Data recovery advice

[glocke]

I have a mac mini and was using a lacie hard drive for storage of my itunes library (close to 1000 cds and shows were on there) and other things.
 
Sometime between last night and this morning something happened to the drive to cause it to not be recognized by any of my computers (MBP and imac), it does not even show up in disk utilities.
 
Does anyone know what my chances are of getting the data that is on that drive back?  It was a multiyear project to load all those cd's on there and organize them, not to mention the irreplaceable files that were on there of previous bands, some photos, videos etc.  
 
Yes, I know I should have backed these up onto another drive, that was another step that I just had not had a chance to get to yet.

[sonicus]

There are a re few things that you can try.
I am familiar with such drives. Over the years they are constantly offering different designs and interfacing . What is the model description? Is it USB. Firewire , Serial ATA . Combo ?  
 
         Inside the case there will be either an ATA or Serial ATA Drive
 You can remove it from the case and bypass the interface bridge circuitry and connect it directly to either an ATA ribbon cable or serial ATA inside one of the computers . Often it is an interface failure.
Before you do this however replace the external cable ;Firewire /USB/Serial ATA/ ETC ... ... ...  
 
         Also make sure that the drive is getting power ; often there is a wall wart power supply failure.

[terryc]

Could be the motor which spins the disc has gave up,reader arm has failed or the ID chip for the drive has also failed.If the data is intact on the drive but cannot be accessed there might be some local companies which can retrieve it for you.

[glocke]

It is a lacie mini HUB HD, it is designed so that a mac mini will fit on top of it.  It has ports for firewire, usb 1.0 and usb 2.0
 
It is clearly getting power, as the light on both the walwart and the drive are illuminated, and when it is turned on i hear it clicking away.
 
I dont really know much about drive interfaces, but isnt the fact that i can hear it clicking a very bad sign?

[terryc]

Sounds mechanical so data may be intact.

[sonicus]

it might be as  terryc has mentioned . In either case the drive can be removed from the proprietary enclosure  . First I would try to connect it directly to one of your computers . What I do next is use a tool such as a Universal Drive Adapter ( mine is made by Newertech) .  
                         If these procedures fail to bring your drive to the desktop  you  may indeed have  a mechanical internal drive failure. This company has a very good reputation
 http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com

[otis]

Hey, Greg,
 
I'd try what Sonicus suggested.  You can grab an external HD case with a USB connector and see if your iMac recognizes that.  But definitely first try a different cable.  It does sound mechanical- maybe it overheated due to a failure of the cooling system...
 
If you can get the HD out, you should be able to pop it into an External enclosure (very cheap- I got mine on eBay for under $20, I believe).  What you should definitely do is grab an extra HD, or another external HD, and get a program called Super Duper. You can find that at:  
 
www.shirtpocket.com
 
You can easily clone that HD, thus making a true copy of it which is also bootable.  I've used this several times with great success.  It's very simple- but definitely read the directions- the main thing you have to keep in mind is to format the new blank HD as Mac Journaled I believe- don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure.  
 
If you do this, you will have a carbon copy of your HD with all of your files intact and exactly as they currently appear.
 
Good Luck!!!
 
Frank