Mac Can’t Repair External Hard Drive. How to Resolve?
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Summary: The purpose of this blog is to help you repair corrupt external hard drive on Mac. The blog shares three do-it-yourself methods to fix the drive and recover the data.
Data recovery from corrupt external drive is feasible. Free download the software to self-evaluate. |
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It could be nightmarish if you have got the below message through Disk Utility while repairing an external hard drive formatted with APFS or HFS.
Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk and restore your backed-up files.
The above message doesn’t show up in normal circumstances of external hard disk errors. In most cases, the Disk Utility is vigorous enough to repair an external drive and even your start-up disk. But if the external hard drive is beyond the repair scope of the Disk Utility, then it could be possible that the directory structure of the drive is corrupt severely.
Don’t panic, the below 3 activities could be performed when Disk Utility fails to repair an external hard drive. Further, try Mac external hard drive recovery software as a last resort.
1) Backup External Hard Drive Data
You can try copy and paste all files from the corrupt external or internal hard drive to another destination. But doing this may also result in copying errors to another location. Moreover, the corruption may not allow you to copy & paste all the files from the disk.
2) Fix Mac hard drive using FSCK
You might have luck with FSCK command line.
To run fsck command you have to restart Mac and log in as ADMIN. Launch Terminal, enter df -h1 and press Return. Use of df-h1 will let you know the path of the internal disk drive.
Use below line
sudo fsck_hfs -r -d /dev/disk1s1
The command (-r) in the above code will recreate Catalog B – Tree. It will help you fix Invalid B-tree node problem occurred on the disk drive. It will further resolve errors like –
- Invalid count
- Invalid key length
- Invalid volume file count
- Invalid volume directory count
- Invalid volume free block count, and likewise.
3) Recover External Drive using Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac
Though helpful, FSCK isn’t the sure shot method to repair the corrupt external/internal hard drive. You might need the help of a professional external hard drive recovery software for Mac. Stellar Data Recovery Professional is a sophisticated application to scan and recover your APFS or HFS drive.
Step 1) Connect your external drive and launch Stellar Data Recovery Professional on your Mac. Customize your scan as shown below.
Step 2) Select your external hard drive and toggle on Deep Scan feature. The deep scan feature scans all the sectors of the external hard drive to bring back lost data. Otherwise, stick with Quick Scan to recover the file-structure. Press the Scan button.
Step 3) After the external hard drive scans complete, navigate through the Classic list, File or Deleted List to view and preview your files.
Step 4) If you have activated the Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac then you will be able to recover or save your files conveniently.
Video Tutorial – Mac External Hard Drive Recovery
Conclusion
Not just the corrupt HFS drive or volume but you can leverage & activate Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac to image an APFS external hard drive for the purpose of data recovery.
The process to do the job will be the same as mentioned in the sequential steps and the video tutorial.
About The Author
Vishal
Vishal is a data recovery expert @Stellar. He addresses data loss scenarios on a Mac. He intends to help people solve their macOS problems. Besides, Vishal prefers to read autobiographies, and his personal favorite is of Steve Jobs.
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HI Vishal,
Good day. I have a 2TB time capsule and we were using it to centrally store files, photos and videos.
The Time capsule started failing and now we are not able to see the files any longer in finder.
We proceeded to disassemble TC in order to remove the hard disk (seagate) and connect it directly to a MacBook Air (using SATA adapter). We are able to see the files directly in finder but it is not allowing us to back up or to copy the files to another external hard disk. (even more, the system is really slow)
Would you recommend Stellar Volumen repair? The disk utility of the MacBook Air is showing messages that the hard disk is failing and cannot be repaired and that we should back up information as soon as possible.
Thanks for your guidance.
Hello Alex,
I would like to inform that Stellar Volume Repair software is discontinued.
Which Mac are you using right now? Are you getting any messages when you try to copy the files to another destination? I would recommend you to select the drive and press Command + I to get more info window. In this window, please check if you have permissions to read/write files on the mentioned drive. If permissions are set correctly then you can copy the files without any problem.
Please let me know further.
Hi.
I have tried to repair a damaged APFS WD 4T external drive with fsck but always get the error of invalid key length (fsck_hfs -r -d /dev/disk4s2). This is a brand new HD!
Paul
Hi Paul, Try using the command “sudo fsck_apfs -r -d /dev/disk4s2” then press Return. Provide the admin credentials to initiate the repair process. Thanks
Hello,
I had a hard drive crash due to physically damaged with vital files, which include video, documents, images, etc. Stellar Data Recovery is able to recover everything which I needed! But my hard drive physical condition was so bad. I reached your support team via call, and they recovered my whole data. I really thankful to you.
Hello Fredric,
We glad to know our technical support team helped you to recover your data from crashed hard drive.
Can this software also helps me in SSD hard drive recovery?
Hello Maryann,
SSD hard drive recovery is fully supported by Stellar Mac Data Recovery software.
My SSD just died, for a couple of weeks I had typing issues and it started typing symbols, so I thought maybe it was the battery, removed it, worked fine for an hr or so, then back to same probs, eventually I was accessing from second Mac paired. then it just stopped working. As an external, I get : com.apple.diskmanagement error 69874 operation failed …
On disk Utilities I get : Size of Mass Storage Device media 11.4 TB !!!!!!!
The SSD size is 600GB intel ssd dc s3500 !
Media Info says Can not be verified, can not be repaired, not bootable, NO solid state, S.M.A.R.T. status NOT supported .
Is there any hope in recovering data, really important documents on desktop and some 550GB of audio and video ……
We recommend to use Stellar Volume Repair software to repair the hard drive because it is a case of corrupted Hard drive. Our software is compatible with Mac OS Sierra 10.12, 10.11, 10.10, 10.9, 10.8, 10.7 and 10.6.
Kindly try the demo version of Stellar Volume Repair from the below link:
[DMG Removed since Stellar Volume Repair is discontinued] Read more https://www.stellarinfo.com/article/stellar-volume-repair-alternatives.php
If you face any issue regarding the functionality of any of our software then please write an email to support[@]stellarinfo.com
I want to know how to fix APFS Volume Invalid error on Mac OS High Sierra and how to recover data from this APFS drive?
If your files are lost from APFS drive, you need to perform data recovery on this drive and later reformat the drive to fix this issue. In case your files are still there in the drive, just take the backup of your data and reformat the drive.
Hello, I am trying out Stellar Volume Repair for and external USB drive (Seagate 3TB).
When the application opens it showed both my external drives with just the icon and no other information. To make sure I did not affect the other volume I first ejected the good volume and then unplugged it. I then selected the remaining icon. The applicaiton immediately disappeared. I restarted it and the problem disk no longer showed up. So I unplugged the bad drive and plugged it back in, then restarted the application. Same thing happened again.
Please let us know the following details in order to analyze your issue:
1. Reason for corruption
2. Version of Mac installed.
3. Size of the Hard Drive.
4. What is the file system of the drive/partition?
5. Screenshot of Disk Utility displaying the Hard Drive.
Hoping for your kind cooperation.
Hello TJ,
Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery
As you have two MacBook Pro machine and both have Mac OSX 10.9 Mavericks so you can create a bootable USB from your working Mac machine.
Once you have successfully created a bootable USB then you can use it to boot your non-working Mac and to repair the volume.
Please feel free to get back to us for any further query.
Hello,
I am trying to repair an already malfunctioning startup drive on my 2014 macbook pro on 10.9 osx mavericks. I have a secondary macbook pro of a similar year with the same OS. however the stellar repair software says that it can only make a bootable usb of the startup drive of my secondary computer. Can I still use such a usb to repair my first macbook pro?
Hello,
Can Stellar Volume Repair fix the “Invalid catalog PEOF” error?
Hi Leonard,
Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.
Stellar Volume Repair does repair volume errors and damaged directory.
We recommend you to try the demo version of the software to check the possibility of repair for your volume.
Link: [DMG Removed since Stellar Volume Repair is discontinued] Read more https://www.stellarinfo.com/article/stellar-volume-repair-alternatives.php
Please feel free to get back to us for any further query.
Hello Vishal,
I downloaded the demo version of the software but I was not able to create a bootable USB until I paid for the registration key? Is this normal? Anyway, I did not realize that I had to create the bootable USB on a computer with the SAME EXACT operating system as on my computer. Your web site says “same configuration” but does not explain exactly what that means. Therefore, I used my friend’s iMac (running OS X 10.13.3) to open the software and created the bootable USB. Of course, my computer (set up with OS X 10.6.8) would not boot from the USB. I called tech support this morning and they explained to me that I needed to create another bootable USB on another iMac with OS X 10.6. Again, I did not realize that before I already used the one-time-use-only registration key. The supervisor (Ronit or Ronid) who assisted me told me that he would send an email with a new regisration key. Later, another tech support person (Amit) sent me a follow-up email with instructions to create a new bootable USB but did not include a new registration key. Please understand that my HDD has the “Invalid catalog PEOF” error, therefore I cannot boot up my system in order to load your software directly to it. The only way that I can use your software is to load it onto another computer and create the bootable USB to then use in my computer to analyze and repair my HDD. If I am able to find another iMac with OS X 10.6 then I will need a new registration key as I explained during my tech support call this morning. If I am unable to find another iMac with OS X 10.6 then are there any other options to receive a bootable USB that will work on my computer? Keep in mind that I have already paid for the software.
Hello Leonard,
We would like to inform you that demo version of Stellar Volume Repair does not allow to create a bootable USB.
Once the software has been purchased then bootable USB can be created for repairing the boot volume of a mac system. As your system is not booting up so you need to create a bootable USB on another Mac with the same configuration.
In case you are unable to find another iMac with OS X 10.6 then unfortunately bootable USB cannot be created. However you can use Stellar Mac Data Recovery software if you wish to recover the data from your Mac system.
Please feel free to get back to us for any further query
Hello, I don’t have any USB right now, can I run the Repair option with an external drive instead??
Hi Carlose,
If you are asking to repair a corrupt HFS external drive then yes you don’t need to create a bootable USB. Is that what you are trying to say?
Hey! Third time this year my MacBook has crashed and each time the apple service guys completely rebooted my device with new software and none of times it could sav any of my data. Today it’s happened again. My MacBook starts and half way through it shuts down on its own. And I did the fsck thing and it said the volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired. Can you please guide me? Thanks
Hey Shika,
Did every time your hard drive was changed? If no, then your device must be failing. I can recommend you a couple of things.
1) For logical damages: try Stellar Volume Repair tool to rebuild and repair corrupt Macintosh HD directory structure.
2) For physical damages: replace the HDD.
I have launched the Stellar Volume Repair, it’s been running the verification mode for the last 3 hours. How long will that whole process including repair take? Approximately. It’s 250GB disk.
Thanks
Hi kasia,
Please go through the article. https://www.stellarinfo.com/support/kb/index.php/article/stellar-volume-optimizer-long-repair-time
Disk utility gives me this error
“Rebuilding catalog B-tree
The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired.
Volume repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for volume as required.
Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk,and restore your backed-up files.”
I am much concerned with the the volume macintosh hd could not be repaired. Please provide some help.
iMac 2015
2 TB Internal Hard Drive
8 GB RAM
macOS Sierra 10.12.2
Hey Ted,
Your hard drive is corrupt and needs to get repaired using professional software. Try Stellar Volume Repair for macOS Sierra to create a bootable USB for repairing corrupt startup disk i.e. Macintosh HD. It will resolve the problem of The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired.
Thanks.
Mac hard drive cannot be repaired with Terminal.app. It’s failing fast throwing catalog errors which I am unable to understand fully? How rebuilding catalog b-tree on Macintosh HD is done?
Hi Frank,
Your must try Stellar Volume Repair software for rebuilding catalog b-tree on Macintosh HD if Disk utility or no other command is able to fix it.
Thanks.
As of now i am in office, but the error says: Disk Utility cant repair it. Backup as many files as you can. and there was an error number as well.
Hi Virendra,
Our support team will reach you through your email id. Thanks.
Hi Vishal,
Details are as below:
macOS 10.12.1
WD My Passport 1TB
Ext Harddrive is not password protected.
Thanks for the information Virendra.
I would like to inform you that Stellar Volume Repair is not yet compatible with the macOS sierra 10.12.
Thanks.
Then How come my interal SSD and bootcamp partition are visible in Volume Repair if it is not compatible?
Hello Virendra,
Is your external hard drive showing up in the Disk Utility (even as unmounted)?
Yes, it is showing there as unmounted and first aid runs with errors.
What does it say? Can you send me the screenshot of the error at my mail id vishal.chaudhary@stellarinfo.com?
My External hard drive(HFS+) formatted is not visible in Volume Repair…What should i do?
Hello Virendra,
What version of OSX you are running and is your external hard drive password protected. Also, let us know the model of your ex-hdd.
Thanks.
Can Stellar Volume Repair speed up my MacBook Pro 2012?
Hi James,
Thanks for writing to us!!!
Definitely, if your Mac startup disk is slowing down due to corruption, bad disk permissions or damaged directory structure then Stellar Volume Repair will repair the damages and re-create the directory structure. This will surely optimize and improve the performance of your MacBook Pro. I also recommend you run Stellar Speedup Mac utility to clean up your Mac hard drive and maintain at-most 15% of free spaces. Here, you can avail both the software at discounted price – Register Stellar Drive ToolBox.
Hope this helps!!
Vishal
the fsck -r -d worked great! Thanks for a really helpful article.
I am writing in the midst of a blunder where I have accidentally restored OS X Yosemite DMG file to my WD external hard drive formatted with HFS+ partition scheme. Now my WD hard drive partitions aren’t mounting on Disk Utility. Is there any way to get back partitions and fix the file structure that got damaged?
Hi Gillock, not just the hard drive needs to get repaired but your data also requires recovery. I recommend you register Stellar Mac Data Recovery Platinum Edition to recover files from the hard drive and then repair it with Volume Optmizer application which is included in the Edition.
I am trying to create a USB disk to boot my old iMac whose drive is bad but the USB is freezing and not taking me beyond loading so that I can access my iMac hard drive. Any recommendations?
Kathy, may be because the bootable USB isn’t prepared correctly. You may order Stellar Volume Repair with a bootable USB support which will boot up your Mac OS X and repair the corruption on the Macintosh HDD.
Hi,
My 2-years old Mac crashed suddenly and only window I can be able to see in my Mac is OS X Utilities with 4 different options. I already know that I have to pick “Disk Utility”. So I did. I select “Macintosh HD” (it’s grey) from left side and hit “Repair Disk” (“Verify Disk Permissions” and “Repair Disk Permissions” are grey) and got the error: “Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the drive, and restore your backed-up files.” How can I back up my files? Please help me!
Mac OS X Yosemite
I recommend you to take the backup of your hard drive and then fix your hard drive using the help of FSCK command. If the FSCK command is unable to correct it, then fix the drive with the help of Stellar Volume Repair Software. It will rebuild the corrupt directory structure and also bring your data back.
Can Volume Repair rebuild NTFS drive?
No. Stellar Volume Repair software supports HFS, HFS+ formatted hard disk drives.
Do you have this software available for Windows? I have Toshiba NTFS formatted drive which is not showing up on my Windows 10 machine. How should I repair it?
Hello Craig,
Unfortunately, Stellar Volume Repair works only for Mac OS X (HFS). We recommend you do some search for a similar product that can repair your NTFS formatted drive.
Hi Vishal,
My disk utility is failing to repair disk permissions on my Mac Pro. Will Stellar Volume Repair fix this issue without registration?
Regards Paul.
Hello Mr. Paul,
Yes, Stellar Volume Repair will fix your bad disk permissions without registration. However, in order to repair damaged directory structure or Invalid B tree node error you need to activate it.
Regards
Vishal
Hi Josh, Sorry for the late reply.
Stellar Partition Manager isn’t a repair software. It creates, resizes, deleted, hide & reveal partitions on Macintosh HD. In order to repair your hard drive you need to download Stellar Volume Repair.
Hope this helps!!!
I have downloaded Stellar Partition Manager on my MacBook Pro system but how should I repair my partition with this tool?