Mac – WD external hard drive got disconnected without eject

external-diskhard drivemacmountpartition

So my WD External Hard Drive wasn't ejected properly. It shows up in Terminal and Disk Utility, however it is unable to mount. When trying First Aid, I always get these results:

Repairing file system.
File system check exit code is 8.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
An internal error has occurred.
Operation failed…

When using diskutil list , these are my results 

Cristians-MacBook-Pro:~ cristianmanuel$
 diskutil list 
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:      TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:   GUID_partition_scheme    *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:     EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:    Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD        20.5 GB   disk0s2
   3:    Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #: TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD   +120.1 GB   disk1
  Logical Volume on disk0s2
    A58A8705-F3C3-4ED1-AF90-18B03FE6F6C3
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:  TYPE NAME       SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:  GUID_partition_scheme    *4.0 TB     disk2
   1:  EFI EFI              209.7 MB        disk2s1
   2:  Apple_HFS Self Work    4.0 TB     disk2s2

What should I try next?

Best Answer

What should I try next?

Remove the drive from the WD enclosure and use a different enclosure/cable to test the drive.

Basically, you have to go through the process of elimination to figure out what your next steps are, if any. There are two possibilities here:

  • The drive has failed
  • The enclosure (USB to SATA controller) has failed.

(I detail this more in this post)

If it's the drive that failed, your only option is to send it in for recovery. If the USB enclosure has failed, you can salvage the situation by removing the drive and putting it into a different enclosure or connecting it with a USB to SATA cable (see the linked post for details).

How will you know which is the problem? You won't until you remove the drive and connect it to a known working USB to SATA enclosure/cable.

Backing up your data

You're using a 4TB external drive with a 128GB internal drive meaning that 4TB drive is your "main drive" for at least your Lightroom work.

You need to back this drive up

How? Get a second drive of equal or greater capacity. Then there are two ways to backup your files:

  • Use normal backup techniques like Time Machine or even the included WD Utilities.

  • Use Lightroom's built in functionality

Lightroom allows you to instantly make a backup copy of your file during import:

enter image description here

All you have to do now is backup your catalog. If one drive fails, you simply apply the catalog to the backup files and all your changes will be saved.

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