Can't get “fsck_hfs” to run on my MacBook while checking an external drive

Question

I have a 3TB Seagate GoFlex drive which shows up in “Disk Utility” but not on the desktop. Disk utility can’t repair it so I wanted to try fsck_hfs.

Last login: Fri Jul 31 00:22:20 on ttys000 
$ DISKUTIL LIST
/dev/disk0
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE          IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   
disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            250.1 GB      disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB    disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE           IDENTIFIER
0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1
1:        Apple_partition_map                         262.1 KB   disk1s1
2:                  Apple_HFS FreeAgent GoFlex Drive  3.0 TB     disk1s3
/dev/disk2
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE           IDENTIFIER
0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *16.8 MB    disk2
1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk2s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Flash Player            16.8 MB    disk2s2

I try to run it:

MacBook-Pro:~ sarah$ % sudo fsck_hfs -fy /dev/disk1s3

and I get:

-bash: fg: %: no such job

Does anyone know why it won’t run?

Answer 1

Does anyone know why it won’t run?

The fsck_hfs command should run, but your syntax is incorrect. That’s what this error is:

-bash: fg: %: no such job

So where does that % come from? And is it needed? Look at your command as entered:

MacBook-Pro:~ sarah$ % sudo fsck_hfs -fy /dev/disk1s3

Seems like you prepended a % in front of the command. In Bash that % means is a job control specification. And in the case you are showing, % represents—according to this Bash reference manual:

A single ‘%’ (with no accompanying job specification) also refers to the current job.

But whatever it means—and why it threw up that “no such job” error—shouldn’t factor into fsck_hfs in anyway. I read that as a typo.

My guess is you copied and pasted the fsck_hfs command from some blog site or tutorial site where there is odd code formatting and such. Regardless, toss that %; it’s not needed in any way.

Knowing that, your command should be something like this:

sudo fsck_hfs -fy /dev/disk1s3

Hopefully that will repair the volume on the disk and bring it all back to life.