Disk Mounting Error with 8TB SSD

[Boneheadxan]

Hey guys,

I recently bought a Samsung 8TB QVO drive for hosting sound design and sample libraries for my audio work. The drive had been working fine for the past couple of weeks on my 16" M1 Max running Monterey.

Unfortunately, the drive just won't mount anymore. It shows as greyed out in Disk Utility. I can't seem to run first-aid on it. I get this error,
Checking file system and repairing if necessary and if possible.
Volume is already unmounted.
Performing fsck_hfs -fy -x /dev/rdisk4s2
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Invalid B-tree node size
The volume could not be verified completely.
File system check exit code is 8.
Restoring the original state found as unmounted.
File system verify or repair failed. : (-69845)

Operation failed…

When I try to mount it, I get an error saying "com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error 49244"

This seems to be a fairly common issue when I searched for it and more prevalent on the newer OS. None of the fixes worked for me because I had the drive formatted to APFS.

The problem for me surfaced when I ran out of ports to connect the SSD directly to the Mac and ended up using one of my USB hubs and one of the USB-C to USB-A cable from my T5 SSD. This has happened twice over the last 2 days and I just spent the entire day transferring about 5TB of data from my slower drives. The first time, the issue popped up when I tried running a Blackmagic Speedtest on the drive to check whether the hub was running at 10Gbps or 5Gbps. I did eject the drive properly, but how can connecting to a USB Hub screw up the drive? I usually connect my other T5 SSDs to this very same hub. Is it some sort of power delivery issue? My 5TB WD Passport doesn't spin up using this hub.

Not sure what is causing the issue here, but I would like to avoid the issue or find a solution for it. Anyone had a similar error (com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error 49244) in the past and managed to fix it?

TLDR: Samsung SSD drive becomes unmountable after connecting to a USB Hub giving this error: com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error 49244

 

[chabig]

I don't know what's going on. It seems that your drive is corrupted and likely all the data on it is lost. But you did say a few conflicting things, so let's clarify. You should format the SSD as APFS, which works better on SSDs and is less prone to corruption. You had the SSD formatted as HFS+ Journaled, according to your error report.

Did the Samsung drive come with any Samsung software? If it did, trash that right away and reformat the SSD as one large APFS Container. I think you'll be fine after that, though it is possible that the hub doesn't provide enough power. It's also possible that your enclosure isn't well. Does your enclosure have a dedicated power input?

 

[Boneheadxan]

I don't know what's going on. It seems that your drive is corrupted and likely all the data on it is lost. But you did say a few conflicting things, so let's clarify. You should format the SSD as APFS, which works better on SSDs and is less prone to corruption. You had the SSD formatted as HFS+ Journaled, according to your error report.

Did the Samsung drive come with any Samsung software? If it did, trash that right away and reformat the SSD as one large APFS Container. I think you'll be fine after that, though it is possible that the hub doesn't provide enough power. It's also possible that your enclosure isn't well. Does your enclosure have a dedicated power input?

The drive seems to be fine. I formatted it before using it.

This happened two times over the last 2 days, so the first time I originally had it formatted as APFS. The failure happened and when none of the options worked, I reformatted as macOS extended journaled (there were some threads mentioning APFS could be the issue). It then failed again today morning and I reformatted and am currently transferring the data back. Both times it happened a few seconds after connecting to the hub.

The drive is in a 2.5" enclosure with no power supply and functions perfectly fine when directly connected to the Mac. Most of the people with similar errors mention accidentally disconnecting without ejecting as the reason. So, I think it might have something to do with power disruption. My 7-port USB Hub has a power supply, but I usually use it without it for most the gear or T5 SSD I connect to it.

 

[HDFan]

Both times it happened a few seconds after connecting to the hub.

If you can connect it directly to your Mac does the problem occur if you aren't accessing it via the hub?

 

[kemo]

Try to connect it to anything older than Monterey... like Big Sur, it should work without problems. I have been having pretty much same issues with my LaCie Mobile SSD where on Monterey the drive seems like dead, however on Big Sur it works flawlessly.

EDIT: See following thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/monterey-cannot-erase-external-ssd.2321713/

 

[chabig]

Since it works when connected to your Mac but fails when connected to your unpowered hub, you have to think that power is the problem. Power your hub and all should be well.

 

[Boneheadxan]

Try to connect it to anything older than Monterey... like Big Sur, it should work without problems. I have been having pretty much same issues with my LaCie Mobile SSD where on Monterey the drive seems like dead, however on Big Sur it works flawlessly.

EDIT: See following thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/monterey-cannot-erase-external-ssd.2321713/

I did try connecting it to laptops on Mojave and Catalina and both still showed as greyed out. First Aid also didn't seem to work.

If you can connect it directly to your Mac does the problem occur if you aren't accessing it via the hub?

It works perfectly fine when connected directly to the Mac and I had been using it for the past few weeks without issues. Also, when transferring the data (about 6TB), it takes about a day, the drive is stable throughout.

I'm guessing it's a power disruption from the hub when trying to read/write data which puts it in this state. Most similar issues seem to mention wrongly ejecting the drive. It's strange, I haven't this issue on any other drive/ssd and I often pull the T5's out without ejecting (obviously when it's not writing/reading data).

 

[chabig]

I often pull the T5's out without ejecting

Stop doing that. You're only inviting trouble.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I often pull the T5's out without ejecting (obviously when it's not writing/reading data)."

As chabig mentions, DON'T do this.
It's a fast track to losing all the data on the drive.

 

[collin_]

Yeah pulling it out without ejecting really shouldn't cause any problems as long as it's not doing something like writing data or maybe rebuilding SLC cache but I still wouldn't do it.

 

[Boneheadxan]

Yeah, I generally don't do this to spinning hard-drives, but with the small Samsung SSD's, I'd always accidentally end up disconnecting the laptop while they were plugged into the Caldigit hub at the studio.

Going to be a lot more careful now. 2 days of transferring data was a pain.