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User profile for user: Simon Templar 42
Simon Templar 42 Author
User level: Level 1
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can't mount external hard drive

Greetings all,


I have a External WD 2TB Hard drive connected on FireWire to the mac.

It used to work perfectly, until today where I decided to reformat it in Encrypted / Journaled partition type.

The Format stopped while doing it with an error message (I don t remember what it said exactly).


But the point is that now when I start my external HD, I see it in the list of hard drives on the left frame of disk utility (all the way at the top),

but if I click on it, I can't mount it.


INFO gives me:

TYPE: Logical Volume Group

Disk Status: Online

Capacity: 2TB

Physical Backing: Disk1s2


In first aid, I can verify / repair, but it still does not work after.

In Partition, I cannot do anything. But it says "This partition contains a locked disk and cannot be resized until it is unlocked"


I tried to reboot, safe reboot.

iMac 24" ; MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 3, 2012 2:25 PM

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User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Posted on Sep 3, 2012 2:30 PM

Eject the drive then reconnect it. Do the following once it mounts:


Drive Preparation


1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.


2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.


3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.


4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.


5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.


6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

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User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Sep 3, 2012 2:30 PM in response to Simon Templar 42

Eject the drive then reconnect it. Do the following once it mounts:


Drive Preparation


1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.


2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.


3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.


4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.


5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.


6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

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User profile for user: Simon Templar 42
Simon Templar 42 Author
User level: Level 1
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Sep 3, 2012 4:36 PM in response to Kappy

No, all I tried to do was to erase this external HD using encrypted partition.

In the middle of the process it stopped with a message saying it could not finish the encryption or something like that. It ejected my HD then brought it back in DiskUtility, and since then I can't access it.


Is there any way to force a mount, or raw format through the command line ?

I don t care if I lose everything in it. All I want is to be able to re-use it.


Thanks !

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User profile for user: Simon Templar 42
Simon Templar 42 Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Sep 3, 2012 4:59 PM in response to Simon Templar 42

It worked:


- I ran VM WARE with Linux.

- Connected the external HD into a USB instead of firewire

- It showed up as a USB device /dev/sdb

- I launched fdisk

- Saw that there was only 1 partition

- Deleted it

- Wrote the change to the disk

- Ejected the disk


At this point, DiskUtility picked it up as a non initialized device and asked me to format it, which I did.

I can now use this HD under OS X.

I will not try the encryption again.. 🙂


Simon.

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User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Sep 3, 2012 5:04 PM in response to Kappy

You are using FileVault 2, then, for full disk encryption. Look at those three links. I believe you must disable it or set an enabled user before you can unlock the disk.


  1. Open Disk Utility from the Recovery HD.
  2. Select Hera. It will be grayed-out in the DU sidebar.
  3. Click Unlock icon in the DU toolbar.
  4. Enter the disk password when prompted, i.e., the login password of any unlock- enabled user on the affected Mac.
  5. Click Unlock.
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can't mount external hard drive

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