WD Passport Won't Mount

Hi-
I have a G4 MDD 1.25GHz running 10.4.11 with a USB 2.0 PCI Card (don't remember the brand).
Last night I bought a Western Digital 500GB Passport drive (USB powered only) for use with the G4 and my MacBook Pro. When I plug it into the G4, I hear the drive start up and click repeatedly, but it will not mount and does not show up in Disk Utility.
The most I can gather from searching online is that it is a USB power issue and that the best remedy is to purchase a USB 2.0 Y-Cable.
Just wondering if anyone else here has had this issue.
Thanks,
Todd

...with a USB 2.0 PCI Card (don't remember the brand).
The chipset on the card is more important that the brand marked on the card's box. Open System Profiler and click on the "PCI Cards" section. All your PCI cards should show in the main pane. Click on any listed as "usb" and look at the vendor code. Code containing "1033" have the preferred NEC chipset and usually do fine.
Normally a PCI USB card gets plenty of power to external devices unless you have all your slots filled. Then available bus power may be reduced to all the cards. If you have a card you can do without temporarily, pull it and see if the drive mounts. If so, you have too much competition for the available electrons on the PCI bus.

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I have a MacBook Pro and an 1TB WD my passport for mac. I bought a second hard drive to act as back up and when I went to do this the original passport won't mount. It is showing in disc utility but it will not repair. I am told the mac cannot repair it.

I have a MacBook Pro and an 1TB WD my passport for mac. I bought a second hard drive to act as back up and when I went to do this the original passport won't mount. It is showing in disc utility but it will not repair. I am told the mac cannot repair it and I need to back up the files and then restore the hard drive. But I can't open the hard drive to move the files onto the new one!
Help me please. I am not very technical so please answer as if I have no clue!! This hard drive has my iPhoto on it and all my pictures of my son, wedding and my current photography course so I desperate to get it back!
Any help will he appreciated!

disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
The MBP's disk is damaged and requires replacement.
Genius Bar Reservations: http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

Western Digital My Passport For Mac Won't Mount

Hello everyone,
I always try to find related articles prior to posting, but I haven't found anything quite like my situation listed. I have a "My Passport For Mac" that I recently reformatted on my Mac to use as a time machine (using 10.10.2). Prior to reformatting, it worked fine. I have it encrypted so any time I'd plug it in & it would request my password. All was great. I reformatted it & then used it to back up my Mac. However, days later, when I go to plug it in, the hard drive won't mount. A lot of folks with a similar situation are at least reporting that it's showing up in Disk Utility. However, mine is completely absent. I've tried it on multiple computers (including a PC). It's not showing up anywhere. But the disk is on & spinning. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? I'm stumped on this one. I'm not worried about recovering any data from this as it's just a Time Machine backup. I'd just like to get it to mount to my Mac again!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

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.

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.

My Passport Studio Won't mount

Hello and thank you for the help. My passport studio has decided to no longer mount on my MacBook Pro or my iMac. I have followed a few 'fixes' that have not worked such as attempting to force mount (not sure I typed the command correctly, so thats an issue) Also, went into utilities and see the EHD but won't repair. Tells me to backup as many files as possible and reformat but how do you backup something that won't mount? Ugh!!! I'm not a computer expert so any help, explained in simple terms would be helpful. Thank you for the help. Kelly

Welcome to the WD Community.
Are you able to test the unit with a different USB Cable?
You can try using a data recovery software. Although, you unit is not showing properly, some software might be able to see the unit and recover the files.

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

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1) Tried to switch cables2) Won't mount on Linux or Windows3) Mac WD Drive Tools - shows me drive 1T click on - run drive status check, nothing ...same with other buttons.4).Not showing in Disk Utility or terminal 5). Lights...... 2-3 minutes steady light, then flashing with 2.5 second delay.6). Interesting note, while loading in recovery mode and then restart drive light is constantly flashing. SOS

Hello
Welcome to the WD Community.
Have you tried using the WD Macintosh +TURBO Drivers ?

Hard Drive won't mount in Yosemite

I just updated to OS X Yosemite... as soon as I plugged in my external hard drive, I noticed it wouldn't mount (Toshiba Canvio 3.0, formatted mac os extended journaled). It will show up in disk utility but won't mount, and isn't solved running first aid. Was working fine the day before I updated.
I have around 800 gigs on this hard drive, most of it is essential photography and video files. I cannot wipe the drive, and I don't have space to create a disk image on my macbook. If I have to, I can buy a new drive.
Please Help!

I did everything right, formatting my 2T WD Passport to "journal" etc. at the same time I was upgrading both my MacPro and my iMac to Yosemite. So, I was sort of in-between OS.
At first, it worked fine. But the last Yosemite upgrade or patch or whatever blotted it out entirely. Can't find it anywhere or anyway and now I know I'm not the only one having this trouble.
I'm lucky-- I will lose no data if I reformat "in Yosemite as of 11/20/2014" and put all the data* I was saving on a second time, (although I wonder what would happen if Yosemite again mutates.)
*All I was doing was making a sort of backup and second drive for my laptop, so the data is all on my laptop.
Is the general consensus that WD peripheral hard drives DO work when set up as Mac journal in Yosemite? Or are solutions still inconsistent?
Am pretty sure I've seen WD Passports for sale in my Apple store. Please keep me in the loop-- this is actually my first day in the support forum and I'm troubled because I've found a lot of people are reporting similar problems,

My WD hard drive won't "mount" it shows in disk utility but can't be repaired. I'm thinking this is a software issue since the disk is being recognized.

I
I have a WD drive that won't "mount". Tried repairing, turning off and back on, unplugging and nothing has worked. Can anyone help?

The WD Passport has no independent power supply, relying instead on getting power from a USB port on the computer. AS the drive ages it can need more power to spin the platter and many USB ports on notebook cannot provid that much.
Anther issue is the WD drive itself. WD uses an odd proproprietary formatting scheme that makes the drive not always behave like typical Mac drives.
If the drive contains nothing you need to access, use Disk Utility to reformat it to "Macintosh Extended (Journalled)"
If the drive contains important data, there are a couple of inexpensive ways to get more power to it:
1) Get a "Y" conenctor cable like this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/USB2AYMBPB/
It draws power from two USB ports and ofter that is enough to make the drive work.
2) Get a powered USB Hub:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/USB2HB7PRO/
It has its own power brick and that is usually enough to get an older USB external drive recognized.

Re: WD External drive won't mount

Hi
I have just experienced this issue today. I have gone through all the threads here and searched various other forums but haven't been able to come up with a solution yet. I might be missing something.
I'm running a 2011 Mac Book Pro OS 10.9.5 Maverick.
I have a 1TB My Passport for Mac that's a couple of years old now, it is used for my time machine backups. Using WD Drive Utilities, I can run a smart status scan which passes, the quick drive test Cancels.
In disk utility it appears on the left but is greyed out. The info that is provided tells me it is: (bare with me I'm using my iPad as my MacBook Pro won't allow me to Ely to this forum, an issue to tackle after this one)
type: partition
mount point: not mounted
owners enabled: no
journeled: no
disk utility is the only place I can see the drive appear. I don't Have the ability at the moment to connect the drive to a windows pc. I have also tried using disk utilities repair and erase options with no luck. I have tried using terminal and activity monitor several times as previously mentioned in this thread but again no luck but may have missed understood the directions.
I would simple reformat the drive but suspect because it's greyed out its why I can't.
any help or directions would be great?
thanks for your time and knowledge.

Read all the threads on this. I am similar to Phoenix86. I force quit fsck_hfs a few times when I started the bad drive but that did not prompt anything in finder. Currently I am imaging the drive to see if that gives me access to my files on the external. Last night I did a restore, but the (brand new) drive it saved to behaves just like the bad one that disk utilities so still can't access the files since that one won't mount either. I also tried a few things in terminal that someone else suggested, but like this repair:
fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk2s3
** /dev/rdisk2s3 (NO WRITE)
Can't open /dev/rdisk2s3: Permission denied
I don't know what to do with this message...
I feel so stupid, like the files are right there, but I can't get to them to copy them over. I can hear the disc spin, and it can eject from disk utility, can't open, not even in volumes directory.

External drive won't mount; works on all other computers

I have a WD My Passport Ultra external drive (USB) that is nearly brand new. It mounts / works fine on all other Mac desktops and laptops (older and newer), but won't mount or even show up in Disk Utility on my personal MacBook Pro. I am running OS 10.7.5. My computer recognizes other externals, and the USB drive I'm using definitely works. The drive is getting power - when I plug it into my laptop the light blinks and the motor whirs for a while, but the drive never becomes accessible.
I have already tried:
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     • Resetting NVRAM/PRAM
     • Waiting several hours in case it was indexing
What could be the problem?

Okay so after a half hour on the phone with Apple support, I finally figured it out myself: I just needed a USB 3.0 driver. The tech said usually the driver is automatically installed when you plug in the drive (which apparently it was on all the other computers I tried it on), but for some reason that didn't happen with my laptop. Soon as I installed the driver, it worked fine!

WD 40Gb drive won't mount

I have a Western Digital Passport 40Gb USB 2 drive that I've used for several years. It's always worked on my DP G4 and G4 iBook, as well as various PCs. Now all of a sudden it won't mount on my G4. It will work fine on my iBook G4, running exactly the same software version, 10.4.11, and it works fine on the PC too. I've been to the WD site to download some software, thinking that was the problem, but there is no software for a Mac (at least that I can find). Can anyone advise me on how to get this thing working?
Thank you,
EG

Tried any other drives on the G4?
Tried it on another port on that computer?
Since you mention using it on PCs I take it you have it formatted as MS-DOS (FAT).

WD External HDD won't mount on iBook G4; no problem mounting on Macbook Pro

I've had a WD My Passport 320 GB drive for about 8 months using it as a Time Machine backup drive for my MacBook Pro. I put some files on there that I want to transfer to my wife's iBook G4 (12 inch, 1.33 GHz) but it simply won't mount. It sounds like the external hard drive performs one revolution and then clicks. It doesn't really start up. Can't locate in disk utility ever on the iBook.
I was wondering if maybe the iBook G4 didn't provide enough power through the USB ports since this is a portable external drive and hence relies on the computer for its power.
If anybody has any insight as to how I can fix this problem, it would be greatly appreciated.
We are looking to purchase a new hard drive for myself, and I was planning on giving the old one to my wife for her own use, but if it won't work, then I may have to re-think this one. Thanks.
Message was edited by: clarity23

If the port power is insufficient for the iBook to run an external hard disk drive,
you may have to connect the unit through a self-powered (AC adapter) USB
2.0 Hub. This would be able to supplement port power for external devices.
Also, depending on the uses, some drives have different results when used
with or in older Macs. And, as a side-note, what partitioning scheme was used
on that WD External HDD? This shouldn't be so important on a non-boot drive.
If the WD was partitioned in something other than HFS+ (or WIN-DOS) it may
have a hard time being seen by the iBook; though port power issues are likely.
The external drive likely pulls a bit more power than the computer ports allow.
With my iBook G4, when used on a desktop, it has its own powered USB setup
and keyboard, mouse, plus printer (or wireless Airport with printer, etc.)
A good tool to have on hand is a 4GB or larger USB flash drive for simple transfers.
Good luck & happy computing!

HT1782 External HD won't mount, suggests disk utility to repair, but I can't back it up.

Hello,
I'm having some problems with my Western Digital My Passport 1TB. When I plug it in I receive an error that says "the disk you inserted was not readable". I've read some suggestions that say to you Repair on Disk Utility, but others that say to back it up first. Unfortunately the disk won't mount so I can't back it up. Am I best to unplug it and try it on a new machine? Or verify? Or repair?
I'm sure this goes without saying, but the contents are extremely valuable to me. What is the safest method to retrieve it?
Thanks very much for your help.

I would try shutting down, unplug the WD external drive, restart and after getting to my Desktop, plug the WD drive in and see if it's mounted and readable.

Can't install Snow Leopard on MacBook Pro - DVD won't mount

I am unable to install Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro as the DVD won't mount. This is an early 2008 vintage MacBook Pro, intel core duo...
I'm using a OS X Snow Leopard install DVD (family licensed). This DVD has been used to install 3 other Macs in my house without a problem (about a year ago), but cannot be used to upgrade my MBP. Actually, this disk mounted on the MBP exactly once - inserted with system up, the disk mounted. Upon running the installed (a year ago), the computer restarted but hung in boot. After getting the disk ejected and the computer restarted, the disk would never mount again. I've defered upgrade for a year but at this point need to upgrade my MBP at least to Snow Leopard and possibly Lion.
The problem doesn't seem to be with the DVD, since it continues to mount fine in other computers, and in fact a borrowed Snow Leopard DVD also will not mount on the MBP.
BUT ... the problem also does not seem to be with the optical drive in my computer, as it can read & mount the install/restore disks that came with the computer as well as other CDs and DVD ROMs. Only the Snow Leopard install DVDs fail to mount.
I've also tried mounting the 10.6 install DVD on my Mac Pro desktop, making it available over the network (ethernet) with DVD/CD sharing. I can mount the remote disk from my MBP that way, but when I launch the installer, the application launches (its own menus are displayed, I can quit from menu, for example) but does nothing -- no windows open, nothing.
I've also tried "Remote Install" (again with the DVD made available with the Remote Install MacOS X application on my desktop), but when I boot the MBP with option held down, the remote disk is not available as a startup disk.
Zapping the PRAM did not help.
Am off to the store to get an optical drive cleaning kit and a blank DVD big enough to burn a new disk image, but would appreciate any further ideas at this point....

Solution that worked: Copy the Install DVD to a USB flash drive and boot from that.
http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
Up and running with Snow Leopard now and working on the updates.

WD Passport Won't Mount

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