External Drives for Mac Experiencing Data Loss with Maverick OS -- UPDATED FOR NOVEMBER 6, 2013

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
61

Woodley43 wrote:

Hello Ferdo

 

Same thing happened to me.  I worked with two WD Duo archives (2x3TB, 2x4TB) set by WD Drive Manager to Raid1. After Mavericks update, they worked for a few days until a lockup while burning a CD in iTunes which required  an emergency stop, followed by a cold start. After this, both RAID1 devices were “unraided”. As WD advised, I ran the Kroll Ontrack EasyRecovery Pro Software on both unraided Disks. The copy process on a new external disk required about 10 hours for 1 TB of data. Result: 4 TB capacity, 4 TB freee, 1.2 TB used, but invisible. The bits of 15000 photos, still a pile of rubble…

 

Hi Woodley43,

Thanks for your reply. Did you saw the size that you had before the crash acknowledged in Easy Recovery when you used it to copy it?
Or did it appear as 0tb?

Also, when I connect my drive to firewire the same name it had before the crash could be seen in the LED screen. In my case “ferdo’s arc”. Only the used/free space can’t be seen like it normally is…

In my case it seems that the RAID/drive isn’t being acknowledged but it’s all there…

I don’t want to recover it yet or copy it since I still hope that it’s still possible for it be brought back to life as it was.

I’ve more than a thousand video files and a drive structure that I needed brought back in order for these to work properly - to be synched in Final Cut Pro in my case.

If I do a normal copy probably all my Final Cut Pro project files will come corrupted and unusable so the effort will be for nothing…

Can someone from WD please tell me which process should I do in Easy Recover to bring this drive back to life?

 

And I always thought that RAID1 is safe. Unfortunately, we depend on volatile software today. In the early days there were microswitches to set the RAID status of a dual drive device. That software as well as drivers today always need long reloading procedures, because there were some changes in the update of an operation system. Windows users are familiar with such occurrences. For Apple users this is rather new and started after OS X 10.5. Mavericks 10.9 was the worst so far! So it is time that programmers and computer strategists sit together and lay out  a concept for more rugged “systems” - instead of inventing new gimmicks daily…

Yeah. definetely this is something that shouldn’t pass unnoticed in months of beta testing…

62

coxorange wrote:

 

Totalsupport wrote:

As long as […] the drive should be ok.

Should…? That doesn’t sound very convincing.  What do the others think?

Please refer to OP-

http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/External-Drives-for-Mac-Experiencing-Data-Loss-with-Maverick-OS/m-p/613775#M8374

63

Does the uninstall software remove wd software from connected external drives as well  eg backup files.

64

Hello

Just a question if I updated to mavericks and dont have any wd software installed.

Can I connect my WD 6TB drive safely?

65

Hello Ferdo

The size of the two “unraided” Duos produced 4 MyBooks-Icons the used but invisible space on the four unraided disks is around 1.2 TB for one archive and 1.5 TB for the other, respectively. That is consistent with what I roughly expect.

I have documented step by step and send all that together with some screenshots to “my” WD supporter.

Almost two months ago, I had copied and streamlined my archives from noisy LaCie Quadras (FW800) to the quiet and faster Thunderbolt Duos and - unfortunately, as it turned out shortly after - reformatted the LaCies about two weeks before I updated to Mavericks. After the update, I used the Duos for about 2 days without any problems, until the lock-up during a CD burn from iTunes that made an emergency “Off” and a cold start necessary. After this, the Duos were unraided, as I stated several times …

Probably - in retrospect of some WD recommendation - I should have immediately disconnected the Duo drives to search help. However, I used Apple Drive Utilities to make a volume check - which turned out OK. I am not sure, whether this or the multiple startups - I left the Duos connected to the iMac - wiped the four EFI Icons, which also appeared on the desktop together with the four MyBook Icons. Later there were only the 4 MyBook-Icons from the two Duos displayed.

ferdo wrote:

Woodley43 wrote:

Hello Ferdo

 

Same thing happened to me.  I worked with two WD Duo archives (2x3TB, 2x4TB) set by WD Drive Manager to Raid1. After Mavericks update, they worked for a few days until a lockup while burning a CD in iTunes which required  an emergency stop, followed by a cold start. After this, both RAID1 devices were “unraided”. As WD advised, I ran the Kroll Ontrack EasyRecovery Pro Software on both unraided Disks. The copy process on a new external disk required about 10 hours for 1 TB of data. Result: 4 TB capacity, 4 TB freee, 1.2 TB used, but invisible. The bits of 15000 photos, still a pile of rubble…

 

Hi Woodley43,

 

Thanks for your reply. Did you saw the size that you had before the crash acknowledged in Easy Recovery when you used it to copy it?
Or did it appear as 0tb?

 

Also, when I connect my drive to firewire the same name it had before the crash could be seen in the LED screen. In my case “ferdo’s arc”. Only the used/free space can’t be seen like it normally is…

 

In my case it seems that the RAID/drive isn’t being acknowledged but it’s all there…

I don’t want to recover it yet or copy it since I still hope that it’s still possible for it be brought back to life as it was.

 

I’ve more than a thousand video files and a drive structure that I needed brought back in order for these to work properly - to be synched in Final Cut Pro in my case.

If I do a normal copy probably all my Final Cut Pro project files will come corrupted and unusable so the effort will be for nothing…

 

Can someone from WD please tell me which process should I do in Easy Recover to bring this drive back to life?

 

And I always thought that RAID1 is safe. Unfortunately, we depend on volatile software today. In the early days there were microswitches to set the RAID status of a dual drive device. That software as well as drivers today always need long reloading procedures, because there were some changes in the update of an operation system. Windows users are familiar with such occurrences. For Apple users this is rather new and started after OS X 10.5. Mavericks 10.9 was the worst so far! So it is time that programmers and computer strategists sit together and lay out  a concept for more rugged “systems” - instead of inventing new gimmicks daily…

Yeah. definetely this is something that shouldn’t pass unnoticed in months of beta testing…

66

Maybe thats why my DroboPro is off line and stuck in a loop.  I have an early 2008 Mac Pro and tried Mavericks on one drive but it froze and even booting into Safe mode didn’t help, I thought it was PGP software even though the disk wasn’t incrypted.

Interestingly when I tried to reboot from another drive bay holding a partitioned WD Drive. It had also been damaged.

WDC WD20EARS-00J2GB0:

 

  Capacity:2 TB (2,000,398,934,016 bytes)

  Model:WDC WD20EARS-00J2GB0                    

  Revision:80.00A80

  Serial Number:     [Deleted]

  Native Command Queuing:Yes

  Queue Depth:32

  Removable Media:No

  Detachable Drive:No

  BSD Name:disk3

  Medium Type:Rotational

  Bay Name:Bay 3

  Partition Map Type:GPT (GUID Partition Table)

  S.M.A.R.T. status:Verified

  Volumes:

disk3s1:

  Capacity:209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)

  BSD Name:disk3s1

  Content:EFI

Media 2:

  Capacity:1.4 TB (1,397,039,304,704 bytes)

  Available:1.39 TB (1,386,731,048,960 bytes)

  Writable:Yes

  File System:Journaled HFS+

  BSD Name:disk3s2

  Mount Point:/Volumes/Media 2

  Content:Apple_HFS

  Volume UUID:23C2479A-07DE-3C89-8C05-F6317E246C32

Velociraptor Clone:

  Capacity:602.23 GB (602,231,435,264 bytes)

  Available:187.56 GB (187,559,440,384 bytes)

  Writable:Yes

  File System:Journaled HFS+

  BSD Name:disk3s3

  Mount Point:/

  Content:Apple_HFS

  Volume UUID:B1882A11-520F-3804-A2BB-889E07DD2D87

Recovery HD:

  Capacity:650 MB (650,002,432 bytes)

  BSD Name:disk3s4

  Content:Apple_Boot

  Volume UUID:41E30072-4851-36AD-BD09-C8AAAD78D404

Not being able to boot reliable off that damaged partition I rebooted from a firewire connected partitioned MyBook

FireWire Bus:

 

  Maximum Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

 

My Book:

 

  Manufacturer:WD

  Model:0x1105

  GUID:0x90A99500A1614B

  Maximum Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

  Connection Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

  Sub-units:

My Book Unit:

  Unit Software Version:0x10483

  Unit Spec ID:0x609E

  Firmware Revision:0x1010

  Product Revision Level:1010

  Sub-units:

My Book SBP-LUN:

  Capacity:2 TB (2,000,392,994,816 bytes)

  Removable Media:Yes

  BSD Name:disk7

  Partition Map Type:GPT (GUID Partition Table)

  S.M.A.R.T. status:Not Supported

  Volumes:

disk7s1:

  Capacity:209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)

  BSD Name:disk7s1

  Content:EFI

Mountain Lion Clone:

  Capacity:666.28 GB (666,279,542,784 bytes)

  Available:296.02 GB (296,023,621,632 bytes)

  Writable:Yes

  File System:Journaled HFS+

  BSD Name:disk7s2

  Mount Point:/Volumes/Mountain Lion Clone

  Content:Apple_HFS

  Volume UUID:62C1F278-E1A6-3CB0-AE5A-A91DEDEA2CC2

Recovery HD:

  Capacity:650 MB (650,006,528 bytes)

  BSD Name:disk7s3

  Content:Apple_Boot

  Volume UUID:9B12704C-1C1E-35B8-B51C-8D1410333C49

Snow Leopard Clone:

  Capacity:666.8 GB (666,797,666,304 bytes)

  Available:289.54 GB (289,544,548,352 bytes)

  Writable:Yes

  File System:Journaled HFS+

  BSD Name:disk7s4

  Mount Point:/Volumes/Snow Leopard Clone

  Content:Apple_HFS

  Volume UUID:E93F1698-C976-3A56-82A7-72BCE67DDFFD

AVCHD Backup:

  Capacity:666.19 GB (666,187,587,584 bytes)

  Available:178.48 GB (178,475,245,568 bytes)

  Writable:Yes

  File System:Journaled HFS+

  BSD Name:disk7s5

  Mount Point:/Volumes/AVCHD Backup

  Content:Apple_HFS

  Volume UUID:1C5741BA-14FC-3175-B720-E3A0FA403F9C

My Book Device Unit:

  Unit Software Version:0x10483

  Unit Spec ID:0x609E

  Firmware Revision:0x1010

  Product Revision Level:1010

  Sub-units:

My Book Device SBP-LUN:

 

My Book:

 

  Manufacturer:WD

  Model:0x1105

  GUID:0x90A99696C0B865

  Maximum Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

  Connection Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

  Sub-units:

My Book Unit:

  Unit Software Version:0x10483

  Unit Spec ID:0x609E

  Firmware Revision:0x1017

  Product Revision Level:1017

  Sub-units:

My Book SBP-LUN:

  Capacity:6 TB (6,001,169,186,816 bytes)

  Removable Media:Yes

  BSD Name:disk5

  Partition Map Type:GPT (GUID Partition Table)

  S.M.A.R.T. status:Not Supported

  Volumes:

disk5s1:

  Capacity:209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)

  BSD Name:disk5s1

  Content:EFI

TimeMachine:

  Capacity:6 TB (6,000,825,212,928 bytes)

  Available:293.11 GB (293,111,095,296 bytes)

  Writable:Yes

  File System:Journaled HFS+

  BSD Name:disk5s2

  Mount Point:/Volumes/TimeMachine

  Content:Apple_HFS

  Volume UUID:8558CFBC-7588-3D24-895D-533351C0A14C

My Book Device Unit:

  Unit Software Version:0x10483

  Unit Spec ID:0x609E

  Firmware Revision:0x1017

  Product Revision Level:1017

  Sub-units:

My Book Device SBP-LUN:

 

Built-in Hub:

 

  Maximum Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

  Connection Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

 

Unknown Device:

 

  Maximum Speed:Up to 400 Mb/sec

  Connection Speed:Unknown

 

I was able to get the SnowLeopard Partition to Run

I then used DiskWarrior on the Broken MountainLion Clone

Re :installed MountainLion on top of it, Updated to latest Mountain Lion

Then superdupered back to my original wiped Velociraptor Drive

 

That worked.  My Movies located on a seperate external WD drive happened to not be connected at install! (lucky me!) and seem fine and connect to iMovie and Final Cut Pro.

 

My iTunes files and photos located on a seperate bay drive also a WD drive BUT NOT PARTITIONED

 

WDC WD20EARS-00J2GB0:

 

  Capacity:2 TB (2,000,398,934,016 bytes)

  Model:WDC WD20EARS-00J2GB0                    

  Revision:80.00A80

  Serial Number:     [Deleted]

  Native Command Queuing:Yes

  Queue Depth:32

  Removable Media:No

  Detachable Drive:No

  BSD Name:disk1

  Medium Type:Rotational

  Bay Name:Bay 2

  Partition Map Type:GPT (GUID Partition Table)

  S.M.A.R.T. status:Verified

  Volumes:

disk1s1:

  Capacity:209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)

  BSD Name:disk1s1

  Content:EFI

Media 1:

  Capacity:2 TB (2,000,054,960,128 bytes)

  Available:560.06 GB (560,058,359,808 bytes)

  Writable:Yes

  File System:Journaled HFS+

  BSD Name:disk1s2

  Mount Point:/Volumes/Media 1

  Content:Apple_HFS

  Volume UUID:72315CF7-E27D-31D8-9884-207B2E94AC8C

Seem absolutely fine.

The Time machine located on the other firewire connected  MyBook, but turned off for update also is a bit broken but only about 450G, the original Velociraptor disk files and changed files going back are missing, but that might be fixable if I could be bothered.  All the rest seems accounted for.

 

The DroboPro is another matter, and was the “other backup” having large sparsedisk bundles used for copying the other disks both internal and external.  Can’t get it to play currently, Drobo Dashboard can’t access it, the data will be gone I suspect.

 

Thank heavens I am so  obsessed with backups, and still have disks I havn’t needed to plug in that have retrospect backups on them.

 

Most are Western digital,  but then this update also broke my DroboPro backups.

 

Very sorry for anyone who looses data permanently :frowning:

 

People with apparently damaged drives should seek help, especially for the guy with his

PhD thesis on it…YIKES !!  I hope YOU have more than one copy of that!

 

Regards to all…

67

Hi Woodley43,

the procedure with Ubuntu VM enable me to see the real partition on the  WD HD, I think you should try to install a linux VM and from there see if you can see the partition on your HD.

But the bottom line is the WD has 2 partition one is a EFI and one is the one we normally see and use, in my case now all is working so I can’t find any clue on what happen to yours WD :(.

But if you can get hold of any kind of linux with Gparted on it connect your WD and see what exactly is your situation, also connecting to a NAS ( I tested with Qnap) enable you to see if the disk is in part readable.

68

Thank you Paolol61,

I do not need Ubuntu.

Immediately after the “Unraid”-Crash of both of my RAID1 MyBooks, the Drives showed up with four MyBook.Icons plus four EFI-Icons on the Desktop. My fault perhaps was - because I did not know it at that time - that instead of disconnecting the drives immediately and waiting for help - I ran Apple Disk Utilities for a Volume Checks. Everything was OK., except that the RAID status has obviously changed and the “used” space was not accessible. I left both drives hooked up to the iMac (i7, SSD, 16GB, mid2012), and sometime later on, the EFI Icons disappeared. On how to react properly, I only learned later on…

WD support has given me advise on how to proceed after an unsuccessful recovery. I shall try this with renaming the “MyBooks”, but this takes another 1.5 nights. Otherwise they recommended to search recovery by Kroll Ontrack, which could turn out costly…

69

jimsong wrote:

My NON-WD hard drive got hosed too because of this. I have a Drobo 5D and thought I was safe, but it got reformatted and replaced with MyBook and EFI partitions. WD better help me recover my data as I have terabytes of photos on that drive.

    • *I thought that was me too…

ShockDoc wrote:

Maybe thats why my DroboPro is off line and stuck in a loop.  I have an early 2008 Mac Pro and tried Mavericks on one drive but it froze and even booting into Safe mode didn’t help, I thought it was PGP software even though the disk wasn’t incrypted.

Interestingly when I tried to reboot from another drive bay holding a partitioned WD Drive. It had also been damaged.

…

             …

The DroboPro is another matter, and was the “other backup” having large sparsedisk bundles used for copying the other disks both internal and external.  Can’t get it to play currently, Drobo Dashboard can’t access it, the data will be gone I suspect.

 

Thank heavens I am so  obsessed with backups, and still have disks I havn’t needed to plug in that have retrospect backups on them.

 

Most are Western digital,  but then this update also broke my DroboPro backups.

 

Very sorry for anyone who looses data permanently :frowning:

 

People with apparently damaged drives should seek help, especially for the guy with his

PhD thesis on it…YIKES !!  I hope YOU have more than one copy of that!

 

Regards to all…

…but my DroboPro finished what ever its been doing for 3 days, was able to be safely powered down when the computer was turned off and on restarting everything was there!  It must have been able to construct its directory thankfully.

70

Why no one answered my question?

Is that safe to connect my WD drive if  I don’t install the programs in the past?

71

Reverence wrote:

Why no one answered my question?

 

Is that safe to connect my WD drive if  I don’t install the programs in the past?

If you don’t have any WD Software yes it’s safe.

72

ferdo wrote:

Reverence wrote:

Why no one answered my question?

 

Is that safe to connect my WD drive if  I don’t install the programs in the past?

If you don’t have any WD Software yes it’s safe.

It should be safe (according to WD), BUT it seems it isn’t (according to Apple user forum): in some cases the disaster also happened when no WD software was installed. I will wait for Apple to upgrade Mavericks.

73

Come on WD - I have four of these units and have had them disconnected waiting on a fix for the software.  When will the fix be forthcoming?

74

OK . Here is where i’m at.

Using easy rescue retrieve photos and some videos from my duo and studio drives. 

99% are generically numbered i purchased a 3 tb wd drive to save the files on. 

i have this drive in a docking station  connected with a usb cable to my imac .  i am slowly going throgh the files and deleting   what is corrupted or  not needed. 

I thought i would now be able to erase and reformat the affected drives and get back to work with what i have been able to save. i  tried to erase free space on my thunderbolt duo drive after 12 hours it stopped proceeding  then beachballs and stopped all programmes responding . Had to disconnect  tried connecting again 'beachball!!

The other 2tb drive i just erased but not free space and my 1tb stdio i did the same . the now can hold files and files are readable but if you delet a file it doesn’t adjust the drive space used imformation  which you see in get info or in disk utility.

Also when you delete files it takes forever to send to the trash. 

So enclosures no longer work properly and along with all my lost info i also have a dead 2tb drive,.

I spoke to someone from WD on phone but couldn’t get on to anyone senior.

It seems that WD doesn’t have firm ware available, that is compatible with the mavericks operating system,  for its enclosures. Apple have not passed on the parameters that WD require to fix this issue. 

Will try and speak to someone in level 2 at WD tomorrow. apperently they only work 8 till 11am.

Will also contact Australian Consumer CC to see what my warrantee (Still current) entitles me to.

75

Yes it is Mavericks OS.

It happened to my Buffalo Linkstation Duo Pro RAID 0 when I used Mavericks to mount and read the drive.

I am so disgusted with Apple Mac and their response.

The drives are not faulty nor is the raid and the data is unrecoverable. In fact Mavericks makes sure of that by bypassing the trashbox on the drive. Luckikily it was the back up and still had the original data.

So after backing up again, I tried the other Buffalo Linkstation, and it did the same thing.

I am switching to PC/Win & Linux. This is what bought me to the forum to ask about the my old WD external drives and advise about taking them out, of their enclousres and putting them in a PC.

Apple Mac never again. It’s not just inconvineine, it was Apple’s petulant, arrogant and liabilty averse attitude.

All the best…

76

We’re still waiting for the good news and updates.
Pleeease ;(

I have the same problem with
WD MyBook Studio II - RAID 1 - Firewire 800 - 2 TB - HFS+ (Journaled)

77

Dear Techsupport,

As I previously entered on this site, I lost my data a week before the WD announcement of a problem, I immediately called WD. The tech said so sad, to bad. Had he been told about the problem , I would guess that he would have told me to disconnect the drive and do nothing. Then possibly with the recovery software I may have been able to restore the drive. So WD hand no indication of a problem several days after release of Mavericks? Give me a break. Both Apple and WD had plenty of time to test for problems, before and after the Golden Master edition.  It is your responsibility.  About a week ago you wrote back to me that you would have tech support contact me. They have not. I would guess again that WD is working hard on resolving this issue, and this takes time to write and test. I am not a happy camper with WD and Apple. I hope you step up to the plate and make this “right” for you trusting consumers. Buying a WD 2TB raid 1 drive was the worst thing I have done to backup my data.

78

Well, I am not totally convinced that it is a WD problem. It just happened preferentially to WD users, because WD - at least here in Europe - is the market leader. Many users of other makes (Buffalo, LaCie etc) also complain about sudden data loss on external drives. Most of them after updating to Mavericks.

I used several daisy chained RAID1 drives (FW800, Thunderbolt) for years with various Macs and Apple operation systems - but two or three days after updating to 10.9, two of my WD RAID1 archives became “unraided”. The buffalo single drive station, also connected to these, remained unaffected. The crash occurred (as I stated before several times) during an iTunes lockup, trying to burn an audio CD. Instead of the two archive icons there were four MyBook icons and four EFI icons on the desktop. I should have immediately disconnect the drives to call for professional help. But I did not know then. I checked the drives with Apple Disk utilities, everything OK., no repair necessary. Perhaps I should not have done that. Sometime after the four EFI drives, each using some 400 MB, disappeared.  

I have received intensive support from WD; they provided a professional recovery program and gave me many hints. The program is made for experts and not for the typical Apple user. Repairing back to the RAID1 status was not possible. Endless days of recovery attempts - several steps of 15 hours for a single one disk - turned out useless.The contents are there, marked as “deleted”, unrecoverable and some 100’000 files or more were all generically renamed. Which would have strongly limited the use of recovered data which are totally out of there original context.

It is virtually impossible to obtain assistance from Apple

RobertKrause wrote:

Dear Techsupport,

As I previously entered on this site, I lost my data a week before the WD announcement of a problem, I immediately called WD. The tech said so sad, to bad. Had he been told about the problem , I would guess that he would have told me to disconnect the drive and do nothing. Then possibly with the recovery software I may have been able to restore the drive. So WD hand no indication of a problem several days after release of Mavericks? Give me a break. Both Apple and WD had plenty of time to test for problems, before and after the Golden Master edition.  It is your responsibility.  About a week ago you wrote back to me that you would have tech support contact me. They have not. I would guess again that WD is working hard on resolving this issue, and this takes time to write and test. I am not a happy camper with WD and Apple. I hope you step up to the plate and make this “right” for you trusting consumers. Buying a WD 2TB raid 1 drive was the worst thing I have done to backup my data.

 

. I have also observed, that while a Mac is in the “sleeping” mode, external drives occasionally crank up. Otherwise, no matter what make or age, additional drives go sleeping and occasionally crank up again without beeing “called” for access - forcing the user for 10-20 seconds to pause, while working on the the system disk.  It could well be, that my computer lockup and the RAID crash happened during such a wake-up idle… But as a standard Apple user, enjoying all its, I usually never cared about “internal” matters. Now I am shocked that a RAID1 archive is not safe at all! I hope that WD and Apple could find the cause.

79

I have read the November 6 warning.  Too late for me, unfortunately.  I didn’t know of the warning before Apple convinced me to upgrade to Mavericks rather than Lion.  Got home, started computer and browsed, finding that there were reports of problems with my book.  Called Apple, senior person took me through steps to see if Mybook was working and dates for backups showed up (time machine).  Conclusion, it was working. Two days later, no dates are showing up and the drive light is pulsing at a very regular beat. I conclude it is now not working and I may have lost data.  I turned off the iMac and disconnected the drive. Now the Nov 6 statement says to remove Drive Manager (mine also shows Smartware) and points to a link.   I press the link and the page is “not available”.  My problem, if I can get to the page with instructions to remove the Drive Manager, what about Smartware?  Then what do I do to get the drive working properly again and/or to restore my data?  I am not very computer literate so I need step by step.  Please help.

80

hi, I have a WD MyBook Studio II, and have suffered the data loss problem, ie. it has renamed the mirrored RAID volume to “My Book”. I discovered the WD announcement after searching online, and found the instructions to uninstall the W RAID Manager software, but meanwhile how do I recover the data? I’ve created a case [[[deleted]] last weekend, urgently need your help.