Weird occurrence during backup; now external drive is inaccessible!

[Elrich]

Disaster situation... maybe someone have some idea what to do...

External Hard drive A was giving me error messages that said to back it up and reformat. So I backed it up to external hard drive B. Reformatted A. Then started copying B back to A. (Using Super Duper.)

While the copy was going on, suddenly the screen went gray, and I had to shut it down and restart.

Now drive B no longer mounts. I can't get the Mac to recognize it's even connected, including in Disk Utility. And A doesn't have anywhere near all my files on it, so many files (including all my music!) are inaccessible. What can I do??

 

[honestone]

Sorry to hear about that.

I assume you first booted from the SuperDuper! backup on Drive B, and ran SuperDuper! from there to backup/clone B to A. Is that correct?

Did you try and connect B to another Mac? Just a thought.

I wonder if the directory on B got really "hosed" when you turned the machine off while SuperDuper! was running. That's what it sounds like, unless B has gone completely bad. Assuming the directory is the issue, can you get a hold of Disk Warrior? That program can do wonders, and it might save you.

Other than that, I am at a loss as to what else to suggest. Maybe someone else might have another idea.

 

[Elrich]

Although it refused to work last night, this morning I plugged drive B into the USB port and jiggled it a bit, and it mounted! B has now been completed copied to A.

However, I now have reason to be a bit suspicious of both drives, so I'm in the market for drive C now!

Thanks

 

[honestone]

I actually thought about suggesting you try another port, but glad you got it working! Did you run Disk Utility on both drives to check out their health? That could be useful information.

Also, did you confirm that you can boot your machine from the SuperDuper! backup on drive A?

Finally, it might be good if you invest in a more robust Disk Maintenance/Repair program. I use TechTool Pro on a weekly basis, and it does a good job. (I have been using it for a number of years). I also use Onyx to assist in disk cleanup, and some limited disk maintenance. Finally, I also have Disk Warrior, but I don't run it very often. However, it is comforting to have it.

 

[Elrich]

I ran it on both. It didn't find any problems. I just wonder what happened the other night. The copying was going on and I was watching YouTube. Suddenly the computer tried to restart. It went to the gray screen, but it seemed like it wouldn't actually show the Apple logo and begin startup, until I unplugged the drives from the USB ports. I couldn't get it to pay any attention to the B drive after that, but the next day it was fine.

These drives simply have music and such on them -- I wouldn't expect to be able to boot from them.

Thanks for the recommendations.

 

[honestone]

I ran it on both. It didn't find any problems. I just wonder what happened the other night. The copying was going on and I was watching YouTube. Suddenly the computer tried to restart. It went to the gray screen, but it seemed like it wouldn't actually show the Apple logo and begin startup, until I unplugged the drives from the USB ports. I couldn't get it to pay any attention to the B drive after that, but the next day it was fine.

These drives simply have music and such on them -- I wouldn't expect to be able to boot from them.

Thanks for the recommendations.

I thought since you were using SuperDuper!, that you were making a bootable backup (I use SuperDuper! for making my bootable backups).