External HDD backup issues

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Level 1

8 points

External HDD backup issues

Running a MBP (7,1 - April 2010) with a 1TB WD MyBook external HDD for Time Machine. Just tried to backup my system and 1) my external drive didn't mount, and 2) Disk Util. is telling me the external drive is full (and it definitely isn't!). I've emptied the trash both while the HDD is connected and disconnected. I'm currently not able to access the HDD itself, as it won't mount.
I had this same "drive is full" thing happen with the internal HDD two weeks ago; had to reformat, safe mode, etc. Would really like to get my backup drive back without having to erase years' worth of data if possible...

Any ideas??

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jun 12, 2017 2:50 PM

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Answer 1

CSalm Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 13, 2017 7:30 AM in response to Eric Root

Eric,

Thanks for the response. I was able to find the drives within Terminal, but when running the mount commands, get the following feedback (disk2 is virtual partition where backups are stored; disk1 is address for physical WD drive):

$ diskutil mount /dev/disk2
disk2 is a CoreStorage Logical Volume which failed to mount
$ diskutil mount /dev/disk1
Volume on disk1 timed out waiting to mount
$ diskutil mount force /dev/disk1
Usage: diskutil mount [readOnly] [-mountPoint Path] DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
Mount will mount the volume in the "standard" place (/Volumes), unless
an optional mount point is specified.

At this point, I'm not sure if the drives are actually mounted and hidden from me somehow, or if they are just generally failing to mount. Even if they are mounted/do mount, this wouldn't address the random fill-up of the disk space.

Thanks again for the help - it at least feels like I'm moving in the right direction.

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Answer 2

CSalm Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 13, 2017 9:22 AM in response to BobHarris

Hi Bob, thanks.

It looks like the only system that's mounted is my internal drive. I've run the commands both you and Eric suggested and keep getting met with the issues I pasted above ^

Here's what I'm currently getting back:

$ diskutil mount /dev/disk1
Volume on disk1 timed out waiting to mount
$ diskutil mount /dev/disk1s2
disk1s2 is a FileVault or Fusion Drive physical volume; use "diskutil coreStorage list" to find its logical volume, which you can then unlock (if necessary) and mount
$ diskutil mount /dev/disk2
disk2 is a CoreStorage Logical Volume which failed to mount

Again, disk1 is the physical external HDD (disk2 is listed as "external, virtual" when running diskutil list)

Apart from getting the drive mounted, I'm still no closer to understanding why the entire 3TB drive is reading as full. Prior to last successful backup, it had at least 50% disk space free.

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