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coldjeanzzz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 4, 2012
655
17
Yesterday I accidentally pulled out the plug to my external HDD (My Passport Air) while it was still ejecting. I thought it was finished but it wasn't. A few hours later I plugged it in again and it seemed to be working fine. This morning I plugged it in and now it's not mounting on my Mac. It shows up in Disc Utility and Time Machine still recognizes it but I can't access any of the data on the drive because it doesn't show up in Finder or the Desktop anymore. I know I did something to cause this when I pulled out the cord too early, but I don't know what my options are now to fix this. I'd prefer to save the data obviously, but even just getting the drive functioning again would be nice.
 

GeoFan49

macrumors member
DriveDX may be of some help. Normally $25 but now on sale for $20.

Pro-Tip: Buy from the developer website, not from the App Store.

The DEV version is the same price but has some extra features...

http://binaryfruit.com/drivedx/usb-drive-support

Mac OS X does not support diagnosing external drives using S.M.A.R.T. technology “out of the box” . In order to allow your Mac to diagnose external drives, you will need to install a special third party driver. Please note that this is a requirement of Mac OS X, and not DriveDx.

The non-AppStore version of DriveDx includes this driver. Users who purchase the App Store version need to download and install the driver by themselves (drivers are not permitted by the Mac App Store rules). See instructions for the App Store users bellow .

Despite that some modern external USB/FireWire drive enclosures correctly send S.M.A.R.T. data over those interfaces, this technology is named SAT (SCSI / ATA Translation), – unfortunately Mac OS X doesn’t support this feature out of the box .

IF you prefer to install the special USB Disk Drive DRIVER yourself, you may just get the DriveDX app from the app store, and get the special DRIVER for free, separately.
 

McGiord

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2003
4,558
290
Dark Castle
Based on the description given the 'damage' may be a software issue and not necessarily a hardware one. If this is the case a repair with Disk Utiliy may do the trick, other wise Disk Warrior, or Drive Genius or Tech Tool Pro may help to diagnose or fix other things.
Reformatting is the easiest path.
 

iamMacPerson

macrumors 68040
Jun 12, 2011
3,488
1,927
AZ/10.0.1.1
Well, then just reformat the drive.

This is what I would do. Chances are, very little if any damage was caused to the drive itself, just the data on the disk got corrupted.

One question though OP in Disk Utility, it'll have drives listed such as:

250 GB WD Hard Drive
My Passport​

Is that how the drive is mounted? Or is mounted like:

250 GB WD Hard Drive
disk2s1​

If it is the latter, the disk is corrupt and needs to be reformatted. If the partition on the drive (in my example the "My Passport" line) is grayed out, click on it then click "Mount" in Disk Utility. It should then mount in the Finder. If it doesn't, it's corrupt.
 

GeoFan49

macrumors member
Check out DRIVEDX diagnostic app . . .

Didn't seem to do anything :(


$120 for the app? Yikes! I could just buy a new external drive for that considering I'm not really that concerned about the files that were on my current one.

. . .

Bought DriveDX just yesterday... Normally $25 but now on sale for $20.

Very, very impressive. Well worth $20 that I paid.

DriveDX.app will tell you a lot about your device hardware and disks. Far, far more details than Apple shows you in Sys Info... or Disk Utility.
 

coldjeanzzz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 4, 2012
655
17
This is what I would do. Chances are, very little if any damage was caused to the drive itself, just the data on the disk got corrupted.

One question though OP in Disk Utility, it'll have drives listed such as:

250 GB WD Hard Drive
My Passport​

Is that how the drive is mounted? Or is mounted like:

250 GB WD Hard Drive
disk2s1​

If it is the latter, the disk is corrupt and needs to be reformatted. If the partition on the drive (in my example the "My Passport" line) is grayed out, click on it then click "Mount" in Disk Utility. It should then mount in the Finder. If it doesn't, it's corrupt.

This is what it shows



If I try to mount it it just says can't mounted. So yeah I'm assuming it's corrupt.
 

coldjeanzzz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 4, 2012
655
17
Hah strangely enough it just mounted automatically. I had a feeling if I left it plugged in long enough that it might somehow detect it and sure enough it did after about 30 minutes. Hopefully it doesn't bug out again!
 

65535

macrumors member
Jul 20, 2011
63
0
It probably will, get the files off of it and then reformat it. Generally unplugging a disk without ejecting it won't be a problem unless the disk is in use in which case there is the possibility of a corrupted disk.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,054
13,081
OP wrote above:
[[ Hah strangely enough it just mounted automatically. I had a feeling if I left it plugged in long enough that it might somehow detect it and sure enough it did after about 30 minutes. Hopefully it doesn't bug out again! ]]

I've seen similar behavior from USB drives.

What seems to work sometimes -- never guaranteed -- is a routine that goes like this:
1. Shut down - power everything ALL THE WAY OFF
2. Disconnect USB drive
3. Reboot Mac
4. Connect USB drive
5. Wait...
6. There is a -possible- chance that the finder and OS X will "work behind the scenes" to repair the problems with the drive, and then mount it on the desktop. MAY TAKE SOME TIME.

Not sure exactly what's going on here.

Back in the days of SCSI, Apple's old HDSC Setup utility had the option to "write a new driver" to the drive. Very useful.

But I have never seen anything associated with USB drives that gives the user the opportunity to re-install the basic disk drivers to the drive itself.

I sense that when a USB drive is dis-mounted "unexpectedly" (insofar as the OS is concerned), something (not sure what) is either corrupted or left in an "unreadable state" that prevents the drive from easily re-mounting after re-connection.

This isn't to say that the drive is left in an un-REPAIRABLE state -- but rather, that what is needed to repair (a new driver?) isn't obvious. Nor is it readily provided for by Apple's Disk Utility -- at least in any way where DU actually tells the user what is being repaired.

I would like to see DU have the added option to "reinstall basic disk drivers" for attached storage (perhaps it already tries to do this, but is not telling us that it's doing so).

My thoughts only, further discussion welcome....
 
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