Optibay HDD suddenly won't mount

[CrimsonStrider]

My optibay's HDD has suddenly become unreadable/mountable. Nothing physical happened, I was using it one moment, switched to bootcamp for a few minutes to use internet banking then back to OSX only to see message about the HDD being unreadable.

In Disk Utility, I'm unable to mount it. Verify Disk says there's an error and asks me to click Repair, which also says there's an error and asks me to reformat.

It's a new drive, 1tb WD Blue.

Any way to recover my data? No backups, been waiting on some extra cash to get a back up drive.

 

[mrapplegate]

My optibay's HDD has suddenly become unreadable/mountable. Nothing physical happened, I was using it one moment, switched to bootcamp for a few minutes to use internet banking then back to OSX only to see message about the HDD being unreadable.

In Disk Utility, I'm unable to mount it. Verify Disk says there's an error and asks me to click Repair, which also says there's an error and asks me to reformat.

It's a new drive, 1tb WD Blue.

Any way to recover my data? No backups, been waiting on some extra cash to get a back up drive.

You might want to try DiskWarrior4. It might help. Also look in Console for a more specific error message.

 

[CrimsonStrider]

Would it perform differently from techtools?

I have techtools and it doesn't even see the hdd.

Where would I check in console?

cleared screen and did "verify disk" and this was the only msg

1/16/13 2:34:52.237 PM _softwareupdate[1120]: audit warning: soft /var/audit
1/16/13 2:34:52.237 PM _softwareupdate[1119]: audit warning: allsoft
1/16/13 2:34:52.241 PM _softwareupdate[1122]: audit warning: closefile /var/audit/20130116063418.20130116063452

 

[mrapplegate]

I'm not sure I've never used tech tools.
Look in system log in console.
Disk warrior is really good. Expensive but $99 might be worth it for your data.

 

[CrimsonStrider]

This is what I get from console when I do verify disk/repair while it's running. If I do "search string" with the disk name nothing. Anyway this is what I get

1/16/13 10:28:20.026 PM _securityagent[1733]: audit warning: closefile /var/audit/20130116142748.20130116142819
1/16/13 10:28:20.027 PM _securityagent[1734]: audit warning: allsoft
1/16/13 10:28:20.029 PM _securityagent[1735]: audit warning: soft /var/audit


Also Disk Warrior didn't help ;_; says "Unknown Disk's directory cannot be rebuilt."

 

[mrapplegate]

Email their tech support they are really good. They might be able to help. They like a challenge.
Those console entries don't have anything to do with your disk.

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Excuse my stupidity. I was not at my Mac. Disk utility has it's own log in console. Disk utility.log. Find it on the left hand side.

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The log output should look like this:
**********
2013-01-16 09:37:07 -0500: Disk Utility started.

2013-01-16 09:37:17 -0500: Repairing permissions for “Untitled”
2013-01-16 09:38:55 -0500: Group differs on “Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist”; should be 80; group is 0.
2013-01-16 09:38:55 -0500: Repaired “Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist”
2013-01-16 09:42:01 -0500: Group differs on “private/var/db/GPURestartReporter”; should be 0; group is 80.
2013-01-16 09:42:01 -0500: Permissions differ on “private/var/db/GPURestartReporter”; should be drwxr-xr-x ; they are drwxrwxr-x .
2013-01-16 09:42:01 -0500: Repaired “private/var/db/GPURestartReporter”
2013-01-16 09:42:07 -0500:
2013-01-16 09:42:07 -0500: Permissions repair complete
2013-01-16 09:42:07 -0500:
2013-01-16 09:42:07 -0500:

 

[CrimsonStrider]

Hello, I'll give that a try.

THis is the console log


===== Wednesday, January 16, 2013 11:25:22 PM China Standard Time =====
2013-01-16 23:25:27 +0800: Verifying partition map for “WDC WD10JPVT”
2013-01-16 23:25:27 +0800: Starting verification tool:
2013-01-16 23:25:27 +0800: Checking prerequisites
2013-01-16 23:25:28 +0800: Checking the partition list
2013-01-16 23:25:28 +0800: Checking for an EFI system partition
2013-01-16 23:25:28 +0800: Checking the EFI system partition’s size
2013-01-16 23:25:28 +0800: Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
2013-01-16 23:25:28 +0800: Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
2013-01-16 23:25:28 +0800: Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
2013-01-16 23:25:28 +0800: The partition map appears to be OK
2013-01-16 23:25:28 +0800:
2013-01-16 23:25:28 +0800:

2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Verifying and repairing partition map for “WDC WD10JPVT”
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Starting repair tool:
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Checking prerequisites
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Checking the partition list
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Adjusting partition map to fit whole disk as required
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Checking for an EFI system partition
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Checking the EFI system partition’s size
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Reviewing boot support loaders
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: Updating Windows boot.ini files as required
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800: The partition map appears to be OK
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800:
2013-01-16 23:25:34 +0800:

2013-01-16 23:25:40 +0800: Verifying volume “disk1s2”
2013-01-16 23:25:40 +0800: Starting verification tool:
2013-01-16 23:25:41 +0800: Checking file system2013-01-16 23:25:41 +0800: ** /dev/disk1s2
2013-01-16 23:25:41 +0800: Invalid sector size: 0
2013-01-16 23:25:41 +0800: Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.2013-01-16 23:25:41 +0800:
2013-01-16 23:25:41 +0800: Disk Utility stopped verifying “disk1s2”: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
2013-01-16 23:25:41 +0800:

2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800: Verify and Repair volume “disk1s2”
2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800: Starting repair tool:
2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800: Checking file system2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800: ** /dev/disk1s2
2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800: Invalid sector size: 0
2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800: Volume repair complete.2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800: Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800:
2013-01-16 23:25:45 +0800: Disk Utility stopped repairing “disk1s2”: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
2013-01-16 23:25:46 +0800:

 

[mrapplegate]

Hmm. Invalid sector size: 0 looks like a problem, unfortunately I am not sure how to fix. Email tech support and hope they can help. I have heard they will work with people who have disks that their software can't fix.
Sorry I can't be more helpful.

 

[CrimsonStrider]

Thank you very much for the help, I managed to fix it. I'll write the process here in case any one else comes across the same thing. I found help here from Neo_Amiga's post.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4154638?start=0&tstart=0

I was using exFAT so that files could be shared easily between OSX and Win7. I used "fsck_exfat -d disk0s4" in terminal and the end result was "Permission Denied".

I then tried "sudo fsck_exfat -d disk0s4" and it went through all my files. At the end it asked to "update main boot regions" to which I typed "yes"

From there I was able to go into Disk Utility and Verify the Volume then Repair and now everything is working again.

Now from that one topic it seems like some others are having problems with exFAT, yet I've seen people recommend it here over over file systems for ease of use. What to do?

 

[nbotti]

Hi CrimsonStrider,

thanks a lot i was looking for a solution for hours !

I had the same problem than you. I just bought a new macbook pro with montain lion, installed a SSD and put the HD in an optibay. I used Exfat because it seemed a more suitable solution as i have also windows 7 on my computer.

But it suddenly wasn't here anymore on mac os X and windows 7. Nothing worked.

I could'nt do anything in the terminal (using fsck_exfat) because each time he said "Permission Denied". And then I did what you said :

"I then tried "sudo fsck_exfat -d disk0s4" and it went through all my files. At the end it asked to "update main boot regions" to which I typed "yes"

And it works too !!!

Great. I'm going to copy the files and get rid of ExFat !

Thanks a lot for your post