NTFS-formatted drive showing up as unreadable

[Benbikeman]

I have an NTFS-formatted drive from a Windows user. It's my understanding that OSX should be able to read from (but not write to) this format.

When I try to mount the drive, I get: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer."

When I run Disk Utility, select the disk and run Verify Disk, I get:
Verifying partition map for “WD Ext HDD 1021 Media”
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition’s size
Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
The partition map appears to be OK

When I then click on the (single) volume on the disk and do the same, I get:
Verifying volume “disk2s2”
Checking file systemChecking Journaled HFS Plus volume. <-- This bit suggests OSX thinks it's formatted as HSF+?
Invalid number of allocation blocks
The volume could not be verified completely.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.

When I run Repair Disk, I get:
Verify and Repair volume “disk2s2”
Checking file systemChecking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Invalid number of allocation blocks
The volume could not be verified completely.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

Any idea what the issue is and what to do about it? While it is a copy of data, not the original, it's 2Tb's of data from Spain, so not very easy to access any other way.

Ben

 

[Maverick513]

Have you backed up the data?
For this issue, maybe your external enclosure is at fault.

 

[Benbikeman]

The original data is fine, but it's 1300 miles away and rather too big for online transfer, hence the external drive.

It's always possible the drive or enclosure is faulty, of course, but as it was fine when the copy was done and was hand-carried, I suspect not.

 

[chrfr]

Disk Utility can't repair NTFS disks and it's ill-advised to try it, particularly on a disk that's already compromised. I'd try chkdsk on Windows first.

 

[Benbikeman]

Ok, thanks, I'll try to get the use of a Windows machine.