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06-10-2008, 7:28 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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External Harddrive won't boot
Ok. I have a 1TB MyBook which has decided that it no longer wants to work. When I plug it in to my Mac the following error message appears "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" Fortunately it does seem as if I can format the drive, however the data on the drive is more valuable to me than the drive itself.
The external drive is formatted using NTFS, and when I plug it in to a Vista machine nothing happens at all, you hear the new device sound, however it doesn't show any drive in my computer.
I have heard of software which could help, however as of now, haven't really been able to fix the problem.
I have an applecare membership.
And yes I'm another idiot who didn't backup 
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06-10-2008, 9:14 AM
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#2 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Bad luck, do you have an Apple store nearby? If so take it in and see if they can mount it. Either way the only software that possibly can repair the drive is Tech Tools Pro or Disk Warrior but I'm not sure they support NTFS(?). You can buy both in the store or download. They aren't cheap and it isn't guaranteed. The aternative is give it to a specialist company but it will cost £££.
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06-10-2008, 9:51 AM
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#3 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Very strange as it sees the drive as a 2TB...hmm...
Last edited by Lithane; 12-10-2009 at 11:01 PM.
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06-10-2008, 9:54 AM
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#4 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Don't despair - when my iMac wouldn't mount my 500Gb USB last week it managed to mount one partition and describe the whole HDD as 1Tb. The MacBook saw it without a problem. Honestly I don't think a Mac is the best vehicle for sorting out NTFS problems.
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06-10-2008, 9:57 AM
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#5 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenex
Bad luck, do you have an Apple store nearby? If so take it in and see if they can mount it. Either way the only software that possibly can repair the drive is Tech Tools Pro or Disk Warrior but I'm not sure they support NTFS(?). You can buy both in the store or download. They aren't cheap and it isn't guaranteed. The aternative is give it to a specialist company but it will cost £££.
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Unfortunately I've not got a local apple store. nearest one is an easy hours drive. I do have a program called TechTool Deluxe, however I've not been able to make use of it. My friend sent me his file for DiskWarrior, however, I've been unable to make use of it, mainly as I've no idea what i have to do with it.Once I installed it I was only able to see the internal drive. I read somewhere that you have to make a bootable disk, however that seems unnecessary as I'm presuming that's if you wish to modify the internal drive. I do have DiskWarrior installed, so any tutorials would help. Thanks for the input Tenex.
Last edited by Lithane; 06-10-2008 at 10:02 AM.
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06-10-2008, 10:01 AM
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#6 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Sorry but I've used TTPro not Disk Warrior. Looking at the DW website it looks like it doesn't support NTFS volumes.
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06-10-2008, 10:05 AM
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#7 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Ok thanks, that's probably why it's not recognizable it. I am a bit of a MacNoob, the reason the drive is NTFS is because the drive was initially purchased when I was on a windows machine. fortunately I have access to a windows machine at present, do you reckon I should try on there? I'm probably better to ask questions in a non-mac area.
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06-10-2008, 10:13 AM
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#8 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
As I said above the Mac isn't really the platform to fix NTFS issues. You won't have been able to write to it on the Mac so the chances are probably pretty good that you can fix it with some Windows utilities (sorry its time out of mind for those now, but maybe a post on the PC forum here will help?).
When you have a chance stream the data off and write to DVD etc then to use the 1Tb with your Mac I'd strongly suggest reformatting to HFS+. If you need help with that post back here. Good luck.
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06-10-2008, 10:22 AM
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#9 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Ok thanks for all the advice Tenex. I'll post a slightly altered question in the hard drive section.
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06-10-2008, 11:17 AM
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#10 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenex
As I said above the Mac isn't really the platform to fix NTFS issues. You won't have been able to write to it on the Mac so the chances are probably pretty good that you can fix it with some Windows utilities (sorry its time out of mind for those now, but maybe a post on the PC forum here will help?).
When you have a chance stream the data off and write to DVD etc then to use the 1Tb with your Mac I'd strongly suggest reformatting to HFS+. If you need help with that post back here. Good luck.
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Why would you recommend HFS+ over Journaled?
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06-10-2008, 2:36 PM
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#11 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
in vista did you go into Disk Management
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Last edited by DJACID; 06-10-2008 at 2:40 PM.
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06-10-2008, 3:28 PM
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#12 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lithane
Why would you recommend HFS+ over Journaled?
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No that's it - HFS+ Journaled, sorry I left that off.
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06-10-2008, 10:58 PM
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#13 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
if you format with fat32 then you could use it with ur mac and vista,
otherwise you will need to use some software (i use macdrive) to use a mac formatted drive to work with vista...
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07-10-2008, 11:19 AM
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#14 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJACID
if you format with fat32 then you could use it with ur mac and vista,
otherwise you will need to use some software (i use macdrive) to use a mac formatted drive to work with vista...
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tbh, I hardly ever use my windows based machine. And I know of restrictions using FAT32.
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07-10-2008, 1:00 PM
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#15 (permalink)
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Re: External Harddrive won't boot
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJACID
in vista did you go into Disk Management
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Yes, it shows the disk as unreadable.
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