I'm attempting to mount my nearly filled up 1TB Mac OS Extended External Hard Drive to my MacBook Air 13" which is running MacOS Catalina 10.15.7. When I do this, the media drive mounts onto the computer (disk2), but the actual drive itself (disk2s2) is refusing to mount. Running 'First Aid' on disk2s2 results in "Invalid catalogue PEOF". sudo fsck_hfs -r -d /dev/disk2s2 returns same results.
From Disk Utility:
Running First Aid on “” (disk2s2)
Repairing file system.
Volume is already unmounted.
Performing fsck_hfs -fy -x /dev/rdisk2s2
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Invalid catalogue PEOF
The volume could not be verified completely.
File system check exit code is 8.
Restoring the original state found as unmounted.
File system verify or repair failed. : (-69845)Operation failed…
From sudo fsck_hfs -r -d /dev/disk2s2:
journal_replay(/dev/disk2s2) returned 0 ** /dev/rdisk2s2 Using cacheBlockSize=32K cacheTotalBlock=16384 cacheSize=524288K. Executing fsck_hfs (version hfs-522.100.5). ** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume. Invalid catalog PEOF (4, 0) ** The volume could not be verified completely. volume check failed with error 7 volume type is pure HFS+ primary MDB is at block 0 0x00 alternate MDB is at block 0 0x00 primary VHB is at block 2 0x02 alternate VHB is at block 1952853342 0x74662d5e sector size = 512 0x200 VolumeObject flags = 0x07 total sectors for volume = 1952853344 0x74662d60 total sectors for embedded volume = 0 0x00 CheckHFS returned -1317, fsmodified = 0
Please keep in mind that I'm trying to stay away from DiskWarrior or any other paid tool, so it would be amazing if it can be repaired manually or with a free tool.
Thanks!
Edit: I've run a quick search on the disk with testdisk. The disk with the problem is /dev/disk3. Here's what it says:
Thu May 6 16:43:45 2021 Command line: TestDisk TestDisk 7.1, Data Recovery Utility, July 2019 Christophe GRENIER <> OS: Darwin, kernel 19.6.0 (Darwin Kernel Version 19.6.0: Tue Jan 12 22:13:05 PST 2021; root:xnu-6153.141.16~1/RELEASE_X86_64) x86_64 Compiler: GCC 4.2 ext2fs lib: none, ntfs lib: none, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: none, curses lib: ncurses 5.7 Hard disk list Disk /dev/disk2 - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - 3907029168 sectors (RO), sector size=512 Disk /dev/disk3 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - 1953525168 sectors, sector size=512 Disk /dev/rdisk2 - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - 3907029168 sectors (RO), sector size=512 Disk /dev/rdisk3 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - 1953525168 sectors, sector size=512 Disk /dev/rdisk4 - 2000 GB / 1862 GiB - 488327436 sectors (RO), sector size=4096 Partition table type (auto): EFI GPT Disk /dev/disk3 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB Partition table type: EFI GPT Analyse Disk /dev/disk3 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - 1953525168 sectors hdr_size=92 hdr_lba_self=1 hdr_lba_alt=1953525167 (expected 1953525167) hdr_lba_start=34 hdr_lba_end=1953525134 hdr_lba_table=2 hdr_entries=128 hdr_entsz=128 Current partition structure: 1 P EFI System 40 409639 409600 [EFI System Partition] 2 P Mac HFS 409640 1953262983 1952853344 search_part() Disk /dev/disk3 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - 1953525168 sectors FAT32 at 40/0/1 check_FAT: Unusual media descriptor (0xf0!=0xf8) FAT1 : 32-3182 FAT2 : 3183-6333 start_rootdir : 6334 root cluster : 2 Data : 6334-409599 sectors : 409600 cluster_size : 1 no_of_cluster : 403266 (2 - 403267) fat_length 3151 calculated 3151 heads/cylinder 16 (FAT) != 1 (HD) sect/track 32 (FAT) != 1 (HD) FAT32 at 40/0/1 EFI System 40 409639 409600 [EFI System Partition] [EFI] FAT32, blocksize=512, 209 MB / 200 MiB HFSX magic value at 409640/0/1 HFSX magic value at 409640/0/1 part_size 1952853344 Mac HFS 409640 1953262983 1952853344 HFSX blocksize=4096 + Backup, 999 GB / 931 GiB Results P EFI System 40 409639 409600 [EFI System Partition] [EFI] FAT32, blocksize=512, 209 MB / 200 MiB P Mac HFS 409640 1953262983 1952853344 HFSX blocksize=4096 + Backup, 999 GB / 931 GiB Edit 2: Disk Utility instantly fails to create an image.
Creating disk image from “ADATA HD710 Media” (disk3)
Operation cancelled.
testdisk takes really long time to create an image. Takes 10 minutes just to finish 0.01%. This is a last resort for me. It would be better if the drive could be repaired with the data still preserved in it.
Edit 3: I'm ok if a small amount of recent data gets removed/corrupted, because they were large files being downloaded to the computer, then being transferred to the hard drive.
Edit 4: DiskDrill fails to rebuild the HFS+ catalog.
Edit 5: I've gone through the hard drive with Hex Fiend, and everything is still there. But I don't know what to change in the hex data so that the PEOF becomes correct. I can see the file names, and I can file contents in there, for example, I can see some JSON from one of my JSON files.
3 Answers
DiskWarrior is quite probably the only tool that could fix the drive non-destructively. Everything else is going to just be to scavenge what it can find of your data, not fix the drive. Testdisk is probably the only free tool worth looking at.
0If the disk is not mounting, then you will likely have to spend some money on a repair utility or a data recovery application, if the data is important and has no backup.
Although you have specified that you are not interested in commercial software, I list below some such tools, if no better answer comes up. You may ask around your friends or nearby repair-shops that might have one of the below-mentioned products, which you may use freely or at least cheaply. These products have demo versions that you can try to see how effective they would be, to see if they are worth searching for (or buying).
Stellar Data Recovery has a demo version that will recover up to 1 GB of lost or deleted data, free of cost. The full version will cost €79.
Data Rescue by Prosoft Engineering has straight recovery options, but also advanced options to try to recover data from disks with physical failures. It has a demo version and has an interesting pricing model, where the price is determined by the amount of data that you wish to recover, starting from as low as $19.
DiskWarrior has a data recovery type option - it will try to rebuild and present a preview of what it thinks should be on the disk even if it can’t repair, and it might allow you to copy the data off. It is very costly at $119.95.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is a subscription product, starting from $89.95 per year.
Another tool that is available is Disk Drill, it has tree editions
