My iMac no longer recognizes my Western Digital external HD

My external Western Digital MyBook hard drive can no longer be mounted.  This problem seems to have started occurring after I upgraded my OS to 10.5.8 (my best guess).  Have had the drive for 2 years and no problems up until now.  I connect the drive via Firewire.  Any ideas?  Thanks in advance...

Western Digital electronics aren't known for their longevity (hard drives themselves are fine). Can you attach the drive to another computer? You've tried all ports on your iMac?

Similar Messages

  • IMac G5 with OSX 10.5.8 does not recognize my Western Digital external drive containing the majority of my music library.  Is there any way to access that drive and recover the music stored there?

    I have an iMac G5 with OSX 10.5.8 that does not recognize my Western Digital external drive.  I had no problems with this until I upgraded to 10.5.  Most of my music library is stored on the external drive.  Is there any way to access it to recover the music?

    How is it connected?  Have you tried different port?  How about logging in as a different user then trying to mount the drive.

  • Since upgrading to Mavericks my iMac no longer recognizes my digital camera.  iPhoto will open, but my camera never appears in the source list or goes into import mode.  Help!

    Since upgrading to Mavericks my iMac no longer recognizes my digital camera.  iPhoto will open, but my camera never appears in the source list or goes into import mode.  Help!

    I found that if you open iMage Capture App that seems to trigger iPhoto to open and thew camera is connected.  At least that happens with my camera.  Good luck.

  • Imac no longer recognizes external hard drive

    my iMac no longer recognizes my external hard drive. An icon used to be on my desktop, at times it would disappear and come back, but it has remained elusive for the past couple of months and is NOWHERE to be found. It doesn't even show up in the Disk Utiity. I need my files!

    Please Google, "Intel iMac SMC Reset" and follow the instructions. If the drive is OK this may solve it.

  • I have a western digital external hard drive that needs to be re formatted for use on my but iMac but I do not want to lose existing data

    I have a Western Digital external hard drive that needs to be re formatted for use on my iMac, but I do not want to lose existing data, is this possible ?

    Formatting a disk always erases all the data on it. Your only option is to back it up elsewhere and restore it once formatted.

  • Just installed OSX Mavericks.Bluetooth disappeared from menu bar and system preferences. I have a magic mouse and my IMac no long recognizes it as such, nor can I scroll with it. What's wrong?

    Just installed OSX Mavericks. Bluetooth disappeared from menu bar and system preferences panel. I use a Magic Mouse but my iMac no longer recognizes it as such, and I can no longer use it to scroll screen. What happened?

    Since Mavricks installed: My Spotlight icon disappears from the menu bar, but the space stays there. If I click on the blank space where the
    spotlight icon is supposed to be - the spotlight menu opens. So, for me, the icon is there, it works except that it is invisible at times. IF I do a re-start it is there. If I let the computer set, sleep or other wise stay on for days, the icon will hide and re-appear at random.

  • Formating Western Digital External Hard Drive gets an error

    Hi!
    I just bought a 500GB Western Digital External Hard Drive (uses Firewire 400), primarily for storing HD iMovie and Final Cut Express files. When I checked the iMovie support, it recomends to format the external hard drive as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). I opened Disk Utility, selected the hard drive (My Book) and followed the steps to both erase and reformat it. I have gotten an error numerous times that says:
    Error
    +Disk can't be remounted+
    Something like that. I don't know why I'm having this problem, but any help would be very appreciated. I just bought a Canon HV20 and want to get to use it soon...
    Thanks!
    Apple.User
    FYI: I have an Intel iMac and Mac OS X 10.5.2, along with any of the latest updates for it.

    Try doing it this way:
    Extended Hard 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. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
    Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

  • Hallo ,why is it that when I delete a photo ,which is backed up by time machine and western digital external hard drive , that I am able to restore the photo okay but not the titles and descriptions . I have  a Macbook 4.1, mac osx 10.5.8 . Iphoto 7.1.5 ,

    QUESTION.
    Hallo , my question is ;whenever I delete a photo and restore it through Time machine and Western digital external hard drive , I am able to restore the photo but not the titles and descriptions . Western Digital inform me that it isn't their external hard drive problem and suggest that it is an Apple software problem ?
    I am using  a Macbook 4.1 , with Mac OSX 10.5.8 . I photo 7.1.5 , last modifie4d 01/05/2010 -universal . Should I be upgrading  Iphoto ?
    I hope that someone is able to help in this matter , as i have to restore 12000 photos !
    Thanking you in anticipation.
    Alan from Wigton

    Hallo  Kieth ,
    I am not quite ready to restore the full iphoto library , as I have days of work re - imputting titles,descriptions and enhancement . I hope that your suggestion works , as I use my Macbook basically to work with digital photography. Through time , I will need to delete my library to recover more disc space and I would hate to have to spend more time re - imputting titles and descriptions all over again .
    Thanks for your interest and advice.
    regards  - Alan

  • I have a 250GB western digital external hard drive for my time machine backups. if i just want to backup and recover my photos and movies how do i do that with time machine?

    I have a 250GB western digital external hard drive for my time machine backups. I did not download the software that came with the external HD. If I only want to backup my photos and movies from my Macbook how do I do that in Tme Machine with my external HD?

    Format the HDD in Disk Utility>Erase to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the open System Preferences>Time Machine and set up the external disk as the Time Machine HDD.  Then look at the Options, and exclude what you do not want backed up.
    Ciao.

  • My Western Digital external hard drive suddenly stopped showing up on my Macbook Pro and disappeared from Disk Utility. It works on a PC.

    My Western Digital external hard drive suddenly stopped showing up on my macbook pro and it disappeared from disk utility. I have tried making invisible files visible but nothing has worked and my hard drive shows up on a PC but not my Mac anymore.

    What is the manufacturer of the external and how old is it? Does it have its own AC power supply or is it USB bus powered?

  • Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up.

    Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up normally. Why do these key fonctions no longer work?

    It could be your timing if on a bluetooth keyboard.  I find it best to hit the keys as soon as i hear the chime, release and hit them again but this time holding them before the chime ends....like a fake pump in football.
    But....you can always open up system preferences, startup disk, and select your bootable clone for booting.  If it doesn't show up there, the Mac doesn't think it's bootable.

  • HT1452 I want to reset the permissions on a western digital external hard drive to work between mac and windows... How can I do this easily?

    I have a MacBook Pro and have recently bought a Western Digital external hard drive.  I used it on my windows laptop first and unfortunately now on the Mac it is read only.  How can I set it so that I can use it successfully between the both the Mac and windows laptop?
    Thanks

    MacQuack wrote:
    You will need to pull all the information off first. The formatting will erase it all.
    Use Disk Utility (in Applications >> Utilities or use Spotlight to find it). On the left select your WD drive and then select the Erase tab. Where it says Format, select exFat in the drop-down menu. Next, click Erase and done. It will take approx. 5-15mins to re-format.
    Cons: You will be unable to store files 4GB or larger in this format (usually only dmg/iso files or large Outlook files). Also, you will be unable to use Time Machine or other auto-backup programs.
    That is not entirely correct, there is no 4G limit using exFat, FAT32 is the one with the limit.

  • Mac Mini conflict with Western Digital External Drive

    My Mac Mini used to work fine with my 2 TB Western Digital external drive, but now when I plug it in my desktop goes blank and the drive won't mount. I have tried it both USB and Firewire. The drive DOES work with my Powerbook G4.
    Any help is greatly appreciated.
    Thanks

    Hi-
    Please clarify.
    What mini are you using? One of the new 2009 models?
    As for the drive, is this a Firewire 800 drive or a Firewire 400 connection?
    If it is a firewire connection, are you daisy chained to another firewire device? If so, in what order is the hard disk?
    If it is a firewire 400 connection, what adaptor/cable are you using?
    For a USB 2.0 connection, are you connected to a hub, or directly to the mini? Is the hub powered or not? Have you tried a different USB port? Same results?
    Did you plug in both the USB and Firewire cables at the same time?
    What is the model of your WD ext drive?
    When you say that your desktop goes "blank" what exactly do you mean? The computer is still on, but there is no image on the screen?
    You mention that the drive works with your Powerbook G4. By Firewire? USB?

  • My external 2TB Western Digital external drive just vanished.

    My external 2TB Western Digital just vanished as well. [I have read many posts very similar to mine in the MacRumors forums and also Western Digital forums.
    I never installed any WD software when I purchased it , or since, but formatted the drive with 2 partitions as usual with Apple Disk Utility.
    I have been using it for months and no problems. Then yesterday I tried to access the drive and it gave me the message "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" and asked if I wanted to Initilize it.
    I then checked with Disk Utility and where I formerly had 2 partitions it showed only one and said it was empty!
    No data at all!
    I have been using this drive with OS 10.9.2 for a while, it was fine untill everything vanished yesterday.
    I then updated to 10.9.3 but the drive is still 'gone'.
    So far no fixes posted.
    Help me Apple....what have you done?!?!!!
    Adam
    I have a MacBook Pro.

    Apparently WD released a new WD 'Smartware' Version in 2013 to address this problem with Mavericks and WD External drives. I can find no confirmation from any source that this works and indeed many warnings against using any WD software for setting up or fixing their drives when used with Macs and Mavericks. Anyway...this is just for Smartware.
         http://wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/wdsmartware.asp?id=wdfGeneric&os=mac
    I can find no Firmware updates for the issue anywhere.
    Have filed a case with WD Support a couple days ago; still waiting for any response.
    The MacRumors Forums, Western Digital's forums, and Apple's Support Communities all had threads about lost data after connecting Western Digital external hard drives to computers after updating to Mavericks.
    WD is happy to announce the release of WD SmartWare Version 1.3.6 for Mac 10.5-10.9.
    Fixed an issue related to reports of some customers, under certain conditions, experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9).
    The WD SmartWare update is available for download from Western Digital's website.

  • I have a MacBook Pro and it cannot locate my Western Digital External Backup Drive.

    I have a MacBook Pro and it cannot locate my Western Digital External Backup Drive.  It used to work prior to Maverick but now it doesnt.  Do I need a different cord or what can I do so I can use Time Machine with this drive?

    Your problem is really with "Time Machine", backup software included with OS X since version 10.5, not with your Time Capsule router.  For more information on Time Machine, check these Web pages:
    Time Machine FAQs
    Time Machine Troubleshooting

Maybe you are looking for