How to fix a Damaged APFS disk?
I have an issue with a 1TB 850 Evo, serving as an external disk in a SATA enclosure. I would Really like to recover the data I have on it so any help would be greatly appreciated. The disk has been running fine as an APFS for a long time. Suddenly it became unnreadable, possibly after using it it in a different USB enclosure. When plugged inn, the disk does not mount. I have tried the below fixes/analysis after browsing this forum. Is there anything else I can do to analyse and/or attempt a repair?
Readout from GPT and Diskutil:
Last login: Wed Aug 14 18:10:42 on ttys000
Framelands-MacBook-Pro:~ frameland$ sudo gdisk /dev/disk4
Password:
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.4
Partition table scan:
MBR: not present
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: not present
Creating new GPT entries in memory.
Command (? for help): x
Expert command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/disk4: 244139185 sectors, 931.3 GiB
Sector size (logical): 4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 59E13892-D1CC-4871-AE60-652455350D51
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 5
First usable sector is 6, last usable sector is 244139179
Partitions will be aligned on 256-sector boundaries
Total free space is 244139174 sectors (931.3 GiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
Expert command (? for help): o
Disk size is 244139185 sectors (931.3 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x00000000
MBR partitions:
Number Boot Start Sector End Sector Status Code
1 1 244139184 primary 0xEE
Expert command (? for help): q
Framelands-MacBook-Pro:~ frameland$ sudo gdisk /dev/disk3
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.4
Partition table scan:
MBR: protective
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Command (? for help): x
Expert command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/disk3: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 2BA6A682-802B-40E9-8DCB-D924582CFC8C
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2021 sectors (1010.5 KiB)
Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 40 409639 200.0 MiB EF00 EFI System Partition
2 411648 1953525127 931.3 GiB AF0A
Expert command (? for help): o
Disk size is 1953525168 sectors (931.5 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x00000000
MBR partitions:
Number Boot Start Sector End Sector Status Code
1 1 1953525167 primary 0xEE
Expert command (? for help): q
Framelands-MacBook-Pro:~ frameland$
Framelands-MacBook-Pro:~ frameland$ diskutil apfs list
APFS Containers (2 found)
|
+-- Container disk1 6801A9B4-1736-46EE-BABA-0DEB9ED0D53C
| ====================================================
| APFS Container Reference: disk1
| Size (Capacity Ceiling): 499963170816 B (500.0 GB)
| Capacity In Use By Volumes: 460495699968 B (460.5 GB) (92.1% used)
| Capacity Not Allocated: 39467470848 B (39.5 GB) (7.9% free)
| |
| +-< Physical Store disk0s2 3689942A-E50C-4A74-A827-B763D501115A
| | -----------------------------------------------------------
| | APFS Physical Store Disk: disk0s2
| | Size: 499963170816 B (500.0 GB)
| |
| +-> Volume disk1s1 6EEB904E-B771-3E0B-8048-C3E4BB58F07A
| | ---------------------------------------------------
| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s1 (No specific role)
| | Name: Macintosh HD (Case-insensitive)
| | Mount Point: /
| | Capacity Consumed: 450106273792 B (450.1 GB)
| | FileVault: No
| |
| +-> Volume disk1s2 B8CA2171-4A7A-41DB-9E34-F6AEC2EDFC9D
| | ---------------------------------------------------
| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s2 (Preboot)
| | Name: Preboot (Case-insensitive)
| | Mount Point: Not Mounted
| | Capacity Consumed: 46379008 B (46.4 MB)
| | FileVault: No
| |
| +-> Volume disk1s3 2B5101E3-2892-466D-ADEA-8DB3D4B91B7B
| | ---------------------------------------------------
| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s3 (Recovery)
| | Name: Recovery (Case-insensitive)
| | Mount Point: Not Mounted
| | Capacity Consumed: 510283776 B (510.3 MB)
| | FileVault: No
| |
| +-> Volume disk1s4 0776BB08-4E72-478C-AD79-8B905F797AD8
| ---------------------------------------------------
| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s4 (VM)
| Name: VM (Case-insensitive)
| Mount Point: /private/var/vm
| Capacity Consumed: 9671274496 B (9.7 GB)
| FileVault: No
|
+-- Container ERROR -69808
======================
APFS Container Reference: disk3
Size (Capacity Ceiling): ERROR -69620
Capacity In Use By Volumes: ERROR -69620
Capacity Not Allocated: ERROR -69620
|
+-< Physical Store disk2s2 CE445FE6-2BFE-416E-AF22-007E56AC0D3D
| -----------------------------------------------------------
| APFS Physical Store Disk: disk2s2
| Size: 999994101760 B (1000.0 GB)
|
+-> No Volumes
There are 3rd party software packages for recovering lost, damaged, or deleted files. These work to varying levels that depends on if the disk space has been written over. Disk Drill, TestDisk for Mac, and others are included in a reference given at this link of the best free data recovery packages in 2020. Most packages like this are not cheap so a free one is maybe the best bet.
Not included in the list are EasyUs, Stellar Data Recovery and Recoverit. These are commercial packages and are not free although they may have free trial versions.
You have to decide for yourself which one sounds best. The only one I've used is the free trial version of Stellar Data Recovery. It worked ok finding some of my deleted files.