Hard drive will not stay mounted

HI RKaufmann87!

I am working on my moms account and work on both hers and mine so often I confuse the two. I thought the motherboard and HD was replaced, but I believe it was just the HD. In fact you helped in the thread I posted about it being stuck in start up mode, when I tried every possible option and the end result was that it needed the new HD... but your advise was great. You also advised to detach peripherals which is one thing I always forget, and one issue I read someone else had after installing El Capitan with them attached. I have cleared it previously several times, but with them attached. So I will do so without. If this does not work. I will try a reinstall without them attached. I think if it does not work, I am fresh out of options.

So I have tried all of the above, even FSCK -fy in single user mode. Still having the issue.

But due to the fact it stays mounted for any amount of time in recovery mode, leads me to believe there is something the computer is remembering after the "remove disk" option. I wonder if there is a plist I should remove, or some other setting? I also do not believe it would be the computer or drive itself, due to the fact I bought the same hard drive brand new and had the same issue.

I just know some basics, but not where to look for these things. Being that I am on vacation with family also from out of the country makes this all even more of a drag. I really have to try to resolve this without having to go take it in. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 🙂

It will show up on the desktop, or if I have disk utility open. And then disappear. It will even let me start the process of using time machine, but then it will stop due to the disc ejecting. Yet in recovery mode, there is NO issue of the disk ejecting. It stays where it is for any amount of time. In normal mode, it ejects within 30-60 seconds. This is why I do not believe it is the HD or computer but some conflicting setting from "removing disk" in the time machine preferences.

Yes, I am aware and would not normally post 2 threads... but I was desperate as on first thread I had over 23 views in 6 hours with no replies before posting the second and as you see I am on a short visit. I have done the OS X on one of the drives and currently I am operating in it. I have not yet switched over. I have zero issues with the drives now. This does show it is an issue somewhere in the system. I'd love to find how removing it the way I did created the problem, but my guess is that won't happen. I am thinking the end result is I will need to do a clean install if switching back to running off the main drive will not run after I wiped the original drive utilizing OS X from the new one. But, how do I back up her computer without being able to mount the drive if it won't? Prior to a clean install?

Posted this in the other thread. Promise won't do 2 threads again. In fact I will mark the other as "this helped me", to hopefully avoid further posting.

OK switched over.... fail, as I thought. So, do I do as I thought above? AS clean install? How do I back up her computer prior to that without being able to keep a mount on the HD?

Is there not a way to find out what is causing this error in the system? Perhaps in single or verbose mode?

Drew, I was grasping at straws, thought it might be an internal issue. 😐

Trying to enjoy my brief vaca.... but alas, this issue has not helped. If could back up her computer, I know I could take the last step to resolve the problem with a clean install. Now that I see booting from the hd, had zero issues. But, booting from the computer after wiping the drive still does not keep the hd mounted in order for me to back up her computer so I can do a clean install. 😠

This issue was solved in another thread:

Encrypted time machine will not mount