Unable to mount external hard drives - error 49218

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Level 1

8 points

Unable to mount external hard drives - error 49218

Two of my external hard drives unmounted last night. In Disk Utility I'm unable to run first aid or mount the disks. The disks are "greyed" out and unable to access. When mounting I'm getting error: (com.apple.DiskManagement.dis enter error 49218.) I also tried reformatting the disk but I'm getting error: An internal error has occurred.: (-69623)

Thankfully, I have backups of both of these external disks so data recovery isn't an issue but any assistance would be appreciated.

About:

MacBook M1 Pro

Mac OS: Ventura

MacBook Pro

Posted on Dec 31, 2022 10:24 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

AdvisorMP

Community Specialist

Jan 1, 2023 5:29 PM in response to jpg1582

Thanks for reaching out jpg1582,

From what you shared it sounds like you have two external drives that aren't working. We can help.

If your disks are not readable, mountable, or erasable it could indicate drive failure. If you try connecting these drives to a different device, are they able to mount or be seen by the other computer?

If not, you may want to reach out to the drive manufacturer for next steps.

Hope that helps.

Take care.

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Answer 2

drf5n

Level 1

4 points

Jan 11, 2023 10:54 AM in response to jpg1582

I had the same error. I was able to erase and format my external drive in Disk Utility several times, but unable to mount in Time Machine.

After a reboot, I was able to mount normally and use the drive for Time Machine.

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Answer 3

jpg1582 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 11, 2023 1:02 PM in response to drf5n

Thank you all, I spent some time on the phone with an Apple Specialist and we were unable to mount either drive on two different MACS. At his point, the drives are unreadable, I have a friend who's going to see if they can be formatted on a PC (there were some forums mentioning the latter). However, it appears that either the external hard drive enclosure or the USB-C 3.2 cable may've been he culprit and both drives are most likely damaged. I will update the forum if I'm successful at mounting the drives.

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Unable to mount external hard drives - error 49218

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