Startup drive won't boot nor will it unmount so disk utilities can't access it

Question

Startup drive won't boot nor will it unmount so disk utilities can't access it

Major mess: suddenly my main internal boot drive would not boot up - continuous black screen. I booted from the 2nd internal drive which is a clone of the first and tried to run Disk Utility on the main boot drive. It could not run, putting up an error message that the drive would not unmount. Then I tried Disk Warrior - same problem. It could not run. Then I ran a Firewire cable between my MBP/OS 10.11.6 and the Mac Mini and restarted the Mac Mini in Target Disk Mode, which showed both internal hard drives on the MBP desktop but, again, could not run Disk Utility because of same incapacity to unmount the faulty drive. When It is on the desktop I can open it and move files from it to my clone, and the directory structure and files seem fine…but it will not boot (continuous black screen) and no utilities I have will work with it.

SMART Utility does check the drive and passes it, but shows CRC Error Count at 43 083. I do not know what that means. There are no bad sectors and the Total Errors count is at 0.

If I cannot unmount the drive I cannot erase it or reinstall the OS or do anything at all with it.

But that isn’t my issue today - well, not the only problem. I tried to run Photoshop CS5 today from my (working) clone and it would not open. First there was a window that said “Could not open a scratch file because the disk is not available”. After clicking OK another window opened with “Could not initialise Photoshop because the disk is not available”. Clicking OK closed Photoshop down.

Not sure but I suspect that since I am running from another drive - the clone, Photoshop doesn’t recognise it as a licensed user. I don’t have this problem with Adobe Lightroom, which runs fine, as do all my other apps, but I really need Photoshop. Obviously, since the drive died a sudden death or whatever I had no option/time to de-authorise that copy of Photoshop, assuming that is the problem. Any suggestions on what I can do to bring back Photoshop?

Or for that matter fix the main boot drive or at least unmount it.

thanks,

ncm

Adobe Photoshop CS5 version 12.0.4

Mac Mini Server/OS10.11.6 El Capitan

Internal SSD 1 T hard drives (2)

16Gb RAM

Mac mini, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jan 31, 2020 1:41 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

den.thed

Level 10

82,186 points

Feb 1, 2020 6:48 AM in response to Nina Contini Melis

I'm not currently at one of my Mac Mini's, but if you look at Apple > About This Mac > System Report > SATA, it should tell you which Bay each of the drives is in. Also if you open Disk Utility and select the current startup drive, then select Get Info, it should also report which Bay that drive is in. Again I'm going from memory here, so I could be wrong about one or the other. For example if the currently mounted drive is in the upper bay, then the failed drive in in the lower bay and vise-versa.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

82,186 points

Jan 31, 2020 2:15 PM in response to Nina Contini Melis

The drive has failed.

Replace or have the drive replaced and restore from your Time Machine backup or the most recent clone.

Are you also using Time Machine?

If you are not using Time Machine, then you should in addition to the clone.

Do you regularly update the Clone? (Monthly, Weekly, Daily)

If not, then it is not going to be a good option to restore from or fall back on.

Is the Photoshop license yours or someone else's?

see > https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/using/licensing.html

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Answer 3

Jan 31, 2020 3:55 PM in response to den.thed

I am not using Time Machine - don't really need versions of files. Also read some comments about it being buggy. I do regular clones using SuperDuper (several times a week if no important files created, otherwise immediately after creating important files. Also before using utilities to mess around with the drive. I also have nightly BackBlaze backups of my files to the cloud service.

Sigh. I was afraid the drive has failed. Will purchase a new one and have it installed. Though I used to do that sort of thing with previous desktop Macs like the G4, I don't feel comfortable installing on small Macs like the Mini or my MBP with all those teeny tiny screws to mess up.

The Photoshop license is mine.

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Answer 4

den.thed

Level 10

82,186 points

Jan 31, 2020 4:25 PM in response to Nina Contini Melis

What year is the Mac Mini Server? The 2010, 2011 and 2012 Uni-body Mac Mini's are actually a lot easier to work on than the 2009 and earlier Mac Mini's, the iMac's and the MBP's.

You will however also need to figure out if the failed drive is in the lower or upper bay. The drive in the lower bay is easy to change out, the drive upper bay requires removing the logic board.

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Answer 5

Feb 1, 2020 12:53 AM in response to den.thed

It is the 2012 version though I bought it reconditioned from the Apple Store in 2014. I later switched out the original installed hds for SSDs. How do I figure out if the failed drive is in the upper or lower bay? It was the original startup drive, and I don't know if Apple chooses one or the other for that and the second for - whatever.

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Answer 6

Feb 1, 2020 5:31 AM in response to Nina Contini Melis

When I was using my 2011 MiniServer as my primary desktop

computer, I would typically clone one drive to the other as

you did and especially when system upgrades came along

I would keep the old system to make sure all apps and such

were happy with the new OS. I always had an issue with Photoshop

in terms of licensing when moving from one drive to the other

and would need to de-authorize it one drive before using the other.

Considering that it is CS5 and deemed obsolete by Adobe, there

may be an issue with their licensing servers. I recall hearing some

people mentioning that with non-Cash Cow (CC) versions.

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Answer 7

Feb 1, 2020 11:15 AM in response to den.thed

Umm. Well, perhaps I will give it a try. Or not. Anyhow will purchase a new, possibly 2T SSD hd and either try to install it myself or have it done by someone more proficient. In any case thanks for your help.

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Answer 8

Feb 1, 2020 5:37 AM in response to woodmeister50

Yes, my problem with Photoshop is that the drive failed suddenly without warning so I had no time to de-authorise Photoshop. Any suggestions as to how to proceed?

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