Why are 2 of 3 external drives now useless?

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Level 1

21 points

Why are 2 of 3 external drives now useless?

I have 3 WD external drives: 2 old 1TB My Books, and a 4TB My Passport Ultra for Mac that I got at the beginning of the year. I had a bootable clone on one of the My Books and my Time Machine on the My Passport. The other My Book is formatted but empty.

I haven't hooked any of them up for several months. I took the two back-up drives out to update my back-up and Time Machine.

I tried the My Book first. It mounted. After a few minutes, the MacBook Air (mid-2013, Mojave) suddenly said "disk not ejected properly." I turned the computer off, disconnected the drive, turned the computer on, and then reconnected the drive in the other port. Under System Report, I could see that the USB port could see the drive, but the computer and Disk Utility couldn't see it.

I did the NVRAM routine, the SMC routine, changed the USB cord .... I have only 1 power cord, so I couldn't change that. But the power cord isn't a problem (as you'll see below). The machine couldn't mount the My Book with my bootable clone on it.

Next, I tried the My Passport. I plugged it into one port, and the computer didn't see it at all. I turned the machine off, unplugged the WD drive, turned my computer back on and plugged the drive into the other port. The machine mounted the drive, and I could see my Time Machine. I got an updated Time Machine back-up going. I came back about half an hour later and saw the "disk not ejected properly" message. This WD drive has no power cord, so that can't be the problem. I don't have another USB/Thunderbolt cord like the one that came with the My Passport, so I couldn't experiment with that. But the computer can't mount the drive.

My computer did mount the empty My Book with no problem (it uses the power cord that I used for its failed twin because I somehow lost one of the cords years ago). I made a new back-up with it and then ejected the drive. And then, a little while later, I reconnected the drive and updated the back-up.

So, my computer had some sort of disagreement with the two WD external drives that I had put files on.

Might anyone know what happened there? ... and how to prevent it from happening again?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 6, 2021 11:16 AM

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Answer 1

burrvj Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 7, 2021 2:42 PM in response to Need_help_give_help

I took the Macbook Air to the Genius Bar today to inquire about having the battery replaced. It turns out that there is something seriously wrong with the USB buses -- both of 'em. There's no sign of damage to the ports, but the tech could not run diagnostics on the computer, which is so old that it needs a hardwired connection to an ethernet jack (she tried the thunderbolt port, both USB ports, different adapters, different ethernet cables, different ethernet sockets at different points in the store...).

So, it seems to be sheer luck that the computer, or more precisely, the USB buses, didn't cut power to the empty My Book and screw it up, too.

I did try connecting the My Book with the bootable clone on it to my old Macbook, and that machine didn't see it at all.

I am not going to try to boot from the external drive. I don't think much good will come of it, alas. [insert sad smile here]

Thank you for your advice, though! :-)

Oh, the tech suggested that, in the meantime, I back my user files up to some USB flash drives because they don't rely on power from the USB bus. Now I shall just use the computer until it fails utterly.

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Answer 2

Nov 6, 2021 6:25 PM in response to burrvj

I am sorry I have no idea what is going on but appreciate your frustration. This is what I would try given what you have done already:

a. Connect the ‘bootable’ WD My Book to Mac BookAir. Boot MBA while holding down option key just in case the WD is recognised as a bootable alternative.

If so

- select WD My Book and see if it will boot, ‘repair’ if you can or

- boot into MBA and see whether WD remains visible – if so repair

b. If no work then boot into Safe Boot and see what happens.

c. Try same with My Passport.

d. Use another computer of yours or a friend.

e. I have collected both WD and Seagate HD drive encloses of disks I have removed. It would seem unlikely you have but if you can join a local Apple User Group there might be members who could extract the WD My Book to try in a different enclosure. It would by-pass the enclosure’s electronics in your case.

I'd be interested to hear if you find a solution.

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

69,242 points

Nov 7, 2021 6:17 PM in response to burrvj

Try using a good well respected brand of USB3 powered hub which can supply extra power to the drives if necessary plus the hub can act as a buffer/filter which is sometimes needed on some Macs. Get a powered USB3 hub with UASP support.

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