External Hardisk does not appear on desktop

Question

My external disk no longer appears on the desk top when I reboot. I used Disk Utility to attempt to find and repair the disk. The Lacie disk appears in the list on the left. When I click Verify button, the following messages appear:
"Verifying volume “disk1s6”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume LaCie Disk needs to be repaired.
1 volume checked
0 HFS volumes verified
1 volume needs repair"
When I click the Repaair Disk button, I get:
"Repairing disk for “disk1s6”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
Repairing volume.
The volume LaCie Disk was repaired successfully.
Repair attempted on 2 volumes
1 HFS volume repaired
1 volume could not be repaired"
The disk still does not appear on the desktop even after rebooting again.
I have searched the posts and found some similar complaints. Most responders recommend using a 3rd party application like Disk Warrior (~$90). I am reluctant to spend for a remedy that may not actually help. Does anyone know a solution using freeware or command line operations?

Answer 1

DiskWarrior uses a special proprietary technique. It usually works. Even when it does not work 100%, it may restore the disk to a point where it can be mounted in "preview" mode to copy off critical data. There are no freeware apps, or UNIX commands, that replicate what it does.
Maybe try this... See if you can make a disk image of the volume or volumes with critical data. It may not mount to the Desktop, but maybe you can use Disk Utility to make a disk image and save it to your internal drive. If that works and the disk image mounts, at least you can access your critical data. Then you can reformat that external drive and restore from the disk image.