Trocafish

Q: Mavericks corrupts external hard drive

My WD MyBook studio 2TB (fw800) suddenly shows up empty on my desktop after a Mavericks upfrade on my mid 2009 mbp.

 

Disk Drill is now scanning the WD, and the files are there, about 1,4 TB of it...

 

How do I get the disc structure back?

 

I have no Mountain Lion OS-mac to test the WD in..

 

I had a bootable Mountain Lion on the WD, could that be the problem?

 

In Disk Drill MyBook has four units; EFI(200Mb), MyBook(1,8Tb), Unallocated 128Mb and Lost partition (200Mb)

iOS 7, Ipad mini + ios7

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 1:08 AM

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Q: Mavericks corrupts external hard drive

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  • by estApple,

    estApple estApple Dec 8, 2013 9:19 PM in response to jadbel3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 8, 2013 9:19 PM in response to jadbel3

    Dear jadbel3,

     

    Your suggestion is an interesting idea. I had just tried to use Migration Assistant but the Migration Assistant seemed to look forever for source. I have been waiting for more than one hour for it to finish looking but it just kept going on and on.

     

    Maybe I had done something wrong. So if you have time, please inform me the details of the steps to take.

     

    Thank you.

  • by estApple,

    estApple estApple Dec 8, 2013 9:23 PM in response to Trocafish
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 8, 2013 9:23 PM in response to Trocafish

    I assume that everybody here is having the WD drives in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

    I just wonder whether a NTFS formatted WD drive would have the same problem? Anybody has such experience on a NTFS-formatted WD drive?

  • by estApple,

    estApple estApple Dec 8, 2013 11:08 PM in response to GetRealBro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 8, 2013 11:08 PM in response to GetRealBro

    Since we do not know the reasons of the issue, it may not be a good idea to repair the WD disk with the Disk Utility if we want to recover the data later. We do not know what modifications the Disk utility would do during the repairing. It may perform something that would make data less recoverable.

  • by GetRealBro,

    GetRealBro GetRealBro Dec 9, 2013 7:29 AM in response to estApple
    Level 1 (21 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 7:29 AM in response to estApple

    estApple wrote:

     

    Since we do not know the reasons of the issue, it may not be a good idea to repair the WD disk with the Disk Utility if we want to recover the data later. We do not know what modifications the Disk utility would do during the repairing. It may perform something that would make data less recoverable.

    I agree. For people who can wait, just putting the external drive on a shelf until the dust settles is good advice. But for people who need access to their data sooner than that....

     

    Disk Utility is simply a nice OSX GUI application that runs low level unix drive management commands. For example, the Disk Utility First Aid: Verify and Repair buttons run fsck_hfs (AKA file system check for hierarchal file systems). The former has the flags set to just check the file system, the later’s flags are set to try to repair it.

     

    My reading of this thread says that after updating/installing 10.9 the problems with external drives  fall in to two main groups.

     

    Group 1 - the external drive has been “spontaneously” repartitioned and a new (empty) directory structure has been written to the drive/partition. This is the most serious problem, since the directory structure no longer points to the files/folders that are almost certainly still on the drive/partition. Disk Utility is of no real value/harm to this group. People with this symptom will need to run 3rd party file recovery applications to retrieve their data. This is usually a long and tedious task, since the file/folder names are no longer associated with the data.

     

    Group 2 - the external drive/partition fails to mount or takes a very long time to mount. This is much less serious, since the directory structure still points to the filles/folders. But, for reasons that are still not clear, 10.9 believes the directory is damaged. In my testing, the directory structure was usually (but not always) OK. Disk Utility is probably a useful tool for these people BUT ONLY IF they are patient and allow any long fsck_hfs run to complete before running Disk Utility. In my testing Disk Utility was always able to repair the directory structure and no data was lost. You can only be sure that the fsck_hfs run has completed by monitoring the fsck_hfs log. You can easily monitor this log  with the nice OSX GUI utility — Console (in the application Utilities folder). Just click on  /var/log and scroll down to fsck_hfs.log.

     

    —- GetRealBro

  • by Tom in London,

    Tom in London Tom in London Dec 9, 2013 7:47 AM in response to GetRealBro
    Level 4 (1,626 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 9, 2013 7:47 AM in response to GetRealBro

    GetRealBro wrote:

     

    Disk Utility is simply a nice OSX GUI application that runs low level unix drive management commands.

     

    yes, but can we be sure that the version of Disk Utility that comes with Mavericks hasn't been messed with in the same way that other fundamental functions seem to have been messed with? From what I can gather reading these forums, Mavericks includes various under-the-hood modifications, some of which don't work properly (e.g. wiping an external drive as soon as you plug it in). As things stand, I wouldn't trust Mavericks to do anything, including Disk Utility. I would use the Disk Utility that came with Mountain Lion. Maybe it's just the same and maybe it isn't !

  • by Tockman,

    Tockman Tockman Dec 9, 2013 7:57 AM in response to estApple
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 9, 2013 7:57 AM in response to estApple

    estApple wrote:

     

    I assume that everybody here is having the WD drives in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

    I just wonder whether a NTFS formatted WD drive would have the same problem? Anybody has such experience on a NTFS-formatted WD drive?

    Yes, I have it. So I'm very happy I had NTFS on my WD because all I needed to do is plug my external hard to Windows notebook and run GetDataBack program. It read MFT and recovered all the files on partition. So my choice is NTFS only for Western Digital drives!

  • by GetRealBro,

    GetRealBro GetRealBro Dec 9, 2013 9:00 AM in response to Tom in London
    Level 1 (21 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 9:00 AM in response to Tom in London

    Tom in London wrote:

    .... As things stand, I wouldn't trust Mavericks to do anything, including Disk Utility. I would use the Disk Utility that came with Mountain Lion. Maybe it's just the same and maybe it isn't !

    I know Tom. Just because we’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they not out to get us

     

    Seriously…

    In my testing, I used the Disk Utility in 10.9 and 10.6.8 and got the same results. In most of my previous posts I distinguished between which one I was using. One of the reasons I dropped back to 10.6.8 was to see if the 10.6.8 Disk Utility was more capable of repairing the directory structure. The main reason I did a clean install of Mavericks and still have a bootable 10.6.8 partition on my MBP’s internal drive, is because I NEVER fully trust a new OS until several months after it’s release to the general public. Some people might call that a little paranoid.

     

    People that still have a Snow Leopard install disk (and a super drive) can boot from the disk and run Disk Utility from the menu at the top of the screen. Others can make a bootable USB drive for Lion and/or Mountain Lion to run Disk Utility. Anyone who does not already have one or more of these disaster recovery tools readily at hand needs to re-read this thread from the beginning and ask themselves a simple question?

    What if that had happened to me?

     

    — GetRealBro

  • by Tom in London,

    Tom in London Tom in London Dec 9, 2013 9:04 AM in response to GetRealBro
    Level 4 (1,626 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 9, 2013 9:04 AM in response to GetRealBro

    GetRealBro wrote:

     

    Anyone who does not already have one or more of these disaster recovery tools readily at hand needs to re-read this thread from the beginning and ask themselves a simple question?

    What if that had happened to me?

     

    — GetRealBro

    That sounds like an endless loop.

     

    Me, I'm going to wait for 10.9.2 or 10.9.3.

  • by jadbel3,

    jadbel3 jadbel3 Dec 9, 2013 9:44 AM in response to estApple
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 9:44 AM in response to estApple

    Sorry for the late reply estApple. So when you open Migration Assistant it doesn't pull up this window?

    Screen Shot 2013-12-09 at 11.01.24 AM.png

    It should pull up this window then you want to make sure and select the one that's selected in the picture. If you're not getting this far I'm not sure what the problem is. Not that this would help any, but I have a new MacBook 15” retina display version 10.9 (Mavericks) 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7. Memory = 16GB 1600MHz DDR3.

    First thing I did was plug my WD into the wall outlet. Then I plugged the end of the USB into the WD then into the MacBook. I don’t know if that order really matters, but you never know. The computer doesn't read the WD but when I click on Migration Assistant it brings up the above image. The next window that pops up when you click continue looks like this:

     

    Screen Shot 2013-12-09 at 11.24.49 AM.png

    This is where you should see your WD. You select it and click continue and it should pull up this next window or something like it:

     

    step 3.png

    After you select the data you want to transfer then click continue it should start the migrating process. In my case it took around 1 1/2 hrs.

     

    This last window or similar to it is what it looks like during the transfer. Actually the data is copied not really trasferred. You still have a copy of your data on the WD. The reason I know that is because I had to do it again when I found out the first time I had missing data. Anyway, here's the last image:

     

    step 4.png

    If your not getting to the first step, I'm not sure what the problem is. Hopefully someone else with more smarts than I have can help.

     

    Good luck!

     

    joe


  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Dec 9, 2013 2:56 PM in response to Tom in London
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 2:56 PM in response to Tom in London

    Tom in London wrote:

    From what I can gather reading these forums, Mavericks includes various under-the-hood modifications, some of which don't work properly (e.g. wiping an external drive as soon as you plug it in).

    There does not seem to be much reason to think that "wiping" the drive is anything besides the combination of the old WD utility software and Mavericks interacting in some way to cause the drive to be reformatted, a la GetRealBro's group 1.

     

    This at least should be true for every instance in which the drive ends up with an empty partition with the telltale "MyBook" name, whether or not it is a WD brand drive, since that trademarked name can only come from WD's software. Some users have reported not being aware the WD software was installed on their systems, which is why running EtreCheck can be helpful in diagnosing this as a potential cause of this particular problem.

  • by estApple,

    estApple estApple Dec 9, 2013 4:39 PM in response to jadbel3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 4:39 PM in response to jadbel3

    Dear jadbel3,

     

    I got the first display. But the second display is different from yours.

     

    Migration Assistant.jpg

    It seems that

    either it did not recognize the WD Mybook Studio II and kept on looking for other sources

    or it just kept on looking for files on the WD, which contains a large number of files.

     

    I let it run for two hours and it just  stuck there. I used USB connection.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Dec 9, 2013 4:35 PM in response to estApple
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 4:35 PM in response to estApple

    estApple wrote:

    Dear R C-R,

    You are replying to the wrong person.

  • by estApple,

    estApple estApple Dec 9, 2013 4:37 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 4:37 PM in response to R C-R

    After uninstalling WD Drive Manager, I ran EtreCheck and there were still two items involving WD.

     

    Launch Daemons:

        [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

        [loaded]    com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

        [loaded]    com.barebones.authd.plist

        [loaded]    com.barebones.textwrangler.plist

        [loaded]    com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

        [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

        [loaded]    com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist

        [loaded]    com.westerndigital.WD-Drive-Manager-Installer.plist

     

    Old applications:

        Audacity:    Version: 2.0.5.0 - SDK 10.4

            /Applications/Audacity/Audacity.app

        Image Data Converter Ver:    Version: 4.2.02.10112 - SDK 10.5

            /Applications/Image Data Converter/Image Data Converter Ver.4.app

        Microsoft AutoUpdate:    Version: 2.3.6 - SDK 10.4

            /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app

        Microsoft Error Reporting:    Version: 2.2.9 - SDK 10.4

            /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MERP2.0/Microsoft Error Reporting.app

        Microsoft Ship Asserts:    Version: 1.1.4 - SDK 10.4

            /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MERP2.0/Microsoft Ship Asserts.app

        Picasa:    Version: 3.9.16 - SDK 10.4

            /Applications/Picasa.app

        SLLauncher:    Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.5

            /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Silverlight/OutOfBrowser/SLLauncher.app

       WDDriveManagerStatusMenu:    Version: 2.2.7 - SDK 10.4

            /Library/Application Support/WDDriveManagerInstallerItems/WDDriveManager/WDDriveManagerStatusMenu.ap p

        Wondershare Helper Compact:    Version: 2.2.6.4 - SDK 10.5

            /Users/iMac/Library/Application Support/Helper/Wondershare Helper Compact.app

     

    However, by using both the serach in Finder and Spotlight, I cannot find com.westerndigital.WD-Drive-Manager-Installer.plist and WDDriveManagerStatusMenu.app

  • by estApple,

    estApple estApple Dec 9, 2013 4:38 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 4:38 PM in response to R C-R

    Sorry, my mistake. The reply should be addressed to jadbel3.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Dec 9, 2013 4:43 PM in response to estApple
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 4:43 PM in response to estApple

    Launch daemons should be in System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ or /Library/LaunchDaemons/.

     

    The path to the status app is shown in EtreCheck (/Library/Application Support/).

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