may be required.
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Main_Page
Zilog - aghhh, wish I'd thought of popping a second screen onto my iMac!! The screen was solid green/grey lines.
ah, you don't have the iMac any more (it's already being serviced?) Yeah, would've been worth trying. Although that's also one of the symptoms of a main board failure, which would've prevented it booting probably.aghhh, wish I’d thought of popping a second screen onto my iMac!! The screen was solid green/grey lines.
That's eased my mind somewhat as the boot seemed to time out!
I would definitely try Target Disk Mode tho, if it hasn't been taken to pieces already!!
Is it encrypted?
No encryption on iMac or external drive
Ah. Bang goes that route of inquiry.