Firewire drive won't mount - help!

[spartacus]

A firewire drive I've had for several years was starting to act funny, so I decided to back it up. In the middle of the process, another program I was working with froze and as a nice side effect, stopped the transfer of files from the drive to my desktop.

I tried a force quit on the frozen app, but nothing doing. Since the drive wasn't making any signs that it was transferring data, I tried to eject it in the finder window. Nothing. Finally, I tried to relaunch the finder. Nothing worked.

So I turned the drive off. (Yeah I know, don't turn a firewire drive off unless you've ejected it, it might damage the disk.) I didn't get the warning that usually appears when you turn a firewire device off without ejecting it. Strange. With the drive apparently out of the picture, I tried to force quit the spinning app and to relaunch the finder again. Neither worked. So I rebooted the computer.

Now, when I start the drive it won't mount at all. It sounds like it's trying, but nothing ever happens. Eventually it stops trying to mount. I am pretty sure it's a lost cause, but I still have several files that I'd really like to get off the drive. Anybody got any ideas? If not, I could always use it as a nice doorstop.

[dans]

What kind of sound is it making? Generally speaking, HD's making unusual sounds are dying or dead. If it is a clickling/chirping/ticking sound as it tries to mount, that is very bad. Could be hardware failure in which case you're in trouble. Otherwise, have you run Disk Utility on it? Do you have any 3d party disk software? If it is a hardware problem, there is always the possibility that leaving it off for a while might resurrect it for long enough to copy your data off. I've even heard of people cooling a failing drive in their freezer and then being able to mount it one last time. Never tried that myself.

[spartacus]

Thanks for responding. It is not clicking or ticking. It starts out by making the sound it has always made when it first mounts. Of course, when it doesn't, it starts making a sound that's similar to a CD spinning up in a computer drive -- it makes this sound in series of three, repeats these series eight or nine times, then stops. It has never made noises like this before the problem started. But it doesn't sound like it's clicking or ticking.

I can't run Disk Utility on it, because it won't mount to the desktop to let me get to it. I could try the freezer, but are there any other ideas before I go to that extreme?

[tucum]

Best thing to do is try to Recover Disk with Norton Utilities before it's too late. I lost 20GB of audio trying other stuff. The other day I had the same problem, did this recover thing and all went fine. Good luck.

[dans]

It starts out by making the sound it has always made when it first mounts. Of course, when it doesn't, it starts making a sound that's similar to a CD spinning up in a computer drive -- it makes this sound in series of three, repeats these series eight or nine times, then stops.

Anything is possible, but, honestly, that drive is very likely toast. Like I said, it may spin up one more time, but that is a drive whose useful life is over. Those sounds are not made by anything fixable in software. To get data off of it you'll need to do one of two things. 1) Drive Recovery. This will probably work, especially if you unplug it immediately (don't try ANY other troubleshooting) and send it in. This will cost at least $400, probably more. 2) Let it sit for a while, maybe chill it, maybe rub it with a lucky rabbit's foot, and hope it mounts one last time. If it does, be ready to copy off of it the most important data first and then go from there. If it does mount again, I'd never use it for anything other than backup or transporting unimportant files.

[spartacus]

That's kind of what I figured. The cost of professional data recovery is too high for me, so I figure when the moon is full, I'll say a prayer or two, plug it in and see if it mounts. I guess three years is all to expect from one of these things. People on the board have regularly empasized the importance of backup. Somewhat ironic that I was in the very process when everything went to pot. Thanks for your help.