Automatically mount USB 3.0 WD External HDD with iMac 24-inch mid-2007

I am using a 2TB Western Digital (WD) My Book Essential external Hard Disk Drive for my iMac 24-inch mid-2007 to use it as a Time Machine backup disk. This HDD only comes with a USB 3.0 connection.
Function-wise, it works with the iMac and Time machine uses it for backup without any issues.
However, the following problem occurs at every restart: the HDD does not mount automatically. And Time Machine stops backuping. To make it work again, I have to either unplug/replug the power cable of the HDD or unplug/plug the USB cable of the HDD so it mounts again and can be used by Time Machine. When unmounted, I tried to see if the disk was at least visible in Disk Utility so I could mount it from there but it does not appear in Disk Utility until I physically unplug/plug it back again.
For troubleshooting purposes, I have tried to use this HDD with my MacBook Pro Retina 2013 and I don't have the same problem as the HDD mounts itself automatically when I restart.
So I assume the problem reside in the way the iMac mid-2007 handle USB 3.0 as it was probably manufactured before the USB 3.0 standard was developped.
Would anyone know a possible workaround for this issue? I don't have too many hopes but one never knows...

I am using Mavericks 10.9.1.
The problem was also occuring when I was running Mountain Lion.
It looks backward compatible to me except when it comes to automatically mount itself after a restart.

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HT3669 HP ENVY 4500 e-All-in-One Version 3.2.1 does not work on iMac 20-inch, Mid 2007. Only recognizes scanner not USB printer.

HP ENVY 4500 e-All-in-One Version 3.2.1 does not work on iMac 20-inch, Mid 2007. Only recognizes scanner not USB printer.
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I tried connecting the printer directly (via USB) to my MacBook Pro laptop and it worked just fine.
How can I make this printer work on my iMac?
I spent 4 hours on the phone with HP and we did every combination of installation of drivers ad nausum and their bottom line is that it is a Mac problem.
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Chet

After 4 hours on the phone with HP and another hour with Apple (Mavericks support) no real solution other than check everything (removed everything from Login Items, removed all HP software anywhere in the system reboot, reinstall printer) then when nothing worked for the 4500, did an OS Reinstall (boot with CMD+R).
The Mavericks support group did open an incident (# 542875311) and I will update it when I figure out how to find it on the system.
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Did Yosemite trash the dish - I will never know?
Why did the WD HD work and not the Seagate?
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Hi maczimillon,
Only follow these steps, it works for my:
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You must locate the keys "DARequiredROMVersions"and "USBBootSupportedModels"
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Save changes and replace the original plist file (it may ask you to enter admin pass)
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First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
To locate large files, you can use Spotlight as described here. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
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Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
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Back up all data now.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual.
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☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
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I'm a video editor looking for a new laptop. Tough decisions, but these facts may help my decision...
Can I use my 24-inch Mid 2007 as external display for Macbook Pro Retina?
And if so, would the Macbook be able to access the external hard drives that are connected to the iMac? Or do the external hard drives have to be connected to the Macbook Retina?
Retina's picture quality is just incredible but compared to Macbook Pro non-retina you sacrifice: disc drive, port options, customization, anti-glare screen. And its more expensive. Arghh

I would use the retina as the primary screen for the canvas and viewer, while putting the browser and timeline on the iMac.
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Thank you for replying though Ralph. The answer has to be out there somewhere.
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Automount of SD card & USB external HDD with strange KDE pop up msg

Today I reviewed lots of threads posted over the last year and some bug reports too about this issue, but it's happening for me too. Both SD card and USB external HDD have autodetectable filesystems on them because I can mount them by hand with "mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt" and "mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt". But it would be nice if I didn't have to do that.
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So what is The Arch Way for automounting external drives? I've skimmed the wiki article for this and because "Development of udisks has ceased in favor of udisks2." it seems that udisks2 is preferred. But it got installed and the daemon is running for me. The user is in the wheel group. dbus is running (though like one person who filed a bug, I too have several instances of dbus in my ps -aux output and I'm not sure if that is as it should be or not). I've done no special configuration ("not wittingly" anyway; I promise, my name is not James Clapper) that I think would have affected this.
So for a newb with no special preference, how should automounting be configured in a new Arch system? In other words, what should be my first steps in trying to solve this problem for myself? I know there are lots of different ways to skin this cat, but I'd prefer the simplest and most elegant solution that does not depend on KDE or GNOME or other unnecessary tools. I've just (with this Arch system I just installed) begun using i3wm and I think I'll be sticking with it. That said, however, it's clear that I inadvertently/unwittingly managed to get some elements of KDE into memory as the following http://gamonics.org/img/2015-02-26-1731 … _scrot.png shows. This popped up both times, when I plugged in my SD card and when I plugged in my USB drive. Any thoughts on what's going on here? I did install okular explicitly because I think it's one of the best PDF viewers, but I don't understand why KDE is reporting anything to me when I'm running i3 and insert an SD card or a USB disk.
And in the terminal, I get this output (apparently from udiskie):
[root@archippocrates archie]# Failed to show notification: The connection is closed
not adding /org/freedesktop/UDisks/devices/mmcblk0: unhandled device
mounted /org/freedesktop/UDisks/devices/mmcblk0p1 on /media/3532-3338
Failed to show notification: The connection is closed
Although the volume does get mounted automatically.
Thanks for any thoughts.
-- mod edit: read the Forum Etiquette and only post thumbnails http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … s_and_Code [jwr] --
Last edited by Gamonics (2015-02-27 00:25:01)

I personally can't answer the question of "simplest and most elegant" way of mounting devices. It all depends on what you want. If you expect more exotic functionality, say correct unmounting of devices if they were disconnected during a sleep cycle, there's probably no way around udisks2. For that you get a complex piece of software prone to... unexpected behaviour. Mind you some of it is related to front-ends like GVFS.
As to your KDE issues, last I checked mount handling was disabled by default there, but you can control it manually (see man kcmshell4). Though I haven't followed up on KDE 5 developments. If going with udisks2, I'd recommend using devmon from the udevil package as a front-end (more details on the wiki udisks page).
PS: multiple dbus instances are expected, check the user names and specified arguments in the ps output.
edit: grammar. :X
Last edited by Alad (2015-02-27 17:03:31)

MSI 865PE Neo2 and USB WD (MY BOOK) external HDD

Ok, so recently i went out an brought a My Book. I plugged it in and formatted it.. Next morning i came out turned of my PC and the computer hung during POST. after a few attempts at booting the PC up, i unplugged the MY BOOK from the USB port and rebooted, made myself a coffee and came back, sure enough the PC was sitting in windows.
So i did a bit of research and found that for some reason, when the PC is booting, it try's either reading from the MY BOOK during HDD detection and then at the end of the ON BOARD PATA/SATA HDD detection it 'Recycles' the USB ports, which crashes POST.
My main point of getting an EXTERNAL HDD is portability, so i can back my DATA up, but i also am going to use it as another drive on the computer.
So for my to be playing around, unplugging and plugging back in the Drive everytime the computer boots its sort of. well, not what i had in mind.
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Hay ya Tzare, i've been playing for ages! still no luck!
the best i've got it i've put an inline switch to basically turn power off to the HDD. so i only turn it on when i need it.
i've tried a few little... crazy things. but with no luck! on involved a 1F 5.5V cap across the GND and 5VDC coming from the USB. oddly without GND connected it works!! but the cap keeps the HDD running forever! i read my multi-meter wrong, i thought it said .33A draw. it was actually 0.33mA, so really it wasnt even 1mA.... sigh!
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SO, problem still unresolved!..
Hay, you've got a switch on yours! that a bit better than me! LOL. (until recently)

USB vs. FW External HDD Transfer Speeds

I recently (yesterday) bought an Iomega minimax 250GB external HDD to go with my imac. I know that this is desined for the mac mini however I liked the USB/FW hub capability and the small footprint.
The main purpose was to clone my 160GB internal HDD and use the remainding space for DV capture and editing.
I have noticed that the transfer rate between the USB2 and FW conections is very different. I am getting approx 13MB/s from the USB2 and 30+ from the FW and was wanting to know why the USB2 was so slow. The HDD is connected directly to the back of the imac and the only other USB2 device conected is the keyboard.
I know the simplest answer is to forget the USB2 connection however to ustalise the USB and FW hub capability I need to have both connected and the system does not seem to allow me to set 1 as priority over the other and the USB2 is the default.
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Cheers
Daniel
iMac G5 17 2.0GZ Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I was not aware that you could prioritize the usb/fw
connection. I just assumed that fw was the default
when both cables were connected. How do you
prioritive the connections? I am not sure what the
value of a hub is because both usb and fw devices can
be daisy chained. I have a combo ext. HD with a usb
hub but I only use the FW port. Keeping the usb
connection also takes up a port on my IMac.
Sorry been away for a bit. There is an Auto/1394a swith on the back to switch between the Firewire and auto. Has made a significant diff setting to FW over the USB2.0.

Twin unpowered USB hub for connecting external HDD and iphone

I have a MBA and a powered Kensington 7 port USB hub which works great when I am either at home/in the office.
Is there an unpowered twin port USB hub that would allow me to connect both my WD myv passport 320gb external HDD and 3g iphone to my MBA when i am truly on the move?
thanks in advance
Message was edited by: NRG1970

Because those are both drawing power from the macbook air, it might be questionable, but any should do, but I haven't seen any 2 port hubs, only four port ones, and I tend to like Logiix, as their support is good and their products are good also, and they are fairly low profile.

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I have a USB drive attached to my TC and I use it for my itunes library. This works fine but when I use itunes on my macbook pro at home I must manually mount the drive. I would like to have the drive automatically mount whenever I am using my home network.
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johnvic, welcome to the discussions!
Open System Preferences, click on Accounts and then click on the Login Items tab.
Click the + (plus) button at the bottom of the Login box and navigate to select your Time Capsule disk. Click Add.
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[SOLVED] How to automatically mount USB drives with custom mount point

edit:
Original title was : 'Unable to mount USB disk via /etc/rc.local', but got changed since the /etc/rc.local problem isn't relevant for me anymore.
Hello,
Since I am new to this forum, I'll start off with this :
Thanks to archlinux, its founder and all its contributors, cause this is the operating system (flavour) that annoys me the least.
The root problem :
I want to automount USB storage devices to other places than /media/ and without the need for programs that depend on gnome and the like. As I tried some stuff with hald and such, I didn't really get to a nice and easy to configure solution. Any hints in that direction are always welcome.
For now, automount of known USB storages devices during boot, will do.
So the things I tried and didnt work :
1.
Provide the disk info to /etc/fstab (via the disks UUID and 'auto' filesystem)
Add 'mount /mountpoint' to /etc/rc.local
Result : the mount command in rc.local says '... specify filesystem'
However, after boot, running /etc/rc.local mounts the USB disks correctly.
2.
Provide the disk info to /etc/fstab (via the disks UUID and the correct filesystem)
Add 'mount /mountpoint' to /etc/rc.local
Result : pc doesn't get through boot process and gives me the 'ctrl-d to reboot or root passwd for maintenance'
3.
Provide no disk info in /etc/fstab
Add the full mount line to /etc/rc.local (mount -t fs /dev/disks/by-uuid/MyUUID /MyMountpoint )
Result : don't remember the output of the mount execution, but well, it didn't mount
However, after boot, running /etc/rc.local mounts the USB disks correctly.
Is there something that isn't loaded at the time of rc.local execution that I need for mounting of USB devices ? Or why else is this failing ?
Regards,
BasiK
Last edited by BasiK (2009-08-28 07:22:50)

Thanks for the hint hunterthomson, but the pc I will be using it on, is an own-built HTPC/home file server, so there is no way I want to use a graphical file manager to get the usb disks mounted.
I tried to figure out a little about udev rules, and I got to do what I wanted to do, so thx for pointing me in that direction Mr.Elendig.
Btw, I am indeed also using auto-sleep/park disks, but this udev way works perfectly.
I added two rules files to /etc/udev/rules.d/ :
The first for a known usb disk (with its volume uuid), with a named mountpoint under my media dir /symbiosis/ :
[basik@plox ~]$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/80-usb-utopia.rules
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[b-z][0-9]", ENV{ID_FS_UUID}=="a59332c2-07ba-4c52-afb5-20e361bdf71a",SYMLINK+="usb-%n", GROUP="storage", NAME="%k"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[b-z][0-9]", ENV{ID_FS_UUID}=="a59332c2-07ba-4c52-afb5-20e361bdf71a",RUN+="/bin/mkdir -p /symbiosis/utopia"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[b-z][0-9]", ENV{ID_FS_UUID}=="a59332c2-07ba-4c52-afb5-20e361bdf71a", RUN+="/bin/mount -t auto -o rw,noauto,sync,dirsync,noexec,nodev,noatime /dev/%k /symbiosis/utopia", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="remove", KERNEL=="sd[b-z][0-9]", ENV{ID_FS_UUID}=="a59332c2-07ba-4c52-afb5-20e361bdf71a", RUN+="/bin/umount -l /symbiosis/utopia", OPTIONS="last_rule"
The second for unknown usb disks, to mount under the same dir. This is simply taken from the archwiki http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ude … .26_Tricks
Make sure these rules are executed after the ones for specific usb disks.
[basik@plox ~]$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/usb-disks.rules
KERNEL=="sd[a-z]", NAME="%k", SYMLINK+="usb%m", GROUP="storage", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", SYMLINK+="usb%n", GROUP="storage", NAME="%k"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/mkdir -p /symbiosis/usb%n"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/mount -t auto -o rw,noauto,sync,dirsync,noexec,nodev,noatime /dev/%k /symbiosis/usb%n", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="remove", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/umount -l /symbiosis/usb%n"
ACTION=="remove", KERNEL=="sd[a-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/rmdir /symbiosis/usb%n", OPTIONS="last_rule"
These may not be the nicest looking udev rules, but it works for what I wanted to do with it.

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I have an Airport Base station with an external HDD connected via USB that has 2 partitions (1 in FAT32 & the other in NTFS).
I can access the eHDD via my Mac and listen to my music, photos, etc...
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Welcome to the Apple Forums:
P will not see the drive formatted with in OS extended and therefore will not complain about it. You can leave them connected while in XP.
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Axel F.

Automatically mount USB 3.0 WD External HDD with iMac 24-inch mid-2007

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