External hard drive has lost all its data

[fredd bear]

Try a hammer.

 I only use that on the car motor.

For work on the computer, such as partitioning a hard drive, I prefer to use a saw.

[Abaddon_ire]

About a year ago, I bought a  LACIE 500Gb external hard drive, I wanted to have a drive which used an external power source.

Used it for larger files, mainly videos, a total of about 350GB

Had not used it for about 6 months.

Yesterday,I attached it to my Imac. When I opened it, the only thing showing was one folder; "BUDA"

As far as I'm aware it's unusual for a hard drive to suddenly delete everything.  That leads me to believe there is a software issue. That the files  are probably still there.

I also have a laptop, which runs Windows 10 and Linux Mint Cinnamon, as dual boot.. have also tried the Lacie drive on each OS. Same result.


Does anyone happen to know of any troubleshooting I can do?

I will not rehash the answers already given, but in a professional context, I have been that soldier. There exist professional companies that can retrieve data from dead HDDs. They are mostly successful, but they ain't cheap given that they do a clean room tear-down of the dodgy drive to the bare plattens if necessary.

I have twice had to engage such on behalf of clients. In both cases it was 100% successful and oddly also LACIE drives. In both cases it was horribly expensive, yet cheaper than a total loss. I am glad it wasn't on my dollar.

[fredd bear]

About a year ago, I bought a  LACIE 500Gb external hard drive, I wanted to have a drive which used an external power source.

Used it for larger files, mainly videos, a total of about 350GB

Had not used it for about 6 months.

Yesterday,I attached it to my Imac. When I opened it, the only thing showing was one folder; "BUDA"

As far as I'm aware it's unusual for a hard drive to suddenly delete everything.  That leads me to believe there is a software issue. That the files  are probably still there.

I also have a laptop, which runs Windows 10 and Linux Mint Cinnamon, as dual boot.. have also tried the Lacie drive on each OS. Same result.


Does anyone happen to know of any troubleshooting I can do?

I will not rehash the answers already given, but in a professional context, I have been that soldier. There exist professional companies that can retrieve data from dead HDDs. They are mostly successful, but they ain't cheap given that they do a clean room tear-down of the dodgy drive to the bare plattens if necessary.

I have twice had to engage such on behalf of clients. In both cases it was 100% successful and oddly also LACIE drives. In both cases it was horribly expensive, yet cheaper than a total loss. I am glad it wasn't on my dollar.

All fixed.

I really hate relying on computers. I usually buy a new one every three years. Probably not this time. Although expensive, the Imac
is proving to be the best computer I've ever had. I also prefer Mac and Linux to windows. 


Was pretty sure the problem was not hardware.  As far as I'm aware, a hard drive will simply not suddenly delete everything, that failure of the drive tends to be gradual. .Turned our it wasn't the drive.

   I found a free app called "Disk Drill" .  It took a few hours, but it found EVERYTHING on that drive. That meant approving each file I wanted recovered. That was then saved to a folder. I was actually quite surprise at how few files I needed to recover. I had most of those files backed up on my Imac

After getting everything I wanted, I formatted the drive and have added  another folder, with video files totalling just over 100 GB. I  will monitor that and see what happens. I suspect the hard drive is on its way out---I couldn't find a new hard drive using external power, so bought this one second hand. Last time I'll do that.

I don't suppose external SSD are available at a reasonable price ?

Thank you for your reply.

[Abaddon_ire]

I will not rehash the answers already given, but in a professional context, I have been that soldier. There exist professional companies that can retrieve data from dead HDDs. They are mostly successful, but they ain't cheap given that they do a clean room tear-down of the dodgy drive to the bare plattens if necessary.

I have twice had to engage such on behalf of clients. In both cases it was 100% successful and oddly also LACIE drives. In both cases it was horribly expensive, yet cheaper than a total loss. I am glad it wasn't on my dollar.

All fixed.

I really hate relying on computers. I usually buy a new one every three years. Probably not this time. Although expensive, the Imac
is proving to be the best computer I've ever had. I also prefer Mac and Linux to windows. 


Was pretty sure the problem was not hardware.  As far as I'm aware, a hard drive will simply not suddenly delete everything, that failure of the drive tends to be gradual. .Turned our it wasn't the drive.

   I found a free app called "Disk Drill" .  It took a few hours, but it found EVERYTHING on that drive. That meant approving each file I wanted recovered. That was then saved to a folder. I was actually quite surprise at how few files I needed to recover. I had most of those files backed up on my Imac

After getting everything I wanted, I formatted the drive and have added  another folder, with video files totalling just over 100 GB. I  will monitor that and see what happens. I suspect the hard drive is on its way out---I couldn't find a new hard drive using external power, so bought this one second hand. Last time I'll do that.

I don't suppose external SSD are available at a reasonable price ?

Thank you for your reply.

Available? Sure. Reasonable price? Not yet but it will happen.

Still does not protect against catastrophic failure unfortunately.

[fredd bear]

Available? Sure. Reasonable price? Not yet but it will happen.

Still does not protect against catastrophic failure unfortunately.

 No computer device is perfect. Perhaps I'm being naive to think that  a drive with no moving parts should last a lot longer

[Jackalope]

m.2 SSDs have really dropped in price as I understand it. Get a m.2 USB adapter and you're gold.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've seen external SSDs (via USB port) at Best Buy for less than $50 bucks.

[fredd bear]

I've seen external SSDs (via USB port) at Best Buy for less than $50 bucks.

 OK , thanks.

Best Buy? There isn't one in my state.

Checked on Ebay: around $50 for 120GB. $100 for 250 GB, which isn't really cheap against an external HDD. They are around  $100 for 2TB, which is what I would be replacing..  Currently have 1TB drive for Imac Time Machine (back ups) and a  2TB HDD for movies.

Saw a (new) Seagate 8TB external HDD for  $260, with  3 year warrantee.

I'd say external SSD are cheaper than they were, but still expensive when compared with HDD. I already have a couple of 132GB flash drives., so I think I'll stick with what I  I have for the time being.

Thank you for your interest.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

bestbuy.com Or Amazon.com. Comparison shopping always recommended.

[fredd bear]

bestbuy.com Or Amazon.com. Comparison shopping always recommended.

Indeed, Although I have found Ebay to be a pretty accurate price guide for most things..

I prefer not to shop at Amazon because I don't like the way they treat their employees.


Addendum; I checked. bestbuy.com is not available in  Oz.