Recently bought this drive, formatted and partitioned to upload saved data. All worked well I thought. Closed down as per book. Put it safe until today, booted up and see hard drive and partition but no contents on the partition. This is the same computer used no change there. does anyone have a sensible suggestion a to what I may be doing wrong, it is under warranty and I am about to return to this company, first time Ive used them unfortunately.
Hello,
Is the drive showing any used space?
Did you used any specific backup software to save the data or you manually transferred the files?
Are you able to save any files to the drive? try copy and paste.
Hi ERmorel, many thanks for the interest, yes the drive shows used space under finder.
I used a software recommended for recovery by apple called wondershare "Wondershare Photo Recovery.app’
I can save files to both partitions of the drive.
But I remain unable to view the files saved originally, although space is taken up, I cannot visually see these files. Although they were visible on checking after saving and before closing the file to the book as the original hard drive I dropped and was damaged but this software found it and transferred to the new drive. I opened the photos in the new drive and checked various before saving and closing. Anyone any ideas…Western Drives …have no idea will contact software company to see if they can help. Thanks again
Unplugging the USB cable before your Mac completely shuts down can corrupt the file system, causing macOS to recognize the partition as empty upon rebooting.
To check your data, press Command + I to open the Info window. If “Available Space” is less than “Capacity,” your data is still intact but likely hidden or stuck. However, if both numbers are exactly the same, the file system structure is corrupted.
If the file system is corrupted, you can try repairing it using First Aid:
-
Open Disk Utility on your Mac.
-
Select the partition from the sidebar on the left and click First Aid at the top.
-
Run the repair tool to see if your files reappear.
You can also check for hidden files. Open the external hard drive window and press Command + Shift + . (dot) simultaneously to see if any translucent folders appear.
If neither method works, the drive’s file index is likely severely damaged. In this case, it is highly recommended to use data recovery software. As long as you haven’t written any new data to the drive, the chances of a successful recovery are very high.
This article will give you more tips: How to See All Files on Mac External Hard Drive
