Swapping external drives between Windows and Mac

[Decadence]

Greetz fellow space travellers:

For several years, I've had the bulk of my collection on a Western Digital external hard drive connected to an old XP (no laughing, please) machine via USB. The machine sees little use other than to serve as archives for my erotica and a vast collection of music files.

A few years back, I made the switch to Mac. One day, I hooked the external to the Mac and was able to read it. Experimented for a bit with the Mac preview & movie programs and unplugged it & put it back on the XP.

Sometime later, I was on the XP and noticed that (apparently) the Mac had added what I call 'shadow' files onto the drive. Anything I had accessed had a new, similarly named file (with maybe an underscore as the first character), but it appeared to be 'hidden' (shaded). Not being 100% sober, I deleted those files and some others I found in root directory.

Ever since that happened, the Mac will not read the drive.. it won't even acknowledge that it's there when I plug it into the USB. Obviously, I deleted something vital and am wondering what it was and if it can be put back without completely making the drive unusable. There's over 20 years worth of collecting on the drive (going back to the BBS and Usenet days) and obviously I'd like to preserve it.

Appreciate any insights.

[9876543210]

Decadence,

Going back through the really old cobwebs, I remember a program for PC's called MacDrive which allowed PC's to read Mac hard drives. Just checked and its still around:

http://www.mediafour.com/software/macdrive/

Not sure if it will help in your situation but it does have a free trial so may be worth a try.

One of my clients needed it maybe six to ten years ago and I think it worked pretty well for her. But I don't think she's using it any more.

Just one idea.

[befuddled]

You did not say you cannot read the drive on your PC. So, I'm guessing you can. If so, that's a very good sign. But do not use the drive for now with either PC or Mac. Do not write any new files, edit existing files, or delete any files on the drive. If you have done so, stop right there and don't do anything else. If you have the means, image or clone that drive. (Paranoia is your best friend when it comes to data!) Then, run the Windows error checking utility on the drive. I'm guessing if the drive was NTFS the Mac might have messed up the Master File Table (MFT), the place where NT keeps track of all files and folders and available space. If it found errors, you might lose some files. Hence the warning to first clone or image the drive.
I am not a Mac expert, but I have swapped external drives between PCs and Macs quite often. Some were flash drives and some were hard drives. In all cases, they were USB drives. The key thing, here, is file formats. Macs can successfully read and write drives with FAT for FAT32 file formats. Macs can read but not write successfully to NTFS formatted drives. In all cases, the Mac will leave those files you speak of, and I have deleted them many times with no ill effects. So I don't think deleting the Mac files did anything.
I am guessing the problem lies with a deleted file (or files) related to your drive. Many USB hard drives have utilities that run when you first boot them up. I don't know what those would be, but if you can still access the drive on the PC, that's a good sign. Also, you shouldn't have been able to delete any files critical to reading the drive from Windows. So I don't think there is a problem there IF you can still access the drive from Windows.

I've said a lot, but I need your feedback to really get at this. Can you access the drive from your PC and does it look like all your files are there. And, of course, you cloned or imaged the drive, first, right? ;-)

[befuddled]

P.S. You might have deleted the driver file(s) that tell the OS how to install the driver. If that is the case, you probably can't use the drive on either PC or Mac, but I do not think the data is lost! ;-)

[footstep]

Files format.

[Jism Jim]

Brick the Mac.

If you don't want to do that, here's my suggestion:

1. use a PC to move the files to another drive
2. use the Mac to format the external drive in a file format both Macs and PC's can read
3. move the files back to the external drive

If you don't have an extra drive I advise to acquire one anyway, because you must always have two backups. One backup is no backup.

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by Jism Jim

here's my suggestion:

1. use a PC to move the files to another drive
2. use the Mac to format the external drive in a file format both Macs and PC's can read
3. move the files back to the external drive

If you don't have an extra drive I advise to acquire one anyway, because you must always have two backups. One backup is no backup.

Everything JJ said is spot on,

Originally Posted by Jism Jim

Brick the Mac.

Except for that Brick the Mac Adore the Mac

If and when you do get another external hard drive, take my advise trust me Whenever I buy anything for my Mac, it's from an Apple store or I won't buy if it's a not an Apple product. My logic being the Apple stores won't sell anything that half arsed works with a Mac.

I bought 2 LaCie external drives
http://www.lacie.com/as/en/products/...n-desktop-mac/

It was built for them, and works perfect.

[Decadence]

Originally Posted by befuddled

I've said a lot, but I need your feedback to really get at this. Can you access the drive from your PC and does it look like all your files are there. And, of course, you cloned or imaged the drive, first, right? ;-)

Yes. I can access the drive from the PC and it works fine. All the files are there. This happened long enough ago to where there's been many files moved/added/deleted on the drive, so far with no ill affects.

Originally Posted by befuddled

P.S. You might have deleted the driver file(s) that tell the OS how to install the driver. If that is the case, you probably can't use the drive on either PC or Mac, but I do not think the data is lost! ;-)

See above.

Originally Posted by Jism Jim

Brick the Mac.

If you don't want to do that, here's my suggestion:

1. use a PC to move the files to another drive
2. use the Mac to format the external drive in a file format both Macs and PC's can read
3. move the files back to the external drive

If you don't have an extra drive I advise to acquire one anyway, because you must always have two backups. One backup is no backup.

Had thought of that.. but was hoping to get the Mac reading it as I've a bunch of dead links to fix and thought it might be quick fix as opposed to moving the files to an 8GB stick and moving them to the Mac a few at a time.

Originally Posted by Estreeter

Everything JJ said is spot on,


Except for that Brick the Mac Adore the Mac

If and when you do get another external hard drive, take my advise trust me Whenever I buy anything for my Mac, it's from an Apple store or I won't buy if it's a not an Apple product. My logic being the Apple stores won't sell anything that half arsed works with a Mac.

I bought 2 LaCie external drives
http://www.lacie.com/as/en/products/...n-desktop-mac/

It was built for them, and works perfect.

Makes sense.. will Mac-specific drives work in the manner JJ described above (Windows will read it, too)?

Not going to dump the Mac. Love it.

I'm going to experiment with the 8GB stick.. It currently works on both and maybe I can locate the root files that may be the cause of the problem.

Appreciate all the insights.. more to come.

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by Decadence

Makes sense.. will Mac-specific drives work in the manner JJ described above (Windows will read it, too)?

That I'm unsure about, I haven't tried plugging them into a Windozzze machine, that said I do know they won't work with some TV's that have the USB media option.

[befuddled]

If you are reading and writing to your drive on your PC, then the drive is fine. I am not sure why the Mac cannot read it, but I'd not attach it to the Mac again until you know why it has this problem.