SOLUTION - USB 3.0 External Drives Not Mounting on MBP Retinas - SOLUTION

So I have been having the same problem as everyone else who has issues with USB 3 external hard drives not mounting on their MBP Retinas. My friend told me to try unplugging the USB cord and plugging it back in instantly (like in half a second, so as to not let the power turn off on the drive). I had my doubts but then I tried it just now, and MY DRIVE MOUNTED.
GO TRY IT AND SEE IF IT WORKS FOR YOU!
UPDATE: I am using a powered external drive (Seagate Backup Pro 3TB). Not sure if this will work with bus powered drives, but I think it might, as my friend might have been using a bus powered drive.
Also, I just bought two Hitachi TOURO 750GB bus powered portable drives (7200rpm/USB 3.0) and they mounted perfectly without problem as soon as I plugged it in for the first time.

Roderick A. Santiano wrote:
So I have been having the same problem as everyone else who has issues with USB 3 external hard drives not mounting on their MBP Retinas. My friend told me to try unplugging the USB cord and plugging it back in instantly (like in half a second, so as to not let the power turn off on the drive)...
Did you unplug the USB cable from the computer or from the external drive? This fix has been posted here previously but it was reported that the cable had to be unplugged from the device, not the computer. If the cable was unplugged from the computer instead, the fix didn't work.

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Just got a new MacBook and when I initially attached my external drive, it mounted. I ejected it properly and when I attached it again, it no longer mounts. What happened and how to fix?
My iPod, on the other hand, never mounted.

Are you connecting the drive and iPod over firewire or over USB, Maan?
If its firewire, then it is possible that your FW port needs to be reset. To do this disconnect all devices , unplug the power adaptor and remove the battery. Wait fifteen to twenty minutes. Connect everything back up again and see if it is now working. (Mac Firewire ports are protected by a self resetting fuse. This process resets it. If possible you may want to try a new FW cable. Defective cables can often be the cause of these sorts of problems).
If it is a USB connection, try a PRAM reset - shut down the computer completely, then start up holding down the command (ie apple) option p r keys. Keep the keys pressed until the chimes have sounded three times.
If you still have no joy, post back.
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I have a 1TB external Lacie hard drive I have been using to store data via connection to my Time Capsule USB port.
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I erased all files on the Lacie before disconnecting it from the Time Capsule.
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Where does it show up - Finder or System Preferences/Time Capsule?
Try ejecting the drive, turning it off for awhile, restart the computer, and then restart the drive and plug it in.

External drives not mounting

My external drives are not mounting on my desktop. When I chekck my about this mac, more info, system report, firewire the message is Warning: Unable to list FireWire devices.
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New problem, my external USB hard drive (I/O Magic 80GB USB 2.0) will not mount. I've used this drive up to and including the day I started the upgrade as my backup drive. Now when I plug it in it does not mount, I cannot see it listed in Disk Utility and it does not show up in the System Profiler. Can anyone suggest what I need to do to get this to work?

Update:
I brought it (third time's a charm?) to the Apple Store once again: the iMac, the WD My Book, my cables, etc. They tried it; no luck. They tried the My Book in their computer (think it was a MacBook running Leopard) with my cable; showed up no prob.
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The tech looked bemused. He sold me an 800 FW cable and told me to try sending the cable back to Western Digital.
Meanwhile, twelve days after contacting WD about this problem, they responded with this link:
Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support and I apologize for the delayed response.
We have seen a couple of issues with Leopard.
The following link Addresses formatting issues with certain drives used with Time Machine
(specifically, single-partition MBR drives greater than 512 GB in size as well as NTFS drives of any size and partition scheme). http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306907
The following link addresses the latest release updates to the Leopard operating system 10.5.1. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/11/12/latestmac_os_x_10_5_1_build_fixes_finder_data_lossissue.html
I haven't used Time Machine yet (will get different external for that if I decide to) so the second link was more applicable to my situation.
I did just install 10.5.1 a couple days ago, it didn't resolve this for me; since other devices worked in the 400 port, the tech thought perhaps it was a software issue...<grin>
Hope others have equally simple solutions..

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Okay found out the problem, on my exfat formatted drive, after I upgraded to Yosemite it basically created a new partition, a corrupted partition and would not mount my drive. However, I could open it and see it in Disk Utility.
Here's what I did to fix it:
Goto disk utility to see the name of you drive.
Open Terminal and type: sudo fsck_exfat -d disk1s1(this should be the name of your disk)
It will ask for your password then press, enter and it will display all files on the disk.
Then is will ask: Main boot drive needs to be updated?
Type: Yes
It will update and say that you can repair disk in disk utility.
Do that, and it will show up on the desktop.
Link to original forum post if you need more information:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4154638?start=0&tstart=0
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Seagate goflex 2TB external drive not mounting Yosemite.

Hello:
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I checked in Seagate webpage and found a software called Seagate dashboard. I installed it and run test feature. After the test the HD finally mounted but came with a warning that says something like this: "OS X could not repair the disk. Backup your data and reformat the drive". Run disk utility and all the info appeared. However, when I run migration assistant to migrate all my data to the new mac, the app does not find the external HD. Tried to run Time machine and it is not found, either. The only thing that I could do is to double click the icon in desktop and found that the Backups.backupdb file is there with all my backups.
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Thanks Dan.
While I waited for an answer I decide to install a Seagate app called "Seagate Dashboard". This app have a feature that "test" your HD. I run it and I got a message that said something like I the disk has damaged and has to be repaired, please back up your data. After that the HD finally mounted in my desktop.
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And finally I had success. I could enter in the backup the Time machine did and drag all the files I needed. As a matter of fact, I tried to use Migration Assistant and it worked perfectly.
My conclusion: I had luck, the pure one.
Now I decided to have two back-up instead of one. And accident can happen again I could not have the same fortune.

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Hi all,
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peacedotnik
I'm wondering if anyone is experiencing this issue. I have an external usb drive (WD MyBook)
You should NOT connect any WD MyBook right now under Mavericks, you have a high likelihood of severe data corruption
WD is telling its customers to REMOVE WD SOFTWARE especially on WD MyBook
keep your WD MY BOOK unconnected right now until a resolution unless you have a backup of ALL DATA on your MyBook stored elsewhere
http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/bd-p/passport_mac
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Community Manager WESTERN DIGITAL
External Drives for Mac Experiencing Data Loss with Maverick OS (10/30/13)
There are reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9). Western Digital is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications.
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Wait for resolution of this occurance.
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You are powering the drive from USB?
That's a terrible idea, except for travel drives.
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Hi, Steve, and welcome to Apple Discussions. The symptoms are entirely consistent with the drive not getting enough power. I've seen several reports of this with Iomega drives in particular, even when they're connected via Firewire. I don't know whether Iomega uses particularly power-hungry drive units or bridge chipsets, or what the problem is with their external drives.
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The light is on but no-one is home. Recently upgraded iPhone4 to OS7.1.2 (which required reboot) and since then the Seagate External Drive is not mounting on the desktop. Computer details below;
MacBook Pro Model 5.5
2.26 GHZ Intel Core 2 duo
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How old is the drive?
If you put your hand on the drive do you feel any vibrations?
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Hi,
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Does this sound like a driver problem? Like maybe the driver for the Vantec enclosure is not compatible with the MacBook Pro?
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External Drive not mounting on Desktop but visible on sidebar

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Upon booting the computer notifies that it can't be read and asks to initialize, ignore or eject.
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SOLUTION - USB 3.0 External Drives Not Mounting on MBP Retinas - SOLUTION

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