Q: Mavericks corrupts external hard drive

Since it is 2 months from the first post, it seems like there are no perfect solution to get back our lost data in the drives. 

skgordon wrote:

 

Since it is 2 months from the first post, it seems like there are no perfect solution to get back our lost data in the drives. 

Contact Western Digital.

The best thing you can do now is invest in Data Rescue 3 and recover your data.

skgordon wrote:

 

Since it is 2 months from the first post, it seems like there are no perfect solution to get back our lost data in the drives. 

          The best thing you can do now is invest in Data Rescue 3 and recover your data.

I agree with sebo21 - and it's the only working solution I found since... got even the partitions back (although the movie-files are all corrupted, the image files are up to 95% o.k.)

An update to my problem.

Having contacted Western Digital they have advised me to update their software on my mac and sent me a code for On Track Easy Recovery.

Having used the software it appears I have recovered all of my movie files and loads of other stuff I have no idea what it is.

Be aware if you do recover your hard drive it needs a separate disc to save the recovered data to, so make sure you have the space before you start as it takes around 12 hours to scan the disc.

I was going to copy everything from the WD hard drive to my computer but it says that will take over 4,000 days!

Instead I am copying the files I have remembered I have lost then will wipe the drive as use it as a back up only. Lesson learnt.

Good luck if you have the same problem.

Thanks for the advice.

I was able to read my WD my passport drive using the solution first posted by forgottendiary and helped others.

I added /Volumne to the spotlight privacy setting and tried repair disk from disk utility and I was able to mount it.

Also I had to uninstall all the WD software on my laptop.

From an earlier post:

"

I have solved my problem, and I have recover my lost partitions, and all my data!

My solution here, try and let me know if it get fix for you too.

As forgottendiarysuggested:

Add "/Volumes" into spotlight privacy (since ext HDs are mounted under this folder).

 

So open up terminal and enter: "open /Volumes"

 

The above command will open a finder window containing /Volumes. Drag and drop that folder into Spotlight.

After that connect again your hard drives with lost data and lost partitions.

They will probably still don't mount, but you can go to the disk utility. You will see the partitions back but unmounted. Repair the hard drive, repair de partitions, try to mount them again... I had to try to repair two times and try to mount another couple of times... But finally I got my 2 lost partitons back!

My hard drive is a WD My Passport 1Tb with 3 partitions. Good luck!

"

I have an external Seagate 3TB that is no longer recognized (by Mavericks), and I suspect the same issue (Mavericks screw up) is at fault. 

I tried a Disk Utilitty repair, but got nowhere: 

Error: The partition map needs to be repaired because there’s a problem with the EFI system partition’s file system.

I found your comments and other in the discussion thread and wonder if you can provide any clarification about these instructions:

• Add "/Volumes" into spotlight privacy (since ext HDs are mounted under this folder).
• So open up terminal and enter: "open /Volumes"
• The above command will open a finder window containing /Volumes. Drag and drop that folder into Spotlight.

I do not see a way to add" /Volumes" to the privacy part of Spotlight.  Can you clarify ?  Also, what is the functional consequence of this action?

Much appreciated

ds

Hi David thanks for asking. I would like this same info as I can't find /Volumes either.

Hi Davis, Redders: system preferences > Spotlight > privacy.. there's an "add" button

The steps are :

open up terminal and enter: open /Volumes

then the command will open a finder window containing /Volumes. Drag and drop that folder into Spotlight. (previously opened in System preferences)

I have a different external HD (portable 500

gb Toshiba) hooked up now and Spotlight is indexing it .... and it seems to be running okay ... about 1-2 hour job.  I executed as described, saw the Toshiba listed in Volumes, and after moving it to the Spotlight PRIVACY areas, it aborted the indexing of the Toshiba and the Hd still works.  So, for that HD it worked well.

However, in comparison, with my external Seagate 3TB HD, which was my Time Machine backup target, the HD would not ever show up, so there was no way to move it over to PRIVACY area.  I will try again later, to see if something else has changed to where the HD is now recgonized and shows up under Volumes.  There was certainly something fundamentally "off kilter" before, or it too would have shown up under Volumes.

Thanks !

drcastillog wrote:

 

The steps are :

 

open up terminal and enter: open /Volumes

 

then the command will open a finder window containing /Volumes. Drag and drop that folder into Spotlight. (previously opened in System preferences)

 

For those trying to get this to work....

You do not need to use the terminal. You can open the normally hidden /Volumes directory/folder using the Finder's Go>Go to folder... menu item, then type /Volumes into the dialog box. Once you see the /Volumes folder you can drag the icon in the folder's title into Spotlight's privacy panel. This should cause Spotlight to stop indexing ALL volumes, even if they are not mounted. So think about whether you want to leave Spotlight disabled long term, even on your boot partition.

---GetRealBro

GetRealBro wrote:

..... This should cause Spotlight to stop indexing ALL volumes, even if they are not mounted. So think about whether you want to leave Spotlight disabled long term, even on your boot partition.....

My Bad. That last two sentences should have read....

This should cause Spotlight to stop indexing ALL non-boot volumes, even if they are not mounted. So think about whether you want to leave Spotlight disabled long term, even on any non- boot partitons on your boot drive (e.g. your internal drive).

--GetRealBro

same Issue... a little bit disapointed with the apple experience.

Hi Asiak-Hanno, I managed to fix my own issue (Apple couldn't help me they said because it was a WD issue).

Here is what I did:

- Download WD Firmware Update

- Shut down Mac with Passport drive unplugged

- Restart Mac and log on as Guest User

- Plug in Passport drive (like magic the drive appeared in Finder)

- Right click on drive and select Get Info

- Click on padlock in bottom right corner to unlock drive

- Make sure your permissions are Read and Write as well

- Log off Guest User and log back in as yourself

- The drive then appeared in Finder for me (I guess unlocking it had something to do with this)

- Run the WD Firmware Update (this will replace the software on the drive which is apparently the issue)

This seems to fix my issue and now the drive appears. Also see below the advice I received from WD Support after opening a case. I really hope this helps, I was so stressed so fingers crossed for you too.

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is Saul.

We truly apologize for the inconvenience; we are more than glad to assist you.  

Did you try to run the firmware updater on the device? This firmware update was released to address this kind of problems. You can download it here:

http://www.wd.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/firmware.asp?id=wdfMyPassport_Mac _30&os=MAC

Please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.  

Sincerely,   

Saul J

Western Digital Service and Support  

http://support.wdc.com