My external HD won't mount anymore on Mac OS, Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro, but appears as "media" on Disk Utility. What do I do?

I have this 1 TB Caviar Black drive from WD, I've installed it on an external HD case and have been using to store large files like HD movies and old archive things. Its file system is Mac OS Journaled.
Last year, all of a sudden, it gave me the following error while trying to plug it in: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"
I was mad and left it for dead while looking for a way to fix it.
Then, again all of a sudden, it started working again, flawlessly and without any problems.
It worked well for at least 5 more months and then BAM... same error again!
I've tried DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro, Disk Utility and nothing... The disk won't show up on any of these apps, except on Disk Utility as a "Media" drive with 0 bytes used and unformatted partition.
What do I do?
Could it be the external HD case?

It could be a problem with enclosure, but it also could be a problem with the drive itself or the drive is possibly corrupted. I would start by contacting WD tech support.
It may be possible to recover files from the drive using file recovery software:
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as MAC Data Recovery, Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro.  Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.  Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk.  Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads. Recovery software usually provide trial versions that enable you to determine if the software would help before actually paying for it. Beyond this or if the drive has completely failed, then you would need to send the drive to a recovery service which is very expensive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.
Otherwise, unless the drive fixes itself like before you should try repartitioning and reformatting to determine if the drive has failed or is now working properly.

Similar Messages

  • External HD Won't Mount, Only Shows up in Disk Utility

    My external Time Machine drive won't mount any more.  It seems like it's very sensitive to being disconnected
    without putting it in the trash, and my USB interface seems to spontaneously disconnect -- possibly loose.
    The drive shows up in HD Utility with the mounted name greyed out, but it can still be selected to try a repair.
    It always says it cannot repair the disk and to back it up.  Well, it IS a backup.  Disk Utility does seem to give up
    on repairs quite frequently anyway.  I've tried df -hl and then fsck_hd, but df -hl doesn't give me a /dev name that
    fsck_hd can use.
    I've gotten into terminal and been able to look at some backups, so apparently something is mounted, just not completely
    to the point of seeing it on my desktop.
    Is there a way to moving these backups to another drive?  Perhaps via an OSX-specific darwin *nix command for copying
    an entire directory in Terminal?
    Is there an app that's particularly good at disk recovery other than Disk Warrior (which tends to take days to work)?

    Have you tried another USB cable?
    Also, you may need to take the drive out of that enclosure and use a different one.

  • External Harddrive won't mount anymore

    Hi Guys,
    I recently copied over a load of stuff from my harddrive to my iMac but today it seems not to be playing ball. I've looked up the drive on Drive Utility and it is recognised there except i can't repair, mount or verify the drive.
    Has anybody experienced this before and if so do you know what i have to do to fix?
    Cheers
    Jim

    Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC and try Disk Utility again. If still no joy, try something stronger, such as DiskWarrior or TechTools.

  • 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

  • External drive won't mount after plugging in iPhone - MacBook 13'' (2,1)

    Hi Support Crew...
    I have a 13" MacBook(2,1) running OS X 10.6.2. This is a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo machine w/ 4 GB RAM & 320 GB hard drive.
    Today, I had the Iomega drive plugged in via USB, along with my soundcard (MOTU 828mk2) plugged in via FW. This is a very normal setup for me which has been bug free since I bought this computer over 2 years ago. When I plugged in my iPhone 3G via USB I got an error message which comes up when you incorrectly remove a device. This was strange because I didn't unplug anything, I only plugged in the iPhone. The iPhone was playing music when I plugged it in and I had to unplug and plug is back in to get iTunes to recognize it.
    Ever since this happened, my Iomega external drive won't mount. I am able to access it via Disk Utility (and ran the Verify Disk/Repair Disk - everything is "ok"), however I can't access the data on the drive. I really really need the data but of course can't access it to backup.
    Disk Utility log:
    500.11 GB Ext Hard Disk Media (black text)
    Iris (grey text) - I ran Verify Disk & Repair Disk
    2010-01-22 14:20:51 -0800: Verify and Repair volume “Iris”
    2010-01-22 14:20:51 -0800: Starting repair tool:
    2010-01-22 14:20:51 -0800: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
    2010-01-22 14:20:52 -0800: Checking extents overflow file.
    2010-01-22 14:20:52 -0800: Checking catalog file.
    2010-01-22 14:20:56 -0800: Checking multi-linked files.
    2010-01-22 14:20:56 -0800: Checking catalog hierarchy.
    2010-01-22 14:20:58 -0800: Checking extended attributes file.
    2010-01-22 14:21:00 -0800: Checking volume bitmap.
    2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: Checking volume information.
    2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: The volume Iris appears to be OK.
    2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: Volume repair complete.
    2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
    2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: Repair tool completed:
    2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800:
    2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800:
    System Profiler shows the drive (on both FW & USB ports when I tried other cords). This drive does not require power and I am not using a USB hub, strictly the laptops ports. And yes, the laptop's power adapter is plugged in.
    System Profiler: Device Tree log:
    Iomega eGo HDD:
    Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
    Removable Media: Yes
    Detachable Drive: Yes
    BSD Name: disk1
    Product ID: 0x047c
    Vendor ID: 0x059b (Iomega Corporation)
    Version: 0.01
    Serial Number: 000000066273
    Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
    Manufacturer: Iomega
    Location ID: 0xfd300000
    Current Available (mA): 500
    Current Required (mA): 0
    Partition Map Type: APM (Apple Partition Map)
    S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
    Volumes:
    Iris:
    Capacity: 499.97 GB (499,972,702,208 bytes)
    Writable: Yes
    File System: Journaled HFS+
    BSD Name: disk1s10
    When I tried to run Migration Assistant, I just get the spinning search circle and none of the drives come up, just endless searching.
    The fact that I got the "Improperly removed device" error when I plugged in the iPhone makes me think something weird is up and it's not actually the external drive. There is clicking/whining/noise, the drives powers up fine and is recognized by the system but the mount point is now "not mounted".
    Does anyone have any idea how to fix? If you live in SF, I will buy you a beer.
    J

    I meant to say; "There are NO clicking/whining/noise sounds made by the external hard drive"

  • External HD won't mount on PB

    External HD won't mount on PB but, will on iBook, G5 iMac, MBP, and Mirror Door G4. I have a USB 2 HD that will mount on everything but 15" Aluminum PowerBook. I even tried updating the IOUSBFamily.kext but no luck that just made my camera to start working with my PB. When I plug in my HD the LED just blinks back and forth orange and green instead of Blinking orange and turning a solid green when connected.
    Any sugestions?

    In reply to arnie: Good tips!
    I'll just add - booting holding "AppleOption+OF" boots into open firmware. I've never booted into this mode (on purpose...) but it seems to be (correct me if I'm wrong) a unix interface to OS X. Just make sure to type the commands EXACTLY. Unix is much pickier than OS X.
    I've heard problems like this before - usually with those little bus-powered HDDs and Powerbooks. It's something to do with the amount of power the Powerbook puts out, although it should be the standard 500 mA that the USB 2 specs require. This can happen with firewire, however. If there's a power cord, use it.
    You might try plugging the drive into a self-powered USB 2 Hub - one with a cord that plugs into an AC wall socket, then connect it to the Powerbook. If the Powerbook recognizes the drive, then it probably needs extra power.
    Good luck
    -Dan
    15" 1.67 Powerbook G4 (Jan 2005), 400 mhz AGP Sawtooth G4   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   4G Clickwheel and 5G Vid iPods
    Message was edited by: Daniel W, stupid grammer!

  • Harddrive won't mount anymore

    Hello all,
    One of my internal hard disks (Seagate Baracude 7200.11, 1 TB) of my Mac Pro won't mount anymore. The disk is spinning as normal, I don't hear a weird sound or anything. It just won't mount. Not in Finder, not in Disk Utility and not in Systemprofile.
    I did try diskwarrior and some other utility apps, but nothing seems to work.
    Is the disk just 'dead'? Or is there something wrong with the SATA connection?
    Thanks for helping me!
    Greetz,
    Maarten

    Thank you for the answers. I went to the Seagate website and did a firmware upgrade for the same hard drive that is (still) working...
    The other one is 'dead' but, according to Seagate, the files are still on the disk. I contacted them to help me out. There are people that claim that Seagate will recover for free because it's a firmware problem.
    Thankx!
    Maarten

  • My external drive won't mount. Disk Utility says it can't repair disk and to backup the disk and reformat, but how can I do that if it won't mount?

    My external drive won't mount. Disk Utility says it can't repair disk and to backup the disk and reformat, but how can I do that if it won't mount?

    See mount section in 1st linked article.
    Disk Unmount Using Terminal
    Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

  • FW Drive Won't Mount Anymore

    I have a Lacie Porsche 160 GB FW HD plugged into my G4 iMac running 10.4.8. Til this morning everything always worked fine. Then today I tried to access the FW drive and Finder froze with the beachball. Tried to restart and it wouldn't. So I turned off the computer. When I turned it back on, the Lacie FW drive didn't show up. I've restarted, unplugged and replugged the FW cable and power, tried another computer, and nothing works.
    It doesn't show up in Disk Utility or the Data Rescue II demo. It does show up in System Profiler as a unknown drive. And I downloaded the Lacie Update Tool and was able to update it but it still won't work. Any ideas? Thanks.
    P.S. When I turn on the Lacie drive, it spins up for a couple seconds, then kinda does a "click clunk" clicking for about 9 times before stopping making noise.

    If for some reason the FireWire ports aren't acting properly (thus contributing
    to the external FW drive not being seen) you can reset the PMU and that
    should help in cases where the FW port itself goes unrecognized.
    If the System Profiler can see the FW ports and the external drive, but
    you can't use the FW drive, you may be able to get a disk utility to see
    the drive and try repairing it. If the Mac's Disk Utility can't fix it and shows
    errors, you may need to get a third-party disk utility such as DiskWarrior.
    This utility can sometimes fix errors that otherwise may require more
    drastic means to save the drive. Other means can cause loss of data.
    Some damage or corruption on a hard drive may require erasing and re-
    formatting to get it to mount, if an error stops it from being seen. This is
    more indepth than just reformatting, and would usually require one to use
    the Disk Utility's zero-data option; of course, all drive data is then lost.
    There may be a utility that force-mounts an external disk drive, but I
    have not found or looked for one. Back in the SCSI days, there were a
    few good utilities to mount hard drives; I used them.
    PS: The "clunk - clunk" is not a good sign in any hard drive.
    Could be it has physically failed.

  • LaCie external drive won't mount on iMAC

    Hi,
    My external LaCie external drive won't mount on my iMAC running 10.6.8 but will mount and show up on my PC as working fine, however I am not able to read the information on it as it was formatted for my iMAC. Therefore it leads me to believe this is a software issue.
    I have reason to believe someone had changed the permissions and prevented the mounting of this external drive (which belongs to me)  so that the contents won't be found on my iMAC.
    How to resolve this issue?
    Thanks in advance,
    Cait

    Cait,
    Please try a SMC reset, it may take 2-3 attempts for it to work. Look over the instructions below carefully.
    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.

  • DVDs in my external DVD/CD drive (mounted on the front of my Mac) won't mount on my Mac while they did about 2 weeks ago.  HELP

    DVDs in my external DVD/CD drive (mounted on the front of my Mac) won't mount on my Mac while they did about 2 weeks ago.  HELP

    Hi Judy,
    I find Optical Drives short lived, especially on Macs, but have you tried a CD Cleaner Disc?
    One other fix in 10.4.x...
    First, Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, test if things work OK in Safe Mode.
    Then move these files to the Desktop...
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist
    Reboot & test.
    PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.

  • Hard Drive won't mount anymore?

    All of a sudden my external HD won't mount on the desktop? I disconnected it, unplugged it, shut down and waited several minutes and tried over and over. It's a lacie and maybe 7 years or so old. I use it exclusively for my TimeMachine backup. I'm wondering if it's just worn out from the constant hourly back ups? The light just keeps blinking and won't stay on either. Anybody know what the problem is?

    Don't scrap the drive before you check it. Assuming this is a firewire drive, ever since Mac OS X.3.9 the solder connection of the FW port in the Lacie Enclosure would disconnect from excessive heat. Get another enclosure to try the drive in before you toss it. I have dealt with hundreds of these all with the same symptoms you describe. Unfortunately even years ago they would not sell a replacement PC board but often times they were repairable.

  • Kernel panic, now external drive won't mount

    I had a kernel panic on my trusty old Powerbook G4 867MHz today. It's running 10.5.8.
    Everything on the computer seems to be fine after restart, but the WD MyBook 500MB that is connected directly to one of the PowerBook's USB ports now won't mount.
    The drive spins, but no show on the desktop.
    Disk Utility sees it. Verification and Repair work perfectly and pronounce the drive in perfect working order. I just can't mount it. Restart makes no difference. Neither does switching USB ports.
    I have also connected it directly to an iMac running 10.6.2. The iMac's Disk Utility can also see the drive and tell me that it's in fine health, but it, too, can't mount it. In the drive list in the Disk Utility pane, the first line of description of the drive is black like all the rest. The second line — the working name I have given the WD500 — is grayed out.
    Three questions:
    1. Have I tried everything?
    2. Is this situation retrievable?
    3. If the worst happens and it cannot be mounted as is, what is the easiest way to get files off the drive so I can erase and reconfigure it?
    Thanks in advance.

    HI Norman,
    *" If the worst happens and it cannot be mounted as is, what is the easiest way to get files off the drive so I can erase and reconfigure it?"*
    There are no way to retrieve those files without connecting to your Mac(s).
    *"The second line — the working name I have given the WD500 — is grayed out."*
    It's possible the drive has died. Especially since it won't mount on either Mac.
    Go here for help to Resolve Kernel Panics
    Also, if the WD MyBook came with any software, try reinstalling it.
    And try repairing disk permissions...
    Quit any open applications/programs. Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select the FirstAid tab. Click: Repair Disk Permissions. When it's finished from the Menu Bar, Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac. If you see a long list of "messages" in the permissions window, it's ok. That can be ignored. As long as you see, "Permissions Repair Complete" when it's finished... you're done. Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac.
    Carolyn

  • WD My Passport for Mac won't mount on my Mac Pro

    My 1TB external hard drive is less than six months old and was working fine; now won't mount on my Mac. I don't remember disconnecting it without ejecting it but I do think I got a message about needing to eject before disconnecting. I checked in the forum for a possible solution and tried connecting it to a PC laptop; I could see it to eject it but it didn't show up anywhere else. I am not a computer expert! How can I access my files? I have a Mac Pro, Mac OS X ver. 10.6.8.

    Historically, the problem has been that many USB-powered drives can't get enough power from a USB port after they begin to age. The Passport is bus-powered, getting all its power from a USB port. Not the best solution for a desktop computer.
    To get such a drive going again, you need one of two workabouts:
    1) a powered USB hub (has its own power supply to make up the shortfall) that goes between the external drive and the computer.
    2) use a "Y" USB cable to get power from two USB ports simultaneously (such as http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/USB2AYMBPB/)
    Also, WD uses an odd proprietary formatting scheme that is of itself a problem area. WD makes very good bare drives but the enclosures into which they put them to make an external drive are not very good and not particually Mac-Friendly. The formatting makes them harder to use.
    Once you get  the files you need off the external,  consider erasing and reformating it to Mac Extended Journaled using Disk Utility. That often makes the drive more reliable without having to revert to USB hubs or special cables. It gets rid of the proprietary formatting that seem to contribute to the problems.
    I have three external drives. All have WD bare drives inside but none are in WD encosures. By far the best enclosures for Mac external drives are those from OWC:
    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
    I have two of the desktop model shown and one of its portable version for my MacBook Pro. All three have given me superb service and zero problems.

  • External USB not recognized on my iMac (intel) in Disk Utility, Finder as well as in Terminal diskutil list but is listed in System Profile, which includes the location ID of 0xfa400000 / 5.  Can the location ID be used to restore USB identity ?

    My 1TB Seagate external USB not recognized by my iMac (intel) in Disk Utility, nor in Finder as well as in Terminal "diskutil list" but it is listed within the System Profile, which includes the location ID of 0xfa400000 / 5.  Can the location ID be used to restore the identity of my external USB ?

    Hello JNotorious,
    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
    For more information, take a look at:
    USB and FireWire Quick Assist
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1151
    Have a nice day,
    Mario

Maybe you are looking for