Strange issues with external USB SSD

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Level 1

7 points

Strange issues with external USB SSD

I have all of my games on this external hard drive, and I went to open X-Plane 11 today and it wouldn't open because there were a few files it could not locate. I ran the X-Plane updater to replace the files but the installer wouldn't run because the drive is apparently in read only mode. I ran first aid on disk utility and that failed. It said:

Running First Aid on “X-Plane11” (disk4s1)

Repairing file system.

Volume was successfully unmounted.

Performing fsck_apfs -y -x /dev/rdisk4s1

Checking the container superblock.

Checking the space manager.

Checking the space manager free queue trees.

Checking the object map.

Checking volume.

Checking the APFS volume superblock.

The volume X-Plane11 was formatted by diskmanagementd (945.241.4) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.260.7).

Checking the object map.

error: om: btn: invalid o_oid (0x16b1)

Object map is invalid.

The volume /dev/rdisk4s1 could not be verified completely.

File system check exit code is 8.

Restoring the original state found as mounted.

File system verify or repair failed.

Operation failed…

What can I do about this? Disk utility said to back up the data but I don't have another hard drive with enough capacity to copy the files over.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 8, 2019 6:15 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

55,916 points

Jun 9, 2019 12:50 PM in response to HaydenFromWA

It is hard to tell if this was due to the SSD itself, the cable or drive's interface controller, or whether it is just an APFS issue since it is a new file system and I've seen lots of posts here about unrepairable APFS errors.

The only way to know if the SSD itself has an issue is by using DriveDX and the special USB driver to manually the check the "Health Indicators" (aka SMART Attributes) of the SSD. Unfortunately not all external drive controllers allow the necessary communication with the drive even with the special driver. If that is the case, you need to remove the SSD from the enclosure and using an adapter/dock/enclosure which allows SMART communication. If you can acquire this information and post it here I will be glad to examine the report.

You should always have good verified working backups of your data especially when using an SSD since SSDs can fail without any warning. Data recovery can be very difficult to impossible even using a professional data recovery service. FYI, if an SSD doesn't receive power once in a while to refresh the NAND cells within the SSD, it could corrupt the data. Usually this occurs if the SSD sits for a year or two, but I've seen a few reports where this happens after just six months.

Edit: You may want to use a power supply for the external drive or a powered USB3 hub from a reputable brand since it will be more reliable.

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