Is it possible to recover the files from an external hard drive after
plugging it into a mac?  Window Vista sees the drive and assigns it a
drive letter, but I can't access any of the files and it keeps telling
me to format the drive.  I have files on it that I don't want to lose.

Thanks,
RJ

On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:20:19 -0700 (PDT), RJ wrote:

> Is it possible to recover the files from an external hard drive after
> plugging it into a mac?  Window Vista sees the drive and assigns it a
> drive letter, but I can't access any of the files and it keeps telling
> me to format the drive.  I have files on it that I don't want to lose.
> 
> Thanks,
> RJ

I have plugged drives into a Mac and then a PC without a problem, so
something else might be happening here.

I have plugged both FAT32 drives and NTFS drives into the Mac, which was an
Intel Mac. I have written to the FAT32 drives natively on the Mac, and to
the NTFS drives using some free software, as well as both Parallels and
VMware virtual machines.

Never a problem.

Did you try to format or otherwise manipulate the drive (other than just
writing to a FAT32 systemn)?

Try plugging the drive into another PC, just in case something is screwy on
yours.

-- 
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Aug 26, 12:15=A0am, "Gene E. Bloch" <not...@other.invalid> wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:20:19 -0700 (PDT), RJ wrote:
> > Is it possible to recover the files from an external hard drive after
> > plugging it into a mac? =A0Window Vista sees the drive and assigns it a
> > drive letter, but I can't access any of the files and it keeps telling
> > me to format the drive. =A0I have files on it that I don't want to lose=
..
>
> > Thanks,
> > RJ
>
> I have plugged drives into a Mac and then a PC without a problem, so
> something else might be happening here.
>
> I have plugged both FAT32 drives and NTFS drives into the Mac, which was =
an
> Intel Mac. I have written to the FAT32 drives natively on the Mac, and to
> the NTFS drives using some free software, as well as both Parallels and
> VMware virtual machines.
>
> Never a problem.
>
> Did you try to format or otherwise manipulate the drive (other than just
> writing to a FAT32 systemn)?
>
> Try plugging the drive into another PC, just in case something is screwy =
on
> yours.
>
> --
> Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Thanks for your reply.  I have tried plugging the drive into a couple
different windows machines and they appear to recognize the drive, but
not the file system.  I am asked if I want to format the drive. I am
going to try connecting the drive to a mac today.  I can browse the
files with some recovery software and I did find some software to
recover the data, however, it only recovers the files and doesn't
maintain the folder structure. When I look at the drive properties
under disk management it says the disk is in a RAW state rather than
NTFS or FAT32.  I would like to recover the files before I reformat
the drive. Do you know of any good inexpensive or free file recovery
software?

"RJ" <rjbruneel@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:8adaafdc-26b7-4c91-9bc6-dc84131e1074@q22g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
> On Aug 26, 12:15 am, "Gene E. Bloch" <not...@other.invalid> wrote:
>> On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:20:19 -0700 (PDT), RJ wrote:
>> > Is it possible to recover the files from an external hard drive after
>> > plugging it into a mac?  Window Vista sees the drive and assigns it a
>> > drive letter, but I can't access any of the files and it keeps telling
>> > me to format the drive.  I have files on it that I don't want to lose.
>>
>> > Thanks,
>> > RJ
>>
>> I have plugged drives into a Mac and then a PC without a problem, so
>> something else might be happening here.
>>
>> I have plugged both FAT32 drives and NTFS drives into the Mac, which was an
>> Intel Mac. I have written to the FAT32 drives natively on the Mac, and to
>> the NTFS drives using some free software, as well as both Parallels and
>> VMware virtual machines.
>>
>> Never a problem.
>>
>> Did you try to format or otherwise manipulate the drive (other than just
>> writing to a FAT32 systemn)?
>>
>> Try plugging the drive into another PC, just in case something is screwy on
>> yours.
>>
>> --
>> Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)
>
> Thanks for your reply.  I have tried plugging the drive into a couple
> different windows machines and they appear to recognize the drive, but
> not the file system.  I am asked if I want to format the drive. I am
> going to try connecting the drive to a mac today.  I can browse the
> files with some recovery software and I did find some software to
> recover the data, however, it only recovers the files and doesn't
> maintain the folder structure. When I look at the drive properties
> under disk management it says the disk is in a RAW state rather than
> NTFS or FAT32.  I would like to recover the files before I reformat
> the drive. Do you know of any good inexpensive or free file recovery
> software?

Have a look at the last post on here:
http://forums.getdata.com/computer-data-recovery/239-raw-hard-drive-recovery.html

TestDisk
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step


 

"RJ" wrote:

> On Aug 26, 12:15 am, "Gene E. Bloch" <not...@other.invalid> wrote:
> > On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:20:19 -0700 (PDT), RJ wrote:
> > > Is it possible to recover the files from an external hard drive after
> > > plugging it into a mac?  Window Vista sees the drive and assigns it a
> > > drive letter, but I can't access any of the files and it keeps telling
> > > me to format the drive.  I have files on it that I don't want to lose..
> >
> > > Thanks,
> > > RJ
> >
> > I have plugged drives into a Mac and then a PC without a problem, so
> > something else might be happening here.
> >
> > I have plugged both FAT32 drives and NTFS drives into the Mac, which was an
> > Intel Mac. I have written to the FAT32 drives natively on the Mac, and to
> > the NTFS drives using some free software, as well as both Parallels and
> > VMware virtual machines.
> >
> > Never a problem.
> >
> > Did you try to format or otherwise manipulate the drive (other than just
> > writing to a FAT32 systemn)?
> >
> > Try plugging the drive into another PC, just in case something is screwy on
> > yours.
> >
> > --
> > Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)
> 
> Thanks for your reply.  I have tried plugging the drive into a couple
> different windows machines and they appear to recognize the drive, but
> not the file system.  I am asked if I want to format the drive. I am
> going to try connecting the drive to a mac today.  I can browse the
> files with some recovery software and I did find some software to
> recover the data, however, it only recovers the files and doesn't
> maintain the folder structure. When I look at the drive properties
> under disk management it says the disk is in a RAW state rather than
> NTFS or FAT32.  I would like to recover the files before I reformat
> the drive. Do you know of any good inexpensive or free file recovery
> software?
> .
> 

Recuva by the people who make Ccleaner.

On Aug 26, 8:59=A0am, RJ <rjbrun...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 26, 12:15=A0am, "Gene E. Bloch" <not...@other.invalid> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:20:19 -0700 (PDT), RJ wrote:
> > > Is it possible to recover the files from an external hard drive after
> > > plugging it into a mac? =A0Window Vista sees the drive and assigns it=
 a
> > > drive letter, but I can't access any of the files and it keeps tellin=
g
> > > me to format the drive. =A0I have files on it that I don't want to lo=
se.
>
> > > Thanks,
> > > RJ
>
> > I have plugged drives into a Mac and then a PC without a problem, so
> > something else might be happening here.
>
> > I have plugged both FAT32 drives and NTFS drives into the Mac, which wa=
s an
> > Intel Mac. I have written to the FAT32 drives natively on the Mac, and =
to
> > the NTFS drives using some free software, as well as both Parallels and
> > VMware virtual machines.
>
> > Never a problem.
>
> > Did you try to format or otherwise manipulate the drive (other than jus=
t
> > writing to a FAT32 systemn)?
>
> > Try plugging the drive into another PC, just in case something is screw=
y on
> > yours.
>
> > --
> > Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)
>
> Thanks for your reply. =A0I have tried plugging the drive into a couple
> different windows machines and they appear to recognize the drive, but
> not the file system. =A0I am asked if I want to format the drive. I am
> going to try connecting the drive to a mac today. =A0I can browse the
> files with some recovery software and I did find some software to
> recover the data, however, it only recovers the files and doesn't
> maintain the folder structure. When I look at the drive properties
> under disk management it says the disk is in a RAW state rather than
> NTFS or FAT32. =A0I would like to recover the files before I reformat
> the drive. Do you know of any good inexpensive or free file recovery
> software?

More information:  I plugged the hard drive into a mac and I am able
to access the files.  I talked to a co-worker of mine who has the same
issue with a thumb drive.

On Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:02:50 -0700 (PDT), RJ wrote:

> On Aug 26, 8:59�am, RJ <rjbrun...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Aug 26, 12:15�am, "Gene E. Bloch" <not...@other.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:20:19 -0700 (PDT), RJ wrote:
>>> > Is it possible to recover the files from an external hard drive after
>>> > plugging it into a mac? �Window Vista sees the drive and assigns it a
>>> > drive letter, but I can't access any of the files and it keeps telling
>>> > me to format the drive. �I have files on it that I don't want to lose.
>>
>>> > Thanks,
>>> > RJ
>>
>>> I have plugged drives into a Mac and then a PC without a problem, so
>>> something else might be happening here.
>>
>>> I have plugged both FAT32 drives and NTFS drives into the Mac, which was an
>>> Intel Mac. I have written to the FAT32 drives natively on the Mac, and to
>>> the NTFS drives using some free software, as well as both Parallels and
>>> VMware virtual machines.
>>
>>> Never a problem.
>>
>>> Did you try to format or otherwise manipulate the drive (other than just
>>> writing to a FAT32 systemn)?
>>
>>> Try plugging the drive into another PC, just in case something is screwy on
>>> yours.
>>
>>> --
>>> Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)
>>
>> Thanks for your reply. �I have tried plugging the drive into a couple
>> different windows machines and they appear to recognize the drive, but
>> not the file system. �I am asked if I want to format the drive. I am
>> going to try connecting the drive to a mac today. �I can browse the
>> files with some recovery software and I did find some software to
>> recover the data, however, it only recovers the files and doesn't
>> maintain the folder structure. When I look at the drive properties
>> under disk management it says the disk is in a RAW state rather than
>> NTFS or FAT32. �I would like to recover the files before I reformat
>> the drive. Do you know of any good inexpensive or free file recovery
>> software?
> 
> More information:  I plugged the hard drive into a mac and I am able
> to access the files.  I talked to a co-worker of mine who has the same
> issue with a thumb drive.

I defer to the others about recovery software, since I haven't used any
in over 5 years.

Please do *not* do anything that writes to your hard drive until after
you have recovered your files.  There is always a risk that something
further will go wrong, especially if you end up trying to recover
deleted files or files that seem to be deleted - the recovery software
must be installed on and run from a different drive, and the recovered
data must be written to a different drive. By "different drive" I mean
something other than the problem drive.

It may be possible, on a Mac, to copy the entire drive to a new drive
that you can read in Windows (i.e., FAT32).

There is also software available online that lets a Windows computer
read a Mac drive. Look here (or Google):
http://ogasawalrus.com/blog/node/208

The link is for HFS Explorer, which I have used; it's free. There are
others, not all free.

I wish you luck - it seems like a real bug in the Mac system, and not
easy to fix.

-- 
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)