External Lacie drive won't mount

I have a older Lacie 160GB LaCie P3 extrenal drive that I can't mount. There never has been an issue with mounting it before in the method described below.
Here is what happened:
I turned the drive on but the firewire was not connected so I turned the Lacie drive off.
I connected the firewire and turned the Lacie on and the (partitioned) drive mounted on the desktop.
I was looking through the files when I got the error message that the drive was disconnected without being properly ejected which I didn't do.
I tried turning the Lacie drive off and on but it won't mount. I get the same flashing light on the Lacie drive that I had before connecting the firewire.
I tried Disk Utility but it can't see the drive.
I tried connecting to my laptop but it doesn't mount there either or show up in disk utility.
Questions:
Any idea how I can get it to mount?
Is there any risk of damage to the data by turning it on and off in an effort to get it to mount. I can hear it running.
Thank you

LIkely (very) your SATA card is fried inside the box for same.
External HD are very easy to diagnose. Bad USB cable (on commercial sold USB drives) almost doesn’t exist anymore.
External USB HD have 4 'parts' (not counting the HD internals)
1. USB cable (never an issue anymore, approaching 100%)
2. HD enclosure.....a plastic or metal box which cannot ever be an issue.
3. the HD itself
4. ....and last but not least is the epicenter of 'weak links' ,.....a SATA card/bridge that is connected to the HD inside the HD box, the size of a stick of gum, with SATA female on one side, and female USB on the other side, containing circuitry for data transfer between the SATA on the HD and to USB on the other.
While these bridge cards are better than they used to be, theyre still insanely unreliable.
There are literally probably MORE than 100,000 perfect external hard drives out there thrown away every year because people assume the "hard drive is bad" when really they could crack open the HD enclosure, remove the HD and put the good HD into a new enclosure.
See this video of the SATA CARD, its at 8:55min. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pS_EDsP2KI
All conventional HD external are nearly 100% like the video above.
See pic below,..a (much larger) SATA card as found inside a typical HD enclosure ($20 ebay)
This is the nasty piece pictured below causing all the "crazy" activity seen on external HD, very odd behaviour, some have called it "haunted hard drive syndrome". Random ejects, random strange vanishing of the HD , especially in mid transfer of data.
the card attached to the TOP of the HD plugs in, that the SATA bridge

Similar Messages

External Lacie Drive Won't Mount After Improper Disconnection

My internal extra (not the system) drive disappeared. In my panic, I did a lot of things that I don't recall in detail, like restart. That didn't work. I then shut down the Mac Pro w/Snow Leopard totally, and upon reboot, that worked. The internal drive mounted. But somewhere in the midst of it all, I disconnected my Lacie external HD without ejecting it.
I thought nothing of it until I attempted to remount it and it failed to mount. I then tried on my new MBP (also SL). It wouldn't mount. So I tried the whole shut down/reboot regimen that made my internal drive re-mount. No luck. I even tried using a power plug and USB connection instead of a firewire 800 cable. Oh, and I swapped FW 800 cables too -- nothing.
Next, I tried a 4 disk utility apps including Apple's, but if the thing doesn't MOUNT, none of those apps can 'see' it.
And yes, I did an extensive 2-hour web search to no avail because many people have similar but not the same issues, no one offered a solution that worked for me or the answers are dated.
When connected, it lights up rapidly like it's being read, then remains steady, but nothing happens. Maybe there's just a delay reading it?
The next step will be taking it to Tek Serve unfortunately. I don't understand how one drive re-mounted, but this one, even on a different computer, is just ghost.
Computer: Mac OS x Snow Leopard
Drive: External LaCie

Hi Kool G4. I think that I'll take a trip to Tek Serve tomorrow and see what they can do. I was hoping for the same luck I had with the internal one re-appearing, but so far nothing.
I guess that every once in a while when something is improperly ejected, the warning is valid. There have been so many improper ejections (not on this drive) that have not resulted in a failed drive. My luck, and on my very important drive. Bummer.
But thanks to all of you for offering your wisdom.
I'm going to leave it overnight plugged in just in case it's just a slow startup issue. *crossing fingers*
Otherwise, I do hope that a specialist can recover the data.

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, 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

New partition on external hard drive won't mount

I have an 2TB external drive connected by FireWire to my 24-inch, Early 2009 iMac. I created 2 partitions 1 that is about 35 GB and another that is the rest of the 2TB. The 2nd largest partition mounts fine and is being used by Time Machine for my back up. The 2nd one I wanted to use for a Tech Tool Pro eDrive. However the 35 GB drive won't mount. Well it mounts, but after a few seconds it unmounts itself. This is the message I get as it unmounts itself:
8/18/13 7:18:45.788 PM fseventsd[43]: Events arrived for /Volumes/eDrive after an unmount request! Re-initializing.
8/18/13 7:18:45.789 PM fseventsd[43]: creating a dls for /Volumes/eDrive but it already has one...
8/18/13 7:18:46.039 PM fseventsd[43]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/eDrive/.fseventsd/00000000030d4f84 (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/eDrive/.fseventsd
8/18/13 7:18:46.039 PM fseventsd[43]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/eDrive/.fseventsd/00000000030d4f84 (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/eDrive/.fseventsd
Any ideas?
I've checked the partition with Disk Utility and no errors.
Regards,
Chris Johnson

If the drive has more than one interface (USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, eSATA), try one of the other interfaces.
Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
Try a different cable.
If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
Disconnect all other devices on the bus, or as many as possible.
Test the drive with another Mac. Test another drive with this Mac.
If the drive is bus-powered, but has an AC adapter, connect the adapter.
Boot into Recovery and launch Disk Utility. Does the volume mount?
Start up in Safe Mode and test.
If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, and if another drive does work with the same Mac, then the drive has failed. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

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?

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 in 10.2.8

Greetings,
I have a MacBook Pro running the latest version of Tiger. I have a Maxtor 300 GB external hard drive (Mac OS Extended [journaled] ) which I use with my MacBook to store music, video, other media, and backups. I connect that drive to my MacBook via FireWire, normally, but the drive can also do USB.
Since wireless connectivity is so nice, I thought it would be nice to be able to access that hard drive from anywhere in my apartment, without being tethered to the drive by a FireWire cable.
Enter my wife's iBook G3 and Mac OS 10.2.8.
She has this computer from her school where she teaches. It has a G3 processor running at 600 mhz with 128 mb of ram. Since she rarely uses the old machine, I wanted to use it to "serve" my external hard drive to my MacBook.
But when I connect the hard drive to the iBook via either USB or FireWire, it does not mount. I ran Disk Utility and the drive is visible in the pane on the left of the interface, but when I verify the disk I get lots of error messages that say, "Reserved fields in the catalog record have incorrect data."
I don't want to let the iBook repair the disk because I am afraid it my screw the whole thing up and I would lose all my data...not a good proposition.
So, my question: What is going on here? Is this drive simply not going to work with 10.2.8?
I wish I could upgrade the machine to Tiger, but it does not have the minimum system requirements!
Thank you very much for your help. I apologize if I missed something else in the forums that addressed this same issue.
Macbook Pro 2.0 Ghz Intel Core Duo 1 GB Ram 15.4" LCD Mac OS X (10.4.7)

All you need to upgrade the iBook for Tiger is another 128 MBs of RAM. It has both Firewire and USB ports. You do want to upgrade it for what you plan to do. The problem you may continue to have, however, may be due to the fact that the age of the computer is such the disk controller does not support hard drive volumes larger than 128 GBs, which is probably the reason the drive won't mount.
The reason you get DU errors is likely because the drive was formatted using the Intel Tiger version of DU, while you were using the Jaguar version. That's a definite no-no.

External Hard Drive Won't Mount Via USB

I have a Western Digital (Model #WD2500...) Hard Drive that is about 3 years old. I initially set it up on a PowerBook running Mac OS 10.3.x. I have two newer laptops both running Snow Leopard, and neither will recognize my drive via USB 2.0.
The weird part is that the drive will mount when connected via Firewire (400 in this case). My newest laptop is on of the new MacBook Pros and it only has Firewire 800. I'm guessing I could probably get a 400 to 800 Firewire cable, but it would be much easier to just use the USB 2.0 connection. Any idea why the drive won't mount over USB 2.0?
I went to the Western Digital site, and there didn't appear to be any new drivers or firmware for this product. The drive seems to run perfectly well over the Firewire connection, so I don't see what the issue is with USB. The documentation that came with the drive indicates that it should work with USB. This is very baffling to me, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much!!

In most external drive enclosures that have both USB and Firewire interfaces, the Firewire interface is able to draw enough power to run the drive. Firewire can provide up to 45 watts and up to 30 volts of power per port (not all devices supply the full wattage; my MacBook model provides up to 8 watts). USB 2.0 and earlier can only provide 5 volts at 500 milliamps (up to 2.5 watts). Some newer laptop drives are at or under 500 milliamps, but just barely, and the enclosure itself needs some power.
It sounds like the USB port on your enclosure is bad. Firewire is going to provide faster transfer rates anyway, and you don't have to bother with the power supply. Based on your comments, I suspect it still might be a bad power supply, or maybe it's not the right one for the drive. Those things are easy to mix up.
If you're brave enough to crack the external drive open, what you'll find inside is a standard off-the-shelf hard disk drive, with either a SATA or PATA interface, in an enclosure. You can move the drive to a new enclosure easily.

External hard drive won't mount anymore

Dear all,
I have an external HD that would always mount without any problem on my black Macbook.
Last month, I upgraded my system RAM from 2GB to 4Gb. It made the Macbook much faster, but also seriously reduced battery life. In a drive to fix this battery problem I reset the SMC.
Now, I do not know if these issues are related, but the strange thing is that mre or less since then my external drive won't mount anymore. The external drive itself seems fine. And when i plug it into a (powered) USB port of my external display, it will mount. But connecting it directly to the Macbook it won't anymore.
Somehow it seems like the Macbook's USB port is not giving off enough power anymore. Maybe it's because of the SMC reset?
Any ideas????
Thanks

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

USB 2 external hard drive won't mount on my G4 dual 450

I had a problem with my Intel iMac and had to take it for service. I tried to hook up the lacie usb 2 external drive that was my backup for the imac to my G4 but it won't mount (using the built in usb 1.1). I also have a usb 2 and firewire card in this machine and that won't work either.
It will mount on my G4 powerbook though, at usb1.1.
I don't see why the older G4 wount mount it too. Any ideas?

Pat,
When connected, does it show up in Disk Utility? If so, it's failure to mount is probably due to restrictive permissions and differing ownership. In other words, you probably have permissions for the volume set such that only the "owner" can access it, and said ownership differs on your G4 tower.
In fact, the drive is probably mounting, but the mounted volume is inaccessible to you (on the tower).
If you find that the drive is, in fact, showing up in Disk Utility, and you wish to access it from the tower, let us know. There are steps you can take to correct the problem.
Scott

External firewire drive won't mount

I've got an external Western Digital firewire drive that's been somewhat flaky recently, and today my Mac won't mount it.
When I open Disk Utilities, I can see the drive (along with the other drives daisy chained together). When I click on "mount," I get a message saying the drive can't be mounted and that I should try running disk repair. I've run both repair disk and verify disk a few, and each time it says that everything is just fine. However, the drive still won't mount.
Any thoughts about how to get the drive working again?
For what it's worth, this drive is basically my manual backup drive that I use each day just as a safety backup. I don't think I'm going to lose anything extremely important if this drive is dead or if I have to try erasing the drive, but I'd like to see if I can rescue it first before taking drastic action like that.
Thanks!

Dale,
That sounded like a brilliant thing to try. I took the drive out of the daisy chain and plugged it into the unused firewire port in the computer. I ran the repairs and crossed my fingers, but came up with the same thing
At least I've eliminated one more option. Wish I could mark your reply helpful, but I'm not seeing that option available . . .maybe I've used my "helpfuls" for one day.
Although this is PROBABLY duplicate material on this drive, I'm going to hold out for another day or so in case anybody else comes up with another brilliant idea before I take the plunge and reformat the drive.
Thanks!

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 passport external hard drive won't mount

I just purchased a Western Digital Pasport 60GB USB portable hard drive - which stated was Mac compatible on the packaging - hooked it up and nada....won't mount!
Doesn't show up on Disk Utility - can't find anything on the WD support site....
It does however, mount on a friends G3 powerbook running 10.3.9 ??
Any clues as to a possible solution?
much appreciated
Tony

You are correct in that you don't need to use the Install disk.
I'm wondering (as Louie suggests) if your USB port(s) are supplying sufficient power to run the external. Although you can't boot from a USB device, it should mount.
Have you tried the other port? Does the external have its own power supply?
Joe

Fantom external hard drive won't mount

I am using an imac G3 with OS 10.3.9. Until yesterday my Fantom external hard drive mounted. I dismounted it and turned it off. I went to turn it back on later and it won't mount. I selected initialize from the dialogue box that says it won't mount and when disk utility comes up it show the two icons for the internal hard drive and just one for the external so I can't do anything with it. Thanks for your help.
imac Mac OS X (10.3.9)
imac Mac OS X (10.3.9)
imac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Thought you could use this info about getting FireWire to work!
First, you should always Repair Permissions in Disk Utility before and after any update; I would do that now. If you installed your update with FireWire plugged in, your Mac may not recognize it anymore.
Try resetting your FireWire ports by disconnecting all FW devices, shut down your Mac and unplug it from AC power (wall socket) for 30 minutes. plug it back in and try FW.
If that did'nt work, download the combo update from this site (yours may be corrupt), not Software Update, disconnect all firewire + USB devices except keyboard + mouse, Repair Permissions, re-install update, Repair Permissions again + try. Yours is the 10.3.9 Combo update. Others reading, download the Combo that applies to your system.
If that still did'nt get it Zap the PRAM. While restarting Mac hold down the following key combo Command-Option-P-R. Keep holding those keys down till you hear the second start-up chime, then release.
For those of you with Macs that are not PowerBooks or iBooks, a bad internal battery can cause FireWire to not be recognized, so make sure it's good!
Good Luck!
Cheers!
DALE
p.s. Hi to you too Sherry! Keep up the good work!

External Lacie drive won't mount

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