transfering data from one external hd to another but won't open in pc

[fatbottoms]

I have a 1.5 tb WD external desktop hd that is nearly full that will not open in my pc any more.

For some reason it's getting hung up.

It shows up in the computer menu with a drive letter but has no other info, like file size or free space remaining...in disk management, it gets hung up on connecting to virtual disk forever.

I've tried it on another pc running Windows XP and the same thing happens, but fortunately WD hd opens up on my friends mac book.

My question is how do I transfer all the data from the WD hd to the new Seagate external hd I just bought from a mac book?

Both external hd's are pc preformatted(I did nothing), but surprisingly, the WD hd works on the mac book.

I'm not sure if my friend's mac book has some driver that allows it to open the WD hd or if it already was pc and mac compatible.

Can i create separate partitions to make it compatible with both mac and pc?

Since the WD hd doesn't open on my pc, I have to do this from my friend's mac book.

 

[whs]

Try a Linux distro. That maybe easier for you. Here is one suggestion (don't get confused by the title of the tutorial):

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/287439-emergency-kit-save-your-files-dead-os.html

 

[fatbottoms]

Hey thanks for the link and replying.

Is this method easier than this tutorial?
How To Partition An External Hard Drive For PC Usage [Mac]

 

[whs]

I don't know whether it is easier because I am not familiar with the other method. But the tool I describe in the tutorial is very useful in a lot of difficult situations and very worth having in your toolkit. Plus it is completely independent from your installed OS because it boots from the USB stick and thus can be used on any system (that is capable of booting from a stick - most modern system have that facility).

In addition you can run it like a full operating system with browsers and a lot of programs on any system with the above mentioned caveat. Main advantage is that you are very unlikely to get any viruses (because it is Linux) and it is fast - especially if you use a USB3 stick. Plus it has a very nice user interface if you set it up as described in Chapter 5 of the tutorial.

 

[fatbottoms]

Yes, I will try the linux method...it sounds intriguing.

Looks like a very useful tool.

When I took it into a repair tech, Linux is what he said he would use to recover the data from WD hd.

Thanks, I'll try this later today.

 

[whs]

Good, let us know how you make out.

 

[fatbottoms]

I've downloaded Mint Mate 14 and the universal installer.

Installed via universal installer without a problem.

Rebooted, and I see this in the computer menu: it says on the flash drive that it's installed on - "install Linux Mint (G" ....I did not boot from flash drive.

Does this mean, I have to click on the drive in the computer menu to finish installing.

Do I have to go into bios to change the boot order or something?

 

[whs]

You have to temporarily change the BIOS boot order to boot from the stick - often via F2 during power-on.

 

[fatbottoms]

Okay, I changed the boot order in bios and booted up from Mint Mate on the flash drive...I'm writing this post from the Mint Mate OS.

Everything seemed to go okay, but as I was looking around on the desktop after it came up, suddenly my screen went black and the network light went off...I didn't do or click on anything.

After waiting for 15 minutes with no change, I physically shut down the laptop by pressing and holding the power button down

Next, I plugged in the faulty WD external hd and started Mint mate again...I did not have it plugged in on the initial boot up.

This time, my laptop would not get past the mint mate booting page, instead getting hung up endlessly.

I physically powered down again, and rebooted again without the WD external hd and it started up fine.

But all my drives in the computer are unmounted...My WD external hd does show up in the computer menu.

Here's the message I get when I click on a drive:
"Unable to mount location
Adding read ACL for uid999 to /media/ mint'failed
Operation not supported"

When I tried to boot up from the Windows compatibility mode, it asked for a password...I do not have a password for my Windows account...I just restarted in regular mode, and this time it started fine.

How do I mount the drives?

Will it make a difference if I install the fully operational version and actually install it on a partition?

And yes, I downloaded Mint Mate form the James Madison University link.

 

[whs]

Did you install the full version or are you working with the bootstrap version.

 

[fatbottoms]

I think I'm running the bootstrap version.

When I click on properties in the mint4win application in the flash drive, it's size is 2.46mb.

I installed the ntfs-config but when I try to run it, it says I don't have administrative privileges.

How do I change this?

I notice when I right click on the mint4win app on my flash drive, it gives me an option under the compatibility tab to "Run this program as an administrator...so I checked the box.

Will this make a difference...is Linux like windows in that when you make changes to the system, you have to restart for the changes to take effect?

 

[whs]

On the desktop there should be a virtual disk on which you have to double click.

 

[fatbottoms]

I clicked on the "Install Linux Mint" desktop icon from the Linux OS, but having problems installing.

When I get to the installation type menu, when I click install now, it gives me a message saying:

No root file system is defined.
Please correct this from the partitioning menu.

I am trying to install it on a separate 20 gb partition that I had set up previously for backup.

I have tried all different settings in the installation type menu, but get the message everytime.

What am I doing wrong...should I install this from my Windows 7 OS instead?

 

[whs]

You have to use a USB stick with only one Fat32 partition.

 

[fatbottoms]

I believe I installed it from the flash drive.

Trying it again, and it's been more than an hour or so, and it's stuck on "creating virtual disks."

How long does it take to install?

It's been over 3 hours now and it's still stuck on "creating virtual disks."

 

[whs]

Something is not right but from here it is hard to say where the error is. The whole installation process should be done in 20 minutes.

 

[fatbottoms]

I stopped the installation and restarted the pc and upon startup, it says it's finishing the installation.

It looks like it's installed on the partition that I set up for backup, but the external drive is still not being recognized.

But now, when I go to disk management, it no longer gets hung up and the external drive shows up at the bottom of the menu but not at the top and it's labeled as "unallocated space" unknown device.

When I clicked on it, it asked me to initialize which I reluctantly did, but it could not complete the task...good thing, since then I've read that initializing basically formats the drive.

Just checked to make sure the data was on there on my friend's mac and it showed up...phew, thank god.

Tried testdisk diagnostic and after locating the external hd, clicked on "analyse."

It says "reading error" for every sector...ran for about an hour and completed just 2% so I stopped the testdisk.

Downloaded Patition Wizard, and the external hd doesn't show up in partition wizard, but does in the media recovery tool.

Ran a scan and stopped after 30 minutes as I was running testdisk at the same time and didn't want to stress the laptop too much.

Man, I'm so tired of messing with this thing.

I think I'm just going to format the new external hd I got on a mac and copy everything over on my friend's mac book laptop.

Will transferring 1.3 tb of data from one external hd to another on a mac laptop, damage the mac since it will take so long?

I fried this pc laptop by doing that before, but my laptop was on it's last leg with a "disk failure" message that popped up every time I started the pc.

I managed to squeeze few more months out of it by partitioning around the bad sectors and the pc worked fine til the data transfer...it completed the entire data transfer over night, but the laptop would not start up again...I had to get a new motherboard from HP and also got a new faster bigger inner hd.

 

[whs]

I think you would be well advised to replace that disk. It looks shaky.