Need advice on recovering data from messed up hard drive..

[AylmerQc]

I have a 1 TB ext. drive that I seem to have messed up installing it in a Raid enclosure with a few other disks. It has lots of edited video that I want to recover. Using Disk Utility, I can see the drive but can't do anything with it. Disk Warrior hasn't worked. I downloaded Test Disk/Photorec but I'm not at all familiar with Terminal. I tried both but wasn't sure if I could do more harm than good so didn't go any further. Any advice..?

[Dan Millar]

That sucks, but, whatever you do, don't write to that disk (I don't think you can from the sound of it) until you try one of these tools as any write could overwrite your precious video file and then no recovery software can help you.

Data Rescue from ProSoft - it's what Apple uses. If this tool can't recover your files - nothing will.

www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

Or Stellar Photo Recovery, for a more specific approach, and a bit cheaper too, check out:

www.stellarphotorecoverysoftware.com/

I've used both these tools and can vouch for their efficacy, Data Rescue has seriously saved a lot of peoples data, and Stellar works great within its limited scope. I think both companies allow you to use their demo software to recover one file - so maybe that's all you'll need!

Best of luck, and...

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan

[AylmerQc]

Thanks Dan.
I was hoping you would check the board and reply.

BTW, you are at which store?

jm

[Dan Millar]

No problem jm, I've unfortunately been there personally as well as having to deal with other people's lost images, and I know how precious some of those memories can be.

I don't currently work at any store, though in the past I worked at The Computer Rental Store, LaserComp, MicroAchievementCentre(MAC), with the Apple Demo Crew, and at the Apple Store here in Ottawa. I'm currently independent and working freelance, but have been looking to either open my own shop or join one of the existing stores, but they are few and far between. MUGOO has been great - I really, genuinely enjoy helping people with this stuff, seeing them learn and get more out of our fabulous Apple products.

Good luck with the recovery and...

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan

[AylmerQc]

All right. I found most of the video I was looking for on another drive so I'm less panicked about that one drive now but I am in the market for an external 1 or 2 TB drive to back up even more or use when recovering files from aforementioned one in original post. Any recommendations?
I see different opinions on LaCie and WD as being good "paperweights", meaning some of their units have a reputation for failing early.
I have a gift card from one Vistek and looking at the LaCie 1TB 2big Triple 2-disk RAID FireWire 800/400, USB 2.0, 7200rpm, which is on special but seems a discontinued model.
Also the G technology G Drives   which supposedly are quite good...