External hard drive slow to mount, seek, etc

This happened just recently with my migration from Slack to Arch. Basically, anytime I use my 500 GB external hard drive it takes about 10 minutes to finally appear on my desktop. Once I click on the icon it takes another 10 minutes or so to finally display its contents. Once I click on a folder, it is another 2-3 minutes...etc. I'm wondering if there is something I could optimize, or if it is something with my install of arch.
dmesg output
usb 3-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 2
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access ST350032 9QM1 SD35 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 38 00 00
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sdb: sdb1
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
INFO: task nautilus:20113 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
nautilus D 7329f2f6 0 20113 2140 0x00000000
f6b3e720 00000082 c1106174 7329f2f6 f3d5de1c f68ea480 c10fc740 7329f2f6
f3d5de08 f5140540 00003193 c1489140 c1489140 f6b3e8c8 c1484744 d044eb37
00003193 f6b3e8c8 c1489140 c1489140 f4985950 00000000 c10ff00b 000000b8
Call Trace:
[<c1106174>] ? dput+0x94/0x150
[<c10fc740>] ? __follow_mount+0x30/0xa0
[<c10ff00b>] ? __link_path_walk+0x6db/0xd50
[<c13069c2>] ? __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x112/0x2e0
[<c1306ba8>] ? mutex_lock+0x18/0x40
[<fb9b5d51>] ? fat_count_free_clusters+0x31/0x2d0 [fat]
[<c10ff8f1>] ? do_path_lookup+0x41/0xb0
[<c110061b>] ? user_path_at+0x5b/0xa0
[<c110dba3>] ? mntput_no_expire+0x23/0x100
[<fb9b8ba5>] ? fat_statfs+0xe5/0x100 [fat]
[<c10f199d>] ? vfs_statfs+0x7d/0xa0
[<c10f1b63>] ? sys_statfs64+0xb3/0x100
[<c1078166>] ? sys_futex+0xd6/0x180
[<c106e666>] ? getnstimeofday+0x56/0x110
[<c1003cb3>] ? sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x28
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
INFO: task nautilus:2196 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
nautilus D d8a6fd1d 0 2196 2140 0x00000000
f64d9ce0 00000082 c1106174 d8a6fd1d f6463e1c f68ea480 c10fc740 d8a6fd1d
c13115c0 f5140540 f6463e78 c1489140 c1489140 f64d9e88 c1484744 f4985950
c110dba3 f64d9e88 c1489140 c1489140 00f8e230 00000000 c10ff00b f64d9ce0
Call Trace:
[<c1106174>] ? dput+0x94/0x150
[<c10fc740>] ? __follow_mount+0x30/0xa0
[<c110dba3>] ? mntput_no_expire+0x23/0x100
[<c10ff00b>] ? __link_path_walk+0x6db/0xd50
[<c13069c2>] ? __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x112/0x2e0
[<c1306ba8>] ? mutex_lock+0x18/0x40
[<fb9b5d51>] ? fat_count_free_clusters+0x31/0x2d0 [fat]
[<c10ff8f1>] ? do_path_lookup+0x41/0xb0
[<c110061b>] ? user_path_at+0x5b/0xa0
[<fb9b8ba5>] ? fat_statfs+0xe5/0x100 [fat]
[<c10f199d>] ? vfs_statfs+0x7d/0xa0
[<c10f1b63>] ? sys_statfs64+0xb3/0x100
[<c1078166>] ? sys_futex+0xd6/0x180
[<c106e666>] ? getnstimeofday+0x56/0x110
[<c106e739>] ? do_gettimeofday+0x19/0x50
[<c104bf9c>] ? sys_gettimeofday+0x3c/0x90
[<c1003cb3>] ? sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x28
INFO: task nautilus:20113 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
nautilus D 7329f2f6 0 20113 2140 0x00000000
f6b3e720 00000082 c1106174 7329f2f6 f3d5de1c f68ea480 c10fc740 7329f2f6
f3d5de08 f5140540 00003193 c1489140 c1489140 f6b3e8c8 c1484744 d044eb37
00003193 f6b3e8c8 c1489140 c1489140 f4985950 00000000 c10ff00b 000000b8
Call Trace:
[<c1106174>] ? dput+0x94/0x150
[<c10fc740>] ? __follow_mount+0x30/0xa0
[<c10ff00b>] ? __link_path_walk+0x6db/0xd50
[<c13069c2>] ? __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x112/0x2e0
[<c1306ba8>] ? mutex_lock+0x18/0x40
[<fb9b5d51>] ? fat_count_free_clusters+0x31/0x2d0 [fat]
[<c10ff8f1>] ? do_path_lookup+0x41/0xb0
[<c110061b>] ? user_path_at+0x5b/0xa0
[<c110dba3>] ? mntput_no_expire+0x23/0x100
[<fb9b8ba5>] ? fat_statfs+0xe5/0x100 [fat]
[<c10f199d>] ? vfs_statfs+0x7d/0xa0
[<c10f1b63>] ? sys_statfs64+0xb3/0x100
[<c1078166>] ? sys_futex+0xd6/0x180
[<c106e666>] ? getnstimeofday+0x56/0x110
[<c1003cb3>] ? sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x28
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2

No hanging
dmesg |tail -n 20
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2

Similar Messages

External Hard Drive Won't Mount- Need to recover files

Hello Everyone,
I am hoping that one of you fine mac experts may be able to assist ~
Problem: External Seagate FreeAgent Desktop USB external hard drive
won't mount on desktop=ie: no access to my important files.. Please Help!
Details:
External seagate freeagent 500 GB Desktop USB HD ( only 2 months old)
(using for document / file backup-not as a startup disc)
on my Mac G3 350 MZ Blue & White Tower /768 ram/ running OSX 10.1.5 & OS9.2~
~
Problem: Started using the external 500 GB HD 2 months ago -with no problems-until this morning. Tried to double click to open it to access files
and got the "beach ball of death" and needed to restart.
My trusty G3 started up fine, however, the external HD was now
not showing up on the desktop as normal. I troubleshooted -by restarting,
trying different a/c plugs/ different USB ports , ran disk utility..called
seagate -not much help . Seagate said to try the HD on another mac-which I did-
a G5 tower- same problem.
~
The External hard drive will show up in disk utility, but is grayed out.
and when click "mount" same two messages keep showing:
message 1: "a disk attempting to mount as unknown has failed verification or has failed to
mount.please use disk utility to check the disk"
~
message 2- when unplugging and repluggin the usb in-and upon
restart:" you have inserted a disk containg no volumes that mac osx
can read to use unreadable volumes,click initialize to continue with the disk inserted ,click continue"
~
( I really need access to these files- and do not want to re-initialize the HD!!)
I ran Disk Utility /first aid "verify & repair , the following info came up:
Repairing disk "main backup 2007 ".
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid key length ( <<<IN RED )
Repair completed. "
~~
Though it said the repair was completed, the "invalid key length" issue
still comes up when re-running disk utility...Hard drive would still not
mount on desktop-even after restarting .
~~~~~
If there is a mac genius out there that can help?- it would be greatly
appreciated. I have tried to call seagate several times in the last several hours-
1st time-they disconnected me after being on hold 10 minutes-2nd call
I was put on hold for 40 minutes ..Finally spoke to someone ( they are not mac users or mac experts!)and he said I would need to send it to Seagate's Data Recovery-... for a fee of course!
~~~
At this point, I am hoping to just get the files and photos off
the hard drive- I heard about Disk Warrior-should I use that and if so
what version?
Thank you very much!
L

Will zapping the PRAM be of any use in getting the external to mount on the desktop?
Your external Hard drive is already recognized. But it cannot be mounted on the desktop due to its directory damage. You can certainly Zap the PRAM, and it will not hurt anything, but I am skeptical that it will change the situation.
Do you think the Disk Warrior 4.0 cd will even work on my G3 350MHZ running Mac OS 10.1.5?
If you boot from the CD and run it from the CD, absolutely yes. If you attempt to INSTALL it from a download or a CD, probably not.
Have you ever used Disc Warrior and is using it complicated?
I own and use Disk Warrior. You select the drive to be rebuilt, it builds a proposed new directory from the information and file fragments available.
When complete, it will provide a list of problems encountered, tell you what files have been placed in the "Rescued Items" folder, and allow you too look at your drive using the proposed new directory. Your only decision is whether the new directory seems to be an improvement over the old \[in your case, hopelessly corrupted] directory. You then tell it whether to replace the old directory with the proposed new directory, or to abandon its work and leave your Hard Drive unchanged.
Is there a good chance that the ext HD will still have my files on it- or do you think from what I've described that they are gone ?
From what you have described, your files are very likely to still be there. Sometimes in a situation like this, a handful of files cannot be recovered.
My other thought was to take the external HD there and have them try to recover the files.
Make sure you completely understand the costs involved. File recovery using a service like DriveSavers can run into many hundreds of dollars. They are prepared to disassemble your drive in a clean room and replace controller boards and read/write heads to achieve success. Your drive has serious, but not fatal, Directory damage. The Hardware, and most of your files, are likely just fine.

External Hard Drive won't mount on desktop!

Hey, guys.
I ran into a problem this morning that I've never ran into before and I wasn't sure where to write it but I thought this is best.
Here it goes...
Last night I had a power surge and when I restarted my computer, my external hard drive did not mount on my desktop. I than proceeded with restarting my computer, I relinked all my connections and I cant seem to get it fixed. I have a lot of material on my external drive that I dont have backed up (I know, a stupid move) anyways, I dont want to lose that information. Also, when I open up disk utility, the icon for my external drive is there and the partition I made for my external drive shows up also but the title of my partition for my external hard drive is not in bolded font. I tried to click the button to mount my external drive cause the specs tell me that it is not mounted but when I press the mount button, it does nothing. I than tried clicking the unmount button and than restart my computer and still nothing.
What problem am I facing and how can it be fixed?
Thanks.

Dear Jason,
Gary's advised is, IMHO, a very sound one.
The only thing I can think of about your problem, given the information you have provided us, is to run Disk Warrior on your external HD.
In fact, DW is particularly indicated in events, like:
"...you should run DiskWarrior when you suspect that there is directory damage on one of your disks. Directory damage can result in the disk not mounting (not appearing on the desktop when the computer is started), missing files or folders, an inability to move or copy files, or crashes when files are used...".
You could actually buy your copy of DW Licence on-line and download it directly onto your internal HD, starting from this "Information you must read before you make your purchase" page. A hardware copy of the software you have so purchased, will follow by postal service (or currier, if so you choose), shortly.
Follow all the instructions you will find in the download to install the DW software onto your main internal HD and then run it on your external hard drive.
DW has saved my data several times and in similar situations as you are experiencing. IMHO, you should seriously give it a try and, even in the unfortunate event it does not manage to solve your problem, it is one of those Mac OSX utilities which ANY Mac power user MUST have handy at all times.
So, no matter what, my opinion is that it is always well-spent-money those used to purchase your copy of DW: in the long run, you won't regret it.
In the event that even DW is unable to retrive your precious data, my suggestion is to contact Micro Com data recovery. It's going to cost you some money, but if you make a leaving out of the data you've lost on your external hard drive, it's going to be worth it.
All the best.
Costa

External hard drive won't mount, even after disk repair.

My Toshiba external hard drive won't mount on my MacBook Pro 10.8.5. I can see it in my disk repair, and when I repair, "the partition map appears to be ok." But I can't access the icon to be able to open the hard drive contents on my desktop. Help!

Hello maccynicwhoalwayshasmacs,
Thanks for the question. After reviewing your post, it sounds like trouble with an external HD mounting. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help you resolve or isolate the issue.
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a nice day,
Mario

External Hard Drive does not mount

My 2TB external hard drive does not mount and I cannot get it to. Have tried turning the hard drive off and then back on. No response. Any thoughts as to how I can get it to be recognized?

You can try doing a SMC reset, if it doesn't work the first time it's totally OK to reset the SMC several times.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

My external hard drive will not mount on the desktop?

My external hard drive no longer mounts on my desktop, the hard drive has been checked & is working-has anyone ideas?

Hello cuckoo55,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information on this, take a look at:
Mac OS X v10.6: How to show your hard drive icon on the desktop
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3746
In the Finder, choose Preferences from the Finder menu.
Click the General icon on the toolbar.
Select "Hard disks" in the "Show these items on the desktop:" section.
Close the Finder Preferences window.
Best of luck,
Mario

I recently used an external hard drive to back up photos etc from my mac, I didn't do a full system back up. Since then a finder window titled 'client node' keeps popping up every time i hit the spacebar. Can anyone help me please stop this happening?

I recently used an external hard drive to back up photos etc from my mac, I didn't do a full system back up. Since then a finder window titled 'client node' keeps popping up every time i hit the spacebar. Can anyone help me please stop this happening?

Click on it, choose Get Info from the File menu, and check the format.
If it's formatted as NTFS, reformat it as MS-DOS, exFAT, or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as desired, or install software such as Paragon NTFS on the computer.
If it's formatted as FAT32 or exFAT, use the Disk Utility's Repair Disk command on it; this may also happen for a flash drive which is about to fail.
If it's formatted as Mac OS Extended, click Authenticate and provide your administrator password, or change the permissions on that specific folder in its Get Info window.
(109318)

WD external hard drive won't mount

Hello,
I have a WD my passport 1TB external hard drive that will not mount. It has two partitions, one is a time machine backup, the other contains critical files. I thought I was backing up this second partition via SuperDuper, but for other reasons it stopped doing it's backup two years ago, so I now have two years worth of critical files that are seemingly inaccessible (my bad). I have done all the easy stuff like try it on other computers, changed cables, changed ports, tried it on PCs and Macs (I have a 2008 MBP). I have also taken it out of it's case, and even switched out the PCB with an exact copy (through PCB Solutions in Canada). Not long after I replaced the board, I got access again to the hard drive (though not right away), I began copying files as fast as possible (which was slow) and got about 25% (51GB) of the drive copied (less corrupt files). This took a couple days.
Then I stupidly shut down the computer as the drive seemed to be getting hot and I thought it worth the risk not to fry the board/drive. Alas, the hard drive would not mount again. I have tried to access it through the Terminal, as it does show up there (after a couple minutes) if I do a diskutil list like this:
Melissa-McManuss-MacBook-Pro:~ melissa$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *512.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Melissa's SSD           511.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                                                   *1.0 TB     disk1
It does not show up in Disk Utility or Finder however.
It will show up in Disk Utility after the Finder gives up on trying to mount it. It shows up as "1TB WD My Passport 0171D Media", but does not show the partitions.
I have read other similar cases, I can tell you that the fsck. program does not show up in the Activity Monitor. So this is not my problem.
I am out of potential remedies, but am loathe to send it to the Data Recovery people if not absolutely necessary (for obvious reasons).
Thank you in advance for any potential help!

Your best bet is DiskWarrior,...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
Hold option key or alt key when selecting when choosing Rebuild, then use Scavenge, that may make a temporary directory that can then be used for copying the files.
If DW doesn't even see it or work, then...
Data Rescue...
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
rccharles on file recovery...
"Stellar Phoenix Macintosh - Mac data recovery software, recovers data from damaged, deleted, or corrupted volumes and even from initialized disks."
They have a trial version, so I guess you can see if your data can be recovered...
http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-data-recovery.htm
FileSalvage is an extremely powerful Macintosh application for exploring and recovering deleted files from a drive or volume. FileSalvage is designed to restore files that have:
    * been accidentally deleted.
    * become unreadable due to media faults.
    * been stored on a drive before it was re-initialized/formatted.
http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id= 1
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11073082#11073082

External Hard Drive won't mount - tried Disk Warrior, am backing up as a .dmg...will this work?

Hi Guys,
Hopefully someone can help! Fairly desperate situation here...
I backed up around 700GB of data to an Iomega external hard drive (supplied by the client), using my Macbook Pro...all was fine when I unmounted the drive at the end of the backup.
The client took the drive away and called me to say he mounted the drive in Windows (on a PC), and he was able to work with the files for a time, but now the drive won't mount...
I collected the drive, hooked it up to my Mac Pro, but OSX tells me it can't mount the drive. It shows up in Disk Utility in the sidebar, but not on the desktop...
I tried repairing the disk using Disk Utility and with Disk Warrior, both tell me the disk cannot be repaired...
I am currently making a backup of the drive as a .dmg file, using a program called Disk Drill...it's slow as I expected, but I'm still not sure the .dmg will mount...because surely it's just making a copy of the data exactly, of which some part is not mounting (a mount directory or something???)
Is there any way you guys can think of me somehow taking the data and backing it up onto another disk?
Specialist recovery services seem to think there shouldn't be any problem recovering the data, and of couse, as a costly last resort, that's what I'll have to do, but does anyone know how they may go about doing it? It is something vastly complicated such as a command line thing?
Sorry about the length of this question...just hope someone can help!
Thanks in advance...

You didn't say what format (filesystem type) the disk was.
However, I'd say your analysis is probably correct. Something has corrupted the disk. You can make a disk image copy to the .dmg which will preserve the data, such as it is, but I doubt extremely if it will fix any file system corruption.
Furthermore, if both Disk Utility and Disk Warrior have said the disk is unreadable I'm dubious that anything else will magically repair it and that recovery probably consists of snuffling through the disk block by block.
However if the filesystem is FAT (Windows) there may be other (Windows) utilities that can fix it.
You said you 'backed up the data'. Does that mean you still have the original data on your MBP? Are you trying to recover the client's changes?

10.8.5 external hard drive won't mount

After installing 10.8.5 update my Seagate external hard drive that I use as my Time Machine backup won't mount. I can see it in Disk Utility, but it refuses to mount.
Anyone else? Suggestions?

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, or by corruption of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. Note: If FileVault is enabled on some models, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain iMacs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin. Test while in safe mode. Same problem? After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

WD 3.0 external hard drive won't mount to Mac

I've had this Western Digital 3.0 external for some time and now it won't mount. I'm running Yosemite on my iMac. Full disclosure, I did drop the drive a day before it stopped being recognized on the Mac but it wasn't a hard drop and the external drive was running just fine immediately after the drop. I've seen some posts on here talking about WD external drives not working after updating to Mavericks but I didn't have that problem.
I've zapped the PRAM.
I've made sure it wasn't the cable - I have another 3.0 drive that mounted just fine using that same cable.
This WD external drive is self powered so it's not a power source issue.
I've tried updating the Firmware but since the drive isn't mounting, that did no good.
The USB port on the Mac is fine - plugged in another drive and other devices in that same port and they are all recognized and working fine.
Just to make sure, I tried using another port. No different result.
I tried the Option key on a restart to get to Disk Utilities but it's not seen there.
While the drive was working, I was pulling music from iTunes to my iPhone, just loading it up for a trip. I keep all of my music on this one WD external hard drive. I loaded up about 70 songs and intended to load dozens more. While pulling some songs over, things froze up. Wasn't able to do anything in iTunes or, as best I recall, anywhere else. Things just froze. I hard restarted the Mac - via the power button - and since, the external drive hasn't mounted.
About ready to try this possible solution as described in this discussion:
Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD
Soooooooo . . . help would be appreciated!

Hello
Ihad EXACTLY the same thing happen to my WD hard drive... MINUS the dropping.
Was organising my iTunes and iPhoto library, kept crashing, over and over again, then the last time, i restarted and it won't mount.
Except not only is the WD hard drive not mounting, after the crash and restart of itunes etc neither is my Time Machine hard drive which is connected via a LAN cable.
Exactly the same scenario, all the ports work, all the cables are fine etc.
Just went BOOM - not happy and stopped working.
All my photos and music are on this one drive.
Did you manage to fix your issue?

External Hard drive will not mount on desktop

I have a 17" Powerbook G4 that has replaced a broken iBook G4. I've been using a Western Digital MyBook Pro Edition as a secondary drive for my multimedia as well as my iTunes Library. It worked fine on the old iBook.
When I plug it into the Powerbook, using either USB2 or Firewire 800, it will not mount to the desktop. It DOES however appear in the System Profiler as "External HD Button and Lights". The drive is formatted for FAT32 and works fine on my Windows XP desktop machine, so I know the drive functions mechanically. A different hard drive, a Maxtor mounts to the desktop fine using USB2, so it isn't a bus issue.
This is driving me nuts. I LOVE this computer, but I have WAY more invested in music than the cost of the computer.
Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: hempomatic

It took a while to figure it out but apparently there was a conflict with bluetooth. I disabled it and all is well.

External hard drives won't mount after upgrading to Tiger 10.4.9. Help!

Hi, I've just got the latest iMac. Very excited! I did all the software updates, connected my Western Digital extended hard drive so that I could copy some files over onto my new Mac. It was fine at first. Then when I wanted to open up the external hard drive icon on my desktop again and double clicked on it, everything disappeared from the screen for a few seconds, then reappeared but my external hard drive simply opened the window to my personal hard drive on the Mac. The WD links to my computer via Firewire. I then connected my USB external hard drive stick and it was the same story.
I used Disk Utility to test everything and everything was fine.
I then reinstalled Mac OSX 10.4.8 and plugged in my external hard drives. Everything worked perfectly. After copying over documents and a couple of programs, and downloading a few more programs, I ran my software updates again, upgrading the operating system to Tiger 10.4.9. I attached my external hard drive and it was the same problem all over again.
I the read up the online discussions and also chatted to an Apple dealer, and their advice was to download the Intel Combo and reinstall the operating system. I have just done this and my external hard drives will still not mount properly. Their icons appear on screen but double click them and everything disappears.
Please help. This is really frustrating as I have a backlog of work to do and I seem to be wasting hours on this. Not only that, this is a brand new machine which I rightly expect to work straight away.
I look forward to your response. Thank you in advance.

Hi, try to put your HDD in other Mac and look if appear the same, also you can try to repair permission.

External Hard Drive Won't Mount

I've got a new 500GB Toshiba external hard drive, connected to my computer via a USB. The first time I connected it, it showed up just fine, but after ejecting it, and connecting it again, it doesn't show up in Finder. I've gone to Disk Utility, and it does *show up* there; however, I can't verify or repair it (the buttons are all greyed out.) What can I do?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I am having this exact same problem with a WD hard drive, it was improperly dismounted from a Mac and i'm pretty sure the data is ok, but the partition table is corrupted. I tried diskwarrior and some other utilities without any success, although testdisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) was able to read the drive and could see the data, i do not have another drive to back it up to. In fact i have this exact same problem with 2 external hard drives, caused by the same thing, is anyone aware of this being a recurring bug in OSX 10.4.11? One would think that Macs being such user friendly machines they would not be so prone to causing major problems on a routine bad dismount... My windows XP machine recognized the drive, and started to mount it but hung partway through the mounting process. I will check back if i find a solution, and please if you could post any breakthroughs you might have it would be appreciated. Good luck!

External Hard Drive Wouldn't Mount (iMac Late 2013)

Just wanted to drop a line here in case anyone else was having the same problem and perhaps to get an explanation from someone as to specifically why this is the case as it is disappointing/strange.
In short: I got a Seagate Expansion desktop external hard drive (2 TB). Unpacked it, plugged it into my early 2014 iMac (3.5 GHz i7/Build 13E28 running 10.9.4) and.....nothing. Switched out cables. Nothing. Switched ports. Nothing. The drive was initializing, steady light, and you could hear it and feel it running but it not only didn't mount you could see nothing at all in Disk Utility.
Assuming something was wrong with the drive, I went and plugged it into my old trust 2009 Macbook Pro (still running strong!) and the drive this time flashed a few times and then instantly mounted. The 2009 MBP is also running 10.9.4 so Mavericks is not to blame here. Perplexed, I formatted it (Mac OS Extended), went back to the iMac and still.....nothing. Steady light (but not the blink), can hear the drive going but not showing up.
Went to this forum, found a bunch of posts blaming Seagate USB 3 connections, enclosures, and everything under the sun. Tried a few things but nothing. Seemed to me that because of the initial blinking that happened when I plugged it into the MBP that it was a power issue, the iMac is not giving its ports enough juice. Found a USB repeater extension, plugged it in with that- voila. It shows up.
So it appears the iMac is not giving enough power to its USB ports. Strangely I never noticed this before because its never been a problem- I have other Seagate drives (also USB 3 and also plug in powered as this trouble device is) that have always worked fine.
Does anyone have an explanation? Just curious and if there are specs that I have to look out for on drives to avoid it would be good to know. Many thanks,
E

I'm sorry but this not a very good answer. There are hundreds upon hundreds of external hard drives that do not require a power supply. The one I bought is one of them. It is able to mount WITHOUT A POWER SUPPLY ON A 2009 MBP and VARIOUS OTHER MACHINES. Sorry but I seem to need to emphasize this as I'm not sure you're understanding. HOWEVER it will not mount on the late 2013 iMac. Obviously there is a power issue with these ports. I just wanted an explanation as to why a new desktop ISN'T able to do something that a 5 year old laptop CAN do.

External hard drive slow to mount, seek, etc

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