8

After a repair task with disk utility I can't mount my external hard drive on my mac. I have tried to mount it on terminal

mount /dev/disk1s1

but I receive this eror

mount: /dev/disk1s1: unknown special file or file system.

I have tried to verify the volume

diskutil verifyVolume disk1s1

and I receive this error

Error starting file system verification for disk2s1 OneTouch4: Invalid request (-69886)

What I can do?

This is the result of diskutil list

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            499.4 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   1:               Windows_NTFS OneTouch4               500.1 GB   disk1s1
3
  • could you post the output of sudo fdisk -l Sep 24, 2014 at 9:38
  • fdisk: illegal option -- l Sep 24, 2014 at 17:25
  • sorry, didn't know that you are on Mac Sep 24, 2014 at 18:25

6 Answers 6

7

In the recent macOS, this command should work:

diskutil mount disk1s1

Where disk1s1 is the disk and partition number from diskutil list.

The volume will mount in read-only.

For the write access support, read: recommendations for reading and writing NTFS from macOS.

1
  • I thought NTFS mounts automatically nowadays, but I can't test it now.
    – SPRBRN
    Oct 30, 2017 at 11:58
4

You don't need external program to mount NTFS volume, follow these steps to mount NTFS external disk on macOS. This is tested and working on macOS Mojave-

sudo mkdir /Volumes/MyNTFS
sudo mount -t ntfs -o rw <Disk Identifier> /Volumes/MyNTFS

To get disk identifier, you can run diskutil list. For example, if below is the output-

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data MyNTFS                  2.0 TB     disk2s1

Then you can run following command to mount-

sudo mount -t ntfs -o rw /dev/disk2 /Volumes/MyNTFS
1
  • Thank you!! This is the only method that worked for me. Disk utility and diskutil mount didn't work. Dec 27, 2022 at 21:08
1

If you need access to your drive, there is commercial alternatives such as Paragon NTFS for Mac, or Tuxera NTFS for Mac.

I don't have much experience with either, but I believe them to be acceptable solutions.

If however, you feel in the experimental mood, there is unofficial NTFS support in macOS. However, no guarantee is provided.

0

It is NTFS, you cannot mount it. It must be Mac OS Journaled or FAT32.

4
  • 1
    Strange. I mount another NTFS hard drive with command sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/disk2s1 /Volumes/VERBATIM/ and it work perfectly. Sep 24, 2014 at 18:36
  • That is surprising, as Apple say that Snow Leopard and up cannot mount an NTFS drive. Now I am on my Macbook, I can use links. NTFS3G (macntfs-3g.blogspot.co.uk) allows you to mount NTFS drives, format as NTFS etc.
    – EdG
    Sep 24, 2014 at 18:40
  • I have Paragon NTFS installed on my machine and I can mount every NTFS disk. Sep 24, 2014 at 18:59
  • Should've mentioned that! Maybe the disk is corrupted then
    – EdG
    Sep 24, 2014 at 19:06
0

You can mount any NTFS disk, natively. You simply can't write to it without additional 3rd party software. If you can't see the drive at all, or it won't mount, the drive is most likely beginning to fail/failing/failed.

0

For those who are already using ntfs for mac by Paragon, and have faced the famous "Unable to mount" error,

try executing -

sudo kextunload /Library/Extensions/ufsd_NTFS.kext    // unloads driver

sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/ufsd_NTFS.kext      // reloads it

This is what worked for me.

However, if the issue persits, here's an article that might help - https://kb.paragon-software.com/article/406

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