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Question

Seagate 4TB usb 3.0 will not mount. Desperate.

Jul 20, 2017 9:10PM PDT

Hi everybody.
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to read my post. I have been pretty desperate with my current situation. I bought a brand-new Seagate 4TB usb 3.0 2.5” external drive. This drive was supposed to be my back up drive but unfortunately, I have data that is only stored there.
How did this happen: I was using my 2012 Mac Book Pro retina and something happened and the system crashed unexpectedly. Ever since when I mount the drive to the computer the system will ‘see it’ but when I click on it would load and load and load until it stops responding or coming up with a message that the drive is not accessible. I tried to mount it on a windows system (windows 7 and windows 10). On the Windows system, it would often ask me to scan and fix errors but when I selected this option it would be unsuccessful and I would get a message of either error or that it can not be completed. I tried many times to run checkdisk from the command prompt on windows but again no access to the drive. Same luck with the disk monitor system on Mac.
Since I do not want to give my drive to a data recovery service ( only because I have very confidential files in there ) I tried to use a recovery program called Stellar Phoenix Data recovery. Apparently from what I read I need to run the RAW scan. The problem is that I tried to scan the drive but the process is so slow that It took me about 2.5 days worth of scanning the sectors and still the process was at pretty much 1% ( the program reads sectors so it scanned something like 1 milion sectors out of 600 billion.
I have also contacted Seagate and they told me to run some scans ( I could not be done) and after couple of emails they told me that my drive was gone.
Can anyone suggest a solution for either mac or windows? ( bear in mind that my windows laptop is very old)
Is there any trick to save the drive ? (put it in the freezer/ open it/ change casing)
Thanks in advance.

George.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
External
Jul 20, 2017 11:37PM PDT

Try a different usb cable.
Try a different enclosure.
Mount the disk internal in a pc.

If all that fails you just learned why you never put important stuff in only one place.

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Answer
Re: drive
Jul 21, 2017 12:40AM PDT

What does Windows disk management or any other partition utility say about the disk?

Maybe it's just a corrupt filesystem. Then delete and recreate that corrupt partition and you'll be fine again (although you lost the files that were on it).
If it's the disk that's damaged, put a new disk in the case.
If it's the electronics in the case that's damaged, put the disk in a new case.

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Answer
Very confidential.
Jul 21, 2017 7:04AM PDT

Drivesavers.com has dealt with such for decades. They recovered songs and videos from musicians that were one of a kind not released so we know for a fact they don't leak your stuff.

I have a few data recovery Apple OS entries in the CNET Storage Forum Sticky under the Lost and Found top post. Here's a direct link but Drivesavers does not pry into or share your files.

Read https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/lost-and-found-or-the-storage-forum-sticky-354911/

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Answer
RE: I tried a couple of things
Jul 21, 2017 7:44AM PDT

Thanks for your replies, I really appreciate your efforts.
Things I did and I still have not had any luck.

Tried a different cable
Tried a different case
Tried a different windows laptop
I put it in the freezer for 2 Hrs

Windows initially comes up with the message " there was a problem with this drive'' click here to fix errors. and then you can either scan or continue without scanning. then it says that it can not scan the driver or some times it will be thinking for ages until it just stops.

I read somewhere that If you plug it to a Linux system it might work?

I believe that it is not a hardware issue but again I don't know much.

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Linux
Jul 21, 2017 7:55AM PDT

Give it a try it's free.

Grab a copy of a live dvd and put it on a dvd.

Boot it up and see what it finds.

I keep a copy of zorin in a drawer just for a second opinion.

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RE
Jul 21, 2017 8:00AM PDT

thank you. are you referring to a program?

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Yes
Jul 21, 2017 8:22AM PDT