Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

medinaray Author

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

medinaray Author

Level 1

60 points

Feb 25, 2013 8:01 PM in response to BDAqua

Terminal List. disk4 is the malfunctioning drive.

Last login: Mon Feb 25 19:25:12 on ttys000

raymond-medinas-power-mac-g4-agp-graphics:~ raymondmedina$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *111.8 Gi disk0

1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk0s1

2: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk0s2

3: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk0s3

4: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk0s4

5: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk0s5

6: Apple_FWDriver 256.0 Ki disk0s6

7: Apple_Driver_IOKit 256.0 Ki disk0s7

8: Apple_Patches 256.0 Ki disk0s8

9: Apple_HFS Mac Leopard II 91.8 Gi disk0s10

10: Apple_HFS Mac Tiger 19.7 Gi disk0s12

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *186.3 Gi disk1

1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk1s1

2: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk1s2

3: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk1s3

4: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk1s4

5: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk1s5

6: Apple_FWDriver 256.0 Ki disk1s6

7: Apple_Driver_IOKit 256.0 Ki disk1s7

8: Apple_Patches 256.0 Ki disk1s8

9: Apple_HFS Mac Leopard I 186.2 Gi disk1s10

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *465.8 Gi disk2

1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk2s1

2: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk2s2

3: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk2s3

4: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk2s4

5: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk2s5

6: Apple_FWDriver 256.0 Ki disk2s6

7: Apple_Driver_IOKit 256.0 Ki disk2s7

8: Apple_Patches 256.0 Ki disk2s8

9: Apple_HFS 500 GB HD 465.6 Gi disk2s10

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *931.5 Gi disk3

1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk3s1

2: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk3s2

3: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk3s3

4: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk3s4

5: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk3s5

6: Apple_FWDriver 256.0 Ki disk3s6

7: Apple_Driver_IOKit 256.0 Ki disk3s7

8: Apple_Patches 256.0 Ki disk3s8

9: Apple_HFS 1 TB Music Drive II 931.4 Gi disk3s10

/dev/disk4

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *931.5 Gi disk4

1: Apple_partition_map 31.5 Ki disk4s1

2: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk4s2

3: Apple_Driver43 28.0 Ki disk4s3

4: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk4s4

5: Apple_Driver_ATA 28.0 Ki disk4s5

6: Apple_FWDriver 256.0 Ki disk4s6

7: Apple_Driver_IOKit 256.0 Ki disk4s7

8: Apple_Patches 256.0 Ki disk4s8

9: Apple_HFS 1TB Music Drive 931.4 Gi disk4s10

raymond-medinas-power-mac-g4-agp-graphics:~ raymondmedina$

Terminal info on disk4s10.

Last login: Mon Feb 25 22:22:41 on ttys000

raymond-medinas-power-mac-g4-agp-graphics:~ raymondmedina$ diskutil info disk4s10

Device Identifier: disk4s10

Device Node: /dev/disk4s10

Part Of Whole: disk4

Device / Media Name: Apple_HFS_Untitled_1

Volume Name: 1TB Music Drive

Mount Point:

File System: Journaled HFS+

Owners: Disabled

Partition Type: Apple_HFS

Bootable: Is bootable

Media Type: Generic

Protocol: FireWire

SMART Status: Not Supported

Volume UUID: 61A8EAFF-E1C9-3605-AF92-5A210E3C781A

Total Size: 931.4 Gi (1000069726208 B) (1953261184 512-byte blocks)

Free Space: 0.0 B (0 B) (0 512-byte blocks)

Read Only: No

Ejectable: Yes

Whole: No

Internal: No

Disk Utility Info on 1TB Music Drive.

Name :	1TB Music Drive
Type :	Volume

Disk Identifier :	disk4s10
Mount Point :	Not mounted
File System :	Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus :	FireWire
Device Tree :	IODeviceTree:fwx/node@90a9c5c29aa50b/sbp-2@c000
Writable :	Yes
Universal Unique Identifier :	61A8EAFF-E1C9-3605-AF92-5A210E3C781A
Capacity :	931.4 GB (1,000,069,726,208 Bytes)
Owners Enabled :	No
Can Turn Owners Off :	Yes
Can Be Formatted :	Yes
Bootable :	Yes
Supports Journaling :	Yes
Journaled :	No
Disk Number :	4
Partition Number :	10

I've read that WD uses crappy chipsets in their external drives. I'm wondering if the chipset is suspect here? Just not sure. I did discover that I can clone the drive from my PC as an exact Mac OS Extended (Journaled) drive, and my Mac doesn't even know the difference. I've also read that I can initialize the drive, and reinsert the drivers, and the drive should function normally. Interesting, huh? Well, let me know what you come up with BDAqua. And again, many, many thanks.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,483 points

Feb 26, 2013 11:15 AM in response to medinaray

I suppose it could be the chipset or enclosure, but not all that likely is my pure guess.

One of these might answer that question...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-to-IDE-SATA-S-ATA-2-5-3-5-HD-HDD-Adapter-Cable-/ 180550148600

In Info under Device Tree there is a node@ with a number: is this it?

Yes, looks like we have that now.

I wonder what this means?

Whole:

What do working ones report there?

medinaray Author

Level 1

60 points

Feb 27, 2013 7:14 AM in response to BDAqua

You think new cables might help? You could be right.

I'm not sure about the node question? But for-what-it's-worth, here is what I get under Device Tree: fwx/node@90a9c5c29aa50b/sbp-2@000/@0:10. I've no idea what this means. Some of the mount commands in Terminal require the DeviceNode which looks like this: /dev/disk4s10.

Whole:

If you get info for the volume in disk utility it reports no, even for working volumes. If you get info for the drive in disk utility it reports yes. I would reason that it reports yes for the drive because it is the whole drive? I'm feeling pretty dopey here.😁

My sense about this case at this point is that when I inadvertently disconnected the firewire cable w/o ejecting the drive, it changed the status of ownership to disabled, and journaled to no. Who knows why? At this point I'm wondering if I can reinstall the drive software into the chipset w/o damaging the data on the drive? I've submitted this case to WD, but have not heard back from them yet.

I'm relieved that the drive works on my PC. If I can't get it to mount on my Mac, then all I have to do is purchase another drive, and clone the damaged music drive over to it. I won't cross this bridge until it seems definite that I cannot mount the drive to my Mac.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,483 points

Feb 28, 2013 5:00 PM in response to medinaray

I would reason that it reports yes for the drive because it is the whole drive?

Great reasoning methinks... s10 is the partition, also means OS9 drivers are installed or it'd bw s3 I believe. 🙂

medinaray Author

Level 1

60 points

Mar 1, 2013 11:45 AM in response to BDAqua

WD has issued a reply to me regarding the damaged drive. They say to "dump to contents into a drive on the computer that recognizes it, and reformat the damaged drive on the Mac." And that's that.

So, unless someone here comes up with solution, I guess that is what I will do.

Thanks everybody and especially to you BDAqua for the effort you gave.

Peace.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,483 points

Mar 1, 2013 12:51 PM in response to medinaray

I was hoping for more help here, but I think you'll end up doing just that... good luck. 🙂

Jun 28, 2013 12:45 AM in response to medinaray

I have this problem too with my Western Digital 1TB My Passport for Mac.

Downloaded Card Data Recovery - did not work. The software self terminated itself when the problematic WD is connected. Starts up fine when the WD is not connected by USB.

Then I downloaded Remo Recovery. Starts up fine, scans fine and appears to save the files but ALL the files 'saved' are unreadable.

Finally, downloaded Stellar Phoenix in a last ditch attempt to recover my precious video files. Starts fine, saves fine BUT it cannot save files above 200MB because the WD stops working every 10 minutes.So, did not solve my problem totally because I have so many files above 200MB.

And yes, I PAID for all the software above. And the first two software are reluctant to refund me my money until their development team can ascertain whether it's a software bug, over online web conference. And because of the time differences, I can never get online with them. So, all my money gone.

Until one day I opened Activity Monitor and noticed this 'fsck_hfs' starting up everytime I connected the problematic WD My Passport for Mac.

So, tried to Force Quit 'fsck_hfs' and VOILA!

A dialogue box popped up and says that the Passport for Mac cannot be repaired and that I can move and copy files from it but not save to it.

PHEW!!

At least I can access the files and save them to my Seagate 1TB although now I am having a problem opening FCP X project files rescued from the WD.

😐

Halle

Level 2

231 points

Sep 25, 2013 3:31 PM in response to BDAqua

This worked like a champ! Thanks.

Once I got access to the files, as you suggested, I just copied the important stuff to a new drive.

When finished, I'll try and erase/reformat the one that wouldn't mount.

We'll see what happens then.

Thanks again,

Hal

Oct 8, 2013 10:14 AM in response to BDAqua

I have the same basic problem BDAqua, but a different cause. I'm sure theres a simple remedy

I formatted an external hard drive from NTFS to HFS I think you say? ( Mac OS Journaled) using Disk Utility in Snow Leopard.

It all went fine, I loaded some files (this is a media player for television set) and that was that.

Now this media player has its own file system (Linux) giving me the ability to move files and folders around on the Hard drive, so I made the mistake of moving all hidden files ( /.DocumentRevisions-V100/, /.fseventsd/, /.Spotlight-V100/, /.TemporaryItems/ etc. to another folder so they were actually hidden; being on the Linux system and all

After trying to mount the drive on my macbook again it would not show up. I tried to put the hidden files back in the same place I got them but no luck. One thing I noticed is that somehow I had two /.Spotlight-V100/ folders, I know there should be only one and have tried mounting with either in the right location. No luck

Any help please?

athapar

Level 1

0 points

Nov 2, 2013 5:30 PM in response to mdazlan76

mdazlan76, thank you so much. Once I force quit fsck.hfs it worked!!!

Nov 3, 2013 3:59 AM in response to athapar

Sure thing!

Glad it helped!

🙂

BDAqua

Level 10

239,483 points

Nov 4, 2013 11:53 AM in response to mdazlan76

Great tip, thnks! 🙂

Nov 28, 2013 7:26 PM in response to mdazlan76

Thank you thank you THANK YOU mdazlan76! I have been trying to get access to my GDrive Slim for hours and after running Disk Warrior and Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery I almost gave up. I just so happened to stumble across this forum and I tried your suggestion and I IMMEDIATELY regained access to my external HD. Thanks again for your help, you seriously saved my day.

Nov 29, 2013 3:44 AM in response to parisafromannandale

Glad I could help, and more people can benefit from my experience.

🙂

ocksway

Level 1

0 points

Dec 26, 2013 12:15 AM in response to BDAqua

Thank you soooooo much!!! This has been happening to me for so long, so glad to have found a solution.

WD External drive won't mount