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User profile for user: medinaray
medinaray Author
User level: 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

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148 replies
User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
240,923 points

Oct 2, 2014 5:40 PM in response to Jake171819

Your best bet for repairing you HD is DiskWarrior from Alsoft...


http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/


If that shouldn't work, your best bet for recovering your data is Data Rescue II...


http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php


This last one would require another HD with plenty of space to recover to.


rccharles on file recovery...


"Stellar Phoenix Macintosh - Mac data recovery software, recovers data from damaged, deleted, or corrupted volumes and even from initialized disks."

They have a trial version, so I guess you can see if your data can be recovered...

http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-data-recovery.htm


FileSalvage is an extremely powerful Macintosh application for exploring and recovering deleted files from a drive or volume. FileSalvage is designed to restore files that have:

* been accidentally deleted.

* become unreadable due to media faults.

* been stored on a drive before it was re-initialized/formatted.

http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id= 1


http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11073082#11073082

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User profile for user: miphone59
miphone59
User level: Level 1
8 points

Oct 19, 2014 12:27 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua, THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU... You save my life! i'm naming my 3rd child after you!

i just finished reading a post that said there was no hope for the drive and that it was no more good, but then i tried a different search on apple support one more time! 🙂 Thanks again!


would you recommend reformatting the drive and putting the files back on the drive?

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User profile for user: hoang.v.dang
hoang.v.dang
User level: Level 1
4 points

Nov 30, 2014 4:46 PM in response to medinaray

Hey y'all. So I had this problem and decided to write off what I saved on my WD my passport as a loss. I tried to first aid repair it, no go. I tried to delete the partition... also no go. I tried to make 2 partitions, also no luck. I went for the 3 and bam! It was able to delete my old one and mount 3 partitions. Now I can safely backup my mac and not buy a new external HD.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User

Mar 29, 2015 1:39 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks, BDAqua. I'm rather an idiot when it comes to system diagnostics. The external drive in question may be kaput - it just makes a whirring sound when I connect it to USB. My Mac doesn't see it - it's not the WD My Book listed under Firewire Info.


Here's what EtreCheck gave me when I queried:


Problem description:

WD external drive won’t mount


EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)

Report generated March 29, 2015 at 1:33:27 PM PDT

Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck


Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.


Hardware Information: ℹ️

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) (Technical Specifications)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,3

1 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4-core

16 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Battery Health: Normal - Cycle count 69


Video Information: ℹ️

Intel Iris Pro

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - VRAM: 2048 MB

Color LCD spdisplays_2880x1800Retina


System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10.2 (14C1514) - Time since boot: 18:41:12


Disk Information: ℹ️

APPLE SSD SM0512F disk0 : (500.28 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 499.05 GB (369.31 GB free)

Core Storage: disk0s2 499.42 GB Online


USB Information: ℹ️

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller


Firewire Information: ℹ️

WD My Book 800mbit - 800mbit max

EFI (disk2s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

My Book Two (disk2s2) /Volumes/My Book Two : 2.00 TB (315.52 GB free)


Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Apple Inc. Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter


Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Mac App Store and identified developers


Launch Agents: ℹ️

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]


Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]


User Launch Agents: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]

[running] com.amazon.music.plist [Click for support]


User Login Items: ℹ️

iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Google Chrome Application Hidden (/Applications/Google Chrome.app)

Google Drive Application (/Applications/Google Drive.app)

Amazon Cloud Drive Application (/Applications/Amazon Cloud Drive.app)

Music Manager Application Hidden (/Users/[redacted]/Library/PreferencePanes/MusicManager.prefPane/Contents/Helpe rs/MusicManagerHelper.app)

WDDriveUtilityHelper Application (/Applications/WD Drive Utilities.app/Contents/WDDriveUtilityHelper.app)


Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

AdobeExManDetect: Version: AdobeExManDetect 1.1.0.0 - SDK 10.7 [Click for support]

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.134 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.10 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.10 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.134 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.4 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 15.0.0 - SDK 10.10 Check version


User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 [Click for support]


Safari Extensions: ℹ️

Pin It Button


3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

Flash Player [Click for support]

MusicManager [Click for support]


Time Machine: ℹ️

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 499.05 GB Disk used: 129.74 GB

Destinations:

My Book Two [Local]

Total size: 2.00 TB

Total number of backups: 5

Oldest backup: 2014-11-22 19:45:16 +0000

Last backup: 2015-03-29 20:10:35 +0000

Size of backup disk: Excellent

Backup size 2.00 TB > (Disk size 499.05 GB X 3)


Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

27% Google Chrome

3% Finder

3% WindowServer

0% com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

0% fontd


Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

258 MB Google Chrome

241 MB firefox

206 MB Finder

206 MB Google Chrome Helper

155 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent


Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

7.86 GB Free RAM

5.20 GB Active RAM

568 MB Inactive RAM

1.66 GB Wired RAM

39.49 GB Page-ins

188 KB Page-outs


Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

Mar 29, 2015, 01:29:51 PM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.preferences.extensio ns.remoteservice_2015-03-29-132951_[redacted].crash

Mar 28, 2015, 07:03:23 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Google Chrome_2015-03-28-190323_[redacted].cpu_resource.diag [Click for details]

Mar 28, 2015, 06:52:03 PM Self test - passed

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WD External drive won't mount

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