The WD My Passport USB3.0 portable external drive fails to recognise on 13" MBP Retina, why when it works off iMac 27" USB port?

Just bought a new WD My Passport Mac compatible drive, USB3.0 cable included. The drive is not recognised on my 13" Retina at all, on disk utilitiy it comes up as a superdrive. moved to the 27" iMac, recognised only as superdrive through USB2 hub, connected directly to iMac USB port and disk utility picked up the drive. Updated all WD driver detail as described in WD manual, partitioned drive and copied data from iMac. Move drive to connect directly to 13" Retina, and it is not seen anywhere. Same cable used, smae HDD.
Is this a USB bus issue, power issue or 13" Retina USB i/f configuraiton issue?

Thought this may be the issue, problem is the USB3.0 connector is 2 micro USB side by side in a single plastic moulding, have searched for separate USB cables but cannot find them.

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Multiple external drives failed on Mac Pro. Any idea why?

This is the third drive that has failed since I was assigned this Mac Pro at work a few weeks ago, and the drive was purchased less than a week ago. The other two were older drives.
They would suddenly stop being readable. Sometimes there was a problem ejecting the drive before it stopped becomeing readable (message would say the drive couldn't be ejected because another program is using it, when there were no programs open). One of them eventually mounted again and I recovered some of the files (but some files weren't readable when I tried to copy them). But that was just luck as they all seem now to be consistently unreadable. When I plug them in I get the message: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"... same if I plug it into a different computer.
And when I try to repair, it shows this: http://i.imgur.com/ivK9d.png
Any idea what would cause this? When it happed to the second drive, I just thought it was a fluke... but now a third, brand new drive? Something about the computer must be causing it.

innergalactic wrote:
The first two were WD and the third was Seagate - all in their own enclosures. They MIGHT have been plugged into the same FW800
So we're talking different vendors, different enclosures -- but likely the same bus, possibly even the same port, and different hosts (Mac Pro and MacBook).
Very difficult to say at this point, because two different computers are actually involved and you're not sure how and which is involved. The problem does sound like a hardware issue -- but, if it is, is it the FW controller on the MBP or on the MP? I can't tell.
Your pic shows DU can't fix the drive, but can it re-format the drive? (If the drive is FW/USB hybrid, try USB if FW doesn't work.) If yes, the error might be hardware or software; if no, the problem is likely hardware.
Although it's difficult, you must keep track of what drive is connected to what machine and on which port, otherwise you'll only fix this by being lucky. Also, check if you have on either Mac software which might interfere with disk writing. Of course, I assume you always eject the ext'l drives properly before you disconnect them physically.

Portable external drive recommendations

I'd like to use a portable external drive to store my referenced masters (about 15k jpeg images and growing), which I would back-up periodically to a 1 TB LaCie drive. Other than getting a drive with FW800 (compatible with my MacBook Pro), should drive speed (5400 vs. 7200) be a consideration? I've noticed that 7200 rpm drives generally max out at 500 GB (and are generally more expensive), but I'd like to get a 1 TB drive. Any recommendations or suggestions?
Also, any suggestions for backing-up referenced masters from one external drive to another (frequency, approach, tools/software)?
Thanks

I buy memory and mass storage from OWC at
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/.
Plenty of 7200 rpm choices available including 1-TB size, and yes I consider 7200 rpm worthwhile. I recommend drives that allow FW800, eSATA and USB for flexibility. Slow USB-only drives for backup only can save a few bucks, but drives are cheap and I like to be able to repurpose drives instantly if the need arises so I pay extra to maintain multiple connectivity choices.
As to backup, I feel strongly that originals should be backed up before import into Aperture or any other app. Frequency of offsite backup depends on how important the image data is to you. Personally I do not erase CFs until the originals are both on the hard drive they will live on and backed up to an offsite drive (which can be as simple as a drive that lives in the car). The point is that one theft or one fire or one whatever cannot forever lose enterprise-critical photos.
HTH
-Allen Wicks

My imac won't recognize my passport for mac external drive

I just bought a WD my passport for mac external drive to back up my imac with Snow leopard OS. the passport icon doesn't show on the desktop and when I look using disk utility the external drive isn't recognized. The external drive has nothing wrong with it as I plugged it into a newer imac running 10.9.5 and it works fine on that machine. I went through the troubleshooting steps from WD and the only one left is trouble with the OS. I have updated the software and downloaded the drivers from WD and still no change. Any suggestions? thanks!

See the mount section of the first link.
Disk Unmount Using Terminal
Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

Trouble Exporting QuickTime on to portable external drive

I bought a portable external drive (Lacie) and I am unable to transfer my project on to it in the form of a self contained quicktime video export.
I tried to copy it from the Lacie external drive that I first exported the project to and I got an error message, "type 36" that said it couldn't copy or read part of the file and it aborted the copy. Then I tried twice exporting the project straight to the portable drive, and each time, instead of exporting one self contained QT file, there are three files: the origional file name and the second and third files have: "av1" and "av2", added to the origional file name. So it looks like its exporting the video and audio seperately?
I imported the main file back into Final Cut to see if it would play on a timeline and it did. But it is one third the size (2 gig) of the origional exported self contained video (5.5 gig). So something's not right.
I am trying to give my editor one file so that he can make a DVD.
Does anyone understand what's going on? It seems to me the problem lies with the new portable drive but I'm not sure what to do. Thank you for any help, guidance, or further trouble shooting.

Reformat the drive Mac OS Extended with Disk Utilities found in the Utilities folder in the Apps folder. (Click on the erase tab) if you haven't already done this.
Jerry

"attempting to copy to [external drive] failed. the disk could not be read"

this is a problem on my 2x3GHz quad-core intel xeon macPro running os 10.5.7, and itunes 8.2. i have a 1TB external hard drive (firewire 800) that holds all my music for itunes. i have never had any problem with this setup before, until recently.
once, a while back i got an error on my itunes (that popped up without me doing anything.. seemingly random) saying something about not being able to save the itunes library. that went away after a restart, and hasn't returned.
BUT a new problem now happens any time i try to add more music to my itunes library. i have always added music to itunes by setting up my preferences "add file to library" and have the itunes library pointing to my external hard drive. then by dragging the files on-top of a playlist, it sorts and adds the files to my external hard drive. i have been using this process for years without any glitches.
now when i try to drag files into itunes, i get: "attempting to copy to [external drive] failed. the disk could not be read from or written to"
i double checked the read/write privileges on my external drive and nothing has changed since i got it. (it's still read/write access for my user.. and i've even tried putting a "read/write" for "all" as well. no dice)

thanks, that actually doesn't help the issue i'm having.
but now the problem has expanded to finder and everything else. so i'm pretty sure the external hard drive is starting to go out. i'm currently attempting to back up all 700GB of info from the drive.

Hello.... I already loaded logic 9 on my laptop hard drive... I would to load all the samples and loops on an external drive... Do I need to reinstall from DVD's or can I drag and drop?

Hello.... I already loaded logic 9 on my laptop hard drive... I would to load all the samples and loops on an external drive... Do I need to reinstall from DVD's or can I drag and drop?

Thank you.... Would you know where they would be on my hard dive? Are they all together?

How do you get Photos to recognize the "old" iPhoto Library on an external drive without it copying it to the internal drive on the computer which is low in HD space?

How do you get Photos to recognize the “old” iPhoto Library on an external drive without it copying it to the internal drive on the computer which is low in HD space?

Launch Photos while holding down the alt/options key.
This will show the Library Chooser panel. Select the library on the external drive. Photos will create a Photos Library on the same drive.
Photos may not be able to open the library, however, if your external drive has an incompatible file system. It needs to be formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled) and locally mounted, not a remotely mounted volume, as described here: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture

Iphoto does not recognize video files when the iphoto library is on an external drive

I have copied my iphoto library to an external hard drive. I pointed iPhoto to the new location. I can import photos with no problem, but when I try to import video files (from my iPhone or from another drive) I get a message that the file is not recognized. When I moved the iphoto library back to the MAC hard drive, the import works OK both for photos and videos.
I am using iphoto 11 and all the videos were taken with my iphone.
Any ideas?

Video could be imported from an iPhone before the library was copied to an external drive.
The video that was imported before the library was moved could be read before and after the library was moved to an external drive.
Video from the same iPhone cannot be imported into the library once the library had moved ton an external drive.
The problem is that video can no longer be imported into the library that was moved to an external drive. Photos from the same iPhone can be imported and read.

TS1367 Hallo,I have an IMAC 21.5. which does not start.When i press the power button i hear only beep with an interval of 4-5 seconds.Some times when i take off the RAMS and put them again then get a white screen and shows that i have to insert a bootable

Hallo ,I have an IMAC 21.5. which does not start.When i press the power button i hear only beep with an interval of 4-5 seconds.Some times when i take off the RAMS and put them again then get a white screen and shows that i have to insert a bootable device.Then i bought OSX mountainlion on line and wrote it on a DVD and tried with a USB key board to start the DVD.But does not work.Please help me to get this imac work.
Thankyou in advance for your help.
Terrence

Hey terremo,
Thanks for the question. From the information you provided, it sounds like the iMac is successfully turning on, however video is not displayed. These symptoms can usually be isolated further by the troubleshooting steps in this article:
Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1573
Thanks,
Matt M.

G5 shuts down when Portable external drive connected to Fire wire port

Hi, I hope somebody can help me. I have a 100G lacie portable external HD that I use to back up my files regularly. It worked until today, I plug it in, I was able to save some files, and then the computer shut down. I restarted it and it did the same thing. Black screen. nothing. I have another External HD with its own power supply connected to the same computer and that one works. I tried plugging the Portable HD to the back of the one with Power supply and it shut down as well. Then I plugged it in the back of my 19" LCD, same thing. So I though that the portable HD was bad, I went and bought another drive, a verbatim, and same thing happen. I then plugged my lacie drive to another computer, a G4, and it works which leads me to think that the problem is in the G5, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thought this may be the issue, problem is the USB3.0 connector is 2 micro USB side by side in a single plastic moulding, have searched for separate USB cables but cannot find them.

Portable External Drive functions

Hi to all, i am scouting for external hard drives.
I know there are some hard drives that need power and some that are portable.
questions:
1. on portables, can I remove the external drive (i.e. WD pocket drives) from my home desktop (given that it is configured as back up via time machine?) and use it as an external drive to back up other files like in any notebooks?
2. when i plug in again the external drive to my home desktop, will i be required to do the initial set up again? or will the mac recognize it as an existing back up via time machine?
3. should i partition the drive> if yes, when do i partition it? before setting up time machine at home? and how do i partition?
Thanks for any reply.
Message was edited by: iSphere

A portable drive that runs on bus power is the [OWC Mercury On-The-Go|http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go]. If you are using Time Machine you don't have to do any partitioning and just plugging it into a computer will cause Time Machine to start backing up automatically. However, if you are backing up multiple machines you are going to want a 500GB drive if you are going to portable 2.5" HDD route.
If you get a 3.5" HDD enclosure then you can get a much higher capacity drive for less price. However, it will require power from an outlet and won't be portable. For that, I'd recommend the [Mercury Elite-AL Pro|http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATAFW800_FW400USB].

USB3 ONLY external drive ejecting during backup

This has been discussed and posted in various ways here, but I haven't seen/found a solid solution yet which might be out there.
Has anyone figured out the solution to a USB3 drive ejecting on it's own?
My staff's OWC USB3 external portrable hard drive keeps ejecting during any operation: time machine, Carbon Copy, Lightroom, importing, moving files, etc.
Attached is a screen shot of the warning box that comes up when the drive ejects itself.
COMPUTER:
The machine is a 2012 NON-Retina MBP.
OSX 10.8.2
EXTERNAL DRIVE:
The drive is an OWC Mercury Elite On the Go drive: USB3 only
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MSU37750GB16/
We have used the drive, and cable on my 2011 MBP, OSX 10.7.5 with only USB2 on my machine, and it runs perfectly fine under all conditions.
ATTEMPTED FIXES:
Repaired disk permissions
Disk Warrior
Defrag
All Updates for OSX
Re-install OSX
All updates for 2012 MBP
Taken to Apple "Genius" bar twice. They confirm the failures. Initially blamed the drive/enclousure/cable. Then blamed that there were firmware and other updates that would fix it....which they did not.
YET TO ATTEMPT :
Creating a 10.7.5 boot partition on the 2012 MBP and test that.
Trying a powered external drive on the 2012 MPB
Trying a FW800 drive
Any thing else I am missing? Trying to avoid having to send it into Apple Care and be without a needed machine for week+, and concerned that like others, it won't be fixed anyway.
Appreciate your thoughts.

I have something similar on a brand new iMac 27" i7 top of the line model. I bought a USB 3 enclosure from OCW for a 120 gig SSD. I was using it as the cache drive for Photoshop CS6. It began to display the same issues you are describing. I brushed it off and blamed the cheap enclosure I purchased. This all occurred 1 week ago on 1-22-2013.
On Saturday 1-26-2013 I was backing up a sweet sixteen shoot via time machine connected to the USB3 port and the drive ejected mid way of a 70 gig back up. I found that strange because I've never had a problem with that drive or the enclosure it's in. (By the way this is a USB2 enclosure) I tried it 3 more times and the same issue occurred. I figured it was the cable and switched it with another USB cable and this time it worked.
Not thinking much about I assumed the problem was the cable. The next morning I realized I still had one 8 gig compact flash card in my camera and I needed to back that one up. This time I used my USB 3 RAW STEEL UDMA card reader to ingest the work. There were only 20 images on the card. During import the compact flash drive froze on the third image. I had to force quit and redo the import again. It took 3 times before I had no issues importing the images. I could not figure out what the **** was going on until it hit me.
During my trouble shooting I realized the 3 drives were, when they ejected themsleves, connected to the same port in the back of my iMac. The second one closest to the SD card reader port in the back. That was the free port I kept switching to use these different peripherals.
I need to do a little more testing but I'm almost certain something is wrong the the USB3 ports in the back of the new computers. Never had these issues with my late 2009 iMac.
The last thing I want to is haul this machine into Apple after it took me 4 days to get it set up the way I use it for my Photography business.
Disappointed big time!

Is Time Machine the best way to backup two external drives?

I only have the most basic understanding of Time Machine. I hook up an external drive to my MacBook Pro, click "backup now" on Time Machine, wait a while, and forget about it because I've never had to use it to retrieve a file - thank heaven.
Now I also have two external 2TB portable drives that are close to full and which need to be backed up. I just bought a 4TB drive that I haven't taken out of the box yet. Is it a simple matter to create two Time Machine files on the 4TB drive ... one for each of the 2TB drives?
And is Time Machine the best way to do this? Or is there some other system that makes more sense for backing up on this scale and with two drives?
-JOHN

No Time Machine is not the only way.
You can use one of the drive cloning softeare programs to clone your internal drive to an external or you can use OS X Disk Utility to do basically the same thing, IE Clone/Copy your internal drive to an external.
But in your case it look as if the upgrading of the iPhoto database has wiped out alll your images. What you are actually asking about is "Can you now get back those photos without first doing any backup of any type".
And the answer to that is No you can not.

Mail does not accept that the Mail folder is on an external drive

On Snow Leopard and on Lion, I have moved the Mail folder (from the Library) to another location (on an external drive) which happen to also be my Dropbox folder. In these two OS, it worked well so my Mail folder is portable and also online. I have used aliases that lead Mail from my Library folder to the Mail folder on my external drive.
On my new MacBook Pro preconfigured with Mountain Lion, Mail, as soon as I launch it, tells me that it can not use the Mail folder located on my external volume because it has not Read&Write permissions.
OK but my Mail folder, inclusing all enclosed folders, have the right Read&Write permissions.
I have read here and there that there are many issues with Mail on Mountain Lion so I was also wondering if there are no solutions if I can install Lion on this brand new MacBook Pro or did Apple did again something stupid to prevent us to do so.
Any solution on my Mountain Lion problem would be appreciated.
Thank you for your support

I have found this solution: http://thenerdnest.com/2012/08/how-to-move-apples-mail-folder-to-an-external-dri ve.html
and it seems that my problem is now solved!

The WD My Passport USB3.0 portable external drive fails to recognise on 13" MBP Retina, why when it works off iMac 27" USB port?

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