When I enter the "mount force /dev/(disc number), I get this response in Terminal:
"mount: You must specify a filesystem type with -t."
What does this refer to and what do I do to get the force mount command to execute? The file system is hfs, I think, according to Terminal's "diskutil list" result
iPhone 5s, iOS 7.1.1
Sorry. Didn't realize that. Here's the distill list. I'm trying to get Disk3 to mount, which Disk Utility won't do, saying to run a repair. When I do so, Disk Utility says that it appears to be OK. The disk shows up in Disk Utility but is greyed out. I'm trying to bring it back as a visible drive on my desktop.
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 499.2 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFSX Wally's 500 *498.9 GB disk1
Logical Volume on disk0s2
12E1F3A8-4C33-406F-A47B-65CAC4A7F21C
Unencrypted
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *15.5 GB disk2
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS Wally's 16 15.2 GB disk2s2
/dev/disk3
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1
2: Apple_HFS Wally's !T Macbook P... 999.2 GB disk3s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 784.2 MB disk3s3
I've tried option 1, and the cloned disk suffers from the same problem. It won't mount, either.
I think I tried idea 2 but couldn't get the OS X installer option to "see" the disk. I'm going to look at this again.
Hoping and thanks!
Why are you doing this? Have you tried using the Mount button in Disk Utility to mount an unmounted volume? In any case unless you provide a post of the output from the "diskutil list" command we cannot help you properly.
Then it would be mount -t hfs ...
−f Forces the revocation of write access when
trying to downgrade a filesystem mount status
from read-write to read-only.
Is this what you expect from 'force' ?
Thank you. So when I try this command in terminal, I get this;
Wallys-MacBook-Pro:~ wallyingebritson$ mount -t hfs /dev/disk3s2
usage: mount [-dfruvw] [-o options] [-t external_type] special node
mount [-adfruvw] [-t external_type]
mount [-dfruvw] special | node
Disk Utility can see and verify the disk but won't mount it. Can I make this a force mount command somehow?
Wally
When I managed to get a response in Terminal from "mount," it said it wasn't possible. Someone suggested adding force, as in "mount force /dev/disknumber
I'm a neophyte at this but hoping to be able to bring this backup drive back. (It went grey after updating Yosemite a few days back.)
Thanks for you patience with me.
Wally
Mount wants to know where you are going to mount it. The command line is NOT user friendly. You must do it exactly the way the command wants.
mount -t hfs /dev/disk3s2
This command tells mount what file system to notify when mounting. It tells mount what device has that file system. What it does not tell mount is where the file system is to be mounted. The missing argument is a directory to mount the file system on top of (the directory will disappear and be replaced by the file system on the device.
sudo mkdir /mnt
sudo mount -t hfs /dev/disk3s2 /mnt
Disk Utility can see and verify the disk but won't mount it. Can I make this a force mount command somehow?
The description from "man mount" for 'force' does not imply it will force mounting the volume. It implies that you can force a read/write file system to be read-only. Or at least that is what I interpret from the man page.
Hopefully if you get the mount command syntax correct, any error messages you get will help you know what is going on.
If the file system is damaged, then Disk Utility -> Repair is maybe the right thing to do.
OK. I'll digest this and try again. I have run Disk Utility repair and it says that the disk appears to be OK. However, after updating Yosemite a few days back (don't know if that's the cause), the repair permission button disappeared for this drive, if that's a clue.
I can see Terminal is very specific, but the Help menu for it didn't give me much help that I could use (in my ignorance).
Wally
So here's what happened when I tried the "sudo" commands (after providing my password). Am I over my head here?
Wallys-MacBook-Pro:~ wallyingebritson$ sudo mount -t hfs /dev/disk3s2 /mnt
mount_hfs: Invalid argument
Wallys-MacBook-Pro:~ wallyingebritson$ sudo mkdir /mnt
mkdir: /mnt: File exists
Wallys-MacBook-Pro:~ wallyingebritson$ sudo mount -t hfs /dev/disk3s2 /mnt
mount_hfs: Invalid argument
sudo mount -t hfs /dev/disk3s2 /mnt
mount_hfs: Invalid argument
Interesting. the -t hfs did its job, which was to tell 'mount' to use the 'mount_hfs' specific utility in order to mount an HFS file system.
But I do not know what was invalid, unless /dev/disk3s2 does not exist, but then it would more likely issue "no such file or directory". The same goes for /mnt if it didn't exist, but the preceding 'mkdir' clearly says it already exists.
Now if /mnt was not a directory, that might cause the invalid argument error (guessing on my part). Or if /dev/disk3s2 is not an HFS file system. But I would have expected a better error message. Then again the command line was more friendly then 80 column punched cards and 8-bit punched paper tape, but no where near the friendliness of a Graphical User Interface (the command line is not friendly).
Again, maybe I'll try removing the /mount piece of the argument.
By the way, when I try booting from this drive, it loads about half way and then gives me the circle crossed out sign. Are there any apps you know of that would fix this? I've used Drive Genius 4 to "rebuild" the disk, but it says that the disk appears to be OK.
idea 1) Try cloning the volume to another disk. See if it will boot from the clone. (Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utilities -> Restore, Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper).
idea 2) Install OS X over the existing OS.
idea 3) backup your data. Install OS X clean. Use migration assistant to restore your data from the backup.
Retried installing OS X out of the recovery disk (partition) and, as I thought, it doesn't see the external hard drive disk3s2. Only Disk Utility seems to be able to see it. THANKS for all the ideas and time. I may be on to Data Rescue 4 in the meantime.
Wally
PS: Macbook Pro 13 (2012 version), Yosemite 10.10.5 (just upgraded)
Yup. After skimming over the sudo man, I'm way and beyond over my head. Perhaps there's no way to make this drive visible and working again, and, if so, maybe I'm looking at data recovery.
Wally
the "mount force /dev/(disc number) command in Terminal:
