Trying to get my external WD drive to mount

[AnnabethM]

It just stopped mounting all of a sudden a week ago. I bought a new, heavier cable. That didn't work. Been watching several videos on how to maybe fix it. Didn't work. Started reading some forums and finally made a little progress. Here's my process:

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Brians-MBP-2:~ brians$ diskutil list


/dev/disk0 (internal):


#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER


0: GUID_partition_scheme 121.3 GB disk0


1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1


2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 121.0 GB disk0s2





/dev/disk1 (synthesized):


#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER


0: APFS Container Scheme - +121.0 GB disk1


Physical Store disk0s2


1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 60.5 GB disk1s1


2: APFS Volume Preboot 22.5 MB disk1s2


3: APFS Volume Recovery 515.1 MB disk1s3


4: APFS Volume VM 3.2 GB disk1s4





/dev/disk2 (external, physical):


#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER


0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2


1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1


2: Apple_HFS External Drive 999.8 GB disk2s2





Brians-MBP-2:~ brians$



Brians-MBP-2:~ brians$ diskutil info disk2


Device Identifier: disk2


Device Node: /dev/disk2


Whole: Yes


Part of Whole: disk2


Device / Media Name: My Passport 25E3





Volume Name: Not applicable (no file system)


Mounted: Not applicable (no file system)


File System: None





Content (IOContent): GUID_partition_scheme


OS Can Be Installed: No


Media Type: Generic


Protocol: USB


SMART Status: Not Supported





Disk Size: 1.0 TB (1000170586112 Bytes) (exactly 1953458176 512-Byte-Units)


Device Block Size: 512 Bytes





Read-Only Media: No


Read-Only Volume: Not applicable (no file system)





Device Location: External


Removable Media: Fixed





Virtual: No





Brians-MBP-2:~ brians$ sudo diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk2


Password:


One or more volume(s) failed to mount

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But for the first time in days, the icon for my hard drive appeared on the desktop. It just says "EFI" and none of the data are there. The disk utility shows WD My Passport with External Drive grayed out underneath it. Tried clicking mount on External Drive. Nothing happened. It appears the icon on my desktop is disk 2s1. But disk 2s2 is probably where all the data are. Any suggestions?

 

[brianmowrey]

Is there meant to be any data on the drive?

It just looks like the most recent format failed and there's no "disk" to mount because the drive (aside from the EFI volume) lacks a file system, which would be eating up the better part of a GB if it were in place.

If there was no data, just reformat the disk. Viola, all fixed. But if there was data that you need to recover, you will want to let Disk Drill or another 3rd party app have a go before you do anything...

 

[AnnabethM]

Thank you for the response. Yes, there is data on it that I need (probably close to 500 gigs). Based on what you see above, will Disk Drill be able to get the data off and transferred to a new drive? I've never heard of Disk Drill, but will try anything at this point.

 

[brianmowrey]

You will definitely want to research recommendations on a recovery app to try to retrieve the files yourself, or take it to a shop that you trust. Disk Drill can "look around" before you are forced to upgrade to the paid version, to kind of give you an idea how much it can recover, for what that's worth...

 

[Fishrrman]

WD "consumer level" drives aren't known for long-term reliability. Some work for a long time, but others... don't.

I would try the suggestion to use Disk Drill to "take a look" at the drive to see if there are salvageable files on it.

Be aware that there are professional data recovery outfits that can work magic getting data from bad drives, but also that their sorcery doesn't come cheap -- could run into THOUSANDS of dollars.

Lesson to learn going forth:
Never, never NEVER trust important data that you care about to ONLY ONE DRIVE. That is NOT ENOUGH. The data has to be on TWO drives, preferably THREE, before it can be considered modestly "safe".