External hard drive is unmounted

I cant find info on how to mount it back in. I dont know how it happened. I have plugged and unplugged power and FW cable but it doesnt show....
thanks for ur help

Thanks.
Not showing on Disk Utility
Finder Prefs had that option to show on Desktop checked.
Reformat, as in erase? Its full of backup info....

Similar Messages

Panther crashed now external hard drive not recognized

I was away and a person that lives where I work on my computer set up his computer right next to my G4 iMac. When I looked at the screen it was trying to boot into start up mode but wasnt making it. I firgure it must have been caused by all the pluging and unpluggung.
I tried the resart disk but still has problems, so I reinstalled 10.3.9 al over again. Now its working but it doesnt reognize my external Lacie hard drive.
Ive tried restarting a cople of times, I cant firgure out what could be the trick.
Has anyone any ideas?
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.6)
Mac OS X (10.3.6)

I would try the Combo; it's worth a try!
I don't know if the following will help with your issue , since it shows up in Safe Boot, but here it is.....
External hard drive spontaneously unmounted? Try these tips:
NEW FIRMWARE: Try updating your external hard drive's firmware, which is available from your drive manufacturers Web site--or just use VersionTracker's (www.versiontracker.com) search function to find it. Be sure to back up your data before applying the update, and carefully follow the manufacturers instructions.
OUT OF iSIGHT: If you're using an iSight camera while you're using a FireWire drive, the camera may be interfering with the drive's ability to stay mounted. Try temporarily disconnecting your iSight and moving it to a separate FireWire port. If you have multiple FireWire devices, try using a FireWire hub.
POWER PROBLEM: A faulty power adapter could be causing your drive to unmount. Your drive may not be getting enough juice to stay on, causing the drive to turn off and thereby unmounting it from your Mac. Alternately, the power adapter may not be providing a steady amount of power, causing your drive to turn on and off. Try replacing the adapter. If you can't get a replacement adapter from the hard drive manufacturer, try your local electronics store. Just make sure the adapter you choose has the same connector and input/output voltage. you can find the input/output voltage on the adapter itself.
Cheers!
DALE

External hard drive suddenly not readable

Help!
I have an external 160GB hard drive (LaCie; Firewire connection) that has suddenly stopped mounting on my desktop. I have used this drive with no problem for ages and with OSX 10.4.
Now I get the message:
'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.'
With three options: Initialize; Ignore; Eject.
I have lots of valuable data on this drive that I need to access. What can I do? I have looked at Disk Utility and the disk shows but still will not mount.
Please help!

External hard drive spontaneously unmounted? Try these tips:
NEW FIRMWARE: Try updating your external hard drive's firmware, which is available from your drive manufacturers Web site--or just use VersionTracker's (www.versiontracker.com) search function to find it. Be sure to back up your data before applying the update, and carefully follow the manufacturers instructions.
OUT OF iSIGHT: If you're using an iSight camera while you're using a FireWire drive, the camera may be interfering with the drive's ability to stay mounted. Try temporarily disconnecting your iSight and moving it to a separate FireWire port. If you have multiple FireWire devices, try using a FireWire hub.
POWER PROBLEM: A faulty power adapter could be causing your drive to unmount. Your drive may not be getting enough juice to stay on, causing the drive to turn off and thereby unmounting it from your Mac. Alternately, the power adapter may not be providing a steady amount of power, causing your drive to turn on and off. Try replacing the adapter. If you can't get a replacement adapter from the hard drive manufacturer, try your local electronics store. Just make sure the adapter you choose has the same connector and input/output voltage. you can find the input/output voltage on the adapter itself.
Cheers!
DALE

Emac won't recognize external hard drive

Had a problem with my emac freezing. After running apple hardware test and repairing disk permissions without any changes I decided to backup eveything and reinstall OSX. Although this solved the problem, I cannot get the emac to recognize the 160GB lacie external hard drive where all the backup files are stored. Any suggestions?

External hard drive spontaneously unmounted? Try these tips:
NEW FIRMWARE: Try updating your external hard drive's firmware, which is available from your drive manufacturers Web site--or just use VersionTracker's (www.versiontracker.com) search function to find it. Be sure to back up your data before applying the update, and carefully follow the manufacturers instructions.
OUT OF iSIGHT: If you're using an iSight camera while you're using a FireWire drive, the camera may be interfering with the drive's ability to stay mounted. Try temporarily disconnecting your iSight and moving it to a separate FireWire port. If you have multiple FireWire devices, try using a FireWire hub.
POWER PROBLEM: A faulty power adapter could be causing your drive to unmount. Your drive may not be getting enough juice to stay on, causing the drive to turn off and thereby unmounting it from your Mac. Alternately, the power adapter may not be providing a steady amount of power, causing your drive to turn on and off. Try replacing the adapter. If you can't get a replacement adapter from the hard drive manufacturer, try your local electronics store. Just make sure the adapter you choose has the same connector and input/output voltage. you can find the input/output voltage on the adapter itself.
Cheers!
DALE

Ntfs external hard drives and fat32 4gb flash drive not able to unmount

Hi everyone,
I have a bit of a headache here. I have two external hard drives, one is 1TB and the other is 500GB, both are NTFS format. I am using them on my macbook pro at this point because my windows 7 desktop appears to have crashed (still looking into the problem, just haven't had the time). I also have a 4GB flash drive that is fat32 format from that same windows desktop but I only use it for loading music on and putting it in the usb port of my stereo in my car. My problem at this point is that I am no longer able to unmount any of these by using disk utility. I was also having problems with both my external drives being read only until I came across Paragon ntfs for mac. That still messes up every now and then somehow and my drives go back to read only until I disable it and reboot, re-enable it and reboot again. Is there something that I am missing? I have been scouring the internet for last day or so trying anything and everthing to be able to get my ability to unmount disks back and nothing seems to work... Can anyone help?

Hi,
Following is the System Requirements from Western digital’s website.
Windows
Available USB port
Windows 2000/XP/Vista®
My Passport Essential 320GB USB 2.0 Hard Drives(WDMEB3200)
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=426
Yes, generally speaking, if an external drive or flash drive can be recognized by Windows XP, it should work in Windows Server 2003. However, there is no guarantee.
If possible, I recommend that you plug the “unrecognized” drive to some other Windows Server 2003 computers to test whether it works. If the issue continues, I suggest that you contact the vendor or the drive for more details.
By the way, what’s the version of Windows Server 2003 you used? Please update it to the latest service pack to check whether they works.
Best Regards,
Vincent Hu

In disk utility, it shows that my external hard drive is somehow unmounted and I can't access it in finder or repair it in Disk Utility. How can I get this working without losing my important data?

In disk utility, it shows that my external hard drive is somehow unmounted and I can't access it in finder or repair it in Disk Utility. How can I get this working without losing my important data?
Thank you!

When you erased the disk did you select Mac OS Extended Journaled as the format option?

Can't unmount my External Hard Drive?

Hi guys,
I've been using my Seagate Portable Media 500GB external hard drive for Time Machine on Mountain Lion.
Last week, Time Machine's backup failed, with the message "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
Using Disk Utility, I verified the disk which asked me to repair it. On trying to repair it, I received the message "Couldn't unmount disk". I received this message also when trying to Erase or Partition the drive and I don't know how to take it further.
The drive is still visible in Finder and I can still access its contents.
I've also tried using a new power cable for the drive and I'm having the same results.
Any advice would be great!
Thanks.

Hi elliswicks,
Please follow this step before atempting Joe Gramm's "boot into recovery" method.
1) Keep your external hard drive plugged in.
2) Restart your computer.
3) Go to Disk Utility and eject the drive.
You should have no problems carrying out Step 3. If this fails, you'll have to rely on Joe Gramm's advanced method.
Hope you (and anybody else) have benefited from this simpler method! Don't forget to like or put "This solved my question" or "This helped me"!
Good luck!
from Galaxy User

External hard drive won't unmount for disk utility.

Im not sure if this is the right topic area but I have a white macbook and my external hard drive won't unmount. I want to erase it via disk utility but it keeps telling me other programs are using it.

Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

My WD 2tb external hard drive will not unmount from my MacBook Pro.

My WD 2tb external hard drive will not unmount from my MacBook Pro. It no longer even shows up in finder, however it does show up in Disk Utility. I have tired so many of the suggestions on the internet all to a fail.
I keep getting the message to be sure that all applications are closed before ejecting the drive. I have no clue how to tell which appliactions are using the external drive to shut them off. I turned off Time Machiene to be safe.
I don't need anything on the external drive, I am just trying to erase it, save my current info, and migrate it to my new MacBook Pro.
I have been about four days now with this issue all over the internet, in this community, and watching videos on everything and nothing about this topic to a fail.
I think I am doomed and have lossed this external drive because of some wierd application that will NEVER close on my hard drive for it to disconnect correctly. It's annoying.
Does anyone have a solution?

Have you trie using another USB port? Can you test the USB ports with other USB devices to assure they are working? You may want to reinstall OS X in case there has been a driver glitch.
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

External hard drives get improperly unmounted

I recently upgraded to Mavericks (clean install) on my mid 2011 MacMini. I have an external hard drive connected via USB3 to eSATA cable. I leave the computer on around the clock as iTunes serves my AppleTV with it's music and videos.
I've repeatedly come back to my computer to find a message stating that my hard drive had been "improperly unmounted" and when I plug the drive back in it won't mount. Disk Utility reports that there are invalid b-tree nodes and the disc can't be repaired. I manage to get the disc fixed using DiskWarrior 4.4 (version 4.1.1 couldn't fix it).
I've read that it's an issue with the energy saver program, so I've turned that all off so the computer does not go to sleep and the drives do not get put to sleep whenever possible. And the hard drive is still getting booted off.
What is going on? I've taken to removing my drives when the computer is not in use, but that's usually when I run my time machine backups, so now those aren't getting done.
What's the solution?

Hello Ari,
USB3 is prone to interference from Wifi & Blutooth for one thing.
Another... are the external drive(s) ıus powered or do they have their own AC power?
Can happen on earler one's also, but...
See if it's related to this...
The 2012 macs (and later apparently) not waking normally from sleep after hours being in sleep. (noted here ...
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/feb13/022813.html#2012macswontwake
"Why 2012 iMac/2012 Mac Mini won't Wake After Hours of Sleep (Hibernates/Powers Off)")
The sleepimage file still reappears even if never slept. Delete it (hibernate off, etc) - within minutes its back.
A note on that here - http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/Chameleon_SSD_Optimizer.html
About iMac sleep...
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1529750
Try this: "sudo pmset autopoweroff 0" and "sudo pmset standby 0"
http://xlr8yourmac.com/archives/sep13/091313.html#10.8.5SleepEjectTip

External Hard Drive Unmounts

I posted this in the G5 discussion also.
Here's the situation. I now have a totally rebuild G5. I purchased two new G5s back in 2004. Everything worked fine until about 2 months ago. I started getting kernal panics on every start up on one of them. Long story short, thanks to the protection plan, I got both G5 processers, Graphics Card and Logic board replaced on that one. Now after several minutes of non use, my external hard drives unmount. I have to shut down, turn both drives off, start up the computer, then turn the drives on before I can use them. It happens everytime the computer sits for more that 10 minutes without use. The second G5 works just fine.
Two Duel 2.0 G5s & One Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Not having a lot of luck with that Mac.
Have a red of this White Paper, point 3 in particular:
http://au.wrs.yahoo.com/ylt=A0Je5ajuAzJFFEwBRxUL5gt.;ylu=X3oDMTB2bDEyNXM5BGNvbG8DdwRsA1dTMQRwb3MDNwRzZWMDc3IEdnRpZAM-/SIG=12jje55km/E XP=1160992110/**http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wiebetech.com%2Fpressreleases%2FFireWirePortFai lures.htm
Al

External Hard Drive unmount itself

Help!
After a I think it was a sucessfull migration to OS X Mountain Lion, My two external hard drives and my card reader unmount itself after 30 second of be connected, every device has the same behavior, any clues to solve this issue?
Thanks in advance

I see. Then, assuming the devices don't try to pull more than 5W of power after they are mounted, I don't think you are experiencing the same issue as me.
Do you have a flash drive (better if USB 2.0)? In general these drives have less complex drivers and if they show the same behavior than it is very likely that you have a problem with your USB ports rather than your OS.
For the OS part, the following comes to mind:
1- Turn off your computer. Plug the charger off. Wait for 10 seconds. Turn it on again and try again.
2- Create another user account, log in with that account and try.
3- Restart the computer. Open Console.app. Try to mount your USB device. After it gets unmounted automatically, copy and paste the last 10 entries in Console.app
4- Reinstall the OS. It might be the case that one of your OS/kernel filels are corrupted. In any case, make sure that you back up your computer before trying this. Normally it should not overwrite any of your files, however just in case.
5- Reinstall the OS after a format. This is clean swipe and the latest choice.
On the hardware side (less likely since you mention that this started happening after the OS update), if you are still under warranty, I would suggest you to take your computer to apple and show them the same problem. They should be able to debug it better than probably anyone. If there is a hardware defect not caused by user, they almost always change your hardware. Again, before taking your laptop to apple make sure that you backed your computer and you have a genius appointment.
Let me know if you are stuck at any point.

Having trouble with USB2.0 external hard drive "unmounting" itself

ibook g4 (early 2005)
I have bought an external 120 gig hd and am trying to use it to store files on. when i transfer files to and from it, the hard drive magically unmounts itself and gives an error device removal. I don't know if the HD needs too much power or what. I have tried to update my system... and no help. what can i do... besides taking the freaking hd out of the external case and installing it in my laptop.
I have never had a problem with usb devices before on this laptop. what gives?

I'm not sure of what is the cause for this is, but because it stays alive while it's in use makes me think there is some sort of hardware sleep mode or something. I don't know enough about USB to be sure though. Maybe a temporary fix would be some sort of script we could launch at startup that reads a very small amount of data from the afflicted drive every 10 seconds or so. I have a little programming knowledge. Maybe I can figure the script out. It's definitely not a true fix, but it might get us by for the meantime.

Unmounted External Hard Drive, Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed

Earlier today, I disconnected the external hard drive while it was working.
Now, the External Hard Drive won't even show up on my computer. However, on the Disk Utility it does. I have tried to verify & repair the disk. Plus click the mount button nothing work.
Whenever, I ran the system verify or the repair. I got this error: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed
Ok. So I have searched all over the internet and forums. Tried everything. Nothing works.
I even tried Disk Warrior. It would work for a while, then when it came to step 8. It would make my computer go black and hold down the power button to restart.
Any suggestions? Please let me know, I would like to recover the files if I can. Thanks.
P.S.Yes I have tried to restart multiple time. I have tried with my USB 2.0, firewire 400, & 800 too.. Nothing.Everyone except the USB shows up in the disk utility but doesn't mount.

I have had the exact same situation occur, but was able to follow these steps to successfully save everything!!
The Unix program "dd" will instruct a drive to stream out all of it's data from beginning to end without regard to file structure, therefore creating an exact block-for-block duplicate. By doing this, it will allow you to copy everything off without having to mount the drive. It also ignores any corruption or physically damaged blocks on the drive which would otherwise crash or freeze the Finder. It saves the data to a disk image file which you can then open and use without fear of imminent failure (the format of the disk image will be the same as the original drive). Now that the data is preserved, you can safely go through and recover your files. Keep in mind that if a file was damaged or corrupted on the drive, it will be unusable, but at least you'll be able to get to the good ones safely. In my case, using "dd", I had no problems and got every file off. If it doesn't work for you, at least it's impossible for just trying it to further damage your files. I can recommend a few other remedies if this doesn't work for you.
Note: The computer must be able to at least recognize the drive. That means either 1) It mounts 2) When you connect the drive the Finder asks if you want to erase or ignore, click ignore and you should be able to do this, or 3) Nothing happens in the Finder, but the volume in question does appear in Disk Utility. If you connect the drive and absolutely nothing happens and it never shows up in Disk Utility, it won't work.
Note: As always, it is suggested that you backup important data on your startup disk before proceeding with stuff like this. It is possible to wipe a drive by mistyping a terminal command, so double check before you hit enter.
_Now, on with the show!_
Prep: Restart your machine so that it goes straight to the login window. Enter your user name and password. As soon as you press enter after your password, immediately hold down the shift key until the Finder finishes loading (this prevents any background startup items from running that might interfere).
1. Attach the drive to the computer and make sure you have another drive with enough free space to hold the entire capacity of the bad drive, not just it's used space, but the WHOLE size of the bad drive (for exception, see very bottom of this post).
2. In Terminal, type:
+diskutil list+
Look for the drive you want to recover in the "name" column, then write down it's "identifier" (ex. disk1s2)
3. In Terminal, type:
+dd bs=512 if=/dev/disk#s# of=/my_directory/image.dmg conv=noerror,sync+
!! Replace "disk#s#" with the identifier you wrote down before !!
!! Replace "/my_directory/" with the path to where you want to save !!
!! Replace "image.dmg" with the name you want to give the disk image (must end with .dmg) !!
4. To confirm that something is happening, open Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder) and click "Disk Activity". Once you determine an average transfer rate, divide the size of the drive by that and then divide by 60 to see how many minutes it will take to finish. *+! ! FOR LARGE DRIVES THIS WILL TAKE A VERY LONG TIME ! !+* To be safe, do not use your computer for anything until the process finishes, you can leave Activity Monitor open so you can see when it's finished.
If you're only really concerned about a certain files and you know their exact path on the bad drive, let me know and I can give you modified instructions to copy just those files, saving the time and space of doing the whole drive.

Why does my external hard drive unmount?

Hi,
I am having the new problem with my Seagate Free Agent Fire Wire external hard drive. (my other external hard drive is uneffected). The drive is is connected to my 2009 Mac ProQuad Core via FW800 port. It started happening consistnatly about 1 week ago. After the Mac Pro has been asleep, when I wake it I get the "device disconnected improperly" message. If I unplug and replug the FW connection in back of the drive it is recognized again. I have my iTune music on this drive.
I have done permissions repair.
This is the message I got before repairing permissions. Anyone have any ideas on what to do about this issue?

Big Rocco wrote:
Thanks for replying, but the unit is not hot. It has been working without a problem for over a year until this past week. I think there is a different problem. Any idea what the message I posted means?
Thanks
I think it's not hot because the drive is insulated from your touch by the case, but it's cooking inside (see http://www.anandtech.com/show/3858/the-worlds-first-3tb-hdd-seagate-goflex-desk- 3tb-review/7 ) as I learned when I opened up the case. Adding vent holes let it manage full HD backups at full speed, which it couldn't do before. I wonder if the problem has started now because the drive has just been cooking inside for too long.

External hard drive is unmounted

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