Hello, fellows!
Getting "The disk can't be unlocked" message every time I reconnect external USB HDD drive with my Time Machine backup on it.
From time to time connecting disk pops up "Enter password to unlock the disk" dialog but after entering password window remains greyed out. (Disk is encrypted with Time Machine. )
Running Disk Util says that disk is locked
Drive worked perfectly fine until I disconnected it for few hours.
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 12.1
It didn't fail. I', almost sure problem is software. For example, right now I copy a file from a backup on this drive. Just when I try to reconnect Time Machine to this drive - it "disconnects".
Something wrong with TM or last update of Monterey
To try to get data:
Does the disk have it own power supply?
Is it connected directly to the Mac via simple adapter is OK) and not through a hub?
Try a different cable/clean connectors
Could be the drive. There are problem with WD drives and Monterey
Is it an encrypted backup?
It the format APFS?
Can you try on another Mac?
You might be able to connect to a PC and then format it and then try connecting it to your Mac and see if you can use it after erasing it.
Alejandro_64 wrote:
Hello, fellows!
Getting "The disk can't be unlocked" message every time I reconnect external USB HDD drive with my Time Machine backup on it.
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/c5d0d048-243e-488e-9d89-4ef5d87ffb30
From time to time connecting disk pops up "Enter password to unlock the disk" dialog but after entering password window remains greyed out. (Disk is encrypted with Time Machine. )
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/93f0c142-5b58-45ec-900f-8cb9f69076e4
Running Disk Util says that disk is locked
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/5ea7f94b-bf47-4b2f-af13-caca058015b5
Drive worked perfectly fine until I disconnected it for few hours.
Sounds like the drive has failed....
try a different drive and compare your results.
Found the problem. Bad sectors. =(
Heck! Few days ago drive was perfectly fine. I wonder what happened! It's 2'5 inch laptop HDD. Always considered them to be eternal
Can bad sectors be logical or something like that? I still want blame Monterey.
Typically a bad sector is due to the computer not being able to read and/or write to that sector. Almost always a disk physical problem/degradation.
When a HDD is read, the computer will try re-reading the sector many times before it through an error. When HDD start degrading it takes longer to read from them since the computer keeps trying to read data and is finally successful but take longer to read.
A HDD has spare sectors which automatically replace bad sectors but when sectors start failing I would not trust the disk to work reliably in the future.
Alejandro_64 wrote:
Disk is 100% physically dead. Matter is closed. 100% sure. No other reason of malfunction. @Victoria@ screenshot in attach.
Thank you for your help.
PS Still wonder how it died so fast. 28th Jan resrored some filed from it with no prob.
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/2f983962-660c-49e9-af1a-c0e0a2f48730
Thanks for the confirmation Alejandro_64
Drives can fail at anytime, even brand new out of the box.
It is not a matter if.... it is a matter of when.
> Is it an encrypted backup?
Yes. But most of times I connect drive it doesn't even ask for password.
> It the format APFS?
Yes. Case-sensitive
>Can you try on another Mac?
Yes. On my MacBook M1 Pro. Few times it was detected fine, asked for password and displayed it's contents. But still couldn't pass Disk Util test.
Device itself is clearly visible in Disk Util during being connected. I would assume that it's some logical problems - it worked perfectly fine few days ago. I even restored some files from it. Problems popped up after I disconnected it for some time.
Furthermore, sometime Time Machine partition DOES happen to be clearly visible. But some time after (or during backup retry) it disappears again.
I can erase it easy - but I need some data from backup it contains.
1) No, disk is powered via USB cable.
2) Yes, directly to iMac. (Just in case. I made a try to connect to MacBook M1 via USB->USB-C adaptor. Sympthoms remain the same.)
3) Already changed cable.
PS In case I wasn't clear - sometimes (not every time) drive connects seemingly fine. But it doesn't remain in this state long wnough even to make a sheduled backup - it just disappearsfrom connected devices.
I have to add that initialization of this drive takes VE-E-ERY long. 5-10 minutes until drive appears on desktop among connected (if appears at all.) And while it is being initialized whole computer becomes very laggy (lagging). For example folders on the desktop open long - 20-30 seconds - displaying "loading..." in the center of finder window. MacBook M1 too.
I'm starting to assume that the problem is logical - with driver or something! Why: right now one of the files from this drive is being copied (manually, see attach).
Disk is 100% physically dead. Matter is closed. 100% sure. No other reason of malfunction. @Victoria@ screenshot in attach.
Thank you for your help.
PS Still wonder how it died so fast. 28th Jan resrored some filed from it with no prob.
Some a head crashed into the platter daaging soe secoros, However the debris for the crash can cause additional damage fast.
One I had quick failure and I took the dik aport and one of the heads was dangling from the arm really messing up the disk.
The disk can't be unlocked
