Not being able to access Parish Records downloaded onto External Hard Drive

[AdamsHodgetts]

Hi,

I have paid and downloaded Parish records on to our external hard drive from Midlands Ancestors Online shop months ago.

It was working fine up and I was able to access parish records until lately and the problem appears to lie with the external hard drive box plugged to my laptop as it is not showing up as being plugged in. 

At the moment, hubby is trying to "repair" via https://setapp.com/how-to/how-to-access-external-drive-thats-not-recognized-on-mac?ci=12187016783&adgroupid=127755858847&adpos=&ck=&targetid=dsa-1343319978373&match=&gnetwork=g&creative=548451158074&placement=&placecat=&accname=setapp&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2sqOBhCGARIsAPuPK0gnLxyZScX2ioTP01eMNKugvdwnOQUxKFVfXR5PwG1jY18u8fEbYKsaAjrBEALw_wcB#show-connected-devices-in-finder

If this does not work, this will mean I will not be able to access the saved parish records and will it mean I will have to pay to download it all again from Midlands Ancestors if they still have it advertised on their site? 

[jc26red]

Have you tried, if possible, attaching the hard drive to another pc/laptop?

Can you hear the hard drive start up? Are there any lights on it to indicate the disc is moving?

Have you tried another cable if that’s an option?

[AdamsHodgetts]

Have you tried, if possible, attaching the hard drive to another pc/laptop?

Can you hear the hard drive start up? Are there any lights on it to indicate the disc is moving?

Have you tried another cable if that’s an option?

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.

Hubby has tried attaching the WD Element external hard drive to his Apple PC. Yes there were two flashing lights and making noises too. As it didn't appear in the "Finder" section so he tried to run via the Disk Utility run.  The Finder can't pick up because it is "unmounted."

Hope you understood the jargon?

[Ashtone]

Was the external hard drive formatted using a different file system (i.e. on a Windows PC)?

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/drive-not-showing-mac-3613422/

[AdamsHodgetts]

Was the external hard drive formatted using a different file system (i.e. on a Windows PC)?

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/drive-not-showing-mac-3613422/

The WD Elements was plugged into my Apple MacBook laptop as I was looking through parish registers I had downloaded from Midlands Ancestors and I switched it all off the usual way.  Yesterday, tried to switch it on but to no avail.

Thanks for the link, which I will pass on to hubby.

[Chris Doran]

Does the external hard drive draw its power from the computer via the USB connection, ot does it have its own power supply ("wallwart")? The wallwart on mine went low power and wouldn't spin the disk properly. I bought a new identical drive, tried the wallwart that came with it on the old drive, and it sprung back to life! I had a similar power loss problem with a modem wallwart.

If you haven't got a compatible wallwart (check plug, AC/DC,  voltage, polarity, stabilised or not, and maximum current), you may have to do as I did. You should have two external drives and keep everything important on both anyway.

With a second drive and enough courage/expertise, you could also try swapping over the disks in case it's the drive electronics that's faulty

All the above assumes that your dexternal disk construction is similar to my non-WD one, which may not be the case.

If you have the order details, you might ask if the supplier will give you a discount on replacement files in the circumstances.

[Guy Etchells]

Sorry this will not help AdamsHodgetts, but it may help many others in the future.

Hard drives fail.
No matter whether they are internal or external, all hard drives fail eventually.

This may be for a variety of reasons some minor some major, but even rectifying minor failures may involve losing some or all of the data stored on the hard drive.

The solution is to have backups of the stored data either on a different media, paper, microfiche, cd, dvd, the cloud or even another hard drive. The safest back up solutions use multiple back ups or the use of different forms of back ups in different locations if possible, to cover for different possibilities.
Cheers
Guy

[AdamsHodgetts]

Sorry this will not help AdamsHodgetts, but it may help many others in the future.

Hard drives fail.
No matter whether they are internal or external, all hard drives fail eventually.

This may be for a variety of reasons some minor some major, but even rectifying minor failures may involve losing some or all of the data stored on the hard drive.

The solution is to have backups of the stored data either on a different media, paper, microfiche, cd, dvd, the cloud or even another hard drive. The safest back up solutions use multiple back ups or the use of different forms of back ups in different locations if possible, to cover for different possibilities.
Cheers
Guy

Oh bummer as this will mean I've lost all my saved photos from the year 2000, leaving me with photos I still have from my previous iPhone and this latest iPhone. So gutted!   If I took the WD Elements to a PC repair shop, will they be able to save my photos?

Not too worried re family tree info, docs and photos as I've saved some of them to Ancestry and I still have original photos, certificates, etc in a box at Dad's.

I've had a look at Midland Ancestors site and as I had already paid, were still in my Account so was able to download Halesowen and Rowley Regis Parish Records to Cloud, which I hope, will be more secure there?

[Guy Etchells]

Sorry this will not help AdamsHodgetts, but it may help many others in the future.

Hard drives fail.
No matter whether they are internal or external, all hard drives fail eventually.

This may be for a variety of reasons some minor some major, but even rectifying minor failures may involve losing some or all of the data stored on the hard drive.

The solution is to have backups of the stored data either on a different media, paper, microfiche, cd, dvd, the cloud or even another hard drive. The safest back up solutions use multiple back ups or the use of different forms of back ups in different locations if possible, to cover for different possibilities.
Cheers
Guy

Oh bummer as this will mean I've lost all my saved photos from the year 2000, leaving me with photos I still have from my previous iPhone and this latest iPhone. So gutted!   If I took the WD Elements to a PC repair shop, will they be able to save my photos?

Not too worried re family tree info, docs and photos as I've saved some of them to Ancestry and I still have original photos, certificates, etc in a box at Dad's.

I've had a look at Midland Ancestors site and as I had already paid, were still in my Account so was able to download Halesowen and Rowley Regis Parish Records to Cloud, which I hope, will be more secure there?

As I stated "even rectifying minor failures may involve losing some or all of the data stored on the hard drive." It depends why the hard drive failed, what parts of the drive are effected, what steps are taken to rectify the fault. It may be possible to repair the drive with no data loss, on the other hand it may involve a total loss of every record on the drive, much depends on the technician attempting the repair.

Without knowing the exact details of the fault and the expertise of the technician attempting the repair I could not even make a guess. Other forum members have given suggestions and there is a chance of a repair without loss but nothing is written in stone.
Cheers
Guy