partitioned drive not mounting
12/01/26 Filed in: Backup | time machine
I JUST realized that the archive partition of my external hard drive is not mounting. The other partition (Time Machine with 2 years of hard drive backups is fine.)
I have tried mounting the archive portion via Disk Utility—but to no avail.
___________
Well that could be a mess. Because that portion is not on the same level as listed in disk utility, that leads me to believe they may not be formatted the same way or one is a partition within the other. Regardless, something doesn’t look right there. In my opinion, one should not use a partitioned drive as a backup Time Machine. Where would the second copy of the data that lives on the other partition reside? The drive will not backup itself. So in the future I do suggest one dedicated drive to Time Machine. Then that drive can back up multiple other drives to itself as long as the space is there to do so.
First thing to try is to simply try plugging the drive into a different computer, preferably with a different OS running. Or at least a different Mac.
Second, of course restart your Mac with the drive connected.
Third, try to repair the dis using disk utility. If you have data on that partition that does not live anywhere else then there are third party tools we may be able to use to try to retrieve the data but if that tool was not running initially then the recovery chances go down. Data Rescue is my fav but it’s not cheap. I’ve tried them all and own licenses to them all so if worse comes to worse, and you REALLY need that data, I may be able to workshop the drive over time.
Sounds like you are trying all logical steps so far however.
I have tried mounting the archive portion via Disk Utility—but to no avail.
___________
Well that could be a mess. Because that portion is not on the same level as listed in disk utility, that leads me to believe they may not be formatted the same way or one is a partition within the other. Regardless, something doesn’t look right there. In my opinion, one should not use a partitioned drive as a backup Time Machine. Where would the second copy of the data that lives on the other partition reside? The drive will not backup itself. So in the future I do suggest one dedicated drive to Time Machine. Then that drive can back up multiple other drives to itself as long as the space is there to do so.
First thing to try is to simply try plugging the drive into a different computer, preferably with a different OS running. Or at least a different Mac.
Second, of course restart your Mac with the drive connected.
Third, try to repair the dis using disk utility. If you have data on that partition that does not live anywhere else then there are third party tools we may be able to use to try to retrieve the data but if that tool was not running initially then the recovery chances go down. Data Rescue is my fav but it’s not cheap. I’ve tried them all and own licenses to them all so if worse comes to worse, and you REALLY need that data, I may be able to workshop the drive over time.
Sounds like you are trying all logical steps so far however.
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