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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

Apr 6, 2016 7:26 PM in response to mdazlan76

THANK YOU...THANK YOU...THANK YOU....OH MY WORD I CAN NOT SAY THANK YOU ENOUGH!! I just created an account just to come on here to thank you. You just helped me save 2TB worth of data!!! I am a photographer and usually back up every time I upload a photo session and then do a big backup every month. Well, since January I've been shooting sessions, editing, dealing with taxes, trying to get a studio ready for a "grand opening", etc non-stop....oh, and I also rebranded my business meaning I re-wrote all of my contracts, questionnaires, pricing lists, etc etc....not to mention I have a 5 year old and a 3 year old.


Anyways, those were my excuses I repeated over and over to myself the past few days as I've taken my external drive to four local (well I live 30 minutes away from a "large" city so local is used loosely) places, including Geek Squad and an Apple store. Each place/person has told me that there was nothing that could be done and my only option was data recovery. When I told them that was all I needed at this point, they each told me that the external drive was showing NO data being used and that IF anything could be recovered it would have to be done by a data retrieval service via mail. I have seriously cried myself to sleep for two nights over this "data loss" and each time I thought about it during the day I would get nauseas so that each time one of these "experts" told me it was hopeless I literally lost my lunch in their parking lot.


Sorry, thats probably TMI but you just saved me hundreds of dollars (maybe thousands depending on the number of sessions I lost and had to refund) and over 10K pictures that are precious to many many clients. Not to mention my business because typing ALLLLLLLL those documents, contracts, etc over would have put me out of commission to take on new clients and spend time with my kiddos. I want to send you a gift. Do you drink starbucks? no, seriously I want to send you a gift card to starbucks or somewhere you shop. Can I leave my email address and you can send me a quick email if you are willing to accept my gift of gratitude?


~Yayaa

WD External drive won't mount

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