How to fix Unable to unmount the volume for repair. :(-69673)?

I want to erase my external hard drive, currently full of data from an old computer's Time Machine backups. The drive does mount correctly, I can view files with no problems. I cannot, however, rename or delete them (e.g. trying to delete a file using Finder gives me an "unexpected error" (code -50); if I go to the Terminal and try "rm" then I get "Invalid argument". If I have selected the Volume and run First Aid then I get Unable to unmount the volume for repair. : (-69673) If, instead, I select the physical device instead of just the volume then First Aid runs just fine, I get no errors. But I am still not able to erase it. I got this: Couldn’t unmount disk. : (-69888) But if I select the "Force Eject" option that does work just fine. Can anyone help?

Best Answered by

Eudora Liu

Answered on Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Unable to unmount the volume for repair. :(-69673) and Couldn't unmount disk. : (-69888) are both the errors of the inability to unmount a disk on a Mac.

They occur when you fail to erase, partition, or delete an internal or external disk or volume on Mac, including an external hard drive, USB flash drive, Time Machine backup disk, etc.

Although they belong to the same type of error, you need to take different solutions to fix them respectively.

Take the following ways to fix Unable to unmount the volume for repair. :(-69673):

Relaunch Finder
Manually unmount the drive
Unmount the drive with Terminal
Force unmount the drive
Uninstall the drive manufacturer's software
Repair the drive in macOS Recovery Mode
Reformat the drive in Terminal

Take the following ways to fix Couldn't unmount disk. : (-69888):

Relaunch Finder
Check and Quit processes that are using the drive
Ensure two partitions are using the same file system before merging
Format the drive on Windows
Exclude the drive from Spotlight indexing
Check if you are in the same directory as the external drive
Remove the disk from Time Machine
Force unmount disk on Mac with Terminal

No matter which error you like to fix first, you need to back up your data before you start. You can take iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to get back your lost files.

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