WD My Passport partition not 'seen'

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8 points

WD My Passport partition not 'seen'

After an abortive attempt at using a WD My Book Live as a NAS, I acquired a 1TB My Passport and, following advice on here, re-formatted it and created 2x500GB partitions on it. Time Machine happily uses the partition set up for it.

When "ejecting" the Time Machine drive in Finder, I used to get a message about the other drive partition, I think it was along lines of did I want to eject that too.

I have not needed the non-Time Machine partition but I have now noticed that it's not accessible. It doesn't show on Finder and in Disc Utilities it shows the Time Machine partition of the drive but nothing for the other partition.

It's no great problem but curious as to why it cannot be "seen".

13" MBP on 10.8.3 bought in August 2012 - my first Mac after years of Windoze.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on May 27, 2013 9:54 AM

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Answer 1

May 27, 2013 10:11 AM in response to Westyman

Open the Disk Utility program in the Applications > Utilities folder, and then attach the external drive. When you do this do you see the partitions show up in the sidebar? Ones that are detected but not mounted will be grayed out.

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Answer 2

Westyman Author

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8 points

May 27, 2013 1:39 PM in response to Topher Kessler

By "attach" do you mean "Mount" from the icons in the header bar? If so, with the drive selected "Mount" is greyed out.

If I go to the Partition tab, Current shows the Time Machine partition but rest is greyed out.

Sorry if terminology is wrong, but thanks for your reply, Topher

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Answer 3

May 27, 2013 1:49 PM in response to Westyman

Try selecting the drive device (the item listed above your volume names) in Disk Utility and then click the Repair Disk button in the First Aid tab in Disk Utility.

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Answer 4

Westyman Author

Level 1

8 points

May 27, 2013 1:55 PM in response to Topher Kessler

Did that and "The partition map appears to be OK"

Second partition still not visible, to me anyway!!

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Answer 5

May 27, 2013 2:17 PM in response to Westyman

Can you take a screenshot of what Disk Utility looks like if you select the drive device and then click the Partition tab? To do this, press Shift-Command-4, and your cursor will turn into a crosshair. Then press the Space bar and hover your mouse over the Disk Utility window. When it highlights, click your mouse and a screenshot of just this window will save to your desktop. You can then use the little camera icon in the posting toolbar here to upload it to the forum.

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Answer 6

Westyman Author

Level 1

8 points

May 27, 2013 11:44 PM in response to Topher Kessler

You have obviouly twigged that I'm an Apple novice...thanks for instructions

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Answer 7

May 28, 2013 6:18 AM in response to Westyman

If you at one point had two partitions on the drive, then for some reason the second one has been removed. To add it back, click the plus button below the partition layout schematic, and then resize it accordingly. Then provide it with a name and click "Apply" and the volume should become available for you to use as a second storage location.

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Answer 8

Westyman Author

Level 1

8 points

May 28, 2013 7:15 AM in response to Topher Kessler

That's done the trick, thank-you. :-)

Just puzzled as to why it went in the first place :-(

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Answer 9

May 28, 2013 7:19 AM in response to Westyman

I'm not sure, but keep an eye on it and if the problem happens again then consider completely partitioning and reformatting your drive to ensure the partition tables are built properly from scratch.

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