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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

BDAqua

Level 10

240,023 points

Dec 1, 2015 10:08 AM in response to hibou_-

Do other things work in the USB port?

hibou_-

Level 1

7 points

Dec 2, 2015 1:02 AM in response to BDAqua

Yes, I tested the USB port (cable) with a USB key and a different external HD, both worked fine.

BDAqua

Level 10

240,023 points

Dec 2, 2015 10:41 AM in response to hibou_-

Can you tell if it's even spinning up?

If connected to the one it works on & you enable File sharing, does it then show up on the non-working one?

hibou_-

Level 1

7 points

Dec 4, 2015 2:59 AM in response to BDAqua

hmm, all of a sudden the HD works again! maybe plugging other devises in to the computer reset something? I don't know, but thanks.

BDAqua

Level 10

240,023 points

Dec 4, 2015 11:22 AM in response to hibou_-

Whew, good to hear, thanks for the report. 🙂

cam_87

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2016 9:26 PM in response to BDAqua

hey.. wondering if you can help. I have a Seagate backup plus 2tb external hard drive. I use it to play media through a media hub and I also have it formatted to run both Mac & Pc which it has always done. until three days ago. I was watching a tv show through the media hub, plugged it into my mac to upload one new file, plugged it into the PC to transfer the file, back into the media player where it is now unable to be found so I plugged it back in to my mac and same thing.. can't be found. still comes up on the PC and files are accessible through the PC but not the media player or my MAC. it does show up in DU on the Mac but I'm unable to check the disk or do a repair or do anything other than see it there. but not in finder/desktop. I'm going to try to delete the fsck line in activity monitor but do you have any other suggestions? I'm not super great with computers and things so feel free to speak to me as though I'm an idiot/child. but child from the 90's not a new child.. they already know more than I do. Thanks a bunch!

BDAqua

Level 10

240,023 points

Jan 8, 2016 10:00 AM in response to cam_87

Hi, can it be repaired on the PC?

JFell2

Level 1

0 points

Jan 9, 2016 1:31 AM in response to medinaray

BDAqua... gonna pick your brain. So, tonight my macbook ran out of juice and, as a result, I got the external hard drive " was not ejected properly" message (seagate). I immediately plugged in and now my hard drive isn't showing up on the desktop or in the finder? I located it in disk utility, tried verifying and repairing it, both failEd numerous times and I get "the volume could not be verified completely" in red. Went through the OS X terminal... it verified the disk ok, but would not verify the volume (got an underlying error 8: posix report: exec format error). Tried locating the fsck process in the activity monitor (searching all processes) and nothing was found. What can I do now?? This hd was a fill-in for one I lent to my brother and has not been backed up :/ Is it worth me buying recovery software? Or, is she donezo? When plugged in (tried three USB cables), everything looks and sounds totally normal. I do believe it has been used on a pc prior... is it possible to do a successful repair on a pc when failing on a Mac? (and, I apologize for my complete and utter lack of computer knowledge... up until an hour ago I had no idea what an OS X terminal or disk utility or mounting partitions was 🙂) thanks for any help!

JFell2

Level 1

0 points

Jan 9, 2016 1:58 AM in response to JFell2

Also, just noticed this... when I plug my other external hard drive into the USB port that the damaged seagate is always in it does not show up on the desktop, in the finder, OR in the disk utility. But, works fine in the other USB port (The seagate fails in both ports). And, interestingly enough, a USB thumb drive works fine in BOTH ports... am I having software and/or hardware issues with my Mac?? Will try the hd in a different computer tomorrow and get back to you with results. Thanks, again!!