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I've got a Seagate HD 888GB which I use with a Macbook Pro. This week it stopped working.

It is shown as "unmounted" in Disk Utility. I tried it on Windows 7 as well but it's not working there either. I also installed Ubuntu and tried it there, where I received "daemon inhibited".

Do I still have a chance to get my files back?

I'm using Parallel Desktop 6 for Mac

I Try it again in Windows 7. I can't open it and get "The parameter is in correct".

I try it in Ubuntu and get:

Error mounting exited with exit code 13:
$MFTMirr does not match $MFT (record 0)
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1';input/output error NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk if on Windows then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very important if the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/directory, (e.g./dev/mapper/invidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for more details.

Another try for Mac at disk utility Not mounted

Disk Description :Seagate FreeAgent Go Media> Total Capacity :888.18 GB
Connection Bus :USB> > Write Status :Read/Write
Connection Type :External S.M.A.R.T. Status :Not Supported
USB Serial Number :2GE92XB2 Partition Map Scheme :Master Boot Record

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  • You need to be more specific: How old is that thing? Do you hear the disk spinning when you plug it in? What is "not working" on Windows? Is it recognizing the drive and just not showing it or are you getting no output at all? What did you mean by "parallel" in your original post? Parallels.app, the virtualization software, or do you mean that you used the disk both on the Mac and Windows?
    – slhck
    May 19, 2011 at 21:29
  • Do you have a non-Apple computer you can plug it in to? One good test is to see if it's detected by BIOS. If it is detected then it's likely a mechanical fault and whilst a repair would be possible it'd have to go to a specialist hard drive repair center. If it's not detected in BIOS then it's likely the controller board which can be replaced fairly easily if you can source a replacement board. You could also try that old trick of freezing your drive see if that brings it back to life (it's normally temporary though if it works)
    – chunkyb2002
    May 19, 2011 at 21:35
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    The parameter is incorrect tends to indicate serious drive damage in windows . 888 gb is also a VERY unusual size.
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    May 20, 2011 at 2:25
  • goto hddguru.com - they will help you.
    – Piotr Kula
    Jan 4, 2012 at 10:36

1 Answer 1

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For most cases, step 1 of all spinning disk related problems is run Spinrite. It's a hard drive maintenance and recovery tool. It is a paid app so be prepared for that. They do have a good return policy though.

If it is a MAC, you'll need to get this plugged directly into a PC (not through USB) since it doesn't work with the MAC BIOS.

This is all assuming that the drive is still being detected by the BIOS and is powering on.

Hope this helps

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    spinrite is used to analyse/test working hard drives.. not used to fix borken ones. in this case it wont even help him.
    – Piotr Kula
    Jan 4, 2012 at 10:36
  • @ppumkin - If the hardware is bad, you are right, there is nothing that can be done by a local user. If the drive can read the platter, Spinrite will do a sector by sector read of the data and try to recover it. It's a last ditch effort before you either call in an expensive data recovery export or give up and trash the drive.
    – Doltknuckle
    Jan 6, 2012 at 19:21
  • @ppumkin - So what do you suggest? Your comment above talks about going to hddguru which is mainly a collection of free software drive utilities. If there is a mechanical or electrical problem, you don't want to use anything on that site because it may cause a bad drive to fail. The only thing I think would be useful is the scenario you mention is the Raw Copy Tool. It will copy of the contents of the platter to a working drive so you can then use other software titles to re construct your data.
    – Doltknuckle
    Jan 6, 2012 at 20:32
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    @Doitknuckle - Sorry i meant the HDDGuru Forums. There are many professionals there form all over the world. Ye- spinrite it only good to refresh sectors on a non failing, or not suspected to fail drive. Rendering spinrite useless, because who refreshed sectors now a days? In my whole career of recovering data never did once spinrite manage to accomplish anything worth talking about. If it is software related, spinrite wont fix it, if its hardware, spinrite wont fix it, and this forum is not for data recovery, hdd guru forum is. And if the disk is unmountable.. how will spinrite help?
    – Piotr Kula
    Jan 6, 2012 at 20:54
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    Well I am glad you can asses that situation, because many times .. I got hard drives that were rammed to death with spinrite and had to replace heads.. when a simple PIO mode with CRC disabled will get the data back within hours/days and the HDD will still live to tell another story. Did not mean to offend you.. I just dont like spinrite.
    – Piotr Kula
    Jan 6, 2012 at 23:34

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