Dear Lifehacker,
In this article, I'm going to show you how to backup your Mac data to an external hard drive. You should backup your Mac on a regular basis, especially if you're planning to perform macOS updates. I did this several weeks ago while preparing my MacBook Pro for the High Sierra update. Formatting The External Hard Drive – The formatting of hard drive without checking any useful data in it may cause loss of data. Sudden Removal of Hard Drive – The sudden removal of hard drive while connected to Mac PC may corrupt your hard drive and cause a loss of data from it.
I have a hard drive with valuable information on it, but I can't seem to access it—the drive is either damaged or erased. Is there any way I can see what's on the drive and get it off?
Advertisement
Sincerely,
Drive Paramedic
Drive Paramedic
Dear Paramedic,
Don't worry, we're not going to ask where you got the drive, but there are plenty of ways to examine it and see if any of the data is recoverable. With a little time, the right tools, and some care, you may be able to get some data off of that drive.
Don't worry, we're not going to ask where you got the drive, but there are plenty of ways to examine it and see if any of the data is recoverable. With a little time, the right tools, and some care, you may be able to get some data off of that drive.
Advertisement
Step One: Assemble Your Tools and Examine The Drive's Condition
Advertisement
The first thing to do is make sure you have the tools required to connect this drive to another computer safely. Ideally, you'll have some kind of SATA/IDE to USB cable or USB drive enclosure or sled that you can mount the drive into and connect it to your computer easily. Sure, if you have a desktop and like getting your hands dirty you can try to install the drive as an internal one, but an external connection is faster and easier.
GMG may get a commission
Advertisement
Next, take a look at the drive itself. Is it damaged in any way? Are the pins bent or broken? Make sure that the drive is in good enough condition to actually use before you try anything in the first place that may damage it even further. If the drive is too physically damaged to attempt recovery, you may need more drastic measures that we'll get to later. If everything looks good and you have the equipment required to connect the drive to your system, we can proceed.
Step Two: Grab Some Data Recovery Software and Connect the Drive
Before you do much else, make sure your antivirus and antimalware tools are up to date. You don't know what you'll find on this drive, and you don't want it to start misbehaving once the drive is connected to an active system. Once you've done that, it's time to download and install some data recovery tools. Here are a few we love:
Advertisement
Recuva (Windows, Free): Personally, Recuva has been indispensible. Made by the same folks behind CCleaner, Recuva makes data recovery simple and easy. if you're only interested in browsing and restoring selected files off of the drive, Recuva is a great option. Alternatively, check out Undelete Plus for Windows.
- FileSalvage (OS X, $80): File Salvage for Mac will set you back some serious coin, but it's one of the best tools to pull data off of a connected hard drive in OS X. It can recover virtually any type of file on multiple partition types, and prides itself on its ability to recover from damaged drives and corrupt media. If you want an alternative, try Data Rescue for Mac ($100).
- TestDisk (Win/OS X/Linux, Free): If you're not afraid of the command line, TestDisk is an open source utility that can run against almost any platform or partition type. It does a great job of recovering data quickly, and won't do unnecessary writes against the drive you're trying to recover from.
Advertisement
Bootable Linux distros for drive recovery: If you're not interested in messing around with apps (or paying for them), consider burning a bootable CD or USB key with BackTrack, Bart PE, or SpinRite on it, so you can boot to an OS that's not your primary drive, avoid writing or touching the drive you want to recover from, and run a host of recovery and forensics tools against that drive that are highly effective and completely free. Photo by Roman Soto.
Advertisement
A number of these tools can recover from formatted drives, especially if the data hasn't been overwritten. We've tackled this topic before, and used Knoppix as our bootable linux distro, but the steps apply to the ones we've mentioned as well. For more reading, check out this old but still largely accurate guide at Linux.com to recovering from formatted drives.
Geek to Live: Rescue files with a boot CD
by Gina Trapani
Read more ReadAdvertisement
Remember, the less you work with the drive you want to recover data from, the better. As you read from the drive, you run the risk of exacerbating any damage it may have. The more you write to the drive, the more likely you are to overwrite something you want to recover. Bootable linux distros—many of which have tools like TestDisk pre-installed (among other, more advanced tools)—are the best way to go if you're familiar with the method and if you're interested in recovering entire partitions, or making a non-bootable drive bootable again. If you're just looking for files and you know the drive was in a Windows system or a Mac, a stand-alone app is an easier way to go.
Step Three: Get Out the Big Guns (and Your Wallet)
Advertisement
Okay, so the drive is physically damaged, has been wiped and overwritten, or nothing else you try works and you really, really need the data off of it. You're even willing to pay a lotfor it. We're not going to ask why, but at this point it's time to call in the professionals. Photo by Glenn Fleishman.
Pick up the phone and call the folks at DriveSavers and OnTrack to see what they can do for you. I've had good experiences with OnTrack. DriveSavers is well known and loved, both because they came to the rescue with free drive recovery services after September 11, 2001 and more recently helping Wired's Mat Honan recover from his epic hacking. Both companies do a superb job at pulling data even off of drives that have been formatted, overwritten, or even severely physically damaged. Keep in mind though that these services generally run in the tens of thousands of dollarsthousand dollar range, according to DriveSavers (thanks for reaching out!) and higher.
Advertisement
If the drive is yours, or the data you get from the drive is valuable, we'd strongly suggest you make sure your data is backed up, both locally and online. After all, it's better to be able to get the data back quickly than have to jump through these hoops every time a drive fails. Remember, every hard drive will fail eventually, it's just a matter of time. Now go forth, use this knowledge for good, and recover!
Advertisement
Sincerely,
Lifehacker
Have a question or suggestion for Ask Lifehacker? Send it to [email protected].
Advertisement
Title photo made using Sashkin (Shutterstock) and Fer Gregory (Shutterstock).
Query 1:
Help, I’m in trouble. I lost my precious data from my Western Digital 2 TB external hard drive due to accidental formatting. Does there exist a solution through which I can recover my data from my WD external hard drive? Note: I am using MacBook Pro with macOS Mojave.
Query 2:
Hello, my 2 TB WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive was not recognizable anymore when connected to my MacBook with macOS Mojave. The drive contained essential data, which I desperately want it back. I would appreciate any data recovery advice, thanks!
Solution: Comfort yourself, as there are easy & powerful techniques through which you can recover your lost data on macOS Mojave. Go through the methods mentioned in this blog to get back your precious data from the erased or unreadable WD external hard drive.
Icebreaker
External Hard Drive Recovery Tools
Knowing your Western Digital (WD) external hard drive is essential in recovering your lost data. Your hard drive is an electromechanical non-volatile data storage device that stores data permanently on a rotating platter coated with the ferromagnetic material. The magnetic head of the WD hard drive writes or reads data to or from the platter. These data are stored in a series of logical blocks or sectors.
macOS Mojave maintains the information of these files as metadata stored in the file system of the drive. When you delete a file, macOS Mojave updates its metadata information. Also, when you erase a drive, Mojave creates a fresh file system. In both situations, data stored in the sectors remain unharmed—This gives a chance for data recovery.
Mounting an External Hard Drive
External Hard Drive For Apple Mac
WD external hard drive mounts on your macOS Mojave when you connect it to your MacBook. Mounting makes the drive available for use and is visible in Finder and Disk Utility. In case the storage drive is corrupt, the file system information is lost, which makes the hard drive un-mountable or unreadable on macOS Mojave.
The only way to create a new file system is by erasing the un-mountable/unrecognizable external hard drive with APFS or other macOS Mojave compatible file system format. Nevertheless, formatting also makes hard drive data inaccessible from macOS Mojave, and consequently, you lose those data.
Steps to Recover Lost Data
To recover lost data from your WD external hard drive, you need to deploy Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac on your MacBook running on macOS Mojave. This practical and efficient macOS Mojave compatible data recovery software provides an intuitive user interface to ease your recovery process.
The steps to recover your lost data from your WD external hard drive are as follows:
Step 1) Download the software on your Mac from Stellar’s official website.
Install the software on Macintosh HD. Now, connect your Western Digital external hard drive to your MacBook and launch the data recovery software, and from the main interface, select the type of files you want to recover and click Next;
Step 2) Choose your erased or unreadable WD external hard drive and toggle on Deep Scan.
Step 3) Click Scan, and once the scan is complete, preview the scanned files to verify
![Database Tool For External Hard Drive Mac Database Tool For External Hard Drive Mac](https://www.webantics.com/content/images/thumbs/006/0068759_seagate-backup-plus-4tb-25-portable-hard-drive-blue.jpeg)
Step 4) Select the required data and click Recover. Specify the save location to another external storage drive with storage space more than or equal to your WD external drive space, and then click Save
Video: External Drive Recovery on Mojave
This is how you can recover your data from your erased or un-mountable external WD hard drive on macOS Mojave. Free download this amazing software and bring your lost data back to life.
Toshiba External Hard Drive Tools
Safeguard Data via Backup
This data loss instance must have triggered your brain to back up your Mac data. Backup does not mean, which most people comprehend, to save data to an external drive without keeping a copy on the internal drive. Backup means if you lose one the other you can use to get back your data.
Therefore, if you saved your data to an external drive and you do not want the same data on your Mac, then you need to have yet another external drive to back up. This is the sole philosophy of backup. It is advisable to create the backup of backup for business-critical data and keep the redundant backup in an offsite location.
Conclusion
The blog showcased tried and tested methodology to recover your lost data from a WD external hard drive on macOS Mojave. Try Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac to recover lost data quickly. The software is great to handle all kind of logical data loss situation from any Mac storage device—internal or external—including WD drives.