Verbatim 320GB FireWire/USB Portable Hard Drive Won't Mount

Hello ... I have a Verbatim 320GB FireWire/USB Portable Hard Drive that won't mount. The drive has only been used a handful of times ... it is self powered. I accidentally disconnected the drive without dragging it to the trash first .... so I got the "improper disk removal" error. Now the drive won't mount at all. Is it dead or in some kind of frozen state? Any ideas how I can get it back up and running??
Thanks

Might try Data Rescue II...
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
(Has a Free Demo to see if it could or not, but you'll need another drive to recover to).
Or FileSalvage...
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?%20mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
to recover what you can.

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WD Portable Hard Drive Won't Mount

This is the second time I have had a portable hard drive that suddenly quits mounting on the mac. First, a Lacie, and now a WD. After working with apple support and trying everything I could never get the problem fixed with the Lacie. Luckly, when I plugged it into a dell PC it came up and I was able to recover all data.
I then purchased the new drive, the WD, and copied the information over. Today, the WD quit working. It will not mount on either of my Macs, IMAC G5 and a powerbook G4. It also unfortunately will not show up on a PC either. It is a combo, firewire/usb drive. It does show up in Disk Utility but will not let you select "mount" only "info" and "eject".
Long story short....anyone have any ideas. I read some posts about data recovery with "data rescue" and other products. If I can't get it to mount, can I still get the data off?
Help!!

If software won't do it - you'll try it all if it's important enough - there's the costly way; disk recovery specialists.
It's a cruel lesson, but I'm sure you'll have a better back up system / procedure in the future. Ideally save to two disks and keep a third set of (important) back ups off site.

Forgot to eject external hard drive-won't mount, doesn't show

Hello,
I just bought a great running G-Technology (500GB) firewire/usb portable hard drive to replace an older much less stable drive. I wanted to copy the files from one to another when the imac disc just stated spinning forever. Having experienced this before I tried shutting off the old drive, but to no avail. So I panicked and shut everything down. Obviously, I didn't eject the new hard drive. After restarting I was able to get the old drive to appear on the desktop but not the new one. It doesn't show in Disk Utility and I've tried going to Go/Go To Folder/type:/volumes and where the icon of the new drive doesn't show up. I've unplugged it, restarted the computer with and without the new drive plugged in. The new drive light is on and power seems to be going to it when plugged in. What to do? I hope I didn't ruin the drive. It's less than a week old. Thanks for any help! Kris

If you are trying yo use the drive's USB connectivity, "portable" could be the key word. Some drives that must get their power from the computer's USB port ("bus-powered drives") may not get enough power under some circumstances. Their counterpart is the desktop or "self-powered" external drive that comes with its own power brick.
There are workabouts for your existing drive if it lacks its own power supply:
1) Try a different USB port. Not all USB ports provide the same level of power. Ports on the keyboard should be avoided--they can seldom power even a thumb drive
2) Get a self-powered USB hub. It adds to the power feed for the drive and usually fixes the issue
3) Get a USB "Y" cable like this:
1 Meter USB 2.0 A to 5 Pin Mini B Cable - Auxiliary USB "Y" Power Design for external hard drives.
It uses two of the comptuer's ports for extra power.
If you are connecting with FireWire, then the drive is likely faulty.

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
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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.

Firewire Powered Portable Hard drives

Are there in good firewire powered portable hard drives like the firelite you can get at the apple store? Maybe something with more space or a bit cheaper.

Depends what you like. There are many little devices available both on the open market and in the AppleStore, which do exactly the same thing, even a DIY version (choose and buy a OEM drive, stick it in a FW housing) - they work too! Cause FW housing are made to a standard, hence it doesn't have to be specifically state it's Mac compatible.
However, from experience, the prices tend to be slightly inflated compared to the open market. Maybe you like to shop around.. could save a small fortune.

Firewire hard drive won't mount - Filesystem verify or repair failed.

Hi all - over the last day my lacie hard drive won't mount - i have tried it on various computers with the same result
disk utility can see it but won't mount or repair it reporting the following error
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
any help would be appreciated
best
darren/uk

Try Disk Utility first. It's in your Applications/Utilities folder.
You'll want to select the disk in question, then +Repair Disk+ (not Permissions). This actually repairs the +File System+ that's on the disk.
If that works, you're ok, unless it begins happening frequently. Then you need to save up for a new one.
If DU can't fix it, then one of the others might. Disk Warrior is about $100, and many people here say it's the best. There are others for less money, but there's no guarantee that any of them will succeed.
You can also try just erasing it, and choose +Security Options,+ then +Zero Out Data.+ If that fails, or you have more problems with the drive, you need a new one.

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

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

Lacie Hard Drives won't mount

My two Lacie hard drives won't mount on my G5 running Tiger. They were fine on my G4 iMac running Panther. I've tried using the Lacie Update Tool but the drives aren't recognised. I've tested the firewire cables on another drive that works and they're fine, so it's not cables.
Both drives power up okay and whir into action, but just aren't talking to the G5.
Lacie d2 HD 80GB FW DV
Lacie 40GB (no model number, "DESIGN BY F.A.PORSCHE", no model number).
Any ideas much appreciated.

Reply
This happened to me with a LaCie external drive as well.
The problem is that LaCie formats the drives as PC-based
and not Mac Extended, so unless you reformatted the
drives to Mac when you started using them, your access
to them on any Mac may result in a failure to mount.
Once that happens retrieval of data is made more difficult
because of this formatting incongruity.
There is no way you can get the data once your G4 quits
mounting them. If you can get the data off of the drives,
back it up and then reformat the drives using Mac's Disc
Utility. Then you can reload the data and I suspect all of
your Macs will then mount the drives via Firewire.
Good Luck!
My two Lacie hard drives won't mount on my G5 running
Tiger. They were fine on my G4 iMac running Panther.
I've tried using the Lacie Update Tool but the drives
aren't recognized. I've tested the firewire cables on
another drive that works and they're fine, so it's
not cables.
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hard Drive Won't Mount After Repair by Second Computer

I have an G4 Cube with OS 10.2 on the internal hard drive (which is full) and OS 10.4 on an external La CIe hard drive (that I use as my main OS). The external hard drive accumulated serious damage that couldn't be repaired by Disk Utility on the internal drive. My copy of DiskWarrior X would not run under OS 10.2 (10.4 was required) and it wouldn't boot from the CD either So I connected the external hard drive to my second computer, an iMAC running OS 10.5. (Unfortunately, I disconnected the external hard drive when the computer was off instead of ejecting the drive by dragging it to the Wastebasket.) The external drive mounted and DiskWarrior easily constructed a new directory, defragmented the files, and eliminated all of the damage on the external hard drive visible to Disk Utility. However, when I reconnected the repaired external hard drive to the G4 Cube, the drive wouldn't mount. Privileges were repaired on both computers with the external drive connected without helping. Being repaired while connected to a higher OS or perhaps simply being connected to a higher OS seems to have left the LaCie external hard drive in a state which couldn't be mounted by an earlier OS.
Following this hypothesis, it booted the G4 Cube from the OS 10.4 Installation CD while the LaCie external hard drive was connected. When I cancelled installation of OS 10.4, I was asked to choose a start-up disk AND OS 10.4 WAS NOW MAGICALLY AVAILABLE ON THE EXTERNAL DRIVE. Simply starting up from a more advanced OS allowed the hard drive to mount.
Shockingly, when I restarted from OS 10.2, the external hard drive was still mounted. Whatever was preventing the drive from mounting was a TRANSIENT STATE, not backwards incompatability.
POSSIBLE LESSON: If a hard drive won't mount on computer A after being connected to computer B, consider booting computer A using the OS on the installation disk from computer B.

If you need to repair a hard drive with OS X installed on it, you must use that same version of OS X to perform the repair. Using another--in this case, newer--OS can cause quite a bit of trouble, as the directories/permissions may be dealt with differently between the OS's.
Seems you've learned this lesson--and luckily you didn't lose anything!
~Lyssa

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.

USB external hard drive won't show up in Lion

My external USB hard drive won't show up in Finder, even though it's visible in both the Disk Utility, which says the drive is fine, and in Terminal.
How can I get it mounted? I have researched the issue and found no solution.It disappeared while I was downloading IOS6.
It has all my iTunes and iPhoto files!
Many thanks

I have a very similar issue. I have a seagate external usb drive 500 GB that is partitioned. One FAT 32 the other MAC OS Extended (Journaled). It has suddenly for no apparent reason stopped being able to mount the Mac OS volume. The FAT 32 vol. works fine. Disk Utility says that it is fine when I do a repair or verity etc. When I click on mount, it won't work. It says mount failed. Try running First Aid on the disk and then retry mounting. Same thing happens once that is done. ??????Any ideas?????

HP P2050S PORTABLE HARD DRIVE WON'T BACK UP

I just purchased a HP P2050S Portable Hard Drive w. simple save. I plugged it in as instructed and it lights up and let me agree to the licensing but thats it. It won't back up anything. Should uninstall and reinstall to see if it will work. I am concerned that I can only install once. I have tried to get ahold of HP and keep getting the run around. i am sorry I bought this thing now, especially when it said all you had to was plug it in. It shows up on devices but nothing is back up on it.
Can anyone help me please.
Thank you
Vicki

That is amazing.. a March 08 is near to first release... most died ages ago.
Which hard disk does it have??
Yes, I would say repair is not worthwhile at this point.. just replace it.
Latest ones are better in lots of ways.. faster wireless and disks..
Plan on 3years then replacement no matter what it is like.
They fixed the power supply issue.. at least they don't die so fast.. but replaced first class drives with the cheapest Green WD.. which I have strong doubts on surviving past 3years.. and plenty are corrupting themselves well beforehand.
Do not believe one word about server class drives.. Apple's definition is PR exercise.. not related to this or the previous decade of server specs.

Lenovo 120GB portable hard drive won't disconnect (not sure where to put this!)

I didn't see any specific forums/areas for portable hard drives, so I thought I'd try here-- if it's in the wrong place, please let me know!
I got a 120gb lenovo portable hard drive over the holidays, and just today tried plugging it in; the only thing I did was check how much space it had free on it (111gb, but I did find out why that is!), but now I can't remove it. That is, when I try to use the 'safely remove hardware' thing, I get a message saying that the device is still being used by a program. However... there shouldn't be any program using it! I was told that normally it's not a problem to just straight-up unplug the usb cords from the computer, but I'd rather not have to do that every single time I use the portable hard drive.

Welcome to the forum,
In order that members can help you trouble shoot this you may want to post some more details. Most importantly which OS you are running.
Did you have something like Windows Media Player running when you tried to disconnect the drive? I've experienced the same with WMP running; it links to the drive looking for files it can play / add to it's playlists and therefore Windows thinks it is still in use.
Message Edited by andyP on 01-28-2009 07:54 AM
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USB & Portable Hard Drive problems

HI!
two questions....
1) i have a portable hard drive where i have stored books / photos etc - it shows up on my macbook pro but if i connect up to my old toshiba laptop it does not even register it is there, and i have another portable hard drive which i used on my old laptop which actually shows on the mac but i can only acces the files (pics) to view it does not actaully let me copy or delete anything - why is this and can i get them to read/change on both?
2) similar to the above portable hard drives i have a flash drive that now wont register on my old laptop, but another usb which i had ebooks on i wanted to transfer them onto the mac.I would have to unzip some files (sometime on the mac and sometimes on the tosh laptop) and then copy over to the mac. this was working fine but i noticed that as i deleted the copied files off the usb to make way for more unzipped files the amount of space wasnt adjusting accordingly. i now find that out of a 16G usb i only have approx 300MB of space left. Yet when i check what is ont he drive there is nothing on it - how can this be?

It appears that you are trying to use external drives/USB flash drives that are formatted for a specific operating system with another operating system. For example you have a drive formatted for OSx and you are trying to use it with a Windows computer.
If you format all your external drives and USB sticks to FAT32 or ExFat then both OSx and Windows will be able to read/write to these drives.
If you select ExFAT, then use your Windows computer to format the drives/USB drives. There is an issue with drives formatted to ExFat using OSx.
Make sure you make a back up of your data before you do any formatting. Formatting the drives will remove all the data on them.

Verbatim 320GB FireWire/USB Portable Hard Drive Won't Mount

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