I have a complex setup that uses both Mac computers (2) and Windows computers (2); external drives, a NAS, a pseudo NAS (a USB drive connected to an Apple Air Port) and such.

The other day, one of my main external disks, an IOMEGA UltraMax Pro (1.5 TB configured as a RAID 1) died. As we all know RAID 1 is supposed to be good - it basically copies all the data to two disks at the same time. Thus should one drive fail, you still have a good copy of your very important data on the other drive.

But how does one get the good data off the unresponsive device, you ask. Well, herein lies our tale today.

After spending much time talking (both via chat and phone) to IOMEGA tech support it was decided that my disk subsystem was, as they say, toast. So I told the technician, that I had some very, very important data on the device and I would very much like to get it off before I sent the unit back for last rights and replacement.

Well, it turns out that they have no "official" answer - humm, so I asked what are the technical specifications of the box. Two SATA drives, came the response.

So, I pondered, could I take out the drives, and somehow connect them to my computer (Mac or Windows) via magic and have a chance of getting my data?, I asked the technician.

Might work, was the response.

I just happened to be the proud owner, for some time, of a USB to SATA/IDE Combi Adapter - yup, it worked! I connected both disks up to the adapter (one at a time) and I was able to make a backup image of my data before sending the box back for repair.

The moral of the story - always have a current backup of important data, mine was 30-days stale, and always have a little magic available in case the unexpected happens.

Happy computing