Repairing and formatting Seagate 4T HDD problems

Question

Level 1

81 points

Repairing and formatting Seagate 4T HDD problems

OK 1st Disk utilities cannot format, erase, or partition the drives I have. Most of what I have done is in Terminal. Any wizards out there who can fix this?

I have tried this in Both my 2011 MBP running High Sierra 10.13.6

and my 2017 MBP running Ventura 13.6.7

Performing fsck_exfat -y -x /dev/rdisk2s2

Checking volume.

Checking main boot region.

The volume could not be verified completely.

File system check exit code is 45.

Restoring the original state found as unmounted.

File system verify or repair failed. : (-69845)

Try to partition:

Unmounting disk

Creating the partition map

Unable to write to the last block of the device. : (-69760)

In DisK Utility about info

Volume type : Uninitialized

BSD device node : disk2

Connection : USB

Device tree path : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/XHC1@14

Writable : No

Is case-sensitive : No

Volume capacity : 4.194.304.000.000

Available space (Purgeable + Free) : 0

Purgeable space : 0

Free space : 0

Used space : 4.194.304.000.000

Owners enabled : No

Is encrypted : No

Can be verified : No

Can be repaired : No

Bootable : No

Journaled : No

Disk number : 2

Media name : AL SSD Media

Media type : Generic

Ejectable : Yes

Solid state : No

S.M.A.R.T. status : Not Supported

In Terminal when I use:

sudo mount -t exfat /dev/disk2 /Volumes/mount

Password:

mount: /Volumes/mount: invalid file system.

And then

diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk2

Nonexistent, unknown, or damaged partition map scheme

If you are sure this disk contains a (damaged) APM, MBR, or GPT partition map,

you can hereby try to repair it enough to be recognized as a map; another

"diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk2" might then be necessary for further repairs

Proceed? (y/N) y

Error repairing map: MediaKit reports bad partition or no map found (-5324)

sudo fsck_exfat -f /dev/disk2

I get

sudo fsck_exfat -f /dev/disk2

Password:

** Checking volume.

** Checking main boot region.

Main boot region is invalid. Trying alternate boot region.

** Checking alternate boot region.

Alternate boot region is invalid.

** The volume could not be verified completely.

Are these drives No Good or is there some way to completely wipe out all the Partitions

They have the standard Microsoft basic and reserved partitions.

Would love to find a way to fix these.

Thanks in Advance

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 13.6

Posted on Jun 23, 2024 8:05 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

67,436 points

Jun 26, 2024 7:15 PM in response to Mindzman

You can try checking the health of the hard drive(s) by using DriveDx (free trial period). You will need to install a special USB driver to attempt to check the health of an external drive. Post the complete DriveDx text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. For hard drivers....DriveDx usually does a good job assessing their health. Generally any "Warning" or "Failing" notices indicate a worn out or failing hard drive respectively.....both indicate you should replace the hard drive. Assessing the health of an SSD is more complex, so manual interpretation of the health attributes is necessary.

It is very important to erase the whole physical drive as suggested by @PRP_53. You can also try writing zeroes to the beginning of the drive to destroy the partition table & early portion of the drive since macOS & Disk Utility can sometimes get stuck if something unexpected is encountered at the beginning of the drive. Since you are familiar with the command line, I will offer the following command template to write zeroes to the beginning of the drive with identifier of "diskX" where you need to replace the "X" with the proper identifier for the drive you want to erase.

First unmount all volumes on the drive (replace "diskX" with the correct identifier)....do not use the "eject" button as it disconnects the drive electronically from the computer:

diskutil  unmountDisk  diskX

Here is the command which will write zeroes to the beginning of the drive "diskX". Using the wrong drive identifier will result in loss of data on that drive, so the user must be very careful to use the correct drive identifier.

sudo  dd  if=/dev/zero  of=/dev/diskX  bs=100m  count=10

Now you should be able to use Disk Utility to erase the whole physical drive as GUID partition and the file system of your choice (exFAT, APFS, or MacOS Extended (Journaled)).

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Answer 2

steve626

Level 6

13,257 points

Jun 23, 2024 12:42 PM in response to Mindzman

I am not a wizard but Disk Utility should be able to erase these.

In Disk Utility, choose View=> Show All Devices. There are two View menus, one at the upper left of your computer screen, the other inside Disk Utility in the upper left portion of the Disk Utility window.

Then for the drive you wish to erase/format, choose the uppermost "media" listing for the device to be erased, which is at the hardware drive level. Do not choose a container or volume, which are lower down on the screen and indented slightly. For instance in the image below, you would be selecting "WD Elements 25A2 Media" to erase.

Choose that uppermost device for the drive and choose erase. I would do this on the computer running Ventura. You may want to choose HFS+ (MacOS Extended) as the format to start; later you can re-erase to a different format scheme.

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Answer 3

toniwi

Level 1

32 points

Jun 27, 2024 12:29 AM in response to Mindzman

Connect the drive to a PC and install the free DiskGenius app. Open the software and delete all partitions of the HDD. After that, create new partitions from here. I did this multiple times when Disk Utility is not working.

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

67,436 points

Jun 28, 2024 11:25 AM in response to Mindzman

Mindzman wrote:

Is there one particular way to erase that is best? We are getting erase all sectors and that it will take 77 hours!

Now I once did the 4 pass wipe in disk utilities and that took a couple of days to do. From the sounds of this they are going to overwrite every single sector with 1s and 0s, does that sound right?

That sounds like then we will have a completely clean drive.

I've reformatted dozens of drives and never had any big problems. Whenever Disk Utilities hiccupped, Terminal was able to erase and format, so this is now to me.

There is no need to erase the entire drive. You just need to destroy the existing partition table located at the beginning of the drive. I provided the necessary instructions to do this using macOS command line. You can of course use Windows if you want. Just launch the Windows "Disk Management" app and delete all partitions from your Seagate drive (just make sure to save the changes). That is it. You can of course have Windows create a partition & file system as well, but should not be needed. Then reconnect the Seagate drive to your Mac and use Disk Utility to erase the whole physical drive which should now be possible assuming the Seagate drive is healthy (macOS may error out if the drive has a hardware issue).

Here is an Apple article with instructions for erasing the whole physical drive....you definitely want to use the GUID partition type and the file system of your choice (MacOS Extended (Journaled), APFS, or exFAT):

Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

I highly recommend you check the health of the Seagate external drive. You can either use DriveDx when booted to macOS as I suggest previously, or you can use GSmartControl on Windows. There is a portable version of GSmartControl available that does not require any installation.....meaning you can run the app directly from the Downloads directory. You will need to post the complete DriveDx or GSmartControl text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar. With GSmartControl you will need to either copy the info from the "Show Report" window, or from the contents of the text report file if you "Saved Report".

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Answer 5

Mindzman Author

Level 1

81 points

Jun 23, 2024 1:55 PM in response to steve626

Thank you for your reply. I am one of the founders of KMUG in Japan and have used Macs for more than 35 years.

I am not positive that the first two were Disk Utilities generated but I tried at least a dozen ways in disk utilities and the rest are Terminal which is 50 times more powerful and if you read carefully, it fails.

I have never had an HDD NOT format but have had disk utilities fail and terminal has always worked when disk utilities could not get the job done.

Anyone know how to get to the sectors mentione by terminal?

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Answer 6

Mindzman Author

Level 1

81 points

Jun 24, 2024 4:39 PM in response to Owl-53

I have tried half a dozen ways to use disk utilities which has worked 98% of the time.

the other 2% Terminal did the job.

That general udisk media is something I have never seen before.

I am guessing these are bad drives that failed some test and Got sold in the Chinese sub-market.

I bought a batch of rechargeable batteries like 100 where 80 proved to be useless but the 20 were the same price as 5 in regular retail.

I bought these on eBay using Paypal so I am covered.

Disk utilities is not going to fix this. If anything some miracle terminal code or some software I am not going to buy. I've hammered on this enough.

Thanks for writing

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Answer 7

Mindzman Author

Level 1

81 points

Jun 25, 2024 1:11 AM in response to Owl-53

Given that we own two Flexgate models of the 2017 MBP, I would say this is Not always true. about $7,500 of what should be portable computers. My 2011 MBP has more functionality and still works perfectly, though it is in need of a new battery! ;-)

I have a 75" UHD TV I ended up paying $300 for. My rechargeable batteries worked out.

Fortunately, eBay and PayPal make taking these risks worth it. 12T of hard drive for under $100 seemed to be worth the risk and annoyance.

My first Mac SE in 1989 cost me over $3,500 used and the 40 MB internal hard drive that I was sure I would NEVER fill up cost $468. Ten years later, I bought an 8GB USB drive that looked like someone stuck a piece of black chewing gum on a USB plug! It worked flawlessly until my dog got ****** at me one day and decided he would bite it. 8GB for $6.99 which was and still is a bit mind blowing.

I just bought a Seagate 4T for $112 and it works just fine.

This was an interesting experiment.

BTW, your comment seemed a bit snide. But my flexgate references will probably get this post pulled.

All about acceptable risk.

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Answer 8

Owl-53

Level 10

101,017 points

Jun 25, 2024 1:40 AM in response to Mindzman

Making this personal is most unbecoming.

The point being and quote

" I am guessing these are bad drives that failed some test and Got sold in the Chinese sub-market.

I bought a batch of rechargeable batteries like 100 where 80 proved to be useless but the 20 were the same price as 5 in regular retail. "

The reply was in specific response to above and not the Apple Computers

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Answer 9

Mindzman Author

Level 1

81 points

Jun 25, 2024 6:45 AM in response to Owl-53

"Making this personal is most unbecoming.

The point being and quote

" I am guessing these are bad drives that failed some test and Got sold in the Chinese sub-market.

I bought a batch of rechargeable batteries like 100 where 80 proved to be useless but the 20 were the same price as 5 in regular retail. "

The reply was in specific response to above and not the Apple Computers "

Your response did not make that clear. Also, could you point out where your post in anyway addressed my issue?

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Answer 10

Mindzman Author

Level 1

81 points

Jun 28, 2024 9:27 AM in response to toniwi

Well this does seem to be producing some results but that program allows for a list as long as my arm.

I would like these to function on my Macs but am happy for them to be exfat, if apfs will not be reliable.

When we tried apfs, it still seemed to be an exfat drive. We are doing this on a semi-antique Samsung running Windows 7.

Are there any special steps?

Thanks in advance.

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Answer 11

Mindzman Author

Level 1

81 points

Jun 28, 2024 9:34 AM in response to toniwi

Is there one particular way to erase that is best? We are getting erase all sectors and that it will take 77 hours!

Now I once did the 4 pass wipe in disk utilities and that took a couple of days to do. From the sounds of this they are going to overwrite every single sector with 1s and 0s, does that sound right?

That sounds like then we will have a completely clean drive.

I've reformatted dozens of drives and never had any big problems. Whenever Disk Utilities hiccupped, Terminal was able to erase and format, so this is now to me.

Reply