Can anyone explain this weird Disk Utility behavior?

So, I spilled coffee on a 1TB g-tech hard drive. i immediate turned it off, having heard that that is the first thing to do when getting electronics wet.

i checked and it looked like, in the end, it didn't really get splashed. so i wiped up the little that was on it and plugged it back in.

it didn't mount. i went into disk utility. i tried to mount it and it said to run first aid. i did and it seemed stuck making boot divisions (i think i have that term right.) so i force quit disk utility.

i turned it on again and it told me it couldnt mount it, that i should save what i can and reformat. i then hit repair disk and it was repairing it. again it seemed stuck. i forget what term it was on. i hit stop repair and it stopped. no force quit. and then it was fine. it was mounted. it was working.

can someone explain this? also, let me know what not to do in the future. i feel like i dodged a bullet here. and, yes, i will now never put coffee near my hard drive....

im runnign mac os 10.6.8 and Disk Utility 11.5.2