Bad decision to have apfs on hdd i know. The problem is after a mistake shutdown my 1tb WD denied to mount anymore. i use disk drill but with no success cause disk drill can't decrypt the disk. Disk utility denied to mount or repair and returns with error codes. Any help appreciated.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Encrypted Hard Disk with APFS problem(Solved)
- Thread starter Pskordilis
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well...
This is why I almost never use encryption on an external drive.
If something malfunctions on that drive -- as it seems to have happened on YOUR drive -- this will make it nearly impossible to recover any data from it.
If ... just "if"... the drive was NOT encrypted, at least disk drill or other data recovery software might have a chance at getting something from the disk.
But again, the encryption will probably block that.
Yes, that's what encryption is designed to do -- that is, make it difficult or impossible to get data from a drive -- but it's also why it's dangerous to have data on an encrypted drive, that is not also backed up elsewhere.
I don't know whether or not professional data recovery outfits can deal with encrypted drives. If they can, expect recovery to be VERY expensive (we're talking thousands of dollars).
APFS makes matters worse -- most data recovery apps can handle HFS+, but CANNOT deal with APFS, because Apple has not released all the specs for APFS (as it has for HFS+).
Do you have some of/any of the data that was on this drive in other places?
My guess is that the only way to make the drive functional again may be to erase it and "start fresh".
IF the drive was not encrypted,
and
IF it was formatted for HFS+ instead of APFS
then
You might still have a chance to recover data, even after erasing it.
That's because (with HFS+ and no encryption), the data WILL STILL BE THERE on the platter/sectors after a simple erase, because a quick erase "erases" ONLY the drive directory, and doesn't touch the data on the platters.
I actually used this technique to recover data from a bad partition once -- erased the drive to a single partition, used Data Rescue on it, and got the stuff I wanted back.
But again, APFS and encrypted?
My guess is -- you're not getting it back.
ONE LAST THING TO TRY:
Do this, in order:
1. Power down, all the way off
2. DISCONNECT the problem drive
3. REBOOT the Mac, get to the finder
4. RE-connect the drive
5. Now, just... WAIT. Give it 30 minutes or more.
WHY I'm suggesting this:
Sometimes the finder is able to repair a USB drive that got disconnected the wrong way, but it takes a little time.
NO PROMISES.
This is why I almost never use encryption on an external drive.
If something malfunctions on that drive -- as it seems to have happened on YOUR drive -- this will make it nearly impossible to recover any data from it.
If ... just "if"... the drive was NOT encrypted, at least disk drill or other data recovery software might have a chance at getting something from the disk.
But again, the encryption will probably block that.
Yes, that's what encryption is designed to do -- that is, make it difficult or impossible to get data from a drive -- but it's also why it's dangerous to have data on an encrypted drive, that is not also backed up elsewhere.
I don't know whether or not professional data recovery outfits can deal with encrypted drives. If they can, expect recovery to be VERY expensive (we're talking thousands of dollars).
APFS makes matters worse -- most data recovery apps can handle HFS+, but CANNOT deal with APFS, because Apple has not released all the specs for APFS (as it has for HFS+).
Do you have some of/any of the data that was on this drive in other places?
My guess is that the only way to make the drive functional again may be to erase it and "start fresh".
IF the drive was not encrypted,
and
IF it was formatted for HFS+ instead of APFS
then
You might still have a chance to recover data, even after erasing it.
That's because (with HFS+ and no encryption), the data WILL STILL BE THERE on the platter/sectors after a simple erase, because a quick erase "erases" ONLY the drive directory, and doesn't touch the data on the platters.
I actually used this technique to recover data from a bad partition once -- erased the drive to a single partition, used Data Rescue on it, and got the stuff I wanted back.
But again, APFS and encrypted?
My guess is -- you're not getting it back.
ONE LAST THING TO TRY:
Do this, in order:
1. Power down, all the way off
2. DISCONNECT the problem drive
3. REBOOT the Mac, get to the finder
4. RE-connect the drive
5. Now, just... WAIT. Give it 30 minutes or more.
WHY I'm suggesting this:
Sometimes the finder is able to repair a USB drive that got disconnected the wrong way, but it takes a little time.
NO PROMISES.
Yeah i know that is very difficult to recover the drive. I give a try for the tings you mention btw. I dont have backup for particular data on that drive cause was a temp drive for a project. Thanks for your reply.
Ask on the datarecovery subreddit. There are working pros on there and they don't seem to think disk drill is a good software.
Actually i'm very lucky. I try for days with disk drill and for my luck that program works like a charm!!! I back up my data now to another disk.
