I'm stuck. This can't be the end.
Posted: 12 Nov 2017, 04:36
Ok, here we go.
There is a Folder I need to recover off of a 4tb external drive that was originally formatted Mac-Journaled. Here's what happened:
I mistakenly attempted to erase the disk through Disk Utility. However, there was an error. The disk was not re-formatted. However, after this error, the partition (named SFX) would not mount. In addition, Disk Utility could see the disk, but the partition to mount was greyed-out and listed as "unknown" Yet, when I would do s disk util list command in the Terminal. . I could see the "name" of the partition (SFX).
My first step was to attempt a fsck repair. However, this was unsuccessful and nothing changed. This is when I discovered TestDisk, and hoped it would make the save.
After discovering through trial and error that Testdisk could not analyze a HFS partition or see it's filesystem, I tried to write the Partition I did see through the Analyze menu. I could see my "SFX" partition. In fact, it was listed twice, and I followed all the various step by step instructions I could find, and attempted to re-write the partition structure.
Now when I opened Disk Utility it would see my drive again, however when I would attempt a disk verify or "first aid" I would receive a invalid b-tree node error.
My trouble shooting continued. I tried changing the partition type through TestDisk to possibly try to see my data. This was probably a bad move, but there aren't very straight forward instructions out there for a noob such as myself. I changed the type to MS Data. Now when I attempted to mount the disk, I would get the "This drive must be initialized" warning. I would hit ignore, crack open Testdisk and try some more stuff.
I changed the partition back to HFS and made an image of my entire 4tb drive. This took 3 days. At the end of it, I received a warning saying that the drive I was copying to was not large enough (even though it was a 4Tb drive.) However the 4Tb image.DD file was there. I renamed it dmg, and double clicked- The warning I got was that it did not recognize the Filesystem. I could not mount the image.
At this point, I was kind of desperate here and trying a lot of things, so my memory is a bit fuzzy. I tried using testDisk on the image, but I could not get it to work. So now, the drive still will not mount. I am currently running another "Deeper search" one last time. It seems that I am running into a bad sector as well. I plan on posting the log from this attempt when it's done, but if anyone has any insight on what I could do with the disk OR the image at this point, it would be greatly appreciated.
There is a Folder I need to recover off of a 4tb external drive that was originally formatted Mac-Journaled. Here's what happened:
I mistakenly attempted to erase the disk through Disk Utility. However, there was an error. The disk was not re-formatted. However, after this error, the partition (named SFX) would not mount. In addition, Disk Utility could see the disk, but the partition to mount was greyed-out and listed as "unknown" Yet, when I would do s disk util list command in the Terminal. . I could see the "name" of the partition (SFX).
My first step was to attempt a fsck repair. However, this was unsuccessful and nothing changed. This is when I discovered TestDisk, and hoped it would make the save.
After discovering through trial and error that Testdisk could not analyze a HFS partition or see it's filesystem, I tried to write the Partition I did see through the Analyze menu. I could see my "SFX" partition. In fact, it was listed twice, and I followed all the various step by step instructions I could find, and attempted to re-write the partition structure.
Now when I opened Disk Utility it would see my drive again, however when I would attempt a disk verify or "first aid" I would receive a invalid b-tree node error.
My trouble shooting continued. I tried changing the partition type through TestDisk to possibly try to see my data. This was probably a bad move, but there aren't very straight forward instructions out there for a noob such as myself. I changed the type to MS Data. Now when I attempted to mount the disk, I would get the "This drive must be initialized" warning. I would hit ignore, crack open Testdisk and try some more stuff.
I changed the partition back to HFS and made an image of my entire 4tb drive. This took 3 days. At the end of it, I received a warning saying that the drive I was copying to was not large enough (even though it was a 4Tb drive.) However the 4Tb image.DD file was there. I renamed it dmg, and double clicked- The warning I got was that it did not recognize the Filesystem. I could not mount the image.
At this point, I was kind of desperate here and trying a lot of things, so my memory is a bit fuzzy. I tried using testDisk on the image, but I could not get it to work. So now, the drive still will not mount. I am currently running another "Deeper search" one last time. It seems that I am running into a bad sector as well. I plan on posting the log from this attempt when it's done, but if anyone has any insight on what I could do with the disk OR the image at this point, it would be greatly appreciated.