Short story - two Macbook Pro's with data apparently not recoverable, one WD 3Tb external drive that holds my Time Machine backups ejecting itself automatically when trying to restore.
Long story - probably best if I describe the events leading up to this so I do not ramble on too much going back and forth, so:
The equipment concerned with these events:
MacBook Pro 2013 15in non retina non solid state drive - two partitions, Macintosh HD and an image boot running Maverics
MacBook Pro 2009 17 in - no partitions running Mountain Lion
Western Digital My Book Essential 3Tb - reformatted into three partions, two time machine backups, one for the 15 in MB Pro, one for an iMac and the last partition is an archive for stuff off my computer. Plugged into a Apple Display that is plugged into my computer via USB and DV ports
Kensington DT101 G2 8GB USB drive, occasionally connected via a 4 port USB hub (hey, there are only two USB ports that are really close together on the laptop, rendering one nearly impossible to use, but I digress...)
Five days ago I noticed that a 'Disk was not Ejected Properly' warning would flash up on my screen when using the 13 in MacBook I initially thought this was due to the hub being knocked and losing connection, so would re seat the usb and think nothing else of it.
Two days ago the 13 in MacBook began to run slowly, the response time between clicking a file in finder and it selecting it was infuriating. I began to close most of my applications as I run quite a few at the same time to see if this sped things up. I finally go so frustrated with waiting for the apps to shut down that I forced the computer off with the power button.
Upon restarting it would make post, but then the little spinning kernel thing would persist for more than twenty minutes. I forced it off again and restarted to the same effect. I restarted in safe mode and a progress bar would appear under the kernel icon momentarily and then the machine would shut down. I restarted in verbose mode and the last lines before it shut down again were:
** Checking catalog file,
disk0s2: I/) error,
** The volume Mackintosh HD could not be verified completely
I then gave it to our IT tech to look at, thinking that the HDD was faulty.
I retrieved my 2009 MacBook from under the desk that I had removed most of my file from to use in the interim, plugged it into a Seagate external drive that held it's time machine backup to reinstate my Thunderbird mail and proceeded to use this. I found a file that I wanted to transfer on this laptop so used the Kensignton USB. I removed several files off it in order to make space an emptied the trash. Time Machine indicated that it could not locate the backup disk, so I re pointed it to the Seagate and though nothing of it. In the morning this machine was suffering the same problems as the other machine, it had gone to sleep, I was unable to wake it so shut it down and it not restart again. I took this one over for the IT tech to look at to and outlined my suspicions as to a possible virus or unmount all command. This has now been re imaged as a blank machine and appears to be working.
Thinking that hey, I have been vigilant and backed up my stuff regularly and there would be no problems restoring it... We set about migrating my files from the WD backup onto an iMac, left it running and returned to find the Disk not Ejected Properly dialog box sitting over the migration box. It had managed to migrate some of my files, but not all of them (we did not select Applications). A second attempt renders the same result, but the WD drive appears to eject quicker than it initially did.
Back to the 13 in MacBook, this could only be booted in the image-boot partition, the Macintosh HD partition does not show as being a bootable option. Disk Utility finds nothing wrong with the HDD, and shows the Macintosh HD partition as unmounted and you cannot mount it. Disk Warrior finds and increasing amount of errors that it is unable to correct on the Macintosh HD partition but is unable to repair them. The Macintosh HD partition is not accessible in Target Disk Mode.
Attempted to transfer the backup and archive files of the WD drive, but it now ejects in two minutes of mounting. Attempted to run Disk Utility on this drive but it still gets ejected.
Can anyone shed any light on this matter?
Starting to panic just a little bit now...
Long story - probably best if I describe the events leading up to this so I do not ramble on too much going back and forth, so:
The equipment concerned with these events:
MacBook Pro 2013 15in non retina non solid state drive - two partitions, Macintosh HD and an image boot running Maverics
MacBook Pro 2009 17 in - no partitions running Mountain Lion
Western Digital My Book Essential 3Tb - reformatted into three partions, two time machine backups, one for the 15 in MB Pro, one for an iMac and the last partition is an archive for stuff off my computer. Plugged into a Apple Display that is plugged into my computer via USB and DV ports
Kensington DT101 G2 8GB USB drive, occasionally connected via a 4 port USB hub (hey, there are only two USB ports that are really close together on the laptop, rendering one nearly impossible to use, but I digress...)
Five days ago I noticed that a 'Disk was not Ejected Properly' warning would flash up on my screen when using the 13 in MacBook I initially thought this was due to the hub being knocked and losing connection, so would re seat the usb and think nothing else of it.
Two days ago the 13 in MacBook began to run slowly, the response time between clicking a file in finder and it selecting it was infuriating. I began to close most of my applications as I run quite a few at the same time to see if this sped things up. I finally go so frustrated with waiting for the apps to shut down that I forced the computer off with the power button.
Upon restarting it would make post, but then the little spinning kernel thing would persist for more than twenty minutes. I forced it off again and restarted to the same effect. I restarted in safe mode and a progress bar would appear under the kernel icon momentarily and then the machine would shut down. I restarted in verbose mode and the last lines before it shut down again were:
** Checking catalog file,
disk0s2: I/) error,
** The volume Mackintosh HD could not be verified completely
I then gave it to our IT tech to look at, thinking that the HDD was faulty.
I retrieved my 2009 MacBook from under the desk that I had removed most of my file from to use in the interim, plugged it into a Seagate external drive that held it's time machine backup to reinstate my Thunderbird mail and proceeded to use this. I found a file that I wanted to transfer on this laptop so used the Kensignton USB. I removed several files off it in order to make space an emptied the trash. Time Machine indicated that it could not locate the backup disk, so I re pointed it to the Seagate and though nothing of it. In the morning this machine was suffering the same problems as the other machine, it had gone to sleep, I was unable to wake it so shut it down and it not restart again. I took this one over for the IT tech to look at to and outlined my suspicions as to a possible virus or unmount all command. This has now been re imaged as a blank machine and appears to be working.
Thinking that hey, I have been vigilant and backed up my stuff regularly and there would be no problems restoring it... We set about migrating my files from the WD backup onto an iMac, left it running and returned to find the Disk not Ejected Properly dialog box sitting over the migration box. It had managed to migrate some of my files, but not all of them (we did not select Applications). A second attempt renders the same result, but the WD drive appears to eject quicker than it initially did.
Back to the 13 in MacBook, this could only be booted in the image-boot partition, the Macintosh HD partition does not show as being a bootable option. Disk Utility finds nothing wrong with the HDD, and shows the Macintosh HD partition as unmounted and you cannot mount it. Disk Warrior finds and increasing amount of errors that it is unable to correct on the Macintosh HD partition but is unable to repair them. The Macintosh HD partition is not accessible in Target Disk Mode.
Attempted to transfer the backup and archive files of the WD drive, but it now ejects in two minutes of mounting. Attempted to run Disk Utility on this drive but it still gets ejected.
Can anyone shed any light on this matter?
Starting to panic just a little bit now...
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