Jessica,
If this is not a solid-state drive, but rather a mechanical drive, you might
breathe some life into it by putting it inside a sealed plastig bag to prevent
moisture and putting in a refrigerator for a few hours.
Then with another formatted drive ready, connect to your computer and cross
your fingers. If it comes alive, get the essential stuff copied off to the
other drive as soon as possible.
I’ve resurrected files from a failing drive this way in the past.
Also if you have another computer available, try that drive on it to see if it
can read the drive.
Good luck! I’ve been there, more than once.
Dave Carlson
Farfar, Oregonian, Engineer, Musician, Woodworker, and Pioneer
On Nov 10, 2025, at 5:17 AM, Jessica Moss <[email protected]> wrote:
I’m not sure what’s suddenly gone down with my Toshiba external hard drive,
since it was working fine last week, aside from me having had it for several
years, so it’s probably on its last leg, and I unfortunately don’t have a
secondary drive to back it up, and it may have just gone caput. I’ve plugged
it into my Mac, am hearing it start up, as well as feeling it vibrate, but it’s
not showing up in finder.
However, it’s showing up in Disc Utility, but appears not to be able to read
it, and disc utility acts like it couldn’t perform first aid on it. So I’m
guessing at this point, I should consider the drive damaged?
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