vbagley
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: My Book won't mount to desk top

There was power outage and now My Book will not show up on the desktop. Disk Utility won't repair it. It's still doing it's thing and shuts down when I shut the Mac down. Haven't found anything to tell me how to fix this. Help, please! Running 10.9.5 and had no troubles until power outage. What do I run and will I lose all of my files backed up to it? It will show up in Disk Utility. Would be grateful if someone could tell me how to fix it!

 

Thank you!

Posted on Jul 21, 2015 5:10 PM

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vbagley

Q: My Book won't mount to desk top

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  • Helpful answers

  • by a brody,

    a brody a brody Jul 21, 2015 6:23 PM in response to vbagley
    Level 9 (66,876 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    Jul 21, 2015 6:23 PM in response to vbagley

    You'll need a second empty hard drive at least as big as the MyBook.  See

     

    http://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1689

  • by notcloudy,

    notcloudy notcloudy Jul 21, 2015 6:31 PM in response to vbagley
    Level 4 (1,195 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 21, 2015 6:31 PM in response to vbagley

    vbagley wrote:

     

    There was power outage and now My Book will not show up on the desktop. Disk Utility won't repair it. It's still doing it's thing and shuts down when I shut the Mac down. Haven't found anything to tell me how to fix this. Help, please! Running 10.9.5 and had no troubles until power outage. What do I run and will I lose all of my files backed up to it? It will show up in Disk Utility. Would be grateful if someone could tell me how to fix it!

     

    Thank you!

    Are you referring to WD mybook drives and are you using this with time machine? 

     

    By shutting down - do you mean powering off or just putting it to sleep?

     

    How long was the power outage?

  • by vbagley,

    vbagley vbagley Jul 22, 2015 4:43 PM in response to notcloudy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 22, 2015 4:43 PM in response to notcloudy

    Yes, WD My Book and yes, with Time Machine. But I also have some other files stored on the drive. By shutting down, I mean powering my iMac off. The power outage only lasted a few minutes and when I turned my iMac back on, My Book didn't load to the desktop. Any suggestions?

  • by vbagley,

    vbagley vbagley Jul 22, 2015 4:52 PM in response to a brody
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 22, 2015 4:52 PM in response to a brody

    Thank you! I'll read through your post and see what I can do.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jul 23, 2015 8:45 AM in response to vbagley
    Level 9 (72,243 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 23, 2015 8:45 AM in response to vbagley

    Does the drive show in Disk Utility?

     

    See mount section in 1st linked article.

     

    Disk Unmount Using Terminal

     

    Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

  • by vbagley,

    vbagley vbagley Jul 23, 2015 9:00 AM in response to a brody
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 23, 2015 9:00 AM in response to a brody

    I tried the free download of Data Rescue, which made the WD My Book show up on the desktop and I was able to copy the files I really cared about to the desktop. Of course, Time Machine cannot back up to it anymore. From what I've read in other discussions here, WD doesn't seem to be the best back up drive for the price to purchase anymore. I hate to even try to reformat it if it still has the same problem and from what I've read, it sounds likely that it would be a waste of time. So here's the next question, what would be the best and most reliable drive to buy for use with Mavericks, Time Machine and/or just to copy files to on an external drive? You seem to be pretty knowledgable, so I will trust your recommendation. Seems like my best bet is to just buy a new external drive for these things.

     

    Thank you and I really appreciate your time!

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Jul 23, 2015 10:13 AM in response to vbagley
    Level 7 (32,103 points)
    iPad
    Jul 23, 2015 10:13 AM in response to vbagley

    Not a brody, but:

     

    I like (and have several) these from OWC:

     

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

     

    and the portable mini version:

     

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteALmini/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

     

    Don't forget that you really do not need any of the included software, so format it and, if you want to store more than Time Machine on it, make sure you give it its own partition so it doesn't slowly delete your other backups.

  • by notcloudy,Helpful

    notcloudy notcloudy Jul 23, 2015 1:19 PM in response to vbagley
    Level 4 (1,195 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 23, 2015 1:19 PM in response to vbagley

    vbagley wrote:

     

    Yes, WD My Book and yes, with Time Machine. But I also have some other files stored on the drive. By shutting down, I mean powering my iMac off. The power outage only lasted a few minutes and when I turned my iMac back on, My Book didn't load to the desktop. Any suggestions?

     

    Shutoff auto time machine backups, physically disconnect the mybook from the Imac, power off, power up, reconnect the mybook and once it mounts do an immediate time machine backup.

     

    I have been using WD backup drives with no problem -- difference may be I purchased them at the local staples store so they were originally setup for PC - so I reconfigured them for mac following WD instructions - no problems.   

  • by babowa,Helpful

    babowa babowa Jul 23, 2015 1:31 PM in response to notcloudy
    Level 7 (32,103 points)
    iPad
    Jul 23, 2015 1:31 PM in response to notcloudy

    I reconfigured them for mac following WD instructions

     

     

    FYI: it's just as easy to use the native Disk Utility to format and/or partition a drive. And I always erase/re-partition any new drive even if it says that it's "ready to go". FWIW, their drives are fine, it's the cheap enclosures they use which aren't worth a lot.