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.
Western Digital Warns External Hard Drive Customers Over Mavericks Data Loss
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Western Digital must have known.
I have already told my saga on this thread of losing some data when I loaded Mavericks on my iMac. Briefly, that was 5 days before Western Digital sent me a warning. When I called WD that day, neither the tech nor myself knew that I probably only lost the directory on the 2 TB raid 1 drive. The tech said to bad, so sad. So I used a 3 month old backup I kept offsite to reload my WD drive. I now know that was a mistake. Common software would probably have saved the data and a ton of time. I now also know that I should not have been using the WD raid software. In the scheme of all the bad things that happen in the world, losing some data is extremely minor.
But what I do not know is with all the preliminary releases and the the "Golden Master" of Mavericks, how is it possible that a company the size of Western Digital did not know? I wish I slept as well as they do.
Thank you MacRumors for letting me get that said. And yes, I will go get a life.
I have already told my saga on this thread of losing some data when I loaded Mavericks on my iMac. Briefly, that was 5 days before Western Digital sent me a warning. When I called WD that day, neither the tech nor myself knew that I probably only lost the directory on the 2 TB raid 1 drive. The tech said to bad, so sad. So I used a 3 month old backup I kept offsite to reload my WD drive. I now know that was a mistake. Common software would probably have saved the data and a ton of time. I now also know that I should not have been using the WD raid software. In the scheme of all the bad things that happen in the world, losing some data is extremely minor.
But what I do not know is with all the preliminary releases and the the "Golden Master" of Mavericks, how is it possible that a company the size of Western Digital did not know? I wish I slept as well as they do.
Thank you MacRumors for letting me get that said. And yes, I will go get a life.
Didn't install WD Apps... but still have issues!
Hey there!
I never install the SW that comes with these kinds of HDs... but I still have issues with my WD HD! Actually, I upgraded to Mavericks when it came out and started using my HD with no issues at all. BUT, last saturday morning I was backing up some files and later that very afternoon my HD just wouldn't mount!
I verified my HD with Disk Utility and asked that I repair it, but... Disk Utility says my HD needs to be reformatted. This sucks!
Hey there!
I never install the SW that comes with these kinds of HDs... but I still have issues with my WD HD! Actually, I upgraded to Mavericks when it came out and started using my HD with no issues at all. BUT, last saturday morning I was backing up some files and later that very afternoon my HD just wouldn't mount!
I verified my HD with Disk Utility and asked that I repair it, but... Disk Utility says my HD needs to be reformatted. This sucks!
That can happen with any external drive, possibilities are signs of a failing HDD, poor connection, random glitch. I have a WD 2TB and it works fine, like you I've never installed the OSX driver for it.
So, you think my specific problem with my WD HD is completely unrelated?
Got any ideas on how to fix/recover my HD? Thanks a lot!
Possible fix = reformat. What disk format were you using, were you sharing it between different computers / OS's? If the HDD is failing it'll continue to get worse till it eventually fails.
Recover ? copy it from your backup (you do have a backup don't you) or try your luck a drive recovery program. If the data's valuable you cloud hire a drive recovery service but that's $$$$.
Thank you for saying. A lot of commentators here are talking out of their ass. I've tried to put the drives in raid without the WD software: doesn't work. Also you need the software to monitor your raid sets.
WD HD is back!
The damnedest thing just happened yesterday when I mounted my WD HD on my Mtn Lion MB Pro! I tried hooking up my HD and verifying it with my old MP Pro and Disk Utility gave me the same "this HD needs to be repaired", so I followed suit and clicked Repair. Unlike my Mavericks MB Pro, the repairing process did not give me an error message and just went tirelessly on and on for a couple of hours. After about 2 hours my 3 TB WD HD was alive and kicking!
It worked for me, I hope it works for you!😀
The damnedest thing just happened yesterday when I mounted my WD HD on my Mtn Lion MB Pro! I tried hooking up my HD and verifying it with my old MP Pro and Disk Utility gave me the same "this HD needs to be repaired", so I followed suit and clicked Repair. Unlike my Mavericks MB Pro, the repairing process did not give me an error message and just went tirelessly on and on for a couple of hours. After about 2 hours my 3 TB WD HD was alive and kicking!
It worked for me, I hope it works for you!😀
i just wanted to add that I am having problems with a custom RAID configuration that doesn't have any WD hardware or software. I bought 2 Seagate Barracudas and a Vantec Nexstar RAID enclosure and after setting everything up, experienced some of the same problems that have been reported with WD RAIDs. After transferring everything onto the RAID, the folder structure disappeared and disk utility said both striped drives needed repair, which ended in errors. After reformatting and trying again, my file transfers seemed successful for less than a day before the setup became problematic again. After trying the repair disk function this time, utility stopped and reported that "live file system repair is not supported". I don't know enough about RAIDs to really understand what all is involved and where errors can originate, but so far, it seems like it's possible that WD may not be the only factor in the equation here. Possibly hardware chipsets?
*update
After some investigation, I found out that the setup instructions that came with my RAID enclosure didn't include a key element that allows it to be recognized as a hardware RAID. After resetting, it was recognized as a single drive instead of 2 separate ones, and i was able to format it as a single logical drive. I believe my problems were caused by a conflict in the hardware RAID trying to run concurrently with the software RAID setup through disk utility.
*update
After some investigation, I found out that the setup instructions that came with my RAID enclosure didn't include a key element that allows it to be recognized as a hardware RAID. After resetting, it was recognized as a single drive instead of 2 separate ones, and i was able to format it as a single logical drive. I believe my problems were caused by a conflict in the hardware RAID trying to run concurrently with the software RAID setup through disk utility.
Last edited:
Be cautious with "Repairing".... "Repairing" a drive can go "bad" and end up destroying data. It's always best to clone your drive first (or use DDrescue to make an image) before attempting any repair (unless all your data is already backed up). It's not uncommon to see hard drives with data missing due to a bad FSCK run (or bad drive which caused FSCK to fail/corrupt the drive further).
----------
I believe this is still a problem. I got the original email from WD but no follow up saying it's been fixed.