I have a question for those of you who have their databases on external hard drives.
Is that drive partitioned?
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There are always one or more partitions on all internal and external drives and other storage devices. Why do you ask?
rmschne
I’m not going to argue with you over the existence of “one or more partitions on all internal and external hard drives…” My question was about external drives, not internal drives. If you answer my question “yes, I have my database on an external drive and yes, it is partitioned into 3 or more partitions,” I’ll then ask my next question. If you answer “no, I do not have my database on an external hard drive,” why did you respond to my query?
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I see nothing “argumentative” in the reply, just a statement of technical fact. Given the level of a person’s knowledge is most often unknown, it’s just a clarification of the state of things.
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Yes and Yes
A WD 4TB HDD with three partitions
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Since every disk always has at least one partition, you can’t store a database on an un-partitioned drive. So, everyone storing their databases on a drive does so on one that is partitioned. Regardless of the fact if that drive is built-in or not.
What is the reason for your question?
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DTLow
Thank you. I have an OWC 4Tb drive with 3 partitions that is giving me a lot of trouble because the OS no longer “sees” the data on the partitions after about 9 hours. I’ve changed the USB cable that connects the drive to the Thunderbolt 3 dock and that made no difference. I have a 2Tb WD Passport drive that is not partitioned and the OS never has an issue with that drive. As part of my investigation of the possibility that there might be an issue with an external drive that has 2 or more partitions, I removed two of the three partitions from another one of my OWC drives and started using that late last night. I’ve not had any problems for 13.5 hours so far. When I can no longer enter or retrieve data from DT, I’ll verify that the databases are no longer visible in Finder. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen again. I have no idea why this is happening - it started last week and the thought crossed my mind that perhaps all of my databases combined, 1.2Tb, had gotten too big. I very seriously doubt that, though. I have no idea what is going on so all I can do is to just keep documenting and monitoring the situation. Thank you for weighing in.
chrillek
See my reply to DTLow.
Finder doesn’t know about DT nor databases. So, if partitions disappear from Finder, you have a hardware issue. Check your system logs etc
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My experience, FWIW. I’ve had drives go bad and have partition issues in the past. Attemps at reformatting, low-level, whatever, would usually result in the drive (BOTH HD and SSDs) work for a little while than crap out.
Time for a new drive. Your data is far more important.
As for your initial questions, Yes to both.
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chrillek
Here is a screenshot of what Finder sees:
When the issue happens, the partitions don’t disappear - the image of the files do. But the files are intact - see explanation below.
This image is of the older drive, that, before I removed two partitions, the images of the files in the partitions disappeared on a regular basis. I’ve been running now for 15 hours and the files are still visible. I wasn’t clear in my terminology: the partitions don’t disappear and the data remains intact. When this issue happens, all of the images of files in the right side of the screenshot from Finder disappear and DT can’t find them, so my work comes to a halt until I force quit the drive (the normal eject command does not work), power it down, turn the power back on again and then the files re-appear. DT is happy until the next time this happens.
To repeat: I removed two of the three partitions, leaving only the databases. Everything has been fine for 15 hours. Before I removed the partitions, this issue happened every couple of hours. I can’t see that this is a hardware issue as the data is intact. What is happening is that DT can no longer “see” the database files. I know this has happened when I can no longer access files in DT, move files from the Global Inbox to another group, etc.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
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I stand by my earlier statement: you have a hardware problem. And repeat the question: what do the system logs say? I’ve had enough external drives go into lala land before, and I never had anything but the default partitions on them.
Even if the drive is not bonkers, its USB connector might be so that power is lost between the machine and the drive.
Because Finder can’t see them anymore. Or rather the underlying part of the OS.
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chrillek
Now that the situation has stabilized, I’ll turn on the other drive, which has a copy of the database, just to see how long it takes before it starts acting up. I’m not going to use that copy of the database, though - I’ll just take note of how long it takes to go to lala land and then I’ll post a screenshot of what Finder sees.
Thank you.
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What’s the number of your support ticket?
As others have already said here, most probably a failing external disk. I along with others–been there done that.
I have a stack of failed USB spinning drives on my book case, collected over the years. Cause of failure unconfirmed. My two solid-state external drives (Samsung) have been going strong for a number of years. Disconnecting too soon would probably make even these devices eventually fail.
Meantime, if you insist on using what you have, consider using macOS Disk Utility “First Aid”. You’ve mentioned only Finder (which won’t be of much help here, frankly) and not Disk Utility. May temporarily or maybe permanently repair, or may not. Hopefully you have backups of the databases on other media.
Good luck.
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Bluefrog:
282034
For what it’s worth, I’ve been using a Thunderbolt 5 external drive for almost a year, first 2 TB and now 4 TB with around 600 GB of Devonthink databases on one partition (ahem, ahem 
) without any problems.
Personally, I’m also sure it’s a physical issue. As an example, when I bought the 4 TB one, a 4 TB T500 to replace the 2 TB T500 in the same UGREEN enclosure, the new one kept disconnecting, so I exchanged it for an EVO and haven’t experienced a disconnection since.
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rfog:
Thank you for your thoughts. I’m 99% certain that it is not a hardware issue. Without going into the details, I’m almost certain that the issue was caused by an issue with one of the other two partitions on the drive. I’ve erased the drive and am currently loading the database back onto it from a backup copy. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but if the drive behaves for 24 hours, I think I’ll be out of the woods. FWIW, my DT databases amount to 1.2TB, all on one partition.
Without a doubt, this is the most bizarre issue I’ve encountered in over 30 years of using a computer.
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Why don’t you check the system logs? A hardware issue will probably appear there.
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rmschne:
With a lot of help from Bluefrog, I think I can see daylight now. I do not believe the issue is a hardware one. Instead, I believe it has something to do with the contents of the other two partitions on the drive. I’ve erased the drive and am now copying the databases back onto it from a backup copy. I’ve created another partition on the drive for Time Machine, which I have not used for several years. I use Super Duper! instead.
This is the most bizarre issue I’ve ever encountered in over 30 years of using a computer!