Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

But what happens to the 7110 photos that haven’t uploaded to iCloud?

So is your HDD being working at all? Where is the time machine backup? It's actually possible to break into time machine back ups and retrieve sep files manually, which could be a solution.

i open time machine and nothing is there.

i open about this mac and it doesn't tell me the storage sitch

(this is why i want someone to look at it, rather than me try and diagnose it on a bike forum and with zero computer skills)

Where is your time machine disk? Is it a part of your internal hard drive or is it on an external?
When was time machine last backed up?
Where are you based?
I fear a can of worms...

External
Last back up was ages ago, I assume.
In brockley

OK cool, wrong side of town for me im afraid...
Does the external drive show up at all when plugged in?
Are back ups automated (set to back up without prompting)?
Can you open the disk utility app and screen grab what it shows?
Example:

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..iPads don't have DVD drives, dummy!

Anyone remember the days when these things had hardwired region locks?

Those were the days. Rite?

Ext doesn’t appear to show up

They were auto back ups

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Looks like someone may have changed the internal at some point... I could be wrong but fairly sure no Mac ever came with a Kingston drive? Maybe?

Your first problem is getting the external HDD working... do you have other machines to try it on?

If I were you I would sign up to iCloud storage right now, 200GB will be enough, and get everything in the cloud.

It’s an ssd that the guy put in at the repair shop.

The external hard drive fires up.

I have ICloud storage.

From what I have read, the inability to back up from the time machine is causing the problem with photos.

How much storage do you have? are your photos being uploaded? If the external fires up it should be visible in Disk utility which it isn't?

My wife's company is asking that, if she uses a Mac (which she wants to), she needs anti-virus installed. Anyone have any recommendations on something that is unobtrusive, safe and won't slow the computer down?

The external is 1tb internal 260

AVG

Thats not what I am asking. I was asking about iCloud.
Plug the external hard drive in.

This is compelling viewing

200gb on iCloud. About 60 used.

Just plugged it in after restarting both - nada. Although, the usb did make a noise when unplugged

This is compelling viewing triggering

ftfy

On the edge of my seat here!

You've got at least three independent problems here - the DVD is not working, you aren't able to log in to iCloud and the external drive won't mount. Treat them separately but the combination of the two latter issues leaves you vulnerable to major data failure.

Start with getting access to iCloud. Did you log out of iCloud and log back in? You shouldn't lose any local data doing this. Can you now see your iCloud? If not, could you create yourself a dropbox account and back up your files there temporarily?

Then you'll need to start with some troubleshooting for the external drive:

1. check if the external HDD is functional. Plug it in to another mac. Can it be seen in disk utility? If not, change the caddy to see if that is the issue.
   
2. The USB ports on the iMac. Are any of them working? Try some other devices. if so, get yourself a big USB pendrive and back up your files locally.
   
   

If you can't mount the drive you won't see it in Time Machine.
More importantly I wouldn't rely on Time Machine for resilient backup. It's proprietary and somewhat flakey. Effectively it has been replaced as a backup service by iCloud.

If you can mount the drive (and better, also a new external drive or pendrive) you can use time machine or carbon copy cloner to clone the original drive and ensure that whatever happens you can fully recover your machine. If you can't mount anything over USB your iMac is probably fuxxed and you must get iCloud working to back up your files before the SSD fails. There's a chance that a full OS rebuilt will fix it but obviously you can't attempt that until the data is backed up.

One thing that is often overlooked is that SSDs don't fail gracefully like mechanical disks. When SSD's go, they just die and there is almost no chance of recovery. Mechanical disks typically degrade such that individual files get corrupted, but the rest are often recoverable.

If this were my machine I'd backup to iCloud and, if possible, make a separate Time Machine backup AND copy critical files to a pendrive, then wipe the internal and rebuild the OS. This might fix any ongoing USB problems you currently have. If backup to iCloud or over USB was not possible working I'd buy a replacement mac and copy the files over from iCloud, or from the iMac using target disk mode over thunderbolt.

You can do all this yourself -it's time consuming but not complicated - just be methodical and don't rush it. A checklist to work off as you go is really helpful.

By the sounds of it, I think you should set that machine on fire, then buy an iPad to replace it.

Very much this.

that's really helpful, thanks.

1. I have been able to log into icloud the whole time. this also shows the photo folders, but nothing in them.
   
2. the ports are all working on the imac
   
3. the mac can see the external hard drive, it cannot read it. the external hard drive fires up and beeps when plugged and unplugged. it does not show up on my work pc or on my wife's air.
   
   

I spoke to apple last night and they cannot explain it. what appears to have happened is a failure of the hard drive, when the phortos were halfway loading up to icloud. apparently, it reviews the photos already there with the photos that it is trying to upload and deletes duplicates.

the mac is trying to upload photos, but is left in limbo because it can't see them.

They suggested i take the hard drive to a data recovery place.

can anyone recommend someone?

points also noted about needed a more robust back up procedure

fuck this

(why the fsck can't I post terminal commands here!)

so just to clarify:
you have an external HD which cannot be read, but which has a TM backup on it
there are no photos visible on iCloud
there are no photos visible on the iMac

correct?
Is the external HD SSD or mechanical? How large is it? How old is it? Have you dropped it, or moved it whilst in use? How long do you leave it plugged in before deciding it is not reading?

I guess there are three possible scenarios:

1. OSX thinks the drive file system may be corrupted and is checking the contents. This can take days for a large external drive over USB2.

2. The caddy or cable is broken

3. The drive is actually faulty.

Let's deal with the obvious. Plug the external drive in to the mac, ideally a USB3 port with a working cable. Wait a minute, confirm it is not visible in disk utility. Then open a terminal window and type:

(the vertical line is "pipe" and on a mac keyboard above the right shift key)

Copy and paste what you see back here. You may need to do a screen grab as lfgss's filter is a zealot. Do not unplug the drive.

BTW, can you find anything if you try to recover deleted files on iCloud? https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-recover-deleted-icloud-data/

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