WD external hard drive unrecognisable in Finder

Hi all,
I have a WD external hard drive that I have been usuing with my macbookpro plugged into USD port for a couple of years to store data as well as for time machine back ups.
Until a month ago it worked fine and never had any problems. Now it is not recognisable in finder and I cannot access any of the data.
I can see it in the disk utility, but verifying it or repairing it is unsucessful and I get various messages from 'some information was unavailable during an internal look up' to 'disk utility cannot repair this disk, back up as many files as possible and reformat the disk, and restored your backed up files'. In addition when I try to eject in disk utility, the disk utility crashes. I also experience go slow/freezes from time to time when it is connected.
Can anyone suggest some next steps, as obviously I cannot back up as many files as I cannot access them..
Thanks in advance for your help.

However one thing I dont understand - how is it that the Disk Utility can see it? Do you know?
The drive is getting enough power for DU to read its attributes but probably not enough to spin up the motor. Electric motors can start to demand more power as they age.
One of the old-timers in the forums suggested the reformatting the drive with Disk Utility to create a native Mac drive alleviated the power-starvation issue. Of course that requires the drive to actually spin up,
Here's to hoping Western Digital strengthen their interface components!
Indeed. I have 100 percent WD drives, but they all live in OWC's enclosures and work perfectly. The one that backs up my main Mac was in an WD MyBook Studio Mac Edition but refused to play well with several of my Macs---nothing but trouble. I cracked open the WD encl, yanked out the bare drive and put it in an OWC enclosure and it now exceeds all expectations.
I've suffered through several name-brand externals and now get all mine from here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
buying the empty enclosures and sticking in WD drives formatted for Mac.

Similar Messages

Internal & external hard drives disappeared in Finder

It happened yesterday on my G5 running 10.4.6. I have 2 hard drives inside my G5 and one external hard drive connected with firewire 800. The second hard drive and the external hard drive disappeared in Finder. But the one that has the system on it is fine. They did show up in Disk Utility. But it said they are both "not mounted".
When I tried to repair them in disk utility, it said:
"Checking HFS Plus volume.
Invalid B-tree node size
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error"
Does anyone know how to fix it? I have lots of stuff in those hard drives.
Thanks
Ti Powerbook G4 1Ghz, PowerMac G5 Dual-Core 2.3 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Sounds like you have a major problem that Disk Utility cannot fix. This has happened before to other users. I suggest you get a copy of DiskWarrior and that will probably fix it. You can read about/buy it here:
Alsoft DiskWarrior
Mulder

Since I downloaded Maverick, I cannot find my External Hard Drive in the "Finder" area. I have to unplug all the time the hard drive to be recognized by my iMac. How can I fix this problem? Thank You.

Since I downloaded Maverick, I cannot find my External Hard Drive in the "Finder" area. I have to unplug all the time the hard drive to be recognized by my iMac. How can I fix this problem? Thank You.

Check Finderr->Preferences->General and ensure that HDs are selected for display. If so and they still don't, Reset the NVRAM/PRAM and Reset the SMC, and see if that does the trick.

In which folder of my Seagate 3TB external hard drive, can I find my iPhoto photos from my iMac (iOS X Maverick)?

In which folder of my Seagate 3TB external hard drive, can I find my iPhoto photos from my iMac (iOS X Maverick)?

tlah wrote:
The Seagate 3TB external hard drive backs up the entire internal hard drive of the iMac.
Is this external drive a Time Machine backup?
Then find what you want using Time Machine (or whatever application you used to make the backup).
Your iPhoto pictures are in the iPhoto library in Users/Pictures.

My new external hard drive appears in Finder, but none of the files show up in recent documents (today/yesterday/past week)

My new external hard drive appears in Finder, but none of the files stored on it show up in recent documents (today/yesterday/past week).

what format is the external drive? How is it connected?
The drive must be formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) - if it is try Back up your iPhoto library, Depress and hold the option (alt) and command keys and launch iPhoto - from the resulting first aid window repair permissions and if necessary rebuild your database
Note that multiple libraries is not necessary and is generally a bad idea.
LN

Importing CD's to external hard drive-can't find folders...

I'm importing CD's to an external hard drive, but I can't find the folders. I've changed the Folder Location to the external drive, and I'm not copying them into the Music Folders. They don't seem to be saved on the external drive, nor are they in the Music Folder in the internal Hard Drive. They're playing OK, even though a few full CD's are not automatically playing unless I find their original location.
Should I load the iTunes.app into the External drive? How can I ensure that the songs are loading on the external drive and not the internal drive? If they are saved on the internal drive, how can I transfer them to the external drive, and have them play regularly? I have this external drive for the exclusive purpose of saving my music, and I'd like to import quite a few more cd's, but I'm waiting to make sure that I'm doing it correctly.
Thank you, in advance.

I appreciate your help, but I realize that I need to be more specific.
I burned several CD's onto my orginal Mac Hard Drive. Weeks later, I added the external hard drive via a USB port. Then I copied the iTunes Music Folder (the original music files) to the external Hard Drive, and put the original into the Trash. Now when I import new CD's, it saves them to my external drive by default, which I chose through--Change Folder Locations. All of this is fine, it's what I want.
1) When I choose iTunes, and go to the Library, all the songs are listed, original and new. However, it won't play all of the songs. It asks to find it in the original location, but only a few of the folders are listed, a few of the originals and all of the newly imported CD's.
2) When I import new CD's, how can I be assured that it's saving them on the external drive only. If the CD takes, let's say 500MB, it doesn't seem to register as taking up 500MB of space on the external drive.
What does consolidating the Library mean?
I know it may sound complicated, but I feel it's an easy problem to alleviate, and I'm missing some simple step.
Again, thank you in advance.

External Hard Drive not in finder, but in Disk Utility, info gone? recover?

My external hard drive shows up in disk utility, but not in finder. Usually, in disk utility, there will be visible the model/make of the hard drive (such as 232.8 GB MDT MD25...etc), and then below that, there be the actual name of the hard drive that I gave it (such as Jack's External Hard Drive). In disk utility, it only has the first one (the MDT... name) and not the other.
How do I fix this situation? Is my hard drive dead? I don't think it is dead because I can hear it spinning and it shows up partially in disk utility. Oh and by the way, it doesn't give me the option of repairing the disk.
Thanks

Alright, so I bought an external hard drive enclosure. The screeching noise is gone. Disk Utility sees the same "232.9 GB MDT MD25..." stuff, but now also "sees" "ROCK" which is the name I named the hard drive. But the lettering in "ROCK" is gray, not black. Also, its not showing up in finder. When I start up the computer with the ROCK hard drive on, finder says something like, "The disk you have connected was not readable by this computer." I try to verify disk in Disk Utility but it says "Disk Utility Stopped Verifying ROCK because the following error was encountered: Filesystem verify or repair failed."
So buying the enclosure, helped, but it seems the hard drive is damaged or the information is corrupt or something.
What is the problem I am having? (Is it not mounting or is the data bad or whats going on?)
Is there something I can do right now that can make this all better?
My last resort will be to try data recovering software (last resort because it costs around $100).
Thanks for all your help so far everyone.

Why Can't I see or access my external hard drive anymore using finder

I have a MacBook using Lion 10.7.5 and I use a Seagate 1 TByte external hard drive to store large photo and video files so that these won't take up space on my system hard drive. I also use the drive to share files with friends, colleagues and family members. Just recently I was no longer able to see my harddrive when I plugged it into the USB port on the Mac. However, when using the Disk Utilities, I was able to see the hard drive but could not access or see the files. Therefore the USB cable and USB port is working from a hardware perspective. The light also was on when I plugged the hard drive into the USB port so I know the hard drive is working. I brought the laptop and hard drive to my local Apply store to see if they could determine the problem. They did everything I already did regarding the testing of hardware. They recommended that I reload my software because something in the OS must have gotten corrupted. I re-installed the OS and the updates to the version. The re-install DIDN'T help. Using Bootcamp with Windows XP which is installed on my MacBook, I wanted to find out if Windows would recognize the hard drive and also give me access to the files. Using Windows, I was able to now see the drive and access the files. I now know the hard drive works, the USB cable and port is working and windows gave me the ability to access all of the files.
THE FIX: The hard drive was stuck in the Windows Mount Mode and because of this, the Mac OS was not able to recognize the hard drive using finder in Mac OS. When I was still in Windows, I ejected or dismounted the dick prior to removing the hard drive from the MacBook. I then shut down Windows and restarted the Mac OS. Once the system was fully up, I plugged the hard drive into the MacBook via the USB port. The Hard Drive is now being recognized by my Macbook once more. I can again access all my files.
HOW THIS PROBLEM OCCURRED: While sharing my hard drive with a colleague to transfer some files on a PC using Windows, the colleague disconnected the hard drive from the PC after the files were transferred by pulling the USB cable out of the USB port without a software dismount or ejection. This caused the hard drive to hang in a "windows mounted state" even though there was no power to the hard drive. When peripherals are connected to either a Mac or PC systems, they should always to properly dismounted via a software dismount or a system ejection. Proper dismount of peripherals will always insure the closure and correct allocation of data within the booting sectors and data fields of the hard drive.

ld3mb wrote:
Thanks everyone. I suppose I'll just reformat for Apple. I need to use it for large files, and I suppose I could survive without editing ablities on Windows.
There's another alternative, format it as exFat, 4G limit does not apply and OSX + Windows will be able to read/write.

Why won't my external hard drive appear in Finder?

I have an Iomega 320GB SPHDU external hard drive which I was using as my backup disk for Time Machine and also to store other files (documents, photos, etc.). I have been using for some time now and never had any problems, however this morning, I plugged the hard drive into my MacBook Pro, which is from early 2011 and on operating system OS X 10.9.4, using the USB ports and the hard drive did not appear in Finder. I checked to see if it had appeared in Disk Utility which it does, but Disk Utility is telling me that the hard drive needs repairing. When I try to repair the hard drive, I get the message 'Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed up files.' As I said I have never had any problems with it before, but this has just occurred this morning and I'm unsure why it has happened.

Because there's a problem with the disk's directory structure; these are often the result of improperly unplugging drives or forcing a computer to shut down. Proceed as instructed, or try using a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior to repair it.
(111975)

Moved files to external hard drive, can't find my edits in lightroom

I'm using Lightroom 4 on a Mac.
I recently moved all my pictures onto an external hard drive, and nothing I've read yet has been able to help relocate my edited pictures in Lightroom.
In lightroom, beside the Folder heading I have clicked the + and added my external drive - it shows it's green and live.
All the pictures I originally had saved on my Mac hard drive are now showing on the external drive - good.
In lightroom, the subfolders in my Mac hard drive are now showing with question marks that the files are missing - which they are, because they're now on my external drive.
What my problem is, all the editing I had done on these photos in lightroom before is now gone. How do I get the editing work I had done on these pictures to show up on the external drive pictures? If I look at my pictures on the Mac hard drive, they show they're faded and missing, but it shows all my edits still on the pictures. On the external drive, it shows the original version of the pictures with no editing done.
Note: I backed up my computer before I moved all my pictures, so if I need to put them back on my mac's hard drive I am able to do that.

Update
I was able to solve my problem. If anyone comes across the issue I was trying to fix, I suggest trying to move the files from WITHIN lightroom.
Originally I had used my OS to move my picture folders onto an external hard drive, by just click and drag. Lightroom was not able to keep the editing I had done on those pictures after they were moved. I restored a backup on my Mac and put the folders back to their original location. Then within the lightroom program, I was able to move the picture folders (with their edits) onto my external hard drive.
Julieanne Kost had a helpful video http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-evangelists-julieanne-kost/questions-about-lightroom-and-p hoto-management/

I accidentally erased my segate external hard drive out of finder, and I do not know how to get it back!

I was playing around with finder this evening and I dragged 'segate' out from under devices to my desktop and it popped and made the trash sound. It is not in my trash bin and I unplugged the hard drive and plugged it back in again and still does not show up on finder.I can no longer back up my files because it wont read the segate but still pops up in disk utility. How do I add it back to finder?

I tried that and it still does not pop up or allow me to back up to the computer but the light is turned on for the hard drive

Can no longer access USB external hard drive

Hi - I am running OS X 10.8.4 on my iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009), and have been using a La Cie USB external hard drive for several years for my Time Machine backups without issues. All of a sudden yesterday, the external hard drive disappeared from Finder and my Desktop, and as a result, no more Time Machine backups I rebooted both the external hard drive and iMac several times and changed the USB cable but with no success. Disk Utility and Time Machine cannot see the external hard drive but it does appear under System Information => USB (see below). I connected it to my Windows 8 laptop. The Windows laptop can see the external hard drive under Disk Management as an uninitialized disk. But I will not allow me to initialize it and therefore cannot acces it.
Product ID:          0x0951
Vendor ID:          0x059f (LaCie)
Version:           0.00
Serial Number:          152D203380B6
Speed:          Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          LaCie
Location ID:          0x24300000 / 4
Current Available (mA):          500
Current Required (mA):          2
Any help to restore the external hard drive would be appreciated.
Ron

Thank you for your quick response. Disk Utility does not see the hard drive. Windows 8 does see it under Device Manager and says that it is working propoerly but it will not allow me to initialize it.   As indicated to Lin Davis, I'll buy a new external hard drive.

Moving data from one external hard drive to another ERROR-36

i got a new hp simplesave external hard drive, and i'm moving all my files from an older external hard drive (can't find brand name). Some of the files are bringing up error 36 which is something along the lines of can't read/write file. which is causing the file transfer to stop on that one file. there are a lot of damaged files so the file transferring is going very slowly. is there a way i can find out which files are bad ahead of time so i can get rid of them AND THEN transfer the files?

Well, since the MacBook with Tiger still has issues with the drive, I think it is some kind of hardware problem related to the external drive. I have numerous USB and FireWire drives connected (probably too many), and I've had no issues with Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard makes my older Intel iMac run better than when it was new.
Make sure you try connecting the drive to a separate power outlet, if it is connected to a power strip. It is also possible the drive's power supply is failing; that can cause the the improper disconnect message to come up, because the drive inside is not getting sufficient power. That is why you need to try the hard drive in a different case, or using the USB adapter, to eliminate possibilities.
Also, I still don't know if this drive is USB or FireWire, but be sure to try it with no other devices connected, in case there is some interference between devices.
One more thing you can try to rule out a problem with your currently installed system. Start up using the Snow Leopard installation disc; insert disc and restart with the C key held down. When you get to Installer's first screen, go up to the menu bar and, under Utilities, select to run Disk Utility.
At this point, you can just leave the iMac alone for a while to see if the drive gets ejected. If it does not, try making a Disk Image of the external drive and saving the image file to the iMac's internal drive. If that works, there may be some issue with your current installation (and you have a backup of the data). If it fails, then I think you have confirmed that the problem is with the external drive, not the iMac or Snow Leopard.

My USB port doesn't detect my external hard drive. What could be wrong? (WD My Passport for Mac)

My Passport for Mac originally worked and I was easily able to download files. It even worked on my MacBook Pro. Now, when I attach this external hard drive and open Finder, the external drive is not there. I've run Disk Utility. I've shut down, hit alt+command+p+r and still, the USB port does not recognize the external drive. Can anyone help.
I don't know if this started after I had problems with a virus (Trojan) and I used MacKeeper AND Sophos AND MacBooster to try to "clean up" the virus. I delete the viruses (8 of them from email), and they come back with another check. This makes me wonder what is the best antivirus software!
Thanks for anyone's help!

Even though it is dated, check through the steps discussed in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1126326
When you restarted the Mac, did you connect the WD drive while the Mac was shutdown, make sure the drive was powered if it has an external power supply, and then start the Mac? I always turn on all external components before powering up the MacBook Pro or iMac.

Moving iTunes files to external hard drive -- error message

Trying to copy iTunes files from iBook G4 to a nearly empty 320 GB FreeAgent Pro external hard drive. When I attempt to consolidate the files, I receive an error message saying "there is not enough room on external hard drive to copy files". I have a very small internal hard drive on the laptop and not very much music so the message doesn't make sense to me.
The external hard drive appears in Finder, and says the format is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
Any tips on where to go from here? I'm about out of room on the laptop and desperately need to move files to an external hard drive to free up space.
Thanks,
Brendan

If you follow the steps in this article, it should work.
Just delete everything from your exHD and start over.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Also - naming your exHD a letter far down in the alphabet is a good idea.
E: F: and G: are frequently used by other USB devices, and if your exHD letter changes, you'll get all the ! marks again.
So name it K: or Q: or W:, something another USB is unlikely to use.

WD external hard drive unrecognisable in Finder

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for