At best, he may install MacDrive on his Windows and try to read the drive in it. That will also tell us whether it is really a mac formatted drive.
Iam retiring for the day and done with this thread.
If the file system is HFS+, "Partition Wizard" will identify it without issues. That is what confusing me.
I am not clear what is meant by "media storage". Connected to TV for storing/streaming media files ?.As for drive history, I had always used this drive as a media storage drive and a backup for important documents...
Since it sees the drive, What does PW show when you right click each partition to Explore? Waiting for answer or requested screenshots.
jumanji / Anshad
Would macdrive settle the issue?
Diskpart and PartWiz confirm GPT, but that still leaves the Mac question.
I agree with jumanji that recovery is premature at this point.
I think we need to take a breath and let Dumhed catch up answering questions. There are five SF members asking one SF member a whole bunch of technical questions.
The most important question in my mind concerns Mac
Since there is data on the drive and his wife put some photos on the drive... where was the drive connected when data was placed on it?
Does your wife have a Mac?
Was the drive connected to a media box (such as an Xbox)
Was the drive connected to this Windows machine.
jumanji raises a good point re: how the drive was formatted when purchased - please answer that question as well.
Has this drive ever been connected to a Windows machine before or is this the first time? I know you said we've used it for a while, but that isn't what I'm asking.
following Anshad''s lead, I found this page on WD
Product List
there is a WD BHDK 5000ABK (USB 3.0 and USB 2.0) 500 GB (Windows/Mac) which is fairly close to model WD 6000aak
Only Dumhed can fill in the missing information, we can keep guessing
So I'll sit out for a while and let Dumhed read the thread again and answer all questions not already answered.
Bill
Thanks for sticking with me.
Here are some responses:
- We do not own any Macs or iOS devices. All of our computers are Windows 7. We have two Android tablets. But these cannot connect to the hard drive directly.
- The files stored here are family videos, photos, and music. Files were transfered to this hard drive were always transfered through Windows file methods such as drag and drop or clicking "move" or "copy". I do not use Window Media Player, iTunes, or any other program to move files.
- On the hard disk itself, it is written: WD 64000AAKS, WD Caviar Blue. I do not buy things formatted for Mac since... we don't have one and haven't had any Apple products since the Apple IIe. At any rate, I had been using this drive on and off for a few years now, always on Windows computers... the same computers I am trying to use now.
- Attached is what I see when I try to do anything with the partition using Partition Wizard. As you can see, almost everything is grayed out. So I cannot "Explore" it.
- Is there the possibility that someone messed with it?.... Hmm... it was in my office desk. Unlikely, but theoretically possible. We did leave the country for vacation and had a house sitter. But the drive was where I left it, in a box in my desk.
I may be missing some answers. I'll check back in sec after I get a little work done.
Thanks DH,
I found the WD page after you posted the information above:
WD Support / Downloads / SATA & SAS / WD Blue / SE / SE16 (SATA II)
Do you have WD Data Lifeguard for Windows install on this machine?
If you do, please run a quick test on the ext drive
If you don not have it installed, many members have had better results using the DOS version, booting from a USB
You can download the DOS version here and there are instructions on how to make a bootable USB flash drive
WD Support / Downloads / Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS
Either way, start with a quick test.
Make sure you select the ext HD - the utility will see all drives.
This won't fix anything, but it might provide some information.
@DH: Have you tried the drive on another computer? You mentioned that you had several Windows Machines.
@jumanji and Anshad
If DH installed Macdrive, as a test, would it cause any additional issues.
I know that it doesn't seem to be Mac related, but the symptoms and layout of the drives in this thread and the other are nearly identical. I'm leaning towards testing Macdrive in this case - if the data can be accessed, great. If not, we can look at other tools.
Regardless of how an external drive got an EFI OS installation on it, we need to focus on fixing that partition so you can get your data out.
You have two real experts on this and we can call in others, too. So don't give up to be in a rush to use that drive until every possibility is exhausted.
Anything you can remember or find out about what was done with that drive could help. There is a big unknown when a UEFI OS installation lands on an external HD. Once you can recover your files, we should be able to determine what OS it is, or if the OS was deleted off the large partition to use for storage and you somehow didn't know it.
Regarding WD Data Life Guard
I tried to run WD Data Lifeguard (from a bootable DOS Usb drive). But when i ran to the program, it would not run because of an error stating that no WD drive was detected.
I rebooted into Windows and ran the Windows version. I ran a Quick test which gave a "Pass" result I will later do an extended test.
As for trying the drive, I had mentioned before, but this thing is getting long. I have tried this drive on multiple computers via USB. I have also tried the same drive, unscrewed from the external case, and installing it internally to my desktop. All yield the same result.
On Drive History
I have had this drive for several years (to the point that I'm not exactly sure when I got it). As far as I remember, I have only used it as a drive for storing large files, like photos/music/videos. I do build my own desktops, so I have swapped drives before. However, this drive was purchased as an external drive. (the model number on the outside of the external drive enclosure is WD6400EB035-01).
Also, I never used any external hard drives for the purpose of booting different OS. I have used USB flash drives to boot dos or android... or to install linux on a different laptop. So, unless there is part of my memory blocked or just plain forgotten, this drive has not been used for booting into any other OS.
I apologize if there are thing I keep not thinking to include. Thanks for the patience in asking further questions.
On File Recovery
As far as drives are concerned, I have others. So, if it comes to it, if I can recover the files, I'm happy.
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