USB 2.0 Hard Drive Won't Mount after 10.4.10

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Level 2

326 points

USB 2.0 Hard Drive Won't Mount after 10.4.10

This is the first trouble I've ever had with an Apple Software update.

Ever since installing the 10.4.10 update on my first generation MacBook my USB 2.0 OWC Mercury Elite 250GB Hard Drive will not mount. The drive was working perfectly before the update and now won't mount at all. I can however see the drive under the USB tab of Apple System Profiler it shows up as "Macpower USB2.0A 3.5" HDD." I can't get it to mount with either Disk Utility or DiskWarrior

I've done all the basics including restarting, repairing disk permissions, running all my cron scripts (using Cocktail), swapping out the USB cable, and I even reinstalled the 10.4.10 combo updater. I've swapped ports, tried it with and without a hub, I've plugged in a different USB drive and it works fine so I know it's not an issue with the port.

This is a real pain because this drive has all my iTunes videos on it including nearly a full season of a television show. (Thankfully it's synced to my AppleTV so I can watch what I have)

I really don't wan to erase my computer and reinstall OS X and revert to the 10.4.9 update, although I do have a clone of my computer on another FireWire drive, I'm in the midst of a big project and this is just not the time to do that.

Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

MacBook 2.0 GHz Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.4.10), 2GB RAM, 60GB 5th Gen. iPod

Posted on Jun 21, 2007 6:27 PM

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Answer 1

gomac54

Level 1

0 points

Jun 21, 2007 7:30 PM in response to Katie Floyd

I'm having the exact same problem.
This particular OWC drive (bridge board) has never played nicely with OS 10 (time outs during start up, failure to unmount at shutdown), but it has functioned. When I saw that this update "Improves reliability when mounting external USB hard drives", I thought maybe they fixed it. Well it improved reliability all right, now it reliably won't mount!

Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.10)

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Answer 2

chaosboi

Level 1

10 points

Jun 22, 2007 1:31 AM in response to gomac54

same here. My LaCie USB drive is fine, but I have an external Astone drive (external case where you add your own drive) and since the update this isn't mounting. The drive still works on my MacBook 10.4.9.
Again mine has all of my iTunes stuff!

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Answer 3

Katie Floyd Author

Level 2

326 points

Jun 22, 2007 4:33 AM in response to Katie Floyd

Well, if anything it's good to know I'm not alone. Though I've never had a bit of trouble with this drive.

I know OWC had problems with their FireWire drives with one of the OS updates a while back and they released a firmware update. I don't know anything about drive mechanics, but would that also be a possible solution for a USB drive as well?

And how big of a pain is it to revert to 10.4.9 using the archive and install feature? Although I do have a clone backup using SuperDuper on my FireWire hard drive I am in the midst of a "mission critical" project and don't want to take any chances especially since I can live for a while without my iTunes data - I probably should be watching less TV anyway.

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Answer 4

Aug 27, 2007 10:12 PM in response to Katie Floyd

Hi Katie,

You can count me in on the issues. I have a brand new MacBook Pro (new chipset / graphics obliges 10.4.10) and plugging in my external 150GB USB drive doesn't show anything. System Profiler shows a screwed up description of what is connected.

However, my Boot Camp partition happily mounts the drive, as does Knoppix 5.1.1 booted off CD, and most any other Windows PC around the place here. That proves that it is not the hardware.

Unfortunately, everyone here is too vigilant with their updates, and no-one is still running 10.4.9, so I can't test if it is 10.4.10 that kills it. However, the 4 MacBook / MacBook Pros that we have tried this on (all Intel, all running 10.4.10) have exactly the same problem.

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Answer 5

Aug 28, 2007 6:09 AM in response to Katie Floyd

Ok - that proves it. I just reinstalled my older MacBook Pro (ATI graphics) to 10.4.8.

Bingo - my external drive now works.

Other good news - it appears that 10.4.9 supports my new MacBook Pro's hardware. I had thought that this support came in with 10.4.10.

I will try doing the kernel module replacement suggested on MacFixIt on the newer unit.

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Answer 6

Aug 28, 2007 8:28 PM in response to paul_adams777

This is a cross-post from another posting related to the same issue.

The kernel module replacement suggested on the MacFixIt site did not work for me - the three replaced modules are not loading, suggesting that there must be some dependency issue.

Accordingly, I contacted Apple Telephone Support. They advised that, as the drive is not on the supported list, they would not be able to assist. However, they did advise that another site had a workaround that had worked for some.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070628092633507

However, having tried this, it did nothing helpful for me. That is not to say that it will not help others, which is why I have posted it here.

I also asked about getting an install set for 10.4.9, but they advised that I would not be able to do this.

As I have only 10.4.8 and 10.4.10 install sets, I can't install the new MacBook directly - 10.4.8 doesn't support its hardware.

I will have to try reinstalling OS X on my new MacBook with it in target mode, connected to my old MacBook. Complicating this somewhat is the fact that the DVD drive on my old MacBook is broken (main board fault), so I will be installing from media in the new MacBook, targeting the hard drive in the new MacBook, but running the install on the old MacBook.

I will let you all know how it goes...

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Answer 7

kaskudoo

Level 1

0 points

Sep 2, 2007 8:33 AM in response to paul_adams777

did you ever get it to work? i have the exact same issue here 😟

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Answer 8

TZW

Level 1

54 points

Sep 5, 2007 12:46 AM in response to Katie Floyd

Same problem here. My external Seagate hard drive housed in a Zynet Polar 3.5" external enclosure (USB) will not mount using the high speed ports on the back of my iMac. I've had no problems in the past. The problem appeared after installing the Mac OS X 10.4.10 update.

It mounts if connected to the keyboard, but doing a backup that way would take days.

It works fine connected to my MacBook (also with 10.4.10).

The Mac OS X hints workaround doesn't work.

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Answer 9

TZW

Level 1

54 points

Sep 5, 2007 2:03 AM in response to TZW

I was wrong: the same problem also applies to my MacBook.

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Answer 10

el_lasso

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2007 4:48 PM in response to Katie Floyd

Hi Everyone.. I finally received a solution to this problem and it works great for me. USB Prober was working for only one of my 3 disks so this solutions is working for all of them :

You will need 10.4.9 ( http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1049updateintel.html) and Pacifist ( http://www.charlessoft.com/)

Open 10.4.9 image but don't start installation. Open Pacifist and open 10.4.9 pkg with it.

Find in system/library/extentions IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext and move it to the desktop.
Find that same file on your HD (same path) and put it in thrash and put the one from your desktop instead.
Go in disk utility (in applications/utilities) and do repair disk permissions on your HD.
Restart (if you have a problem do the same thing by putting back the file from the trash).

You will now have 10.4.10 with usb mass stockage driver 1.4.7 instead of 1.5.0

Thanks to our friends from Macquebec.com

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Answer 11

TZW

Level 1

54 points

Sep 21, 2007 8:54 AM in response to el_lasso

Works for me too, problem solved! Thanks.

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Answer 12

Katie Floyd Author

Level 2

326 points

Apr 19, 2008 4:13 PM in response to Katie Floyd

I got all the way up the Apple Support chain and actually had several detailed conversations with an OS X engineer. Long story short, there was an incompatibility with the 10.4.10 PPC update and the controller firmware on my drive. THe problem was corrected in 10.4.11 and 10.5, but unfortunately I had to wait for the OS updates to solve the problem.

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