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Home: Video University Forums: Mac Video:
Disc Insertion Error message for external hard drive

David L
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Dec 6, 2007, 5:22 PM

Post #1 of 6 (499 views)
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Disc Insertion Error message for external hard drive	Can't Post

Hello: I've been using an external firewire hard drive (in an ADS enclosure) to hold media files for editing for many months now with my Macbook Pro 17", used it today for quite a while. I had to take a break in the afternoon so I ejected the drive, turned off the enclosure and put my MBP to sleep ... upon returning an hour later, I woke up the MBP and then turned on the enclosure, and I get this message:

"The disc you inserted was not readable by this computer." I'm then given three options: Initialize, Ignore, or Eject. I hit Ignore.

No icon on the desktop. So I open up Disk Utility, and it seems to recognize the drive, but won't allow me to Repair it -- i.e., in the Repair dialog, none of the buttons are clickable.

I've tried disconnecting the drive several times, restarting, even tried connecting it via USB cable, but same error message keeps popping up.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Joel
Veteran

Dec 7, 2007, 12:03 PM

Post #2 of 6 (486 views)
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Re: [David L] Disc Insertion Error message for external hard drive [In reply to]	Can't Post

Try DiskWarrior! The directory might have been damaged. DW has saved my butt more times than I can count back to when I was editing on OS9. www.diskwarrior.com

Good explanation of what can happen, especially wit external drives:

http://www.alsoft.com/...arrior/details4.html

Joel

"Think of this business as a room with a huge table and a bunch of chairs around the table. There is a big pie on the table. Your mission is to take your place at the table, pick up your fork, and eat your pie. Do not look to the left and do not look to the right. Just eat your pie. There is plenty of pie for everyone."

starting | perfectionists

(This post was edited by Joel on Dec 7, 2007, 12:20 PM)

David L
User

Dec 10, 2007, 10:37 AM

Post #3 of 6 (434 views)
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Re: [Joel] Disc Insertion Error message for external hard drive [In reply to]	Can't Post

Many thanks for the help, Joel ... I ran DW for a while, 7-8 hours later I decided to stop it (needed the computer) and got the message that the drive was beyond repair, or something to that effect. I was able to re-capture all the footage thanks to the batch capture feature in FCP, so I didn't lose any valuable data.

This is the first drive to have failed me in 5 years of this biz, so that's not bad!

Thanks again.

Joel
Veteran

Dec 10, 2007, 11:16 AM

Post #4 of 6 (431 views)
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Re: [David L] Disc Insertion Error message for external hard drive [In reply to]	Can't Post

Dang. Sorry to hear its toast. A word of warning - I was the same way for a long time - no failures. Then they happened in droves. I've lost 4 drives in the past year. But it makes sense. They are all at least four years old - smaller drives that I've used a long time.

Just to make sure it is a doorstop try it via another protocol, like directly to an ATA port or in a different enclosure, and with a different computer. Run DW on that different computer. At least then you'll know its completely unsalvageable. I've had drive come back to life when they are on a different computer.

In Reply To

Joel

"Think of this business as a room with a huge table and a bunch of chairs around the table. There is a big pie on the table. Your mission is to take your place at the table, pick up your fork, and eat your pie. Do not look to the left and do not look to the right. Just eat your pie. There is plenty of pie for everyone."

starting | perfectionists

David L
User

Dec 11, 2007, 1:52 PM

Post #5 of 6 (413 views)
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Re: [Joel] Disc Insertion Error message for external hard drive [In reply to]	Can't Post

Thanks Joel, I'm going to try to format it with my PC, see if that revives it.

I'm now a little worried that perhaps I don't "eject" my external drives properly ... this is what I do: I double-click on the drive's icon on the desktop, and when finder comes up, I click on the little "eject" icon next to the drive's icon, wait for finder and the drive icon to disappear from the desktop, then I turn off the external drive. Is that what you do?

Joel
Veteran

Dec 11, 2007, 2:57 PM

Post #6 of 6 (410 views)
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Re: [David L] Disc Insertion Error message for external hard drive [In reply to]	Can't Post

Yep - that's one of many safe ways. Drag it to the trash, control+click and select eject or eject from the finder. Then wait longer than you think you should wait and power down the enclosure before pulling the plug if you need to. In winter I have to be careful with static electricity in the office. I've "sparked" a drive to dismount a few times...

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