2 TB WD "unreadable" (ticking)

Could be. Listen to the sounds on this page and see if it is one of them. Of course with that drive being almost new it is still under warrantee.

More important than 'is it mounted on the desktop' is ' is it visible in Disk Utility'. A drive can be corrupted and while mechanically fine still not mount. Usually first step is look in Disk Utility and find out of the drive is even saying hello.

Rick

Jon,

Great post!

First - Mac OS gives a drive a different icon when it is on an external bus and is ejectable. That is why this drive has an orange icon.

Next, that you see the drive in Disk Utility means it is connecting. THis is good, this probably means the drive itself is fine but the partition map/index is corrupted beyond the ability of Disk Utility/Mac OSX to mount it properly. Disk Utility is fairly weak that way - small damage or error is enough to make it unreadable and unfixable by Disk Utility.

Also, the drive is listed as having a format - Mac OS Extended, then DIsk Utility also states it is not formatted. DU is confused :^)

If this drive has data on it that you need, then you will probably be best served buying Disk Warrior and attempt to repair the index.

If the drive's data is backed up - and ALL data should be backed up always - then you should be able to erase this disk again in Disk Utility and just go back to using it.

Rick

the number of people with issues with external drives, with Lion or whatever the latest OS and updates, drive not mounting via Firewire but does with USB (or reverse)

WD sometimes makes the drive part of the enclosure meaning you can't pull the drive and use it in another case or install it inside your Mac. That would help and to eliminate the case and interface.

Maybe the case doesn't pass along the drive partition type or status.

You should always have multiple backups (and maybe not all WD MyBook), you'll see that they sell Mac versions, which while nice, have to wonder what difference in platform and support.

WD MyBook + TimeMachine with Green 2TB may not be best combination.

One other thing - is is a good idea to test a drive before putting it back into holding your data. A good test is to erase it and write a pass of zeroes during the erase. This works the drive 100% from beginning to end and is as good a way to try and see if it will fail as any.

Rick

The hatter wrote:

You should always have multiple backups (and maybe not all WD MyBook), you'll see that they sell Mac versions, which while nice, have to wonder what difference in platform and support.

Great point. I would ask WHY have a Mac version?

R

I would assume the "mac version" is formatted with HFS+ and contains OS X versions of the back up software no one ever uses.

Though along those lines, I remember back in the 68030 CPU days ordering a 1GB external SCSI drive and being offered the choice between a "Windows" version or a "Mac" version that cost 50$ more. Not being able to think of a difference, I ordered the cheaper Windows version and found that it was in fact formatted for the Macintosh once it was delivered.

Back on topic, WD quality has plummeted of late. But then so has Seagate and Maxtor. At a loss to find a good drive maker anymore.

Kujako wrote:

I would assume the "mac version" is formatted with HFS+ and contains OS X versions of the back up software no one ever uses.

It was kind of a rhetorical question. Like you, I just couldn't locate a reason, other than some marketing scheme, that the buyer would have an advantage in a Mac version of a Firewire or USB drive. As you stated so well, I also would never trust/use a push button - run backup utility built into the firmware on a drive.

R

Hard to take the recent flooding in Asia out of the picture but I have no issue with WD line of drives (VelociRaptor, Black)

I would hesitate (never say never) use a WD MyBook on a Mac. some have had trouble with "Green" drives inside their Mac Pro (but not all and some even use 2-3 in RAID sets), or Green drives tending to not stay connected to TimeMachine. Or that the IO subsystem seems to change all the time and how the OS talks to external drives.

Formatting for the user is almost meaningless and don't think that is the difference. WD software like SeaTools often cause trouble? with OS X (and not needed?).

Firewire on Macs could be different and maybe the bridge. Do they use Oxford bridge or some other?

The hatter wrote:

Hard to take the recent flooding in Asia out of the picture but I have no issue with WD line of drives (VelociRaptor, Black)

Agreed. I am loath to take a hard stand AGAINST a given brand name, they might be making the best product available next week. I have never liked WD Green drives, but my opinion is that all Green drives are pure politically correct marketing BS. No engineer would task himself to design a drive that is not optimum at storing data as the primary design criteria. Setting a goal that your drive uses less electricity as the first goal and reliably stores data as the secondary purpose is, to me, counter to my needs as the end user.

Beyond higher failure rates, biggest problem we see with Green drives is in RAID - especially hardware RAID. Green drives from any manufacturer have features built into their firmware to sleep without regard to what computer settings are, that alone is enough to cause a RAID card fits. Also we never know when a given setup will have mounting issues with Green drives. Seems to go along with the sleep issue - unpredictable. Enough so that we avoid them for the most part.