WD 30EFRX 3.0TB External MyCloud Drive **Mac** WD RED NAS

[briseno805]

Hello all I really need help. My wireless 3 TB WD MyCloud External Hard Drive recently crashed. I took it to Fry's and they could not repair or extract any of the many files i have in it. I sure as hell do not want to send it in and pay thousands of $$$ for a $200 hard drive. I have a replacement plan but before I do that I want to extract all the files I have stored in it. I have tried all the data recovery software with no success. I'm unsure since it is a wireless hard drive if that is adding to the difficulty in recovering the data.

Here is the part that I cannot seem to grasp, every data recovery software and even my Mac Yosemite OS disk utility is saying that it is a only 2.2 TB hard drive when in reality it is actually 3 TB hard drive. That's 800 gigs that are missing and cannot locate. I'm assuming that all my missing files are within those "lost" 800 gigs. I know there is never the total amount of storage space as it states but 800 gigs is bit too much to just go missing and unable to be located, I could understand 100-200 GB but 800?? Is their something that anyone knows of that has worked in finding lost data similar to this situation? Just as info I did take the hard drive out from the casing and it seems to be working just can't access any file or erase it with disk utility. It gives me an error stating unable to erase disk.

Can someone please lend me their expertise and help me recover my data before i just give up and lose these important files forever. Your help is greatly appreciated.....

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Do you have a computer that you could put a bare HDD in?
If so, you could try pulling the HDD out of the MyDrive enclosure and hooking it up like any other internal HDD.

 

[briseno805]

I already pulled out the HDD out of the enclosure and connected it via SATA connection to USB and my MAC disk utility does recognize it but only 2.2 TB out of the 3 TB and no data on it but i have a ton of data, over 500 gigs....

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I don't mean to pull it out and connect it with USB. I mean to pull it out and connect it direct with SATA.

 

[briseno805]

Ok, I have a very very old windows dell laptop but not a desktop... Also it says that the disk is unformatted, why do you think? I accessed the files through my mac... this whole thing is frustrating.... I have a buddy that has a tower that can easily access the SATA port, i can ask him if we can try that tomorrow but its windows based, think it will matter?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I would give the tower a shot

 

[HankB]

You could try a live linux CD/USB. Linux may be more tolerant of errors on the disk than Windows.

Were I doing that, the first thing I would do is use 'dd' to copy an image of the drive as it is probably going downhill every time you try to read it. But you will need another drive at least that large to hold the image.

 

[RGone]

briseno805 you do not say but if you always...

...always saw 3TB in one partition with that drive up until the failure, then you can be sure the external enclosure had a chip in it translating the data on the drive into a format readable by an operating system. Now that the external enclosure is no longer usable, the majority of operating systems will only see about 2.2TB. All that being the situation as it probably actually is; I have no idea that you will be able to get to that 750-ish data not in a partition according to your Recovery software.

I have always understood that some recovery software should be able to be used in the case of a deleted partition. The way the drive is now seen outside the enclosure should or could be seen the same way by recovery software. If not then you are just about out of luck for normal user recovery processes.

There is only one thought that comes to mind and it depends on the actual type of failure that your external drive/enclosure has suffered and that is if the extenal case and n0t the drive has gone bad, you might buy another external drive setup just like your failed one and insert the HDD into the new case and you might find your data. This would only work if your enclosure is the real problem and not actually the drive that was inside the enclosure.
RGone...

 

[Arbiter Odie]

briseno, what rgone said is correct. If this drive were a normal 2 TB drive, this would be fairly easy. But since the enclosure was doing some black-box magic to make the 3 TB usable to OSX....... I'd start panicking.

And then I would buy an identical enclosure, and swap the important drive in there, plug it in, and pray for the best.


BTW, I know what a nightmare attempting data recovery on a off-the-shelf external drive is when you have a Mac. I know where you're coming from, and sympathize heavily. When this is all over, perhaps I can point you in the direction of an enclosure that's reliable, with a toshiba drive to go with it. The Mercury enclosure from OWC is darn near bulletproof, and is what my sister is using with her Mac for Timemachine.

Good luck, man!