USB drive and Mac OS

shopbot

I've just foolishly pulled out a USB stick from my Mac running Mountain Lion.

In Finder none of the files are visible.

In Disk Utility I can see how many files and their total size are on the USB stick.

I've tried a Verify Disk and Repair Disk and an unmount and mount in Disk Utility. This didn't work.

Any ideas on how to access my files again?

Thanks
SB
(I do have a back up elsewhere but would like to see if I can carry on using this usb stick)

securityguy

shopbot wrote: »

I've tried a Verify Disk and Repair Disk and an unmount and mount in Disk Utility. This didn't work.

What error did it give? All Disk Utility is doing is running fsck_hfs with a variety of options, so if your stick is in a state where fsck can't recover it, you're probably out of luck. But it's very, very unusual in 2013 for the sudden offlining of a filesystem to get it into a state where fsck can't help.

shopbot

Thanks securityguy.

No error messages were given. The dialogue box just said disk checked and volume repair completed.

securityguy

shopbot wrote: »

Thanks securityguy.

No error messages were given. The dialogue box just said disk checked and volume repair completed.

Hmm. It's hard to think of circumstances when a filesystem would check OK, but then not mount. Have you tried putting the memory stick into another machine? I assume it's a FAT32 filesystem, so a Windows or Linux machine should mount it.

Mr_Toad

I've been a Mac user for nearly three years and I still do this occasionally, I blame the fact that I use Windows at work which never seems to complain if you do the same thing.

Apart from the snotogram you get for not doing it properly I've never had an issue like yours.

Was it perhaps still writing data when you pulled it out?

shopbot

Thanks..

securityguy - I'll power an old Windows PC and try it.

Mr_Toad - I've done it a few times on Windows with no issues.

SB

Mr_Toad

shopbot wrote: »

Thanks..

securityguy - I'll power an old Windows PC and try it.

Mr_Toad - I've done it a few times on Windows with no issues.

SB

Windows is a lot more tolerant, with OS X you have to eject it properly or you can get problems.