WD external drive will not mount

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ethereality Author

Level 1

64 points

WD external drive will not mount

What is preventing my WD USB ExFAT drive from mounting with my 2018 Mac mini running Ventura 13.0?

Troubleshooting done already:

Tried 'Mount' in Disk Utility.
Confirming this 2018 Mac Mini has an 'Apple T21 Security Chip', I shut down and unplugged the power cable for more than 15 seconds to try resetting the SMC.
I booted up with nothing but a monitor, keyboard, and mouse connected, then plugged in hard drive to see if it would work.
I just confirmed it works with Windows 11, so the problem appears to be this mac, not the drive.
I just uninstalled Zoom in case its update was interfering somehow.

Possibly relevant details?

last used successfully on 30 October
installed Zoom 5.11.6.9890 on 1 November
installed GarageBand 10.4.7 on 2 November
installed Logic Pro 10.7.5 on 2 November
uninstalled Zoom and restarted prior to posting here; problem remains
I have two VGA monitors, and an "Adaptermvp"-brand VGA-to-USBC adapter from Amazon.com appears to prevent the mac from starting up properly (i.e. after the startup sound the monitors remain 'No signal'), so I ultimately had to hold the power button to turn the mac back off, unplug that adapter, then boot it up, log in, and reconnect it. One hypothesis I have for why the drive won't mount now is that the multiple on-off-on-off of the mac while I was figuring this out has caused some macOS error relating to mounting accessories. Hence I tried resetting the SMC.

Thank you for your time.

Posted on Nov 3, 2022 1:37 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ethereality Author

Level 1

64 points

Nov 5, 2022 11:17 AM in response to ethereality

Less than an hour after posting this question, my hard drive automatically mounted and works now. Perhaps a combination of the following succeeded in clearing whatever software error was in place:

resetting the SMC
uninstalling whatever software has been installed since the USB drive last worked*: About this Mac > More Info > System Report > Software > Installations > Install Date (sort by descending)
booting up with only monitor, mouse, and keyboard
connecting the USB drive after logging in (perhaps wait a bit for startup items to finish loading)
waiting several minutes

* I only uninstalled Zoom; other software installed -- updated -- was GarageBand and Logic Pro.

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Answer 2

Ria_23

Level 1

9 points

Nov 5, 2022 12:06 PM in response to ethereality

I purchased a WD Passport for Mac earlier this year. I forgot what happened with it specifically but I returned it for a refund within a week. earlier I had had similar problems with a WD external HD refurbished by the manufacturer which I had purchased off eBay. so i suspect the problem has to do with WD products.

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Answer 3

ethereality Author

Level 1

64 points

Nov 6, 2022 3:55 AM in response to Ria_23

Why do you say the root cause is with WD and not macOS?

I've returned here because, after turning off and unplugging both the Mac Mini and the WD drive overnight, the problem has returned, i.e. what I thought solved it didn't.

To add insult to injury, it appears Apple will not let me "unselect" this incorrect solution to remove the misleading 'Solved' banner.

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Answer 4

ethereality Author

Level 1

64 points

Nov 7, 2022 5:36 PM in response to ethereality

... and again, after waiting, the drive finally mounted of its own accord. However, I did replace a VGA cable + VGA-to-USBC adapter (the problematic adapter I specified above) with a DVI-to-USBC cable for my hp monitor. Whether that is responsible for correcting this second bout of drive-not-mounting I know not how to ascertain.

(... Sorry for that grammar: I've been reading old books lately. 😅...)

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Answer 5

Ria_23

Level 1

9 points

Nov 7, 2022 4:59 AM in response to ethereality

it may have to do with either. I don't really know.

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WD external drive will not mount

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