unable to reapair external disk, unmount error

[Chrisjay2001]

I have a Western Digital 500gb external hard drive, with 2 partitions, 'KAINARC' and 'JUNGLEMAC', connected to my Intelmac (Tiger 10.4.11 via my firewire, i have connected via usb but the problem is still the same). I may have shut down the drive improperly to cause this situation.

KAINARC now appears on my desktop, but the partition of JUNGLEMAC does not. I go to disk utility and both partitions are visable, KAINARC is mounted but JUNGLEMAC is not. I cannot mount JUNGLEMAC.

When i try to verify and repair the partition I get the message:

Verify and Repair disk “JUNGLEMAC”
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 non HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error


So I try to verify and repair the partition KAINARC but get this message:

Verify and Repair disk “KAINARC”
Repairing disk failed with error Could not unmount disk





So I have opened diskwarrior (unbelievably long time to start up and scan disks) in the hope of fixing the hard drive, but when i try to repair I get the error message 'unable to unmount KAINARC'.

I have tried other repair/recover programs but get the same message: 'Could not unmount disk KAINARC'

Im asuming that to fix the hard drive it has to be able to unmount KAINARC.

Does anyone have any ideas of how I can fix this problem. I would normally reformat but I have a lot of stuff on the hard drive that I dont wont to lose.

chrisjay2001

[catwomannj]

I'm assuming that KAINARC is your start up volume. You can't repair or unmount the start up volume.

I've heard some people can get a volume to mount from TechTool that Disk Utility won't. Were you able to use Disk Warrior to do repair on JUNGLEMAC?

[Chrisjay2001]

No KAINARC is my external hard drive, it is not a start up disk. It has a partition called JUNGLEMAC.

I try to repair the disk but the programs inability to unmount KAINARC at the start of the repair procedure is the problem

[ElDiabloConCaca]

What kind of data is on KAINARC? Could some of your applications be on that drive? If so, do any of those applications have associated login items? If both of these are true, then one possible reason it can't unmount the drive is that there is some file in use on that drive.

What happens if you boot up WITHOUT the external drive connected, then open Disk Utility, THEN connect the drive and try to repair it?

[Chrisjay2001]

There are no applications on the external hard drive KAINARC, just photos, home movies that sort of stuff.

when i boot up WITHOUT the external drive connected, then open Disk Utility,it doesnt see it, until i plug the drive in

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Originally Posted by Chrisjay2001

when i boot up WITHOUT the external drive connected, then open Disk Utility,it doesnt see it, until i plug the drive in

That makes perfect sense -- Disk Utility is not going to "see" a drive that isn't connected to the computer.

My point in this exercise was to see if somehow, at startup, something was getting loaded from the external drive and remaining active, preventing the unmounting of the drive.

So... after booting up with the drive disconnected, loading Disk Utility, then connecting the drive and powering it up, will it let you repair the drive?

[Chrisjay2001]

No , it wont let me repair the drive after doing what you suggested.

When it tries an error message comes up saying

Verify and Repair disk “KAINARC”
Repairing disk failed with error Could not unmount disk

[ElDiabloConCaca]

What format are the partitions in? HFS+? FAT32?