external PC formated drive Help

[miniboss]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, so if not, I apologize in advance. a guy I work with had a PC with an external HD to back up his data. He then got a MAC because they were supposed to be the next best thing since sliced bread. He attached the external drive to his MAC, via USB, he thinks the MAC did something to it, because now neither machine can read the data on it. Any Ideas?

The only thing I can come up with, is maybe he didn't disconnect the drive from the MAC properly, and corrupted the data. If the MAC couldn't recognize the drive, it should have just done nothing, right? I think he needs to run data recovery software on it, and reformat. Thanks.

 

[Francis2004]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, so if not, I apologize in advance. a guy I work with had a PC with an external HD to back up his data. He then got a MAC because they were supposed to be the next best thing since sliced bread. He attached the external drive to his MAC, via USB, he thinks the MAC did something to it, because now neither machine can read the data on it. Any Ideas?

The only thing I can come up with, is maybe he didn't disconnect the drive from the MAC properly, and corrupted the data. If the MAC couldn't recognize the drive, it should have just done nothing, right? I think he needs to run data recovery software on it, and reformat. Thanks.

Well first you would need to know what he was running as OS ( Operating System ) on the two Computers..

If the PC had Windows XP and the MAC had Leopard 10.5 then it might have formatted the USB drive for him and everything might be gone as far as he is concerned..

My best recommendation.. Take it to his nearest computer RESTORE store and tell them what he did.. Yes many Computer specialty stores will recover your data no matter how bad you damaged it on your drive..

 

[SirJosephPorter]

I am not familiar with MAC at all, but I understand it is very user friendly. That may well have worked against you in this instance. If because of different formatting or whatever, MAC couldn’t read the data from the hard drive, it may well have interpreted it to mean that it is a blank drive, that you want to use it and formatted it for you.

Of course, I am only speculating. As Sir Francis said, your best bet would be to take it to a computer shop.

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, so if not, I apologize in advance.

As to that, we discuss every topic under the sun in these forums. And many of us fancy ourselves to be experts in everything under the sun. So feel free to ask any question you like, there will always be free advice for you.

 

[shadowshiv]

You do not have to worry miniboss, this is the perfect sub-forum for you to ask that particular question.:smile:

 

[taopy]

I'm not familiar with MAC. Do the two OS use the different format?

 

[miniboss]

Yeah, bigtime. Mac OS is a derivative of UNIX, it uses HFS plus, I have no idea what that is. while the format for Windows XP, preferably, is NTFS. I think I just may be able to use a Linux live cd, Knoppix, to turf the partition table altogether, and re partition it back to and NTFS formatted partition. I hope. I've done it with other HD's so hopefully it works. I was told I don't have to salvage anything, so that makes things easier. thanks for the input, I'll let you guys know if it works or not.

 

[Francis2004]

Yeah, bigtime. Mac OS is a derivative of UNIX, it uses HFS plus, I have no idea what that is. while the format for Windows XP, preferably, is NTFS. I think I just may be able to use a Linux live cd, Knoppix, to turf the partition table altogether, and re partition it back to and NTFS formatted partition. I hope. I've done it with other HD's so hopefully it works. I was told I don't have to salvage anything, so that makes things easier. thanks for the input, I'll let you guys know if it works or not.

Hi miniboss

HFS is Hierarchical File System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia or Hierarchical File System. Basically a fancy name for a filing system for MAC OS..

If your looking to save anything on that drive, I would not format it at all. Anyt formatting, especially with Linux and then back to Windows will lose all data stored on that drive for sure..

When you '"turf" the partion table on a drive, depending on the OS system, it can remove all data if that drive is all in one partion. Some OS systems set up a partion and then a secondary partion that is not dependant on the first. NTFS does that is you ask it to. Different manufacturers will also do this with Windows in a hidden section of the drive.

Up to you..

 

[taopy]

Good.Got it.

 

[miniboss]

Turns out he hooked the drive back up to his MAC, it recognized it, and asked him if he wanted to partition and format it, and how. He formatted as a FAT 32 partition, so both the MAC, and his PC could read and write to it. Problem solved. I always say, "there is always more than one way to skin a cat". I DON'T advocate skinning cats. Thanks.