antony chen

Q: external WD HD no longer mounts

Hi guys,

 

I've got a WD 500gig 3.0 USB external drive, that no longer mounts on mac Lion or Snow Leopard.

The HD is partitioned into 3 parts:

1) PC (FAT)

2) Mac(journaled)

3) Time machine

 

The Mac HFS+ journaled partion pops up and dissappears when I plug in the USB drive. Neither Disk Utillity or Disc Warrior can see the USB drive connected.

 

When I restart my mac mini on Windows7, all partitions appears and I can read the PC and Mac partion without any problems (but not the timemachine).

 

So somehow, my WD USB 3.0 drive lost it's mac boot sector? Is there any way to restore the mac boot and mount?

 

I guess I can transfer my external drive content to my bootcamp partition... but 1mb takes about 5 min from HFS+ to NTSF... I should have bought 3 external drives, for PC, Mac and Timemachine. But my backpack is already crammed w so much tech...

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance, Antony

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 21, 2012 5:20 AM

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Q: external WD HD no longer mounts

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  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Apr 21, 2012 12:23 PM in response to antony chen
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Apr 21, 2012 12:23 PM in response to antony chen

    Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC, then try again.

  • by antony chen,

    antony chen antony chen Apr 22, 2012 10:30 AM in response to baltwo
    Level 1 (65 points)
    Apr 22, 2012 10:30 AM in response to baltwo

    Hi baltwo, thanks for the suggestion.

     

    Unfortunately this didn't help. It was a good call though! I didnt think of resetting the PRAM, it should have been one of the first things I tried.

     

    So the problem isnt on my laptop, its the external usb HD that is messed up...

     

    Thanks anyways!

  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Apr 22, 2012 2:12 PM in response to antony chen
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Apr 22, 2012 2:12 PM in response to antony chen

    Well, three things come to mind. USB 3.0 is problematic, all WD ext HDs are suspect, especially if they're bus-powered, and I never do windoze stuff.

  • by Marc Hawkins1,

    Marc Hawkins1 Marc Hawkins1 May 21, 2012 8:53 AM in response to antony chen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 21, 2012 8:53 AM in response to antony chen

    I have a WD External as well. I dont like them - not one bit. We have two of them in the office and it appears to me that they are not failing, they just have a tricky way to mount sometimes. I can hold the power button - nothing, wont even start to spin. This is what I have found consistently works for me. Hope it helps you.

     

    WIth your computer ON and all wires still connected:

     

    1)  Unplug all cables from the device (and firewire that is connected to your computer)

    2) Plug back in power cord to WD external first,

    3) Then plug firewire cable to your computer

    4) Then plug other end of firewire to the WD external.

     

    For some reason if I do this, it will light up and mount every time.

  • by antony chen,

    antony chen antony chen May 25, 2012 5:18 PM in response to Marc Hawkins1
    Level 1 (65 points)
    May 25, 2012 5:18 PM in response to Marc Hawkins1

    That's exactly what I had to do with my old WD external firewire! It was very tricky and kept spinning the drive without mounting. Had to disconnect and reconnect 3-4 times before it would mount.

     

    Alas this is not the answer for my Passport ME. What I've understood, it's the internal USB 3.0 hub that is directly soldered to the 2.5" HD that is messed up.

     

    Unfortunately with the small Passports, you can't just transfer it to a new 2.5" HD case. It's soldered permanantly to the faulty USB 3.0 adapter.