Mavericks corrupts external hard drives!

[DewGuy1999]

It has to be Apples fault. When I first bought 2013 pro i had no external and it worked amazingly, then I added a WD to it and laptop got CRAZY. So crazy no one could fix it so they traded it for free. Then the new one was working just fine... until i added an external... this time a seagate. Laptop went CRAZY about a week and half later. So crazy apple could not figure out what was wrong so they had to let me trade it in for ANOTHER one. WTF. Now this laptop "was" free of all problems until..... I added an external... its gone crazy. I have info all over, seems like theres a bug , distorted images, unsaved data, garbage collector sux, so many problems that apple can't figure out whats gone wrong AGAIN. so i headed tomorrow to trade it in for a NEW MACBOOK. any suggestions on an external that might work this time? thnx

What you're describing is not a corrupt external hard drive but sounds more like your internal hard drive is becoming corrupt or damaged or something.

 

[GSPice]

Not sure if this is associated, but I've had issues with my 2TB Passport Pro Thunderbolt edition:

Background:

Apr. 15: New out of the box, configured drive as RAID 0 on my sig machine (10.9.2).

Apr. 15: Transferred 400+GB file to the drive, 300+MB/s transfer rate. Unplugged drive until..

Apr. 21: Connected drive, not using it, but within minutes receive the "don't eject drives without dismounting" error. Worried, thought "did it go to sleep and dismount on it's own?"

Reconnected, no problem. Within another several minutes, same thing. Could not reconnect/mount this time. Looked at WD Drive Config utility, and says that the drive 2 stripe failed. Nice. Had passed all diagnostic tests before.

Erased both drives with Mac's disk utility, and used the WD Drive Config utility to setup as RAID 0 again.

Restored lost data via Time Machine (epic win)

Apr. 23: Worked for a few hours in FCP, backed up everything before going to bed.

Apr. 24: Opened notebook to find drive had dismounted from stripe failure again. Created RMA with Western Digital.

Western Digital says I'll get a replacement drive within 3-5 business days. At this point, if I set this one up and get another failure within the 3-year warranty period, my confidence with this drive will be a bit shaken.

 

[cool11]

So, 8 months with the problem and still counting...
No intention of solution, what do you think?
We should lose data first, after all these failures, and then altogether hunt Apple for the catastrophe.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Reminds me of the 10.3 Firewire issue.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

 

[CosmoFox]

It's up to WD to update their drivers. Sorry to say, but you upgrade at your own risk.

 

[cool11]

You tell that, in osx of 2014, we need 'drivers' for using a hard disk?
And manufacturers should make 'compatible' drivers?

Are we talking about osx of 2014 or microsoft windows of 1990?

 

[DewGuy1999]

You tell that, in osx of 2014, we need 'drivers' for using a hard disk?
And manufacturers should make 'compatible' drivers?

Are we talking about osx of 2014 or microsoft windows of 1990?

As far as WD is concerned my understanding is that it's not a driver problem but a problem with WD's software and it's interaction with Mavericks, therefore WD needs to update the software.

 

[dmccloud]

You tell that, in osx of 2014, we need 'drivers' for using a hard disk?
And manufacturers should make 'compatible' drivers?

Are we talking about osx of 2014 or microsoft windows of 1990?

All OSes use drivers - they may call them a different name, but they serve the exact same function. Look at all of the linux distros floating around, and you'll find drivers on those OSes as well.

 

[CosmoFox]

As far as WD is concerned my understanding is that it's not a driver problem but a problem with WD's software and it's interaction with Mavericks, therefore WD needs to update the software.

most likely a firmware update.

 

[bobr1952]

As far as WD is concerned my understanding is that it's not a driver problem but a problem with WD's software and it's interaction with Mavericks, therefore WD needs to update the software.

It really does point to a software problem with WD--not firmware, and not Mavericks. Personally, I don't use external drive software and have never had an issue with any of the WD drives I own. I think the reason this discussion gets muddled is drives fail for other reasons--but get piled into the discussions about WD software problems.

 

[DewGuy1999]

It really does point to a software problem with WD--not firmware, and not Mavericks. Personally, I don't use external drive software and have never had an issue with any of the WD drives I own. I think the reason this discussion gets muddled is drives fail for other reasons--but get piled into the discussions about WD software problems.

Also from what I understand is the some of the people who have had this problem with WD were using a variety of MyBook that is a RAID and apparently to set it up as a RAID you have to use WD's software (it can't be done with OS X's Disk Utility), so these people didn't have a choice to not use it.

 

[cool11]

My external hard disk is a seagate. No raid, no special software.

 

[chrfr]

My external hard disk is a seagate. No raid, no special software.

Have you contacted Seagate about this? The buggy Western Digital software discussed in most of this thread is an entirely different problem.
Searching the internet for "seagate disconnect mac" returns lots of results that predate Mavericks and also includes several results from Windows users, which leads me to think this is a Seagate problem.

 

[cool11]

Have you contacted Seagate about this? The buggy Western Digital software discussed in most of this thread is an entirely different problem.
Searching the internet for "seagate disconnect mac" returns lots of results that predate Mavericks and also includes several results from Windows users, which leads me to think this is a Seagate problem.

This disk, the same disk, was connected through usb 2 port/and hub, with my previous mac, with mavericks and mountain lion too. No problem with this configuration.
So, why telling it is a hard disk problem?

I guess there are problems with usb3 connections.

 

[chrfr]

This disk, the same disk, was connected through usb 2 port/and hub, with my previous mac, with mavericks and mountain lion too. No problem with this configuration.
So, why telling it is a hard disk problem?

I guess there are problems with usb3 connections.

Ok, so you yourself have confirmed it's not a Mavericks problem. Yes, if you search around on the internet you will see that Windows users too have issues with Seagate disks disconnecting when connected by USB 3.0.

 

[cool11]

Is there any chance, 'paragon ntfs' to have any relation with these disconnections?

 

[B74A]

Oh no, me too

This happened to me also, and I found this thread describing it (but too late).

Let me explain my "details"

Drive is an external USB 3TB USB3.0, "WD My Book Essential". It must be a few years old now, not sure how to see when it's from.

Formatted from the beginning with HFS Journaled (unencrypted), and I never used encryption (apart from sparse bundles on the disk, but those are just files anyway, not file system). I didn't install any WD files, unless they installed by themselves (they shouldn't be able to in Mac)

Yes, I have Maverick, 10.9.2 it says.

Just recently, I got this drive out as I needed to free some space on my MBP Retina (the one with Mavericks). It suddenly became quite slow, and when I investigated, I found I ran out of space on the external (yes, 3TB all full).

No wonder it was slow, my fault.

I did manage to delete some files, the drive cam back to life and I deleted some more, then finished using it and put it away (after having moved/sorted/deleted a lot of duplicate and now obsolete files)

-

So I went to get a bigger drive, a new one, and behold, a nearly similar drive was the best option, so I got myself a "WD My Book", this time not called Essential or anything else.

Oh, had I only known, now I have TWO of these drives, the new one not even used yet. Is it worth using for anything related to data, or maybe just as a book shelf holder?

I used it once since then, and all seemed normal - until today.



Anyway, as of today, these are the symptoms:

I connect it, it shows in Finder, but when I click it, nothing comes up. Finder eventually HANGS, needs a restart, then takes ages to start, if at all. I cannot disconnect the drive, not even with terminal and FORCE. I made multiple attempts with DiskUtility "Repair", and an older version of StellarPhoenix (v3.5) didn't run properly, not in OSX 10.9.2 anyway. DiskUtility ends up almost every time with something about it cannot repair a drive in use (well, I DO want to unmount it, but I can't, so?)

So I mounted it on my older MBP (2008 vintage), sporting OSX 10.X (before Mavericks, I cannot see it right now, as even THAT hangs!). Finder won't restart, and Mac won't restart - might need a "hard" one here, ok here goes, hold down the power button.

OK, after hard shutdown now of the 2008 MBP, let's see what happens.

Until hanging, StellarPhoenix V3.5 on the 2008 MBP managed to run, it eventually stalled at "Reading sector 11196680 of 1565499392". "Stop Scanning" warned me it couldn't resume then, I clicked "YES", and the progress pattern went away - but it didn't stop scanning. When I tried to stop StellarPhoenix, it told me to stop scanning first - which I did, many times!

Drive still couldn't eject, Finder (in Mac OSX 10.7.5, now that it is up and running again) was not responding, so I forced quit it. Finder wouldn't restart, even after many minutes. Apple Logo was there, so I chose restart, got the spinning wheel for many minutes, finally gave up and held down the power button).

So what next?

Waiting for StellarPhoenix to come up with an offer to upgrade from v3.5 to v6.0 - maybe that will help?

In my case, the 3TB is a collection of previous many smaller drives, anything from 60GB to 500GB or so (2 1/2 USB powered externals). I should be able to get a lot of it back from these smaller drives, so I am not so unfortunate as many of the rest of you. I hope!

I do, however, believe I better open those old drives on my 2008 MBP, and copy from there to a new drive. Is it Mavericks, or is it WD - or both?

Are there any reliable and affordable external storage solutions, in the order of a few TB? I don't care if it's USB or Thunderbolt, except with Thunderbolt I would need a converter for my MBP2008 (or does it even work at all?)

In 2008, I went Windows to Mac, and had many years of almost trouble free use. This scenario now reminds me of the old Windows days, where tweaking, recovering, rebooting and reading threads like these was a regular "pasttime"

 

[300DDR]

B74A,
Sounds like your drive has bad sectors and/or a firmware problem. There is likely no software application that will help in this case. If you want to try to recover this drive on your own (which will put your data in some risk), your best trying something like DDrescue to see if it's even possible to clone the drive first. But, this drive is encrypted by default from WD (with "Smartware" and you can't turn it off), so you'll have to decrypt the data somehow after making the clone (so you need to image the bad drive to a SATA drive with DDrescue and then use the original PCB from the enclosure to decrypt the data).
Good luck!
-Brian

 

[B74A]

After I ran StellarPhoenix v3.5 on my MBP2008, it seems it cannot even be mounted now, neither on that, or my 2013 MBP Retina (with .. Maverick!)

It's getting worse and worse.

Totally unacceptable, like another user wrote, it's like a fire burnt down your house and all is gone.

Yes, I have backups but this WAS my backup! So I need to gather all the small disks I have, where only some of it is stored.

----------

B74A,
Sounds like your drive has bad sectors and/or a firmware problem. There is likely no software application that will help in this case. If you want to try to recover this drive on your own (which will put your data in some risk), your best trying something like DDrescue to see if it's even possible to clone the drive first. But, this drive is encrypted by default from WD (with "Smartware" and you can't turn it off), so you'll have to decrypt the data somehow after making the clone (so you need to image the bad drive to a SATA drive with DDrescue and then use the original PCB from the enclosure to decrypt the data).
Good luck!
-Brian

Thanks, Brian, but I cannot even mount it now, so how could I make a clone?

StellarPhonix (v6.0 now), shows a perpetual "Refreshing Drive List".

 

[B74A]

I took some screen shots during the process, in case anyone is looking for more information:

From my MBP 2008 with OSX 10.7.5, StellarPhoenix v3.5 (older version, which I registered and paid for)

From here on, StellarPhoenix v6.0:

 

[B74A]

Is anyone aware of any professional data recovery specialists, who actually managed to successfully recover one of these particular drives entirely?

Ironically, I had just bought yet another MyBook 3TB, to copy the files over to, just in case. Seems I was just one step too late for that.

So now I have two bookshelf placeholders ... a two years old and a brand new "My Book".

"My Bookshelf Book Holder"

 

[B74A]

Back to XP!

I am now back to my ~2005 Dell, which has MacDrive8 on it - a program for Windows XP which allows reading AND writing to HFS+ drives.

Soon after I connect the drive, MacDrive comes up with a warning that something is wrong on that drive:

Mac volume may be damaged

WD3TB (G: ) was not safely disconnected when last used. Files on this volume may contain errors. (Close)

If I click on the G: drive (the WD) in Explorer, finder hangs and cannot even be killed from CTRL-ALT-DEL. Reboot, try again.

This time, NOT clicking on G: in Explorer, but opening MacDrive 8.

In MacDrive8 there is "Format or repair Mac disks", which I have started now.

It is verifying the drive, currently "Checking Catalog file" ... it is moving slowly, the light on the WD is flashing and it is now up to 3 blue bars (out of estimated 30?)

If this really works, it will be quite something. Stellar Phoenix Disk Mac Data Recovery v6.0 cannot even reach the disk now. Disk Util doesn't do anything useful either (I have lots of more screen shots of all kinds of error messages). Even WDs own update firmware doesn't move beyond the Scanning .... screen (It detects the drive - it seems - as it goes to the disclaimer, then looks for drive to update the firmware).

The NEW WD I have is oddly the same type of disk. First one is made in Thailand, second one in Malaysia, but despite them being purchased like 2 years or more apart, they are both WDBACW0030-HBK (old one adds -00, new one ads -04 to the previous number).

So I ran the firmware update on the NEW disk, and it worked in the second or third attempt (lost track). The first time it "couldn't resolve host" or something, but eventually ... it worked.

Now I'm thinking ... if the MacDrive thingy doesn't work, then I am tempted to pry both WD boxes open and swap the old drive into the new enclosure.

Any thoughts on all this?

Sorry for the long write, just want to make sure others can follow me here.

To reiterate:

• I never installed any of the WD software on the disk (only now, I used the firmware updater, post-crash)
  
• I didn't update the firmware until now (new unit), never in the old unit (ca 2011-12)
  
• I don't use any RAID or other fancy stuff, not even backup: I just copy excess files over. Ah, that is - I think I have made a Time Capsule backup long time ago to this drive - possibly.
  
• I have had Maverick for a while. Don't use this drive often, and this is the third or fourth time since Maverick that I used it.
  
• When I plugged it in this time, I didn't start to use it until maybe 15 or 20 minutes after I plugged it in. Could it be something with the power-down feature?
  
• I can no longer dismount the drive, not even with terminal

Please add if you have questions, suggestions, solutions or other (constructive) comments.

 

[chrfr]

Any thoughts on all this?

Putting the disk in another enclosure might help, but this all looks like your disk has failed. This is typical behavior of a disk with bad sectors and it happens with any operating system.

 

[B74A]

Putting the disk in another enclosure might help, but this all looks like your disk has failed. This is typical behavior of a disk with bad sectors and it happens with any operating system.

I think you might be right, chrfr. I think I might not be bound by these problems mentioned, as I never had the WD software installed, and never used RAID.

And one more thing I can add is that apart from clicking "unmount", I should have pressed the power button on the back, before pulling the plug.

I have now run the MacDrive8 / MacDrive Disk Manager verify twice, until 11 out of 30 blocks, then it stalls. No messages at all, but there is no more progress on the progress bar, and the white LED on the WD changes from quick flashes to solid. It stopped at 11 of 30 "blocks" at both runs, and this time I timed it: 43 minutes.

 

[B74A]

The saga continues: Hope it's not too boring.

Stellar Phoenix Recovery for Windows (v6.0 I think), running on my XP, can scan the entire disk without interruption, it takes a little over 30 minutes I think. After it is done scanning, it says

Not a valid volume, or critical data structure of volume badly corrupt.

Upon exiting, I get the option of an advanced scan. Did that, takes about the same time, same outcome.

From Windows, I was able to install and run the firwware updater successfully (I couldn't do that on my Mac for the old drive, only the new one). So now both my WD drives, the ~2011/12 unit, as well as the new one, both have the latest firmware.

Same **** though, still doesn't work, and DiskUtility says

Error: Some information was unavailable during an internal lookup

even after multiple attempts.

I hope this is of some use to some.

At least you can try a Windows access, if you have the possibility, if all else fails.