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External HDD usb 3.1. (4 partitions) suddenly failed. Tried running disk utility repair and the one partition volume (mainly photos) in particular kept ejecting. Followed by the other 3 volumes soon after.
Mac OS can’t repair ((photos volume) with a big red exclamation mark. Tried Disk drill but HDD kept disconnecting. Is this a Sonoma issue?
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.7
Could very well be the external drive has a hardware failure of some sort (or the cable, or any hub/dock/adapters used with it).
Other externally connected devices could also be interfering, so disconnect all other external devices to see if that makes any difference. Also connect the drive directly to the computer. If it is already connected directly to the computer, then try using a powered USB3 hub to connect the drive to see if that makes any difference.
Have you tried rebooting your computer?
Or tried accessing the drive while booted into Safe Mode? If you are using a third party driver to manage the external drive, then Safe Mode is not an option since it would disable that driver.
You may want to check the health of the external drive by running DriveDx (free trial period). You will need to install a special USB driver in order to allow the necessary communication to attempt to access the health information of the external drive. Post the complete DriveDx text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar so I can review it. I highly recommend checking the drive health since you do not want to be touching this drive if it is failing.
FYI, if this drive contains important & unique data, then you should be backing up this drive frequently & regularly.
morpheuz7 wrote:
External HDD usb 3.1. (4 partitions) suddenly failed. Tried running disk utility repair and the one partition volume (mainly photos) in particular kept ejecting. Followed by the other 3 volumes soon after.
Mac OS can’t repair ((photos volume) with a big red exclamation mark. Tried Disk drill but HDD kept disconnecting. Is this a Sonoma issue?
This is not a Sonoma issue. We have had thousands on Macs on Sonoma where I work, most with external drives, snd we are starting to transition to Sequoia, but that after many months on Sonoma. My daughter runs a small business on a Macbook Pro with Sonoma and she has about 50 external HDDs full of raw and jpg image files.
The initial failure of one volume followed by the other three volumes later is a pattern that is consistent with hardware failure in the external drive. That is the most likely explanation. You should try a different cable (and adaptor if you are using one). If you are using a dock, try connecting directly to your Mac. The fact that your drive won't stay mounted is also indicative of hardware failure.
You probably should download and run Etrecheck, post the output here using the Additional text button below. This may reveal something installed that could cause your issue. For instance, what make/model is your external drive? Have you installed the manufacturer's hard drive utilities? If they haven't been updated to be compatible with Sonoma, that could cause a disk to malfunction.
If you can, find another Mac to test the drive on. That might narrow down the possibilities between your Mac versus the external drive being the cause.
Ok. Thanks. So yes. I had given up thinking it was hardware issue. I borrowed a very old 2011 iMac running high Sierra. The drive gave me the same error message on the one volume/partition.
BUT it did show up all the contents on the finder. As a test I even copied a bunch of folders from the “healthy” volumes first and then even from the “damaged” volume.
It was all smooth sailing, except at speeds of usb 2.0 it would take me 48 hrs to transfer all 4T of data.
So I took it back home and tried again.
The behavior was similar so I had regained hope. But as soon as I started copying a file it ejected the drive with all four volumes. Afterwards it does not show up on disk utilities. I even tried the terminal command for showing disks. No show.
Yes. I should be backing up frequently. I don’t know what I was thinking. I have learned my lesson.
Safe mode was not helpful. The behavior was the same.
I also tried drill disk and as soon as I ran a scan the disk got ejected and invisible in the disk utility.
I will try the etre check and the other software you mention. Thank you for your advice.
Mac OS cannot repair
