APFS hard drive not showing any data when connected to Mac

[Eulaallen]

A strange thing happened to me today. I have 2 identical 1 TB Western Digital hard drive. One is Time Machine and another I formatted with APFS just to learn about this new file system. Also, this drive has some important data. Mistakenly, I mixed up with my both hard drives and connected APFS to Mac. I realised I had connected APFS disk instead of Time Machine. So, in a hurry, I removed the USB cable (not from the Mac USB port but the WD’s end). To the same USB cable, I connected the Time Machine, and no data was displayed. So, I restarted my Mac and after booting into Desktop, my Time Machine came back with all data. I felt relieved. However, when I connected my APFS disk to Mac, I found that it’s making Mac show no folders not just on APFS but on my Macintosh HD. I launched Disk utility, but it froze. I am concerned if my data and drive are safe. Does anyone have a solution to my issue? I am thinking about formatting the APFS back to HFS through the terminal, but I need to check my data first. What and how should I do that?

 

[IWT]

A warm welcome to Mac-Forums.

May I just restate what I believe you did?

Two WD Hard Drives; one formatted OS X Extended (Journaled) used as Time Machine backup - other formatted APFS with some data on it.

You connected APFS to Mac, then pulled out USB cable (it doesn't matter from which end as you failed to eject properly and the consequences, whatever they may be, will be the same)

Then you connected the TM drive to the USB cable that was still attached to the Mac - the cable that had been wrongly ejected but was still in the same Mac port as before.

Initially, your TM Drive failed to show any data, but did after a reboot - you were very lucky there!!

You have not been so lucky with your APFS hard Drive.

What you could try is disconnect the APFS - switch off the Mac - reconnect the APFS - switch on the Mac .

Post back.

Ian

 

[Eulaallen]

Ian, thanks a lot. You are 100% correct.

My APFS disk isn’t that lucky as Time Machine. It still shows no files. In Disk Utility APFS looks like a mess. It shows Container, APFS Only and all that looks terrifying to me. Ian, I did some searches and found some company offers data recovery on APFS so I think that could be a last resort? Check Link1 Link 2 About the APFS, I don’t think there is a need at the moment? Or maybe I need to understand it first. So many how’s and why’s. How come a common computer user like me comes to its course? Ian, enrol me in a computer classes.

 

[IWT]

Hi, and thank you for posting back.

Taking your last sentence first - computer classes can be online or at local centres. There are fewer for Macs than PCs. All cost money. Forums, such as this one are served by members who give up their time for free. There is a wealth of varied experience here. You are welcome to it at no cost to. you.

Taking your current problem:

1. APFS is a very new File System, introduced alongside macOS High Sierra, and presently only applies to Macs with a Solid State Drive (SSD). Fusion and spinning platter drives remain as HFS+ also known as OS X Extended (Journaled).

2. External Hard Drives (EHD) can be formatted as either OS X Extended (Journaled) or APFS and both can be written to and read from, by a Mac with High Sierra. But not by Macs with an earlier OS.

3. When an EHD is ejected/disconnected/unmounted properly, there is a slight time delay whilst the EHD completes closure processes including building a "registry" - a "Contents page" if you like. This is essential for when you next connect the EHD - the Mac has to read the "Contents page" in order to "see" whats on the EHD and then read it.

4. When an EHD is wrongly ejected (as in your case), the Drive may become corrupted in various ways including the "Contents" which means it can't be read; the data itself may be corrupted.

5. I have suggested a way to you for trying the get your EHD working again in my last post. Presumably that failed?

6. Next question: how critical or precious is the data on that APFS Drive? Because recovery from APFA-formatted Drives is, necessarily, a brand new experience for everyone. No guarantees of success, and it's going to be very costly.

7. The links you provided, appear to offer some hope, but................. who can say?

Does this additional info help you?

And BTW, might be useful to us if you knew the specs of your Mac - model, year, and OS which I assume must be macOS High Sierra?

Ian

 

[harryb2448]

AFPS is really designed to work on Solid State Drives so there may well be hassles with spinners. And never unplug the way you did. Not only can the files become corrupted, you could fatally damage the drive itself.