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ExTra-
Well, the cable's fine, but in removing the drive and trying repeated repairs on it, the file structure came back to life.
That appears to have been the problem, Google reports, and multiple attempts at running whatever recovery process Disk Utility does can sometimes rebuild it enough to allow backup. So I'm backing it up for him, except a few files which have corrupted, then will format and reinstall, and recommend he buys a backup drive.
mattioats
Ah, very interesting. Wasn't sure whether extracting it would help, but will give it a go.
Thanks.