Mac created WD Elements drive not readable by Windows

[Markverhyden]

Well maybe Mint doesn't automatically mount it. But Ubuntu is supposed to automatically mount it but read only if hfsprogs aren't installed. But you only need read only anyways.

When you plug it into the Windows machine does it prompt you to format the drive? That's the standard response for a properly functioning drive with a foreign file system. If you're not getting that then there's probably an issue with the drive. Did you try r-studio? Download it, install, plug in the WD and launch r-studio. At the license prompt just pick trial and it'll let you scan the drive and see the results. You can download the Windows version and it'll read all other file systems.

If it's not prompting to format you can still scan it with r-studio. If you want a hand you can PM me and I can do a quick remote session.

 

[britechguy]

@Markverhyden,

I am not getting the prompt to format either from Windows or from Linux Mint, either. So far everything recognizes the drive as a physical device but it doesn't mount. I found it odd that MacDrive in its disk manager showed the thing as GPT.

I may try R-Studio tomorrow. MacDrive was the one work item for today, as I am very fatigued at the moment from Covid.

 

[nlinecomputers]

And now we are heading into the data recovery phase....*runs away*

 

[Markverhyden]

@Markverhyden,

I am not getting the prompt to format either from Windows or from Linux Mint, either. So far everything recognizes the drive as a physical device but it doesn't mount. I found it odd that MacDrive in its disk manager showed the thing as GPT.

I may try R-Studio tomorrow. MacDrive was the one work item for today, as I am very fatigued at the moment from Covid.

Definitely a drive problem then. I've never seen Linux prompt to format a foreign drive. But Apple and MS have for years. If it's a portable one then it gets even worse. Years ago WD started combining the USB2SATA bridge and the drive PCB into one board. So there is no SATA port. Not sure if they are doing that with the desktop models these days. Either way I have had some luck getting to drives that had problems with the USB2SATA bridge with r-studio.

 

[britechguy]

Luckily, this client seems to realize (and I told her directly) that nothing may be able to be gotten off the drive for a variety of reasons. Her parting comment: "Well, it's a brick to me right now, and I won't be any worse off."

Believe me, if this can't be accomplished with R-Studio or a hookup to an actual Mac that recognizes something, I'm done. This was never intended to be a data recovery effort and I just don't do those anymore. I will work with a client to engage a lab, but it's not a DIY thing. I thought this would be a format conversion, and I've done those (with ease) in the past.

 

[britechguy]

And, from R-Studio:



While I still intend to have someone I know do a last ditch connection to a Mac, all indications are that this drive has never been used based on all available utilities.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Did you click Scan on that empty space, to see what a raw recovery yields?

 

[timeshifter]

Not so sure that’s really empty. Modern macOS create containers for the in use partition. Would be more apparent on a real Mac.

On the flip side it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen a drive that had been connected but nothing ever saved to it.

 

[Markverhyden]

Long ago external drives came formatted NTFS out of the box if it was intended for MS and HFS+ if for Apple. But it's been ages and I have a vague recollection that when a brand new drive was plugged in it ran a WD partitioning app after detecting the underlying OS. The fact that it's not prompting you in Winderze to initialize the drive indicates to me there may be a problem with it. At any rate, as @Larry Sabo said, did you click on the scan icon. When you first launch r-studio it just scans the typical file table location and reports what it found. You have to scan the entire drive to see if anything might be there. Once completed you can click on the "found" partition then go to RAW, forgot where that is, files. I'll usually look at type document and randomly click on a few to see if the bring up anything. Remember that in trial mode there is a maximum file size and quantity you can recover. Last I saw it was 64k, not sure how many though.