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Level 1

60 points

WD External drive won't mount

Hello everyone! I haven't been here in a while because I just haven't had any Mac issues. Now I do.

I have a 1 TB WD external HD that won't mount. I connect it via firewire to an Old G4 Sawtooth running OS 10.5.8. My mac sees the drive, it just won't mount. I've also tried to mount it via USB, but again, my system sees the drive, but won't mount it. I inadvertantly disconnected the firewire cable, which I didn't realize for several hours. I reattached the cable, tried to mount it, and nothing. I ran disc repairs, and Disc Utility actually told me the drive was successfully repaired. Again I tried to remount it, but nothing. I repaired permissions, and this didn't work. I've tried different cables, and this doesn't work.

I don't have another Mac to connect it to, so I don't know if this would work. Here's where things get a little wierd, but interesting. I connected it to my PC laptop, and it mounted. Now, this is a drive that was formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) on my G4, so I have to use Mac Drive so my PC will recognize and mount The Drive. So My PC sees The Drive as Mac OS Extended, and mounts it. All files are in tact, and the drive runs normally. This is a music drive and it plays normally on my PC. Meanwhile, if I try connecting it back on My Mac, the name of The Drive randomly changes from 931.5 GB WD to 931.5 GB WD My Media Book. I believe My Media Book is the factory name of The Drive before OS formatting. The Volume name remains the same on my G4 each time I've tried to mount it.

I do have another identical drive that mounts from all the bus ports on my G4. Any ideas here? Can I get my Drive to begin mounting on my G4 again? Any and all answers are appreciated.

Sawtooth G4; 1.8 GHz Dual 7447A; Radeon 9800/128MB; 2GB Ram, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Seagate 200 & 500GB HD; WD 120GB HD; Lacie DVD±RW; 550 Watt PSU

Posted on Feb 22, 2013 12:19 PM

148 replies

Oct 15, 2016 5:36 PM in response to BDAqua

It doesn't show in Disk Utilities. Which Finder Preference sets external drives?

BDAqua

Level 10

239,183 points

Oct 15, 2016 11:49 PM in response to Jonathan Wood

Finder>Preferences>General & Sidebar… but it won't help if it's not showing in Sidebar.

Do other things work in that port with that cable?

Oct 16, 2016 4:26 AM in response to BDAqua

Other things works in that port (ie. Bluetooth mouse etc) but the cable is only for the WD My Book drive. I suppose there could be something wrong with the cable. It shows power (ie. flashing light on the drive) but not mounting.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,183 points

Oct 16, 2016 5:11 AM in response to Jonathan Wood

Does it show in Terminal?

http://osxdaily.com/2009/12/01/list-all-mounted-drives-and-their-partitions-from -the-terminal/

Oct 16, 2016 7:42 AM in response to BDAqua

Nope. Must be the cable.. or the HD is fried. Strange

BDAqua

Level 10

239,183 points

Oct 16, 2016 3:16 PM in response to Jonathan Wood

Might consider starting a new topic to get more helpers or ideas. 🙂

fmhanc

Level 1

24 points

Oct 22, 2016 1:50 PM in response to mdazlan76

You are a genius! I have been trying to get my drive to mount for so long now. Thought I would give the internet one more chance to help me. This stupid fsck_hfs file running is the culprit. I can now get at some important files and will reformat. Thanks

Mac_Cat

Level 1

99 points

Oct 23, 2016 4:13 PM in response to medinaray

Hope that wasn't your backup drive.

Sounds like a serious h/w failure.

If it's critical stuff, you need to lookup "Data Recovery Services".

It's not as expensive as it used to be.

Good luck.

nullsec

Level 1

4 points

Dec 19, 2016 5:23 PM in response to mdazlan76

Thanks a ton for posting this. I had a similar problem. While the exact process name was different - and I had to show ALL processes in activity monitory to see it - I still had fsck running every time I plugged in the hard drive. My guess is that I did not disconnect it properly the last time, so it was running FSCK the next time the drive was connected. Always eject your drives properly!