I have an external HDD for file storage that its EFI partition got messed with, not sure why this prevents any of the other partitions to be mounted but here I am.
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdc: 931.48 GiB, 1000170586112 bytes, 1953458176 sectors
Disk model: Elements 25A2
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: D8747DC9-9813-4D69-A5C7-6E5B90AEABDF
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdc1 40 409639 409600 200M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdc2 409640 1953195991 1952786352 931.2G Apple HFS/HFS+
# mke2fs -n /dev/sdc1
mke2fs 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
The file /dev/sdc1 does not exist and no size was specified.
Also when I try to delete sdc1 and recreate an EFI with Yast, it fails. Needless to say all mounting options fail.
I don't want to mess with sdc2 since that's where my backup resides, so I'm at loss on how to extract this data or repair the disk. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Yes, I want to save /dev/sdc2 with the Mac backup data. But I'm unable to mount it either on MacOS or Linux. Almost as if the EFI partition had something needed for the drive to be mounted.
In other words: I want to mount sdc2 in order to copy it to another disk
When I try to delete and re-create /dev/sdc1 I get an error saying that changes cannot be made since / is not mounted.
I'm using YaST because I don't want to mess up with the Mac backup partition, and already get errors when accessing YaST partitioner:
The partitioner does not see sdc2 I guess it's because it's a HFS+ filesystem, but I do have the fs available. Also sdc1 shows as Linux because I've already tried deleting and re-creating it unsuccessfully:
My experience with macOS Time Machine backups is that you cannot easily mount or access them on other machines. These backups are typically encrypted by default and have strict access controls, making access difficult even on a Mac other than the one that created the backup.
It’s not surprising you can’t mount a Time Machine backup, especially using a GUI. Unless you have the password and use specialized tools, decrypting or mounting these backups is rarely possible, and compatibility outside of macOS is extremely limited.
Hello again @Neo ! sdc2 is not a time machine backup, it's a plain HFS+ partition containing files.
I have two hypotheses:
The disk is too full so it fails
Removing the EFI partition caused the disk to not be read properly
I'm honestly at loss and I'm beginning to think it's a mechanical failure. I'm unsure why YaST errors on sdc1 but then sees it. And why fdisk -l can see all partitions but I cannot work on them.
I wonder if there's a tool to fully clone an HDD to another drive and from there I can try to tinker more aggressively.
PS: I also tried to rescue the disk from MacOS both on APFS and HFS+ machines, and none works, HFS+ machine can see the disk and all partitions but times out on trying to recover/repair, APFS does nothing.
So I was hoping Linux could give me some more power to the rescue process.
I can understand you being nervous about tinkering with a disk holding a system backup. If you have an available simple FTP server with enough disk space (although this utility compresses the image for you), search for "ghosting for Unix" otherwise known as "g4u" which is free and allows you to boot bare metal (from CD/DVD/USB) and then FTP a disk image (sector-by-sector) to a FTP server. Then, if your tinkering screws up you can boot g4u again and 'restore' the whole disk back from the FTP server.
This is all I get, not sure if there's a "repair" option in fdisk, can you point me in the right direction? Man page says not much about repairing. Thanks!
# fdisk -l /dev/sdc
The primary GPT table is corrupt, but the backup appears OK, so that will be used.
Disk /dev/sdc: 931.48 GiB, 1000170586112 bytes, 1953458176 sectors
Disk model: Elements 25A2
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: D8747DC9-9813-4D69-A5C7-6E5B90AEABDF
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdc1 40 409639 409600 200M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdc2 409640 1953195991 1952786352 931.2G Apple HFS/HFS+
Fantastic idea, thank you! I will look into it during the weekend. I had to put a halt due to health issues but I'm feeling better. Definitely will right away, thanks!
Weird part is that fdisk does see the sdc1 and sdc2 partitions, but ls does not:
ls -l /dev/sd*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 1 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sda1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 2 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sda2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 3 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sda3
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 16 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 17 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 18 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 19 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb3
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 20 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb4
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 21 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb5
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 22 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb6
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 32 Jun 13 22:06 /dev/sdc
If I could only get a hold of sdc2 in some way, I think I would have a starting point.
Weird part is that fdisk does see the sdc1 and sdc2 partitions, but ls does not:
ls -l /dev/sd*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 1 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sda1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 2 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sda2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 3 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sda3
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 16 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 17 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 18 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 19 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb3
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 20 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb4
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 21 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb5
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 22 Jun 11 00:06 /dev/sdb6
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 32 Jun 13 22:06 /dev/sdc
If I could only get a hold of sdc2 in some way, I think I would have a starting point.
parted also fails at reading:
# parted /dev/sdc
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sdc
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) list
align-check TYPE N check partition N for TYPE(min|opt) alignment
help [COMMAND] print general help, or help on COMMAND
mklabel,mktable LABEL-TYPE create a new disklabel (partition table)
mkpart PART-TYPE [FS-TYPE] START END make a partition
name NUMBER NAME name partition NUMBER as NAME
print [devices|free|list,all|NUMBER] display the partition table, available devices, free space, all found partitions, or a particular
partition
quit exit program
rescue START END rescue a lost partition near START and END
resizepart NUMBER END resize partition NUMBER
resizepart NUMBER END resize partition NUMBER
rm NUMBER delete partition NUMBER
select DEVICE choose the device to edit
disk_set FLAG STATE change the FLAG on selected device
disk_toggle [FLAG] toggle the state of FLAG on selected device
set NUMBER FLAG STATE change the FLAG on partition NUMBER
toggle [NUMBER [FLAG]] toggle the state of FLAG on partition NUMBER
unit UNIT set the default unit to UNIT
version display the version number and copyright information of GNU Parted
(parted) print
Error: Input/output error during read on /dev/sdc
Retry/Ignore/Cancel?
Firstly, 'ls' lists the contents of the current directory only, whereas 'fdisk' is a disk inspection/partitioner so I'm not surprised that 'fdisk' might see more than 'ls'.
Secondly, and more importantly, your listing shows no partition device nodes, e.g. /dev/sdc1, /dev/sdc2, ..... for whole disk /dev/sdc. It looks like something/someone has deleted those device nodes thereby giving you trouble mounting them. Not being an OSX expert I cannot tell you whether there is a utility to recreate them. Many O/S's have a utility, e.g. 'devfsadm' in Solaris, which will inpect the disk and recreate the device nodes for you.
If fdisk is not mistaken then you should (re-)write the current disk label, so the gpt will be restored, then run partprobe or reboot. The OS (especially udev) will recognize its partitions (and recreate the device nodes).
/dev/sdc2 is what I'm interested in. It's a partition with a bunch of directories with text/media files and tarfiles. It is not a system partition or anything like that, just files.
