Cannot get a data recovery HD to mount

Question

Cannot get a data recovery HD to mount

Due to my iMac's HD dying, and my backup HD failing before I could recover, I had to have the backup drive recovered at a data recovery service (expensive). The HD they gave me with the recovered Time Machine backup is in exFat format. In Terminal, I was able to see the information below about it. Disk Utility sees it, and the Mount button is enabled. But it won't mount. Any ideas?

/dev/disk1 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *5.0 TB disk1

1: Microsoft Reserved 134.2 MB disk1s1

2: Microsoft Basic Data CASE3020 5.0 TB disk1s

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Sep 14, 2016 11:08 AM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

229,386 points

Sep 14, 2016 11:11 AM in response to Stanley Taylor1

See if it will mount on a Windows PC.

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Answer 2

Sep 14, 2016 11:37 AM in response to KiltedTim

I don't have a PC. Right now I'm waiting for a response from the data recovery outfit. I tried it on a different iMac, and it won't mount there either.

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Answer 3

Sep 14, 2016 11:42 AM in response to Stanley Taylor1

Here's what Disk Utility shows for the external HD that won't mount:

And when I ask for Info on the drive, I get this:

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Answer 4

Sep 14, 2016 12:22 PM in response to Stanley Taylor1

More information. When I ran Disk Utility First Aid on the drive, it got to "Checking file system hierarchy" and then apparently hung up. Nothing else has been checked, and Disk Utility is hung up. I would have to force quit it.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,341 points

Sep 14, 2016 2:09 PM in response to Stanley Taylor1

See mount section in 1st linked article.

Disk Unmount Using Terminal

Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

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Answer 6

leroydouglas

Level 10

201,004 points

Sep 14, 2016 1:56 PM in response to Stanley Taylor1

Stanley Taylor1 wrote:

The HD they gave me with the recovered Time Machine backup is in exFat format.

Right now I'm waiting for a response from the data recovery outfit.

The data recovery outfit did you no favors in this regard.

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,308 points

Sep 15, 2016 10:51 AM in response to Stanley Taylor1

The HD they gave me with the recovered Time Machine backup is in exFat format.

leroydouglas pretty much nailed it, here:

The data recovery outfit did you no favors in this regard.

Time Machine data cannot be stored on an ExFAT drive because ExFAT does not understand hard links to folders (actually, it doesn't support hard links at all). I imagine the Data Recovery people don't understand that, either.

It should have been restored to a GUID partition table, OS X Extended (Journaled) drive. However, I imagine their data recovery software might be completely confused by the hard links to folders, also.

If you can manage to mount the drive, you should be able to manually dig through the folders and copy the data from the external to the internal.

Do you know somebody with a PC where you could try to see if it will mount?

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Answer 8

Sep 15, 2016 10:54 AM in response to Barney-15E

The data recovery people are now trying another copy on to a mac OS extended formatted drive. But I'm guessing what they have is some kind of an image captured from the original failed backup drive.

I'm wondering what my best strategy will be. Should I try to find someone with a PC and then just copy files. Data files are easy to find and copy. But other files and apps I'm not so sure.

I'm beginning to give up hope.

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