External Hard Drive shows in Disk Utility but cannot repair or verify

[AliCindahouse]

I have a WD external HD. When I plug it in, i get the error message: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.", with only the options to ignore or eject, NO OPTION TO INITIALIZE.

It doesn't show in desktop, but it does in Disk Utility. I have no options to verify or repair the disk.

I looked on many other threads and couldn't find one similar to this, where there is no option to initialize. I tried using Disk Warrior on a friend's computer, but the program couldn't even see the drive, unlike Disk Utility.

If anyone has any knowledge on how to fix this, or knows of a similar thread, i would be incredibly grateful for any help!

 

[KALLT]

Do you know what the partitioning scheme and the file-system format is? It appears that OS X does not recognise the format, hence no repair option.

 

[AliCindahouse]

I'm afraid I have no idea, it's only ever been used through OS X, partially as a time machine and partially as a means of transferring files

 

[KALLT]

Does Disk Utility show anything? Or the Terminal command:

diskutil list

 

[AliCindahouse]

Does Disk Utility show anything? Or the Terminal command:

diskutil list

The disk shows as you'd expect in the sidebar of disk utility only, once again with no options to run first aid or verify.

When using terminal, you see the following:

 

[KALLT]

I suspect the disk is corrupted. OS X does not even seem to recognise the partition scheme. I am not that familiar with these kinds of problems or potential solutions. I am pinging @Weaselboy.

 

[Weaselboy]

I have a WD external HD. When I plug it in, i get the error message: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.", with only the options to ignore or eject, NO OPTION TO INITIALIZE.

So you are still on Mavericks and did not change or upgrade anything that brought this on? What format was the disk in when you were using it before this happened.

Assuming you were just happily using the drive and this happened spontaneously, it does sound like a failed drive.

 

[AliCindahouse]

So you are still on Mavericks and did not change or upgrade anything that brought this on? What format was the disk in when you were using it before this happened.

Assuming you were just happily using the drive and this happened spontaneously, it does sound like a failed drive.

Sorry for the late reply, yeah it was a case of plugging it once and it worked, and the next time it didn't!

Coming to think of it, I may have still been on snow leopard the last time it worked correctly.