PLEASE HELP: Hard Drive Mounts Though Is Unuseable

[justin_hannan]

Hi all,

I'd very much appreciate any insight into fixing the following problem.

I have a Seagate 2TB External Hard-Drive. I am able to plug this into my Macbook 15" Pro running 10.15.3 Catalina, and the drive will mount. The drive is format in MACOS Journaled.

However, when I try access the files on the drive, one of three things will happen:

1) Finder will freeze/crash
2) Finder will show and get stuck on 'loading'
3) Finder will show the top file structure, but be too slow to access or take any action to the files.

Other notable traits:

So far I have tried the following:
1) Reset computer
2) Attempt hard-drive first aid using disk utility, when I do this I receive the error: Operation Failed, volume could not be unmounted."

All I would like to do is be able to copy the files and save to my computer to avoid future file loss (have my old family photos on this drive). I have investigated 'drive recovery' tools, but the files don't appear to be lost, I'm just struggling to be able to take any action on them (eg. copy to my computer).

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

Usually when an external drive can not be unmounted by Disk Utility, that indicates the possibility of drive failure or a hardware problem. The data itself may be okay but the drive electronics are not. It may be possible to recover your files with third party recovery tools or remove the drive from its enclosure and then use an adapter to copy the files. No assurance either way that your data can be copied. Also, removing the drive from the enclosure voids its warranty.

 

[justin_hannan]

Thanks so much for the insight. I'll try these two options!

Cheers.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

You don't say what country you are in. If in the U.S. check out:

"$300 Drive Recovery"
http://www.300dollardatarecovery.com

It's important to note that their name "$300 Drive Recovery" isn't a guaranty that the recovery of your drive will always only cost $300. A difficult recovery will cost more. However, in every case that I've heard of, the final cost for the recovery was drastically cheaper than any other quote that the user got from any other drive recovery service. Other drive recovery services are beside themselves in anger over "$300 Drive Recovery's pricing, and they have tried to smear them on the Internet. It hasn't worked. "$300 Drive Recovery" offers excellent service and excellent pricing.

Five stars from Yelp:
$300 Data Recovery - 99 Photos & 460 Reviews - Data Recovery - 11390 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, Los Angeles, CA - Phone Number - Yelp

 

[ferrarr]

You didn't mention which macOS version you are using?

When you are in Disk Utility, can you confirm you have View > Show all devices/drives, enabled? Sometimes, when I get that message in Disk Utility, I select it and Unmount it, there I am able to run First Aid on the drive.

 

[justin_hannan]

@Ferrar - I am using Catalina 10.15.3

Thanks for the advice. I attempted the process you mentioned, by selecting 'show all devices/drives'. I attempted to run first aid and received the same error message. Additionally, when I tried to unmount it using Disk Utility, it crashed disk utility requiring a forced closure.

 

[Rod]

I think taking the HDD out and putting it in a different enclosure may be your best alternative. It will eliminate the mechanical factor. If the enclosure or its electrical or mechanics have failed you may not be able to access the data even if it's intact. A computer repair store might be able to help you out there.

 

[justin_hannan]

@Rod, thanks mate. I have ordered one off amazon and will try that. Fingers crossed!

 

[Rod]

Let us know the result, finger's crossed.