External HDD Fails to be Mounted

What can I do when an external HDD fails to be mounted? It's still spinning.

(My cat just landed on my computer desk) I mean this drive holds my entire 3000-song iTunes and my 2002-2007 iPhoto libraries. I was trying to deal with a difficult system problem and finally had to back up everything and reinstall OS X. Now that this 500GB drive alone has my iTunes and iPhoto libraries I must retrieve the data somehow. Personally invaluable assets. Otherwise I would just wipe the slate clean.

Similar Messages

Upgraded to Mavericks. Now External HDD Enclosure Won't Mount. Is there a fix?

Upgraded to Mavericks. Now I can't get my external HDD enclosure to mount. A little about this enclosure, as it's not the usual settup . I have four 3TB HDDs in a RAID5 settup. The most unique part is that they are formatted as a Windows NT Filesystem (Tuxera NTFS). Basically, when I set this up, I had to get a lot of info from a Windows-formatted HDD, but also be able to read/write afterwards. It's worked fine for ~ 1 year, but now that I've upgraded to Mavericks, nothing will mount. I ran Disk Utility, where I see the HDDs (I've partitioned them into four drives of varying sizes), but they are greyed out. I tried to mount them, but it says it won't and that I should run First Aid. So I did...tried to "Repair Disk," but it just gets stuck on "Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required." For over an hour it's been on that message.
So, does anybody out there have a fix? I've read several similar posts about people having a hard time mounting and, overall, dealing with external HDDs after upgrading to Mavericks. But nothing seemed to fit my exact circumstances. Lastly, I should mention that I've used both Firewire and USB connections. Both resulted in the same.
Thanks.

I can't help with specifics for your issue, but some general thoughts:
The upgrade and the disk problem may be a coincidence. It would help you if you could verify that the drive still works fine on a windows machine. If you run a windows virtual machine or have a windows pc, or a friend does, verify full functioning that way. If it still won't mount on the mac, try to copy/backup it's data onto the windows machine (maybe another external drive connected to it. You could then scrub the disk in windows, leave it unpartitioned, unformatted. Connect it back to the mac and format it as HFS+ (Mac extended journalled) and transfer the data back to it by sharing the windows machine external drive and connecting the two machines with a network cable.

[SOLVED] Booting Arch off USB HDD fails - can't mount real root device

I've installed Arch on the internal HDD (sda) of my laptop, and I attempted to install a second copy of Arch on partition sdb3 of an external USB HDD. sdb3 is a primary partition that I had prepared beforehand with gparted and outfitted with the reiserfs filesystem. I skipped section 3.2 (manually prepare hard drives) of the Arch installer. There was no problem with section 3.3 (manually configure filesystems and mountpoints); I put all of / in sdb3. Installing packages and configuring the system also went without a hitch.
I wanted to boot this new install of Arch via the boot menu of GRUB that was installed in the MBR of sda with my primary install of Arch. On the new install, I first did go through section 7 (install bootloader), thinking I would want to install GRUB in the root sector of partition sdb3 (not in the MBR of sdb where the GRUB of MintKDE resides, a boot menu that I want to keep) but that failed, so I then picked "no bootloader to be installed". With that I exited the new install, since it appeared to have gone to completion.
I then copied the appropriate stanza in the /boot/grub/menu.lst of this new Arch install to the /boot/grub/menu.lst of my primary Arch install on the internal HDD of my laptop.
This stanza reads as follows:
# (3) Arch Linux on WDPP60 blue (sdb3)
title Arch Linux on WDPP60 blue (sdb3)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/191cc027-43ce-443b-8846-f265d60555ec ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
However, I'm not able to boot the new Arch install when I pick this entry from the GRUB menu list. The new install starts booting, finds sda but not sdb and stops with the following errors, dropping me to a recovery shell:
Root device /dev/disk/by-uuid... doesn't exist. Attempting to create it.
ERROR: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid...'
mounting /dev/disk/by-uuid... on /new_root failed: No such file ...
ERROR: Failed to mount the real root device.
Running "mount -t reiserfs /dev/sdb3 /new_root" at the ramfs prompt also fails.
I've tried a number of edits of the menu.lst stanza from the grub> command prompt, such as adding rootfstype=reiserfs, replacing root=/dev/disk/by-uuid..etc. with root=/dev/sdb3 (booting then fails with "/dev/sdb3 No such file"), using "initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img" etc., but booting always fails at the same stage with equivalent error messages.
I have no trouble booting half a dozen other Linux/BSD distros that reside on two different external USB HDD's by the same method, i.e. choosing an entry from the GRUB boot menu of my primary Arch install, after I placed the appropriate stanza in its /boot/grub/menu.lst.
How can I get this new Arch install to boot?
Last edited by RobF (2010-05-17 23:03:27)

Yes, this was in fact the solution. I stumbled upon it in this thread:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=65844
When one wants to boot from a USB mass storage device, the initrd needs to include the modules for accessing USB devices, and in Arch this is accomplished by adding "usb" to the HOOKS array. I simply reinstalled Arch to the USB HDD and in the system configuration step now edited /etc/mkinitcpio.conf by adding the "usb" item. Adding "rootdelay=10" and/or "rootfstype=reiserfs" to the kernel line in the appropriate stanza in Arch's /boot/grub/menu.lst wasn't necessary in this case. I left the stanza exactly as I posted it above.
Thanks for your input.

Mirrored backup on external HDD fails

Hi all,
We have attached a HSB drive to server. When we backup on local drive and USB drive at the same time (mirrored backup) the following error is returned:
Executed as user: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. The mirror device "G:\New_Backups\Automation\Automation_2014-09-03.bak" and the mirror device "I:\New_Backups\Automation\Automation_2014-09-03.bak" have different device specifications. [SQLSTATE
42000] (Error 3212) BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally. [SQLSTATE 42000] (Error 3013). The step failed.
What's wrong with my SQL Server?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Leila

Hi Leila,
Mirroring applies both to disk and tape (disks do not support continuation tapes). As in earlier versions of SQL
Server, all backup devices for a single backup or restore operation must be of the same type, disk or tape. Within these broader classes, you must use
similar devices that have the same properties. Insufficiently similar devices generate an error message (3212).
To avoid the risk of a device mismatch, use devices that are equivalent, such as, only drives with the same model
number from the same manufacturer.
For more details, please go through the below URL:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645601(v=sql.105).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175053(v=sql.110).aspx

Help please: iOmega external HDD not mounting

Hello,
I hope someone can help me 1) solve this problem and 2) give me some tips on how to avoid if it was self induced.
My iOmega external HDD won't automatically mount. It does not display in Disk Profiler. In System Profiler I can see an unknown Firewire device which I believe is it. It has data on it currently so I'd prefer not to have to format it! I tried searching some other threads but they tend to be very specific.
Thanks!

Hi, za_. Is this a bus-powered portable USB2 drive? If so, it probably demands a little more power than the port it's connected to can provide. In that case, the problem can be resolved by supplying power to it from (a) an auxiliary power cable that draws additional power from your Powerbook's second USB port, or (b) its own AC adapter, if it came with one, or if one is available as an option for it. If the drive enclosure has no port on it for an auxiliary power input, then (c) you'll have to interpose an AC-powered USB hub between the computer and the drive. Option A is the best, because it isn't bulky and preserves the portability of the drive. Option C is the worst, because it's the bulkiest of the three.
If your drive isn't a 2.5" portable unit, please supply exact details about what model it is and how it's powered, and we'll see about other explanations for the problem.

[SOLVED] External HDD not mounting at boot

So, I've got this USB external HDD which won't mount at boot time. I set it in /etc/fstab using its UUID and it works immediately after boot if I do
sudo mount -a
I had it before on a different machine, running Arch too, and never had this problem. How can I see what's going on at boot time? I usualy just start the computer remotely (wake on lan).
Last edited by RaisedFist (2010-10-21 11:22:46)

Couldn't it be caused by the external HDD not being ready yet when the system boot? Nowadays I rarely encounter these issues, but some years ago even certain internally connected drive would need a delay to get ready for boot. If so settings in BIOS has to be adjusted.
Just a quick guess.

Restoring an external hdd?

I use TM+AEBSn to backup an external hdd connected to my MBP. If that external hdd fails and I buy a new one, how do I go about restoring it through TM on the new external hdd? Is it as easy as Entering Time Machine, selecting all relevant files and folders from the external hdd and clicking Restore? Or do I just have to find the drive icon itself and click Restore?

superspiffy wrote:
I use TM+AEBSn to backup an external hdd connected to my MBP. If that external hdd fails and I buy a new one, how do I go about restoring it through TM on the new external hdd? Is it as easy as Entering Time Machine, selecting all relevant files and folders from the external hdd and clicking Restore? Or do I just have to find the drive icon itself and click Restore?
I'm a bit confused. You are asking about Restoring your Time Machine backup. If your TM backup fails, there is nothing left of your backup. If you get a new external HDD, you need to start a new TM backup.

Mac won't mount external HDD since 10.8.4 update

Hi All
I'm fairly new to Mac (3mths) so still finding my feet...hopefully someone is able to help me here!
Hardware:
MBP 2.7Ghz running (now) Os 10.8.4
WD HD5000D032-000 (the old drive)
3TB WD Red (the new drive)
Solutions tried to the problem (described in detail below):
- restart Mac
- restart eHDD
- different USB and power cables for eHH
- different Mac(mini)
- removed eHDD from stock housing and used SATA docking station
- bought new HDD and used with SATA docking station
Now to the detail of my problems:
I've had a WD 500GB external HDD for about 8yrs. Formatted FAT32. Used with PC/Win laptop no issues.
Switched to Mac and no issues at all. However after a recent trip to Japan I plugged in the HDD to back up all the photos and vids I'd taken (I took my Mac with me to download off the the various SD cards,etc), the HDD plugged in and booted fine as normal and file transfer was initiated. The folder was large (don't recall how much but a few GB at least). Everything seemed to be progressing fine so left both Mac and HDD plugged in and carried on watching tv. Noticed a few mins later that an error message had popped up saying disk could not be found (or something similar).
HDD was no longer visible. Therefore I unplugged and reconnected and.... nothing. I can see the HDD in Disk Utility but it's not mounted. Options to verify/repair disk are greyed out. At this point I tried using different cables and USB ports and still no improvement. I've also tried restarting both Mac and HDD.
A few hours of reading forum posts suggested the HDD housing may be the culprit as it was quite old and prone to failing. As I'd tried all else, I went out and bought a SATA docking station and removed the HDD from its stock housing. This yielded the same results - I can see the HDD clearly in Disk utility but can't mount or verify/repair.
I then tried plugging into mate's Macmini running and older Osx and this time, the verify/repair options are available. Tried them and result was disk could not be repaired by Disk Utility. I still couldn't mount the drive and access any files though.
I had been planning on setting up a NAS anyway so ordered a new 3TB eHDD (WD Red) which arrived yesterday. I plugged it in using the docking station ni order to format it to FAT32 so that I could at least download my data from my Mac (and then subsequently look to recover all the data from the old eHDD) but the option 'MS-DOS File System' isn't available in the drop down in Disk Utility/Erase.
All the steup guides on formatting HDDs using Mac suggest that I should have this option in order to format as FAT32. All I see are 3 types of 'MS-DOS (extended)' and 'exFAT'.
The twist:
All this time I just assumed that it was the hardware acting up but the fact that the new HDD isn't recognised properly either made me wonder. I remember updating the OS to 10.8.4 whilst I was away in Japan and connected to wifi. I presumed that any update that was pushed down to me was good to go - could I be wrong??
I've also noticed that my wifi sometimes takes a while to connect / disconnects by itself and skype repeatedly drops calls. From more reading around, I see that these are some issues people have experienced since updating to 10.8.4.
So could my HDD issues be being caused by 10.8. 4 as well?!
I'm out of ideas so now wondering whether I should try and roll back the 10.8.4 update but I've not idea whether this is safe/easy to do, etc...
Any help would be VERY much appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!
Vig

Duplicate post. Answered here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1614533

[Solved]Can't mount external hdd at boot!

Hi!
I'm trying to mount my new external hdd (Lacie USB2) at boot, but without success.
To avoid random device name (sdx, sdy), I would like to use UUID in my fstab file.
I've read this wiki.
I think my configuration is ok, but there's an error at boot saying "Device with UUID xxxxxxxx doesn't exist, can't mount it", or something like that.
Here are some commands:
[eko@nodrom ~]$ fdisk -l
Disque /dev/sdb: 500.1 Go, 500107862016 octets
255 têtes, 63 secteurs/piste, 60801 cylindres
Unités = cylindres de 16065 * 512 = 8225280 octets
Périphérique Amorce Début Fin Blocs Id Système
/dev/sdb1 * 1 60801 488384001 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
[eko@nodrom ~]$ /bin/ls -lF /dev/disk/by-uuid/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 jui 26 13:06 1da8b247-2a03-4a00-817c-d4da8df63488 -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 jui 26 13:06 485e9b10-fce5-4cbd-b23a-81f232d23bc5 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 jui 26 13:06 6853-5BA9 -> ../../sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 jui 26 13:06 8aa3ce4c-5e2a-48c8-b3c3-38d02b4c0e68 -> ../../sda3
And my fstab file:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd udf ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
/dev/sda1 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 home ext3 defaults 0 1
#Disque dur externe
UUID=6853-5BA9 /media/hdd vfat rw,user,auto,exec,gid=100,uid=1000,umask=002,iocharset=utf8,codepage=850,shortname=mixed 0 0
Could someone help me?
Thanks in advance!
Last edited by vomix (2007-08-09 17:56:28)

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
But even with /dev/disk/by-uuid/6853-5BA9 in my fstab file, it fails to automount it.
It says "Special device with UUID=6853-5BA9 does not exist".
The weird thing is that I can mount it manually without problems.
(In fact, that's not true, I've the same problem than steven. May it be a kernel-related problem?)
Or maybe there's a fault in the rest of my fstab line? (iocharset, guid, etc?)
In the case of a kernel related bug, how could I downgrade it?
I've tried with "pacman -U kernel26-2.6.21.6-1.pkg.tar.gz" in /var/cache/pacman/pkg but it broke my xorg server at reboot.

Disk Utility Failing to Repair External HDD

I was in the midst of running a Time Machine backup from my MBA (2012, running Mavericks) to an external HDD when I moved the laptop and managed to knock the cord out of the HDD, causing it to disconnect abruptly (the drive pulled away from the plug and hit the floor). Since then, I have been unable to to access the HDD at all, although the drive itself seems to be working, insofar as the light still comes on and the disc is spinning.
The HDD isn't visible in Finder. I can sporadically see it in Disk Utility - sometimes I plug it in and see nothing, sometimes it appears in Disk Utility after an extended period of time. It won't mount through Disk Utility, however I have managed to eject it a few times.
I have tried both verifying and repairing the HDD when it is visible; all attempts have ended in an error stating that I needed to backup the files and restore the drive. I've tried a number of tools to clone the drive, including Disk Utility itself, Carbon Cloner and a few others, but all have resulted in errors.
Is there any way I can salvage the data on the HDD? There are a few files on there I really don't want to lose...

Remove the drive mechanism from the enclosure and install it in another one.

External HDD won't mount at boot. [Solved]

Edit:
I've noticed that this is an issue regarding my NTFS partition being on an external drive. Please check post #8 by me to get further details.
Hello guys, I'm having some problems getting my external NTFS HDD to mount automatically at boot. I have installed HAL and NTFS-3G, but I'm still getting problems. Mounting once the computer has finished booting is no problem using the simple mount command (sudo mount /media/pebble). I see no reason why this should be having problems mounting at boot with my fstab entry, but no errors occur when mounting manually.
Fstab entry:
/dev/sdc1 /media/pebble ntfs-3g fmask=022 1 0
rc.conf:
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
# LOCALIZATION
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime"
# USEDIRECTISA: use direct I/O requests instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="America/Vancouver"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"
# HARDWARE
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(fuse)
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"
# NETWORKING
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
HOSTNAME="r3-desktop-arch"
# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
# - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
# - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# DHCP: Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
#eth0="dhcp"
eth0="eth0 192.168.0.23 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
INTERFACES=(eth0)
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
# - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(gateway)
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up. These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
# - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
# This now requires the netcfg package
#NETWORKS=(main)
# DAEMONS
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
# - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
# - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond dbus hal alsa)
Do I need to load HAL earlier? What am I doing wrong?
Last edited by ryeguy146 (2009-11-05 10:04:32)

I just noticed something, I don't think that this is an issue with the partition being NTFS, but rather with it being on an external hard drive (/dev/sdc). I say this because I just rebooted and noticed another NTFS partition that I have in my fstab is mounting (/dev/sda5). It's an internal HDD, and I didn't notice that it mounted up because I rarely use it. But there it is.
I suppose that I should define /dev/sdc. It is a Western Digital External HDD running off of a USB 2.0 cable. I don't know why this makes a difference, but it apparently does. Both entries in the fstab are identical for their respective devices and mount points.
Now that we have that figured out, I think that I'll change the title of the thread. So any ideas on how to solve this one?

Just bought a mac air with OS X v.10.7 Lion, for work I need to read and write NTFS drives, I install MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but it can not mount (recognize?) External HDD, in my MBP with Snow Lepard it work just perfectly... help please.

Just bought a mac air with OS X v.10.7 Lion, for work I need to read and write NTFS drives, I install MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but it can not mount (recognize?) External HDD, in my MBP with Snow lepard it work just perfectly... help please.

Reinstall MacFuse with the one from http://www.tuxera.com/mac/macfuse-core-10.5-2.1.9.dmg. If that doesn't work, you can use Paragon NTFS for Mac 9.0 which has been designed to work with Lion.

Just bought a mac air with OS X v.10.7 Lion, for work I need to read and write NTFS drives, I install MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but it can not mount (recognize?) External HDD, in my MBP with Lion it work just perfectly... help please.

Just bought a mac air with OS X v.10.7 Lion, for work I need to read and write NTFS drives, I install MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but it can not mount (recognize?) External HDD, in my MBP with Lion it work just perfectly... help please.

Sorry in my MBP Snow lepard it work.. don't have Lion In MBP

Mounting partition and external hdds in xmonad

Hi all,
Recently i ditched DE in favor of tiling windows( XMonad in particular) and now I want to know which is the best file manager for it.
I have thunar installed but it doesn't automatically mount my external hard disks and my partitions.
I am able to do so only if I run
dbus-launch thunar
some one in irc suggested that doing that is not a good way.
So I want to know filemanager that mounts external hdd and partitions automatically.
Thanks,
Abhinav
Last edited by pyarch (2014-08-27 01:42:36)

Stebalien wrote:
pyarch wrote:
Stebalien wrote:You don't need a filemanager for that. Personally, I use udiskie however, if you want to use thunar as your filemanager, you can start thunar-volman at login to automount drives.
I have udiskie installed but it doesn't do anything am i missing something ?
Did you start it? If you did, you should see an icon in your tray/notification icon area (if you have one) and it should automount external disks when you plug them in.
start as in ?
systemctl start udisks2

Mount not working with external HDD

So basically my External HDD is not mounting and i have tried using disk utility..... please help getting me to mount it please without reformating

Why did you start a new thread for the same question?
Your disk is dead and unless you pay for professional recovery help (which may not work) your data is gone.

External HDD Fails to be Mounted

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