Wondering about Verification on External HD Rawr...

[sfontes]

I gots a question...i dunno if you TL in the Underground have got something to check it other than the mac's disc utility. Is there anyway to check like..the reliability of an external? Mines failed twice now. ;_; And not just 'oh erase everything', but 'oh, osx can't read any of the partitions on this disc after its eated your stuff. would you like to format?' Luckily this time it was just a back up and I hadn't deleted anything but I'm just curious before I fig out how else to back up my music and stuffs. thnky thnky.

[dparm]

What kind of external drive is it?

We can always use the Windows CHKDSK utility.

[abudhu]

Alternatively, you can find out the internal drive type (Western Digital, Maxor, Seagate) go to their website and download their HD Diagnostic Tools. When I run my Seagate one it is able to detect my External Western Digital drive so you may have luck.

If it doesn't you can simply open the external casing and unplug it from the circuit board it attaches to and plug it into your computer as a standard HD and then run the diagnostic tools.

If you want pictures I can take mine apart tonight and show you.

[sfontes]

Its an iOmega external hd. I think its ATA, as far from that, I'm not really sure. I'd been using it on both my Mac and PC laptops until it failed the first time, so after that my iBook was the only thing that would read it.

Amit, I'm not really sure how to do what you said, as its a usb attached drive to a laptop.

Dan, if I use Windows CHDSK, will my mac still read it?

Or am I just better of making DVD copies of my drives?

[abudhu]

I'll take pics when I get home =D

Though, I believe actual Externals are a bit tricky vs External Enclosures.

[sfontes]

Well, I had to look it up on how to take the damn thing outta its casing. The screws ended up being hidden underneathe the rubber feet. Crazyness.

[jmcgon]

Its an iOmega
there's your problem!

[sfontes]

hahah. thx james. :P

[dparm]

Iomega probably buys drives from someone else.

[sfontes]

Amit, I dunno that your idea will work. Windows won't read it. It says that its ready for use and does that whole 'found new hardware' thingy, but the drive won't show up. *glares at drive*

[sfontes]

And now..nothing will read it. I think it is dead. d.e.ad..

[abudhu]

*Hm* Sometimes you have to assign it a drive in Computer Managment in Windows. In anycase you sure Iomega doesnt have a Drive Utility Program? You can try downloading Seagates or Western Digitals as theirs are capable of running a low pass scan of other HD's.

You could always bring it by the MLL and I'll take a look or have one of the Tech's over in the underground work their magic.

[sfontes]

*facepalm*
it doesn't work if you plug it into the usb on the g5..
it doesn't work if you plug it into the usb of the pcs..

...

it WORKS and FORMATS to ms-dos so the g5 and pc will read it...when its plugged into the KEYBOARD?!

*cries*

[dparm]

If the disk doesn't show up in the Disk Management console (right click on My Comptuer, go to Manage), then that drive is dead.

I've seen this twice in the past month, once on my own Cruzer Titanium, another time on a laptop HDD. Both times the drive was garbage.

Feel free to bring it to the Underground and I'll see what I can do, but I make no promises. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Shiloe.

[sfontes]

The weird thing is, once I went via the keyboard, it worked. It read, it formatted, and its recognized by both the PC and Mac now. *facepalm*

I just need it long enough to take my HD to the zone to burn on to DVD as the PC is down to like 500mb of space. >.<

But after I'll take it to you Dan. I need to figure out how else to store my mp3s, as its taking up more than half of my iBook.