External HDD help?

[notesee]

I have a MyBook 500 GB external HD, which originally worked fine up until yesterday.

Recently I installed a program called Crossover which let me play PC games on my Mac, and I think this program changed the settings of my external hard drive, because a dialogue window from this program would come up when I would plug in the hard drive, even though I would click ignore to make sure it didn't change anything, I still think it did.

Whenever I plug in my external on my Mac it does not show up on my desktop anymore, but I can still view it's properties when I use the disk utility program.

I really need to get the information off this thing. I have all my school assignments, photos from travelling, my old computer's back up and all my music and movies on this hard drive.

[Roflcopterpwnsyou]

If you can view it in Disk Utility did you try using the mount/unmount option? If that doesn't work remove the program and see if the disk operates normally again.

[notesee]

Yeah, I tried the mount / unmount option and it doesn't work.

Also, I removed Crossover from my computer, is there a way to make sure that the program and it's settings are totally gone?

I'm relatively new to Macs and haven't had to deal with a problem like this before.

[Roflcopterpwnsyou]

Here are the instructions for removing the app entirely per the creator's website with the source

9.1.1.2. I need a fresh start. How can I erase every trace of CrossOver Mac from my system? First you should drop your CrossOver Mac bundle into the trash and empty it. This may first require you to stop the CrossOver CD Helper as described in the previous entry.

User-specific CrossOver files are located in your home folder, under the Library/Application Support/CrossOver hierarchy. Trash that folder and its contents for each user of CrossOver on your system. Then, to be truly comprehensive, remove the preferences files located in Library/Preferences/ called 'com.codeweavers.CrossOver.plist'.

Finally, if you have any published bottles or CrossOver has been run using your system's administrator account, you may have files in /Library/Application Support/CrossOver on your startup drive. These may also be removed.

That's it!

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/docs/crossover-mac/troubleshooting#FRESHSTART

See if this helps

[notesee]

Ah, thanks. I actually did all of that last night, but wasn't sure if that was all to it.

[Roflcopterpwnsyou]

You could check to see if you could get the files through the terminal utility and do it by command line. If you're not familiar with that send me a pm or an im on aim and I can walk you through it. Other than that I don't know. It's tough to figure this stuff out without being able to directly look at it.

[notesee]

Appreciate the help, I'll send you an IM.

[deadpan]

This happened to me a few years ago. Had a client's shoot on there :eek: that i'd just done. The drive was a Lacie 250 gig. It just disconnected itself while under duress and wouldn't reconnect at all. I ended up giving it to a friend that knew some technicians, and I bought another drive, and, using some programmes (Disk warrior? etc.), managed to get most of the work back, copying it over to the new drive. Luckily all of the latest shoot was there, but I was seriously worried for a while. Apparently the technicians said that the info was there, but the drive had lost it's 'in/out' point, and therefore, was just spinning. Came up on disk utility though. I'd say your stuff is there, but you might have to get pro help to get it back . Good luck though...

[notesee]

Thanks for the info deadpan, I dont know any professional technicians, so I'm going to mail it in to a data recovery company and see what they can do.

[deadpan]

Cool. Again, good luck-i'm sure your data's in there

[ik999]

i have the exact same hdd

how much did you pay for it?

[poly800rock]

Thanks for the info deadpan, I dont know any professional technicians, so I'm going to mail it in to a data recovery company and see what they can do.

keep in mind those recovery companies charge an arm and a leg for just looking at your stuff, no promises to whether you get your shit back or not.

i know for pc's there are app's that will grab most of your stuff. mac's i'm not too sure of. I had a coworker who was writing a huge end of law school paper that had her drive crash. I was able to recover most of her data, but some of it was fragmented.

[notesee]

i have the exact same hdd

how much did you pay for it?

I got it for like $260 last summer.

keep in mind those recovery companies charge an arm and a leg for just looking at your stuff, no promises to whether you get your shit back or not.

i know for pc's there are app's that will grab most of your stuff. mac's i'm not too sure of. I had a coworker who was writing a huge end of law school paper that had her drive crash. I was able to recover most of her data, but some of it was fragmented.

Actually the company I'm going to send it to, called CBL doesn't charge anything to look at it, but once they figure out what's wrong I know they'll charge a shit load but a lot of the stuff in there is priceless to me.

The minimum they're gonna charge me is $400, I don't think it will end up costing much more than that because it doesn't seem to be as serious as a problem as other stuff these companies deal with.