Q: Mavericks corrupts external hard drive

I tried the firmware upgrade. It reports that my 1TB MyBook for Mac already has the up to date firmware from when it was bought 2 years ago. The firmware release fix for Mavericks must be only for MyPassport drives or very old MyBooks I guess.

I had it running under Mountain Lion, but did a clean install of Mavericks and did not install it. Same issue as everyone else. Wonder when Apple will stop focusing on iOS and fix their primary OS that made iOS even possible.

Shareef Yousef wrote:

 

Same issue as everyone else.

Which issue in your case? There were different issues reported here.

Disk Drill is awesome!!! After running the HFS utility my drive is back.

This was my issue:

I made a backup of all my files and verified that they were on the drive. After upgrading my MacBook Pro to Mavericks I was unable to see any of my files. The Passport drive would spin, light will flash but wouldn't mount. I even tried the disk repair utility but that didn't work.

Disk Drill saved my life!!

http://www.cleverfiles.com/pro.html

Which version did you use? The free one?

R C-R wrote:

 

GetRealBro wrote:

The installer for OSX 10.9  scanned the boot partition and warned users about various incompatible software (e.g. PPC applications, etc.). Of course at that time Apple probably didn’t know about the WD software issues. BUT>>>> by the time Apple released 10.9.1, Apple must have known about the issue of WD software repartitioning external hard drives. WD had already released a pubic statement to that effect.

 

So at the very least, Apple missed an opportunity to protect users updating to 10.9.1 by scanning their boot partition and warning them about any WD software found causing possible external drive problems BEFORE updating to 10.9.1.

The problem with that is it is only the OS installer that scans for incompatible software. At present, there is no code in the OS updaters for that.  It might be possible to add that capability to the updaters, but it isn't as simple as identifying & moving PPC apps to the incompatible software folder since the WD software installs system level components (like the launch daemons) as well as the applications, support files, etc. That added capability would have to be tested to make sure it works as intended & doesn't cause any other problems. All that takes time, & it is hard to know if Apple could do that given the relatively short interval between the discovery of the problem & the release of the 10.9.1 update.

 

Of course, it is certainly worth sending Apple feedback about that. It won't help with this issue but maybe it will with some future one.

 

Drew Reece wrote:

Isn't the same true of Flash and Java? They were allowed by the user at install time and now Apple blocks them.

Yes, OS X blocks those items, but they are just plugins & as mentioned here, even so Apple had to update the web plug-in-blocking mechanism to do that. Blocking the system level parts of the WD software utilities would probably require another, potentially more complex, update.

 

Both of the above are good ideas that I think Apple should hear about, but neither is something that can be implemented using the existing mechanisms built into the OS.

I have waited, rather than install Mavericks straight away.  Same as I have done with previous major updates to Mac OS X. I always assume there will be problems with first releases and tend to wait until all the bugs (or as many as possible) have been ironed out.  From the above I have no doubt that R C-R will know what I mean.

I did consider installing Mavericks immediately on this occasion but, when I researched it, I immediately came across this thread. Which of course stopped my in my tracks.

Not long after WD emailed me directly about the problem and advised me to either hang fire with the Mavericks; de-install WD RAID Manager before installing Mavericks or, if I had already fallen into the mire, not to use my external HDD until they could identify and fix the problem.

WD subsequently contacted me with an update to WD RAID Manager. It is now version 1.1.5 (1.1.5).  Was 1.1.4.

Apple has also now issued Mac OX 10.9.1.

So presumably it is now okay for me to upgrade to Mavericks, if I so wish.  Any other problems, anybody?

By the way, does anyone know why it is Mavericks (plural) rather than Maverick (singular)?  I won't bother asking this question elsewhere.

Run the HFS scan for the free version of Disk Drill. Be patient, and the drive will magically mount halfway through the scan. As long as the drive is displayed in Disk utility, then the program will rebuild the partition table.

It was too coincidental that the drive wouldn't mount after restoring from a backup of Mavericks. It's odd because I've used this same drive with Mavericks before on the same MacBook.

I really hope this helps everyone!

Good Luck!

I just wanted to post my experience, hoping that it might help someone.

A few hours after reinstalling Mavericks (for an issue I was having with mail), my WD Elements became unrecognized by my Mac Mini.  I then plugged it into my MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard and it would not recognize the drive either.  The next day I tried it again with the laptop, it mounted and I was able to recover the data.

I then tried it again with the Mini and it became unrecognizable.  Repeated with the MBP and it was unrecognizable again. 

Then I waited about 10 minutes and hooked it up to the MacBook Pro and everything was fine -- all the files were there.

It seems that if you disconnect it (including power), wait a while, then connect it to an older version of OS X, the drive will work so you can at least recover the data.

billdolan wrote:

 

Then I waited about 10 minutes and hooked it up to the MacBook Pro and everything was fine -- all the files were there.

 

It seems that if you disconnect it (including power), wait a while, then connect it to an older version of OS X, the drive will work so you can at least recover the data.

I think GetRealBro noted this earlier in the thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/24175172#24175172

Your disk may have the 'long fsck' that causes it to take eons to mount on 10.9, there are several issues being documented here, so you will need to go back for the correct info.

Thank you!  I'll check it out.

billdolan wrote:

 

...A few hours after reinstalling Mavericks (for an issue I was having with mail), my WD Elements became unrecognized by my Mac Mini.  I then plugged it into my MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard and it would not recognize the drive either.  The next day I tried it again with the laptop, it mounted and I was able to recover the data.

 

I then tried it again with the Mini and it became unrecognizable.  Repeated with the MBP and it was unrecognizable again. 

 

Then I waited about 10 minutes and hooked it up to the MacBook Pro and everything was fine -- all the files were there....

What size is your WD elements drive (e.g. 1T, 2T, etc)? And roughly how long did your drive take to mount correctly in Snow Leopard (e.g. was it seconds or minutes)?

FWIW in my testing on a Firewire 800, 3T Seagate I was able to document numerous occasions where the drive would not mount for 8 min. due to a "long fsck_hfs" run, because the file system was "dirty". I was unable to determine the cause of the underlying "dirty" file system. But if anything... leaving the drive unplugged (i.e. from A/C) and detached from my MBP, which I did every night, slightly INCREASED the odds that the drive would experience a "long fsck" when I tried to subsequently mount it.

--GetRealBro

It's a 1.5T drive.  I waited between 5 - 10 minutes -- unplugged and detached. 

Side note --I left it plugged in all the time on the MBP and for the last couple of weeks on the new Mac Mini.  When I got the Mini, I attached the drive after setting it up and transferring everithing from the MBP which it is replacing.  I only encountered the problem after reinstalling Mavericks to solve an issue I was having with Mail.  During the reinstall, the drive was plugged in and connected.

It's worth seeing if you have any WD software installed (it's unclear to me if the 'new mini' was migrated from another Mac - it can bring old apps & extensions over).

See https://discussions.apple.com/message/24169618#24169618 …or my earlier version…

https://discussions.apple.com/message/24086650#24086650

Yes I used the migration tool.  I'll check out your posts.  Thank you!

billdolan wrote:

 

It's a 1.5T drive.  I waited between 5 - 10 minutes -- unplugged and detached...

My question was not about how long you left your drive detached. But rather, how long it took for your drive to mount (i.e. it’s icon to appear on your desktop) after you attached it.

If your drive always mounts quickly (e.g. a few seconds) you are not experiencing the “long fsck” issue, where OSX runs the longer version of the file system check (AKA fsck_hfs) to fix a damaged (“dirty”) directory structure.

I’d follow up on Drew’s advice and verify that you do NOT have any WD software installed as a result of using the migration tool ASAP.

—GetRealBro