External Hard Drive Won't Mount

Question

External Hard Drive Won't Mount

My WD External HDD 1021 hard drive has decided to stop working. It is showing in the Disk Utility but not under Finder.

When I look at it in the DU the disk appears to be full (in red), and it is also not mounted.

I have tried to run the First Aid, but that fails. It will not mount either when the mount button is pushed.

The Partition Map is showing 32.2kb left.

Thoughts on how to sort this would be much appreciated. I would have thought if it was completely had it, it wouldn't be showing at all.

Many thanks. Bridget

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 11.6

Posted on Apr 19, 2022 10:45 PM

Reply

Answer 1

ku4hx

Level 7

23,700 points

Apr 19, 2022 10:50 PM in response to bridget-ChChNZ

How old is the drive? Have you had problems before? Will DU allow you to format it? Have you done so? Have you tried a different cable or a different port?

It may just be old and tired. When I encounter a stubborn drive, I format it NTFS on Windows and then take it back to the Mac.

If that fails, I boot my GPartEd partition editor Windows CD and use it to format the drive. My experience is if it can't be formatted with GPartEd, it's time to get a new drive.

Reply

Answer 2

Jack-19

Level 8

46,278 points

Apr 19, 2022 10:50 PM in response to bridget-ChChNZ

Hi, Bridget.

Welcome to Apple Support Community.

Could you post a screenshot of what you see in Disk Utility, with "View" > "Show All Devices" enabled?

Jack

Reply

External Hard Drive Won't Mount

Similar questions