Upnorth Posted September 12, 2023 Share Posted September 12, 2023 I know enough to be dangerous. My WD external drive that I use for backup via Time Machine on my iMac was getting an error that cannot write to disc. We have had two power outages in the last few days so I'm thinking that is what started it. What I did probably made it worse. I have a 2T and it is full, BUT doesn't it overwrite the files once the happens, or so I think. I googled and unmounted the WD Passport and disconnected the UCB cable from the back. Plugged it back in and now iMac will not even recognize it. My Passport icon on the desktop also is completely gone. Think I just made it worse. Can you help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upnorth Posted September 12, 2023 Author Share Posted September 12, 2023 Okay, computer is healing thyself. I ran the Clean my Mac and it fixed the mounting issue, so now I am back to my original issue before I made it worse in where Time Machine could not complete my back-up as it is in read only. I googled this as well and that is what made me "unmount" the external drive and make it worse. SO I am back to before I made it worse scenario. Can you help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 Yeah, power outages will do this sort of thing to external drives. That's why I have a APC UPS for my iMac. If ejecting & reconnecting doesn't fix things, not even un-mounting via Disk Utility, then the first thing I would do is disable / turn off time machine. Then head into Disk Utility and select the drive in the left column. After that, run the First Aid Routine on the EHD within Disk Utility. Here is what mine looks like, you should be able to find it: Hopefully, First Aid will fix the drive. Don't bother repairing the permissions, it's not going to work. When the power outage hit, the drive was probably being written to or being utilized in some way by Time Machine. Which corrupted the drive. The HD itself might be fine, but you might have to format it and start fresh OR buy a new EHD if First Aid can't fix it. It really depends on how bad is bad filesystem wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upnorth Posted September 14, 2023 Author Share Posted September 14, 2023 Thank you Brian. I was really hopeful that this would fix it, but Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upnorth Posted September 14, 2023 Author Share Posted September 14, 2023 I will need to look up how to reformat this WD or may just buy a new one as I can still access the files on here I believe, and then just use it as a backup storage device for my pics Sure appreciate your help. thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 Formatting a Mac Hard Drive is pretty easy. You already know where to look as it's done in Disk Utility. I've written instructions on another thread, please follow them here. I would also avoid using any OEM Utility Software from Western Digital, Seagate and the like. Those programs aren't necessary as everything is built into the OS, AND they often cause more problems than they should. In fact, most of the time, they just get in the way and cause issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 Please keep this in mind, a Time Machine External HD should be used for Time Machine files only!! You do not ever want to store files and photos on the TM Drive along with the TM Backups. I'm not saying you are doing this, but if you are going to use that WD drive that's screwed up, you will definitely want to erase it first. I'd also invest in a UPS as it will keep your HDs powered on, along with your Mac for those power blips; you'd be surprised how a simple black-out that lasts for only 1 or 2 seconds can screw up a hard drive if it's writing while suddenly being powered off. I'm 99% sure Time Machine was doing something when you lost power, which screwed up that drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upnorth Posted September 18, 2023 Author Share Posted September 18, 2023 Thanks Brian! I ended up buying another External HD - a Toshiba Canvas Flex 2TB USB-C/USB 3.0 this time around. I didn't want to take the chance that something may just be messed up on the WD one to just erase it and start over. I will definitely format this one myself and strictly use it for TM Backups and nothing more. I will erase the old External Drive and use it for just minor files that I want to keep as a back up. Thank you for the link for instructions, and again thank you for your insight and help! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 Make sure that new HD is Partitioned and formatted correctly. You do not want a ExFAT HD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upnorth Posted September 22, 2023 Author Share Posted September 22, 2023 Absolutely. Following your directions so we are good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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