Issues since Catalina update

[rachael85]

I've been having all sorts of issues since updating to Catalina! I wish I could go back to Mojave but I'm not technical enough to know how to do it without losing my data

Anyway. Not long after updating to Catalina my 2012 MacBook Pro crashed on me and I had to recover it from a TM backup. I have a partitioned 2TB external hard drive that I use half for TM and half as a drag and drop. Since recovering my system I can no longer access the drag and drop partition, but the TM partition works fine. I have followed as many different processes as I can find on the internet about how to get it working again but unfortunately I have not been successful and I fear I have now lost what is on that side of the partition I just find it strange that the TM side still works so doesn't that show that the hard drive is not dead?

The other thing I'm having issues with since the update is Photos. When I plug in my SD card, it recognises the previously imported photos and so I ask it to just import the new photos, but it goes ahead an imports everything! I now have 1000s of duplicates. Anyone else have this problem or know how to fix it?

 

[Taz Mangus]

Sorry that you have had issues since installing Catalina. As far as your external drive, try running Disk Utility first aid on it and see what it reports.

Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac

If you have problems with your disk, use Disk Utility on your Mac to test and repair it.

support.apple.com

 

[rachael85]

Sorry that you have had issues since installing Catalina. As far as your external drive, try running Disk Utility first aid on it and see what it reports.

Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac

If you have problems with your disk, use Disk Utility on your Mac to test and repair it.

support.apple.com

Unfortunately I am unable to run first aid, it is greyed out in utilities. I can see both partitions, the TM partition is working but the other side is greyed out and unmountable. I have tried some commands in terminal (from google) but nothing seems to be working and I don't really know what I'm doing in terminal

 

[Taz Mangus]

In Disk Utility, select View->Show All Devices. Select the top physical device, for the external drive. Post a picture showing the information.

 

[rachael85]

In Disk Utility, select View->Show All Devices. Select the top physical device, for the external drive. Post a picture showing the information.

I'm just backing up to a new external hard drive at the moment so will post a picture of the troubled one once that's completed (may be tomorrow due to the size of the first back up).

 

[rachael85]

In Disk Utility, select View->Show All Devices. Select the top physical device, for the external drive. Post a picture showing the information.

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It was working fine until I recovered from a back up, then I noticed it was greyed out and not showing in finder. It says -- next to used but there is definitely data on there!

 

[Dominicanyor]

I would take it to the apple store and see what they're able to do. I really do not like to update my MacBook Air because you just don't know what might happened.

 

[Taz Mangus]

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It was working fine until I recovered from a back up, then I noticed it was greyed out and not showing in finder. It says -- next to used but there is definitely data on there!

What is reported when you cick on the First Aid button for Seagate Exapansion Disk Media?

What happens if you click on the Mount button for disk2s3?

It might be case that the only thing you could do now is select disk2s3 and click on the Erase button in Disk Utility.

 

[rachael85]

What is reported when you cick on the First Aid button for Seagate Exapansion Disk Media?

What happens if you click on the Mount button for disk2s3?

It might be case that the only thing you could do now is select disk2s3 and click on the Erase button in Disk Utility.

I'm at work now so I'll show you the screenshots of what happens to those questions when I get home tonight.

If it is dead (which is weird because the TM partition works!), is there a way to get the data off it?

 

[rachael85]

What is reported when you cick on the First Aid button for Seagate Exapansion Disk Media?

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What happens if you click on the Mount button for disk2s3?

 

[matram]

I think Disk Utility only checks "For TM Only". There is a command line version of "diskutil" which you can run in terminal. That will give you more information.

diskutil list - will list all disks
diskutil info <volume> - will list (a lot of) information for a single disk, maybe give that a try for "disk2s3"
diskutil verifyVolume <volume> - I believe you can specifically run a health check on "disk2s3"

 

[rachael85]

I think Disk Utility only checks "For TM Only". There is a command line version of "diskutil" which you can run in terminal. That will give you more information.

diskutil list - will list all disks
diskutil info <volume> - will list (a lot of) information for a single disk, maybe give that a try for "disk2s3"
diskutil verifyVolume <volume> - I believe you can specifically run a health check on "disk2s3"

I have tried this command (and many more). Unfortunately nothing works. I think I have lost the data. I think it used to be formatted as exfat but somehow it has changed to APFS (or so terminal says anyway). I have no idea how this happened. Obviously something happened when my computer died on me and I recovered it from my TM backup. I'm now in the process of seeing if I can recover any data from it but I fear I won't be able to.

 

[rachael85]

I'm now in the process of seeing if I can recover any data from it but I fear I won't be able to.

It's trying to recover everything not just the partition I've lost, but the TM partition too! Oh this is just too hard!

 

[matram]

I have tried this command (and many more). Unfortunately nothing works. I think I have lost the data. I think it used to be formatted as exfat but somehow it has changed to APFS (or so terminal says anyway). I have no idea how this happened. Obviously something happened when my computer died on me and I recovered it from my TM backup. I'm now in the process of seeing if I can recover any data from it but I fear I won't be able to.

If diskutil says that disk2s3 is APFS and volumeVerify run specifically on disk2s3 says the volume is OK it should be possible to mount. If not, it seems like a Catalina bug. Do you get the same error if you try to mount the disk at the command line. Normally if you cannot mount, the disk is NOK or formatted in a non-supported format.

You could possibly clone the disk to a file using the "dd" command, then erase and recreate the your volume. That would give you back your disk space with an image file that you could separately try to recover data from.

 

[rachael85]

If diskutil says that disk2s3 is APFS and volumeVerify run specifically on disk2s3 says the volume is OK it should be possible to mount. If not, it seems like a Catalina bug. Do you get the same error if you try to mount the disk at the command line. Normally if you cannot mount, the disk is NOK or formatted in a non-supported format.

You could possibly clone the disk to a file using the "dd" command, then erase and recreate the your volume. That would give you back your disk space with an image file that you could separately try to recover data from.

Off memory i don't think it verifies in terminal. But once I get home from work I'll run it again and post the results

 

[matram]

From "man diskutil" ...

verifyVolume device
Verify the file system data structures of a volume. The appropriate fsck program is executed and the
volume is attempted to be left mounted or unmounted as it was before the command. Any underlying
Storage System (e.g. Core Storage, APFS) is verified before the target volume itself. In certain
cases, "live" verify, including of the boot volume, is supported. Ownership of the disk to be veri-
fied is required.

 

[Taz Mangus]

NVM

 

[rachael85]

Off memory i don't think it verifies in terminal. But once I get home from work I'll run it again and post the results

diskutil verifyVolume /dev/disk3s3
Started file system verification on disk3s3
Error: -69564: Unable to find an APFS Container Reference

(note I have another external hard drive plugged in at the moment so disk3s3 is the correct disk number at the moment)

 

[richmlow]

Hello rachael85,


Is it an external drive which is not being recognized by macOS Catalina? If so, try the following (in this order):


1. Turn off your Mac. Then power up and turn it back on.

2. Once you get to the desktop, go to "About This Mac" and then click the "Storage" button.

3. If your external drive does not appear, then close that window.

4. Disconnect the cable (connecting your external drive) from the Mac.

5. Plug that cable back into the Mac.

6. Go to "About This Mac" and click the "Storage" button. Hopefully, your external drive will be recognized!


Good luck!


richmlow

I've been having all sorts of issues since updating to Catalina! I wish I could go back to Mojave but I'm not technical enough to know how to do it without losing my data

Anyway. Not long after updating to Catalina my 2012 MacBook Pro crashed on me and I had to recover it from a TM backup. I have a partitioned 2TB external hard drive that I use half for TM and half as a drag and drop. Since recovering my system I can no longer access the drag and drop partition, but the TM partition works fine. I have followed as many different processes as I can find on the internet about how to get it working again but unfortunately I have not been successful and I fear I have now lost what is on that side of the partition I just find it strange that the TM side still works so doesn't that show that the hard drive is not dead?

The other thing I'm having issues with since the update is Photos. When I plug in my SD card, it recognises the previously imported photos and so I ask it to just import the new photos, but it goes ahead an imports everything! I now have 1000s of duplicates. Anyone else have this problem or know how to fix it?

 

[rachael85]

Hello rachael85,


Is it an external drive which is not being recognized by macOS Catalina? If so, try the following (in this order):


1. Turn off your Mac. Then power up and turn it back on.

2. Once you get to the desktop, go to "About This Mac" and then click the "Storage" button.

3. If your external drive does not appear, then close that window.

4. Disconnect the cable (connecting your external drive) from the Mac.

5. Plug that cable back into the Mac.

6. Go to "About This Mac" and click the "Storage" button. Hopefully, your external drive will be recognized!


Good luck!


richmlow

Thanks for the suggestion but it definitely isn't as simple as this if you've read through the tread.... I wish it was!

 

[matram]

diskutil verifyVolume /dev/disk3s3
Started file system verification on disk3s3
Error: -69564: Unable to find an APFS Container Reference

(note I have another external hard drive plugged in at the moment so disk3s3 is the correct disk number at the moment)

I am by no means an expert, but ...

I believe it is possible to add a disk to an APFS container. The container here being ”Seagate expansion desk media”. Maybe backup the disk and then give that a try?