Stanley Taylor1

Q: Cannot get a data recovery HD to mount

Due to my iMac's HD dying, and my backup HD failing before I could recover, I had to have the backup drive recovered at a data recovery service (expensive). The HD they gave me with the recovered Time Machine backup is in exFat format. In Terminal, I was able to see the information below about it. Disk Utility sees it, and the Mount button is enabled. But it won't mount. Any ideas?

 

/dev/disk1 (external, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *5.0 TB     disk1

   1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk1s1

   2:       Microsoft Basic Data CASE3020                5.0 TB     disk1s

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Sep 14, 2016 11:08 AM

Close

Q: Cannot get a data recovery HD to mount

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by KiltedTim,

    KiltedTim KiltedTim Sep 14, 2016 11:11 AM in response to Stanley Taylor1
    Level 9 (55,588 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 11:11 AM in response to Stanley Taylor1

    See if it will mount on a Windows PC.

  • by Stanley Taylor1,

    Stanley Taylor1 Stanley Taylor1 Sep 14, 2016 11:37 AM in response to KiltedTim
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 11:37 AM in response to KiltedTim

    I don't have a PC. Right now I'm waiting for a response from the data recovery outfit. I tried it on a different iMac, and it won't mount there either.

  • by Stanley Taylor1,

    Stanley Taylor1 Stanley Taylor1 Sep 14, 2016 11:42 AM in response to Stanley Taylor1
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 11:42 AM in response to Stanley Taylor1

    Here's what Disk Utility shows for the external HD that won't mount:

    Screen Shot 2016-09-14 at 11.40.08 AM.png

    And when I ask for Info on the drive, I get this:

    Screen Shot 2016-09-14 at 11.40.28 AM.png

  • by Stanley Taylor1,

    Stanley Taylor1 Stanley Taylor1 Sep 14, 2016 12:22 PM in response to Stanley Taylor1
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 12:22 PM in response to Stanley Taylor1

    More information. When I ran Disk Utility First Aid on the drive, it got to "Checking file system hierarchy" and then apparently hung up. Nothing else has been checked, and Disk Utility is hung up. I would have to force quit it.

  • by Eric Root,Helpful

    Eric Root Eric Root Sep 14, 2016 2:09 PM in response to Stanley Taylor1
    Level 9 (71,487 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 14, 2016 2:09 PM in response to Stanley Taylor1

    See mount section in 1st linked article.

     

    Disk Unmount Using Terminal

     

    Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Sep 14, 2016 1:56 PM in response to Stanley Taylor1
    Level 7 (23,578 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 14, 2016 1:56 PM in response to Stanley Taylor1

    Stanley Taylor1 wrote:

     

    The HD they gave me with the recovered Time Machine backup is in exFat format.

     

    Right now I'm waiting for a response from the data recovery outfit.

     

    The data recovery outfit did you no favors in this regard.

  • by Barney-15E,Helpful

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Sep 15, 2016 10:51 AM in response to Stanley Taylor1
    Level 9 (50,141 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 15, 2016 10:51 AM in response to Stanley Taylor1

    The HD they gave me with the recovered Time Machine backup is in exFat format.

    leroydouglas pretty much nailed it, here:

    The data recovery outfit did you no favors in this regard.

    Time Machine data cannot be stored on an ExFAT drive because ExFAT does not understand hard links to folders (actually, it doesn't support hard links at all). I imagine the Data Recovery people don't understand that, either.

    It should have been restored to a GUID partition table, OS X Extended (Journaled) drive. However, I imagine their data recovery software might be completely confused by the hard links to folders, also.

     

    If you can manage to mount the drive, you should be able to manually dig through the folders and copy the data from the external to the internal.

     

    Do you know somebody with a PC where you could try to see if it will mount?

  • by Stanley Taylor1,

    Stanley Taylor1 Stanley Taylor1 Sep 15, 2016 10:54 AM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 15, 2016 10:54 AM in response to Barney-15E

    The data recovery people are now trying another copy on to a mac OS extended formatted drive. But I'm guessing what they have is some kind of an image captured from the original failed backup drive.

     

    I'm wondering what my best strategy will be. Should I try to find someone with a PC and then just copy files. Data files are easy to find and copy. But other files and apps I'm not so sure.

     

    I'm beginning to give up hope.