Yesterday I accidentally pulled out the plug to my external HDD (My Passport Air) while it was still ejecting. I thought it was finished but it wasn't. A few hours later I plugged it in again and it seemed to be working fine. This morning I plugged it in and now it's not mounting on my Mac. It shows up in Disc Utility and Time Machine still recognizes it but I can't access any of the data on the drive because it doesn't show up in Finder or the Desktop anymore. I know I did something to cause this when I pulled out the cord too early, but I don't know what my options are now to fix this. I'd prefer to save the data obviously, but even just getting the drive functioning again would be nice.
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Think I broke my external HDD. Anything I can do?
- Thread starter coldjeanzzz
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Just Reset Your Pram without the drive plugged in. Then upon the final boot plug the drive back into your Mac.
Didn't seem to do anything
$120 for the app? Yikes! I could just buy a new external drive for that considering I'm not really that concerned about the files that were on my current one.
DriveDX may be of some help. Normally $25 but now on sale for $20.
Pro-Tip: Buy from the developer website, not from the App Store.
The DEV version is the same price but has some extra features...
http://binaryfruit.com/drivedx/usb-drive-support
IF you prefer to install the special USB Disk Drive DRIVER yourself, you may just get the DriveDX app from the app store, and get the special DRIVER for free, separately.
Pro-Tip: Buy from the developer website, not from the App Store.
The DEV version is the same price but has some extra features...
http://binaryfruit.com/drivedx/usb-drive-support
IF you prefer to install the special USB Disk Drive DRIVER yourself, you may just get the DriveDX app from the app store, and get the special DRIVER for free, separately.
Based on the description given the 'damage' may be a software issue and not necessarily a hardware one. If this is the case a repair with Disk Utiliy may do the trick, other wise Disk Warrior, or Drive Genius or Tech Tool Pro may help to diagnose or fix other things.
Reformatting is the easiest path.
Reformatting is the easiest path.
This is what I would do. Chances are, very little if any damage was caused to the drive itself, just the data on the disk got corrupted.
One question though OP in Disk Utility, it'll have drives listed such as:
250 GB WD Hard Drive
My Passport
Is that how the drive is mounted? Or is mounted like:
250 GB WD Hard Drive
disk2s1
If it is the latter, the disk is corrupt and needs to be reformatted. If the partition on the drive (in my example the "My Passport" line) is grayed out, click on it then click "Mount" in Disk Utility. It should then mount in the Finder. If it doesn't, it's corrupt.
Check out DRIVEDX diagnostic app . . .
. . .
Bought DriveDX just yesterday... Normally $25 but now on sale for $20.
Very, very impressive. Well worth $20 that I paid.
DriveDX.app will tell you a lot about your device hardware and disks. Far, far more details than Apple shows you in Sys Info... or Disk Utility.
Didn't seem to do anything
$120 for the app? Yikes! I could just buy a new external drive for that considering I'm not really that concerned about the files that were on my current one.
. . .
Bought DriveDX just yesterday... Normally $25 but now on sale for $20.
Very, very impressive. Well worth $20 that I paid.
DriveDX.app will tell you a lot about your device hardware and disks. Far, far more details than Apple shows you in Sys Info... or Disk Utility.
This is what it shows
If I try to mount it it just says can't mounted. So yeah I'm assuming it's corrupt.
Hah strangely enough it just mounted automatically. I had a feeling if I left it plugged in long enough that it might somehow detect it and sure enough it did after about 30 minutes. Hopefully it doesn't bug out again!
OP wrote above:
[[ Hah strangely enough it just mounted automatically. I had a feeling if I left it plugged in long enough that it might somehow detect it and sure enough it did after about 30 minutes. Hopefully it doesn't bug out again! ]]
I've seen similar behavior from USB drives.
What seems to work sometimes -- never guaranteed -- is a routine that goes like this:
1. Shut down - power everything ALL THE WAY OFF
2. Disconnect USB drive
3. Reboot Mac
4. Connect USB drive
5. Wait...
6. There is a -possible- chance that the finder and OS X will "work behind the scenes" to repair the problems with the drive, and then mount it on the desktop. MAY TAKE SOME TIME.
Not sure exactly what's going on here.
Back in the days of SCSI, Apple's old HDSC Setup utility had the option to "write a new driver" to the drive. Very useful.
But I have never seen anything associated with USB drives that gives the user the opportunity to re-install the basic disk drivers to the drive itself.
I sense that when a USB drive is dis-mounted "unexpectedly" (insofar as the OS is concerned), something (not sure what) is either corrupted or left in an "unreadable state" that prevents the drive from easily re-mounting after re-connection.
This isn't to say that the drive is left in an un-REPAIRABLE state -- but rather, that what is needed to repair (a new driver?) isn't obvious. Nor is it readily provided for by Apple's Disk Utility -- at least in any way where DU actually tells the user what is being repaired.
I would like to see DU have the added option to "reinstall basic disk drivers" for attached storage (perhaps it already tries to do this, but is not telling us that it's doing so).
My thoughts only, further discussion welcome....
[[ Hah strangely enough it just mounted automatically. I had a feeling if I left it plugged in long enough that it might somehow detect it and sure enough it did after about 30 minutes. Hopefully it doesn't bug out again! ]]
I've seen similar behavior from USB drives.
What seems to work sometimes -- never guaranteed -- is a routine that goes like this:
1. Shut down - power everything ALL THE WAY OFF
2. Disconnect USB drive
3. Reboot Mac
4. Connect USB drive
5. Wait...
6. There is a -possible- chance that the finder and OS X will "work behind the scenes" to repair the problems with the drive, and then mount it on the desktop. MAY TAKE SOME TIME.
Not sure exactly what's going on here.
Back in the days of SCSI, Apple's old HDSC Setup utility had the option to "write a new driver" to the drive. Very useful.
But I have never seen anything associated with USB drives that gives the user the opportunity to re-install the basic disk drivers to the drive itself.
I sense that when a USB drive is dis-mounted "unexpectedly" (insofar as the OS is concerned), something (not sure what) is either corrupted or left in an "unreadable state" that prevents the drive from easily re-mounting after re-connection.
This isn't to say that the drive is left in an un-REPAIRABLE state -- but rather, that what is needed to repair (a new driver?) isn't obvious. Nor is it readily provided for by Apple's Disk Utility -- at least in any way where DU actually tells the user what is being repaired.
I would like to see DU have the added option to "reinstall basic disk drivers" for attached storage (perhaps it already tries to do this, but is not telling us that it's doing so).
My thoughts only, further discussion welcome....