Hard drive will not mount after plugging it back in

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Level 1

8 points

Hard drive will not mount after plugging it back in

hi guys,

so I have two hard drives. One with the MacOSX and the other that is formatted NTFS. They are both internal drives.

Yesterday i decided to install Windows to the NTFS HDD and took out the MacHDD (Windows can’t install when there are multiple hdds)

i decided to put my MacHDD back in my laptop to use and it’s not working. It doesn’t start up like it usually does.

i had this problem before but I thought it was just a hard drive issue. It seems as though when I plug it out and use a Windows drive instead and plug it back in, the drive can no longer be mounted.

im not sure if this makes sense or what’s even going on.

Have any of you had this issue and if so how did you solve it?

MacBook

Posted on Nov 24, 2019 6:36 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Nov 25, 2019 6:26 PM in response to JandeeW

On the 2012 model, the Windows disk must be in the main bay, and macOS can be in the Optical bay. Repeatedly opening and moving drives will cause problems.

Can you describe the exact steps you use when 'plugging' in and out drives?

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Answer 2

JandeeW Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 25, 2019 3:17 PM in response to Loner T

So the

P+R+Cmd+Opt reset worked!

thanks a lot. Honestly didn’t think the PRAM\NVRAM reset would work.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Nov 25, 2019 6:40 PM in response to JandeeW

Put the Windows in the Main bay, put the macOS disk in the Optibay. You no longer need to remove/re-install/move around the disks. Test both systems. The only reason the Optibay drive was removed, was to allow Windows installation. Once installed, you can remove the Optical drive and put the second disk and test both. As long as both work properly, you no longer need to move disks.

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Nov 24, 2019 7:21 PM in response to JandeeW

What is the version of macOS?
What are the two Macs' year/model (do not post the serial numbers)? If it is a single Mac, I will assume you have replaced the Optical drive with a second HDD (same Mac as referenced in Issues installing Windows onto MacBook. - Apple Community).
Do you have any third-party NTFS software?

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Answer 5

JandeeW Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 24, 2019 7:27 PM in response to Loner T

its been updated to Catalina.

and yes. I’ve replaced the optical drive with a HDD Dock.

And from my knowledge, no.

when i boot the MacBook a question mark folder appears. I know this is a bad sign.

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Nov 25, 2019 4:57 AM in response to JandeeW

With both drives in place, run a SMC and NVRAM Reset and reboot and hold Alt/Option. What are the available options that you see? Test by selecting one of the available options, then test remaining options.

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Answer 7

JandeeW Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 25, 2019 3:35 PM in response to Loner T

Why is it though that after plugging out the windows HDD and plugging back in the Mac HDD that it does that. Would you have any explanation for this? Because it happened in the exact same way before but I assumed the HDD was just faulty.

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Answer 8

JandeeW Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 25, 2019 6:19 PM in response to Loner T

So I’ve actually encountered the same problem when the computer is restarted. I went into internet recovery as I couldn’t access recovery mode to repair the disk and it seemed to be repaired but the question mark folder appears.

any possible solutions for this? Or is my hard drive totalled now? Just got this hdd a month ago or so.

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Answer 9

JandeeW Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 25, 2019 6:32 PM in response to Loner T

The Windows disk was plugged into the main bay. I took it out and plugged the MacBook into the main bay. Maybe it’s the way I’m taking it out?

I wasn’t aware moving them would cause any issue. I guess I assumed it was no different than plugging it in externally.

FYI: the first time this happened I actually plugged the Mac drive externally while the windows was in the main bay.

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Answer 10

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Nov 25, 2019 7:48 PM in response to JandeeW

JandeeW wrote:

okay the mac partition seems to be working!

Nice!

so basically each drive is ‘assigned’ to a bay? And so changing that will cause issues?

Your Mac is supposed to have only one hard drive, not two. Since you have modified the hardware configuration, once both OSes work in the chosen locations, you should not move the disks, otherwise you will cause problems with the Logic Board and potentially increase your chances of hardware failures further.

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