SOS--external Seagate HD suddenly unformatted

[emt8q5]

I keep all my important data backed up on a seagate external HD. This data has all come from a PC. Last night, I purchased a macbook and wanted to transfer my iTunes songs onto it, so I hoooked up my seagate HD (its USB) to the macbook and transfered all of my iTunes stuff. This went fine without any problems. After I was done transfering, I just unplugged the USB cable from the macbook, at which point I got an error message saying something to the effect that I need to "eject" the HD, not just unplug it.


This morning, I decide to transfer some photos from my PC desktop onto the same external HD and when I plug it into my PC, it tells me that the disk is unformatted and needs to be formatted. I have over 100gb of data here, some of which is stored only on this HD. What the hell is going on? I tried plugging it back into my macbook, and the macbook also was unable to read it...though it didn't say anything about it not being formatted. None of the data on the drive is crucial to my life, however if the HD is fubar, I will lose some photos and emails that have sentimental value. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance
Eric

 

[corkyg]

I'm no expert on Macs, but if the Seagate was formatted NTFS and the Mac tried to write anything to it, it could screw things up.

Mac

 

[emt8q5]

I'm no expert either...this is my first mac. I didn't try to write anything to the HD, just copy stuff from the HD onto the mac. Surely there is some way to recover the data from the HD.

Eric

 

[RebateMonger]

I see in a Western Digital FireWire drive manual a "Warning" about removing the drive from a Mac without first ejecting it.

If the drive is under warranty, I'd call Seagate and ask them what to do next. I imagine that common software data recovery tools will fix this. But I would ask first, like you are doing, before actually DOING anything.

 

[emt8q5]

ya, I think your right about the ejection thing, have to keep that in mind. I'm surprised it could screw it up that bad. I've had the drive for 2 or 3 years so I doubt its under warranty.

I've done a google search on the topic and have seen several people with my problem and it seems data recovery does work, but I couldn't find any details. I have never attempted to do any data recovery like this, where do I start? any recommended programs? is it free or do I have to buy one?

Thanks,
Eric

 

[RebateMonger]

Seagate External Hard Drive FAQs

"In Mac OS the drive appears as an icon on the desktop. Before unplugging the drive, the drive needs to be dismounted by dragging the drive to the Trash Can. Wait a few seconds after the drive has gone into the Trash Can; once the activity light has gone out, you can safely remove the drive. Once the drive is turned off, disconnect the interface cable.

Mac OS users should always dismount the drive before shutting down (or powering off) their computer. If the drive is not properly dismounted there is a chance of data loss."

Seagate Technical Support (6am to 8pm MST M-F). It wouldn't hurt to try them:
1.800.SEAGATE (1.800.732.4283)