MrBHK

Q: External HD Drives mount a few times then never again ???

My Mac Mini late 2011 i5, is acting strangely and I am at a complete loss. When I connect a external drive, firstly my old iMac27 (which died on me Christmas !!day)  internal harddrive via a docking station, worked fine for about 5 days, unplugged it a couple of times then I could not find it on the mac. Then a 3TB WD book, which again connected first time, no problems and simularly after about a week or so and a couple of discounnects, is no longer showing up. Both HDS are fine.

 

Any ideas ... I am completly lost

Posted on Feb 10, 2014 10:44 PM

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Q: External HD Drives mount a few times then never again ???

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  • by MrBHK,

    MrBHK MrBHK Feb 10, 2014 11:08 PM in response to MrBHK
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    Feb 10, 2014 11:08 PM in response to MrBHK

    Also the Smart Status is showing up as Not Supported in Disk Utlility ... drive shows up there but all options greyed out

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Feb 11, 2014 12:23 AM in response to MrBHK
    Level 10 (123,506 points)
    Feb 11, 2014 12:23 AM in response to MrBHK

    Hi,

     

    Smart Status won't be available for most external drives, not a problem there.

     

    WD makes great drives, but their enclosures rhymes with duck.

     

    Is this a Bus powered drive? (the worst invention since Sarin), or does it have AC power?

  • by MrBHK,

    MrBHK MrBHK Feb 11, 2014 3:08 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 11, 2014 3:08 AM in response to BDAqua

    AC power .... whats strange is its happened now with two different drives ... which continue to mount on other OS devices

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Feb 11, 2014 8:34 AM in response to MrBHK
    Level 10 (123,506 points)
    Feb 11, 2014 8:34 AM in response to MrBHK

    Do they show up in Disk Utility or System Report?

  • by MrBHK,

    MrBHK MrBHK Feb 11, 2014 4:18 PM in response to BDAqua
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    Feb 11, 2014 4:18 PM in response to BDAqua

    Showing up in Disk utlity ... but all options like repair etc ...greyed out

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Feb 11, 2014 4:41 PM in response to MrBHK
    Level 10 (123,506 points)
    Feb 11, 2014 4:41 PM in response to MrBHK

    OK, highlight one in DU & click on the blue Info icon, any clues there, like Format?

  • by MrBHK,

    MrBHK MrBHK Feb 16, 2014 8:50 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 16, 2014 8:50 PM in response to BDAqua

    So its all very strange.. when I plug it into the mini, it will show up in DU for a short period of time, when I click on Info, everything seems to be fine, it then within 2 minutes or so dismounts and cant been seen. It never shows up in finder. Another anomolos behaviour ... in my finder windows there are regularly lots of finder windows for want of a better word building up and I have no way to close them ... so I click on finder or new window and there will be a list of 15 or so other finder windows open .. lastly the finder windows somethings become offcenter in the screen and the only way to get to a file is to open another new finder window, which resizes everthing to normal again.... a lot of info I know anyways takes for kind assitance its appreciated ... I am totally lost here

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Feb 17, 2014 12:11 PM in response to MrBHK
    Level 10 (123,506 points)
    Feb 17, 2014 12:11 PM in response to MrBHK

    You're not the only one lost, but try these...

     

    First, Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, test if things work OK in Safe Mode.

     

    Then move these files to the Desktop...

     

    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

     

    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist

     

    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

     

    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist

     

    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist

     

    Reboot & test.

     

    PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.

     

    Also...

     

    In Finder's Menu, select Go menu>Go to Folder, and go to "/volumes". (no quotes)

     

    Volumes is where an alias to your hard drive ("/" at boot) is placed at startup, and where all the "mount points" for auxiliary drives are created for you to access them. This folder is normally hidden from view.

     

    Drives with an extra 1 on the end have a side-effect of mounting a drive with the same name as the system already think exists. Try trashing the duplicates with a 1 or 2 if there are no real files in them, and reboot.

     

    If it does contain data...

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

  • by MrBHK,

    MrBHK MrBHK Feb 23, 2014 9:16 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 23, 2014 9:16 PM in response to BDAqua

    Hey thank you so much for your lenghty reply, will give this a try this week ..

     

    I bought a reconditioned macbook pro as a more expensive short term solition ... but this time a punted for the applecare cover

     

    after recently

     

    1. Losing 4 day old macbook air

    2. Losing 27 inch Imac to dead motherboad

    3 Losing ipod nano to blown circuits

    4. MacMini deciding it not longer liked mounting external hard drives

     

    Still all that considered ... I do not like windows :  )

     

    Brian

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Feb 24, 2014 12:49 PM in response to MrBHK
    Level 10 (123,506 points)
    Feb 24, 2014 12:49 PM in response to MrBHK

    This sounds only minorly similar, but throwing it out...

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5496841?start=0&tstart=50