Western Digital MyPassport 1TB not recognized

I have had a Western Digital MyPassport Essential (1TB) for a little more than a year now. I'd been using it fine with my Late 2008 Aluminum Unibody MacBook. This August, I purchased a MacBook Pro with Retina Display and now the drive rarely (if ever) shows up when connected. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, plugging it into different ports, and nothing works. Yet, when I try to use it with another computer it works fine.
Has anyone else had this problem/know of a fix? I ordered a new USB 3.0 cable from Amazon, so maybe that will solve the problem, but I'm looking for a solution in the meantime.

its not the cable, its the SATA card thats failing. Seen it a 1000 times, that part is a stinker and as sure as sunrise
junky 50 cent SATA bridge/card in an external HD
**When you plug it into another computer and find that it works but works only sporadically on your primary computer, thats also indicative of a SATA card failure, hence the "haunted hard drive syndrome" name given to the strange nature of external HD behavior. It often makes no logical sense what is going on when your HD cant be logically diagnosed due to odd behavior.
External HD are very easy to diagnose. Bad USB cable (on commercial sold USB drives) almost doesn’t exist anymore.
External USB HD have 4 'parts' (not counting the HD internals)
1. USB cable (never an issue anymore, approaching 100%)
2. HD enclosure.....a plastic or metal box which cannot ever be an issue.
3. the HD itself (which will either fail or make noticable 'going bad' signals)
4. ....and last but not least is the epicenter of 'weak links' ,.....a SATA card/bridge that is connected to the HD inside the HD box, the size of a stick of gum, with SATA female on one side, and female USB on the other side, containing circuitry for data transfer between the SATA on the HD and to USB on the other.
While these bridge cards are better than they used to be, theyre still insanely unreliable.
There are literally probably MORE than 100,000 perfect external hard drives out there thrown away every year because people assume the "hard drive is bad" when really they could crack open the HD enclosure, remove the HD and put the good HD into a new enclosure.
See this video of the SATA CARD, its at 8:55min. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pS_EDsP2KI
All conventional HD external are nearly 100% like the video above.
This nasty piece causes very odd behaviour, some have called it "haunted hard drive syndrome". Random ejects, random strange vanishing of the HD , especially in mid transfer of data.
the card attached to the TOP of the HD plugs in, that the SATA bridge

Similar Messages

Western Digital 1T HD not recognized over FW800

I cannot get my WD 1T external HD to be recognized via the FireWire800 port. It's fine under firewire400, though. I've tried the powering everything off, wait 10 minutes, power to HD, then firewire cable connect to HD then to the MBP trick, and it still did not recognize. What's my next step?
Model Name: MacBook Pro 17"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,2
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP12.0061.B03

Unfortunately, i don't have access to any other computer to test it. I haven't ever used this FW800 port on the laptop, either. never had any need before now. i think the drive ports are fine, i've never had any reason to question the before, and the drive does work on a 400 cord just fine.
is there a way to make sure the FW800 port on the MBP is fine/active/powered ?

Western Digital Firewire 100 not mounting

I have a Western Digital 100GB (WDCFireWireHD-Ox) that was working fine on X.4. I haven't used it in a while (probably since i upgraded to X.4.8) and when I tried to connect it to my powerbook, the hard drive doesn't mount. I dont get any information in disk utility either. Funny thing is if i go to the system profiler it shows up under the FireWire device tree. I haven't used my Lacie HD in a while either and it works fine on the firewire and USB port.
What can i do to get this HD to mount?

I've had this happen when I accidentally unplugged the Firewire cable from the computer without first unmounting the drive. A system restart allowed the drive to be recognized again.
Googling http://www.google.com/search?q=firewiredrive+not+recognizedMYBook&hl=en&safe=off&start=10&sa=N I see a few others with the same problem without any rhyme or reason as to what was causing it. In some instances, plugging in/out/in/out got it working again but that's really not good for your data.
Does the drive show up in Disk Utility? If so, have you tried mounting it from there? Just a thought. Good Luck

Digital download code not recognized as valid

I'm trying to download a digital download that came with a DVD purchase, but iTunes gets giving an error of: The code you entered is not recognized as a valid code. Any help would be appreciated.

I can tell you that you can submit the information but you may find out like me and many others here that it a waste of time. I got $30 lost because of a bad pack of iTunes cards and from what I seen here many people have the same problem as these $30 pack from apple fail to work most times.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17142557#17142557
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15248543#15248543
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15939881#15939881
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17097214#17097214
https://discussions.apple.com/message/6481772#6481772
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15223646#15223646
That's just some of the cases I found here, after reading them I did something I would think no one would have to do for a company like apple. I did a look up on there iTunes for consumer reports and found this site. So now I am more worried. I won't be getting iTunes gift cards anymore, I will tell people to buy me visa. I'm also happy I never gave iTunes my bank account either after what I read there of people getting bill 500 - 900 in a day when not using there account. Keeping my MasterCard because if something like that happened it easy to report it and solve the problem.
All I can say is, good luck and don't give up as apple needs to fix this system they got.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/apple_itunes.html

Mypassport Wireless not recognized through USB on my Mac

I can connect to my Mypassport Wireless fine, but it's not seen through USB on my Mac. I've done a manual reset several times. And the Lock setting is off. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Btw, it's been working fine on both my two Macs for the past week since I've bought it. I've also been plugging it into the USB port of the laptop while powered on and Finder recognized it right away. Now, all of a sudden, neither laptop can see it through USB. I've tried the manual reset, and then powered it down, plugged it into the USB port, and it automatically wakes up, but Finder doesn't show it. Please help. Thanks.

Toshiba Canvio 3.0 1TB not recognized by Windows 7

This external HD used to work with no problem. Now I can't get Windows 7 to see its connected. Here are all the solutions I have tried:
Tried on multiple laptops including Dell Inspiron and HP Pavilion dv7
Tried every USB port on all those computers
Checked Device Manager: device is not listed
Check Disk Management: device is not listed
Ran Microsoft Fix-It. It says Hardware not detected because Windows Update not set to automatically install drivers. HOWEVER, it IS set to install the drivers. Not to mention, the driver is already installed.
I just want to access this long enough to get the files off of it, because the Canvio is a bitterly sad disappointment. (I wish I could get my money back, but since I trusted Toshiba products -- the laptops, PDA, and now tablet -- that I didn't think this would give me an issue. In fact, I bought the Canvio over the competitors BECAUSE it's a Toshiba. Here, everyone reports problems with it after a few months.)

Some have luck with the freezer treatment.
If the files are important enough, you can pay to retrieve them. These guys have a good reputation.
Ontrack Data Recovery Services
-Jerry

USB 3.0 Problem with WD MyPassport 1TB USB 3.0

Hello all,
I have a Problem with my USB 3.0 Ports. I had an USB 2.0 external Harddrive which i used on my MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2012, but i needed a new one, so i bought a Western Digital MyPassport 1TB with USB 3.0. I also installed Tuxera NTFS because i bought the WD MyPassport in NTFS due to the fact that i use it on Mac aswell as on Windows. Now i read on the Apple Support page this:
How do I get the best performance from the USB 3 ports?
The first device you plug in will configure the port, so always connect USB 3 capable hubs or devices first.
What happens if I plug in a USB 2 device into the USB 3 port first?
If you plug in a USB 2 hub first, all devices connected or "daisy-chained" to that hub will operate up to the maximum transfer rate of USB 2 speed (480 Mbps).
I get now with my USB 3.0 MyPassport just write and read speed of an USB 2.0 device. (write/read +-35MB/s). I already tried my MyPassport on an Windows 8 PC with USB 3.0 Ports and there i get 85 MB/s read and 65 MB/s write. What is a huge diffrence.
I already tried to reset the USB 3.0 Ports with "Command-Option-P-R", but this also didn't solve the problem.
A friend of mine gets the same problem with an older version of the MyPassport (500GB) but also USB 3.0.
Does anyone has another idea what i could try to get USB 3.0 Speed on my Macbook Pro?
PS. I also installed the WD Turbo Drivers for Mac
PPS: I tested the Write and Read speed on my mac with xBench, Aja System Test and Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. All three gave nearly the same speed.

Diabolusz wrote:
Thanks for the answer, very appreciated.
Well sometimes i got 30 MB/s and sometimes 60 MB/s. I don't know what's happening there. Running the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test shows 60 MB/s, 2 minutes later it shows 30 MB/s ... But my Mac identifys the external Harddrive as USB 3.0 device ("up to 5 Gbit/s")...
...I bought it on Amazon, and i also read the review there, and nearly everybody is talking of speeds between 85 and 110 MB/s. So i would say that those 60 MB/s are not normal....
To your link: I got exactly that external HDD, just with 1TB. Thank you, i'll read the article
When you check out the article, look at the transfer rates as the file sizes get smaller.
My Mac Pro doesn't have built in USB 3.0 support but I've added a PCIe card and now it does. Using Carbon Copy Cloner to clone a drive to an external USB 3.0 WD MyBook, which has a 3.5" HD inside, I can watch what files are being transferred in CCC while I watch the transfer rate using the Disk Activity graph in Disk Utility. If I'm writing to the beginning of the disk, the files can fly by at close to 130 MB/sec if they're large and maybe 15 MB/sec if a bunch of them are very small. If they're going, instead, to the last partition on the MyBook, which is at the center of the drive, the transfer rate might be cut almost in half. I've tried something similar with a Seagate GoFlex external, and in addition to what I observed with the MyBook, I also found that when the GoFlex started to overheat (a common occurrence since it contained a Barracuda XT with no ventilation), the transfer rate dropped like a rock. I can't tell from the pictures if your MyPassport has any ventilation but that could be an issue too and might explain your finding with the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test (assuming that test doesn't intentionally change file size during the test).
In any case, while the USB 3.0 interface can theoretically deliver up to 5 Gbit/s transfer rate, there's no hard disk out there which can run that fast, although some SSD's might. And that applies to both the HD in the MyPassport and the HD in your Mac. Indeed, unless you've got an SSD in your MacBook Pro, it's a 5400 RPM HD, so even though the interface it's connected to is 6.0 Gbps SATA, the HD can't begin to saturate it.
Considering all the variables at work, the real answer may be "you can't get there from here."

Western Digital 1tb not readable

My Laptop stopped working, plugged my western digital 1tb into my new macbook pro and it has a connection error. I receive a message saying it is not readable. Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

The electronics in the Western Digital external backup drives aren't known to be very reliable. You might try to see if it is readable on another system, and if not, then, if under warranty, contact Western Digital, or if not, remove the hard drive and put it into another external case.
If you need an external case, I like cases sold by OWC at http://www.macsales.com. Many of their cases use Oxford chipsets, which work well with macs.

WD 1TB not recognised on 13" macbook pro retina (late 2013) even though it is exFAT file structure. The same drive is recognised on iMac and an old Dell laptop. I also have a seagate 2TB external hard drive (powered) that is recognised by my macbook pro.

I just bought a late 2013 macbook pro retina 13" a few days ago. I am trying to transfer all my music from my old Dell laptop. I formatted by 1TB Western Digital MyPassport to exFAT to allow read and write on both operating systems. The 1TB WD My Passport is recognised by both my Dell and iMac but not my new macbook pro retina 13 (late 2013). My 1TB WD My Passport is USB 3.0 with USB 2.0 backward compatability. I also just bought a 2TB Seagate Desktop Backup Plus (which is powered) for backing up and extra file storage, THIS WORKS! I don't understand how this works on my macbook pro but my 1TB western digital my passport doesn't. PLEASE HELP!! I have done full formats as well (not quick ones) which take nearly 8 hours. PLEASE HELP

Is there a pattern to the time of day or other detail that may be
traced back to a OS X system cause of this odd phenomenon?
Are there any copies of system files on any of the attached USB
external drives? Any libraries, such as iTunes, iPhoto, etc?
Once the drives are indexed by Spotlight, are their permissions
ignored by the OS X? Content, if neutral, should not affect the
wake or sleep cycle; especially if they're ignored by the OS X.
Could there be a bad cable or other component? If so that would
be a difficult process of elimination to detect it. Usually replacing
most suspect components in the USB stream (external to Macs)
is a rote way to mechanically test that idea; & not 100% sure.
Does the equipment all have a good ground to the utility or house
electrical field? An intermittent ground may affect more than sleep.
Hard to say at this point. Maybe a late-night talk radio guru on
remote viewing could peer into your situation and sleuth it out?
Sorry to have run out of ideas, but the process must be electrical
& mechanical to some extent. - Or perhaps odd software inspired.
Do you have any phone-home spyware items inside, just jumping
at the chance to spill your information? Little Snitch may help.
PS: Perhaps the computer needs to go into Apple & have a genius
or product specialist at AASP test the unit thoroughly... BlueTooth?
see:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Wake+reason:+XHC1
Good luck & happy computing!
edited 2x

External Hard Drives (and some flash drives) Not Recognized by Server2003

I recently purchased a new computer (Dell T100 server) and old Server2003 disk (OEM disk on eBay). Installed Server2003 and added File Server role only. My data is located on a Western Digital Passport that is recognized no problem on any other computer in the office (all XP). When I connect it to the server (front or rear, same result), it does not give it a drive letter, and says there are 0 bytes used 0 bytes free. Under Computer Management->Storage->Disk Management it shows: Volume: blank, Layout: Partition, Type: Basic, File System: blank, Status: Healthy. It's as if it does not know how to read the file system.
What do I need to do to Server2003 to get this drive with my data on it to be read by my new server?

Hi,
Following is the System Requirements from Western digital’s website.
Windows
Available USB port
Windows 2000/XP/Vista®
My Passport Essential 320GB USB 2.0 Hard Drives(WDMEB3200)
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=426
Yes, generally speaking, if an external drive or flash drive can be recognized by Windows XP, it should work in Windows Server 2003. However, there is no guarantee.
If possible, I recommend that you plug the “unrecognized” drive to some other Windows Server 2003 computers to test whether it works. If the issue continues, I suggest that you contact the vendor or the drive for more details.
By the way, what’s the version of Windows Server 2003 you used? Please update it to the latest service pack to check whether they works.
Best Regards,
Vincent Hu

Western Digital HDD

A supplier, www.datorbutiken.com, supplied this about IDE hard disks from Western Digital:
Western Digitals hårddiskar fungerar ej tillfredställande med moderkort som har nForce2-chipset. Detta fel yttrar sig på Western-diskar med varierande firmware-version, det går därför ej entydigt att peka på specifika modeller. Det kan alltså fungera i vissa fall, men risken att det inte gör det är för stor för att vi skall kunna rekommendera denna kombination. Ovanstående gäller även moderkort med VIA KT133A och 686B chipsets.
Short translation: "Western Digital HDDs does not work very well with..." You see what mobos are concerned. I can't find this info in the SATA section, why it seems to be a IDE problem.

The WDC + VIA 686B compatibility issue is way old and affected only WDC models with particular production or lot codes. I can't remember for certain now if the solution was a firmware update or replacement from WDC, but I seem to recall that a replacement/exchange was offered by WDC.
Not heard of any problems with NForce 2.

Airport Extreme 802.11n & Western Digital (My Book Essential 1TB)

I just bought a Airport Extreme 2days ago. I am trying to connect to my external HDD which is Western Digital, My book Essential, 1TB. But I just could not see the HDD on my laptop. The HDD is detected by the the airport utility and shows 930.9GB WD My Book 1110 1032. I have enable file sharing on the device as well. But i just could not see the HDD. I have tried connecting my both laptops wirelessly & using EtherNet Cable, for both options, the HDD is still not visible. Please help me
Details as below,
Airport Extreme with firmware version 7.5.1
Airport Utility, version 5.5.1
All systems at home are Windows XP with Service Pack 3
Internet Type: Cable
HDD details
Brand & Model: Western Digital, My Book Essential, 1TB
Format : NTFS
Network description, Cable modem -> AE -> HDD into the USB of the AE
All laptop are on wireless.
I have called up the apple support helpdesk, which they ask me to hold on, but the line was cut off, and no one actually call me back.
I badly need help to get this working..

I have the same WD drive on my Airport. In the Airport utility, I have checked the "Enable File Sharing" box. I have selected to share with my Airport Extreme password. Further down the page, the workgroup box is filled in as "WORKGROUP" - I did not have to do this, the Airport seems to have detected it. If you have nothing there, you might want to fill it in.
On the PC, with File Explorer, expand the tree My Network Places:Entire Network:Microsoft Windows Network:Workgroup. The Airport shows up here. When I click it, I get a prompt for username and password. I use the info from the PC that I use to manage the airport. Then My Book shows up and I can browse it.

Western Digital Passport not mounting

I have a western digital passport that I have used a couple of times. Today I was transferring my music and it said there were corrupted files in my music, and all of a sudden the drive will not be recognized anymore. I don't know what to do? I have been reading everything online. I have tried checking disk utility and it does not appear. Tried checking the hard drive on another computer and it didn't pop up. Please all suggestions are helpful.

The Western Digital Passport drives have a reputation for being power hogs. Your Macbook USB port might not be providing enough power to run the drive. This especially might be the case if you are running off of the battery only. Your PC ports might be giving slightly more power that is enough to run the drive.
I have a portable Simpletech drive (120Gb) that actually comes with a Y cable that plugs into two USB ports on my Macbook. This provides enough power to run the drive without needing a separate power adapter. The Western Digitals typically don't come with this Y cable, but one is offered. You can buy one off their website for about $20 that should allow you to use the drive with your Laptop. It's lame that everyone else provides such a cable for free while WD charges, but that's the way it is.
good luck with getting it to work.

Western Digital My Book (white light) not connecting...need advice

Hi...I have been scouring forums for the past hours trying to trouble shoot this issue.
At one point (it may have been with Leopard) I was able to back up all my pictures and music onto my WD MyBook. It showed up in Finder. In fact, when in Finder I GO>>CONNECT TO SERVER....My Book is listed as one of the recent servers. However, when I try to connect it cannot find it.
I tried the Safari Bonjour...MyBook is not there either.
I have reboot my computer.
I have reboot the MyBook.
I unplugged the MyBook and the router (Airport) for 30 seconds, then plugged it all back in reconnecting.
I pressed the little reset button the MyBook.
No connection. Both the top and bottom bright white lights are illuminated and not blinking or anything on the MyBook.
Help....this was the 1TB external hard drive and I really don't want to just give up and spend another 200+ on a new external drive. Luckily my mac has behaved and I don't necessarily need my backup files...but I want to have a reliable backup in case something does happen. I am a photographer so backing up my many many files is necessary.
Any suggestions? If there is no way to fix (which is what I gathered from some of the forums I already visited)...then what other system besides western digital can you recommend? Apple is super expensive....Iomega seems decent, and also LaCie...but then again, I thought Western Digital was good too. Help....

Pondini will probably have my head, but I'll go ahead with my suggestion anyway:
1. Because WD drives (enclosures) are not the most "trouble free", I'd seriously consider getting another external drive such as a LaCie or one from OWC (madsales.com).
2. I personally have chosen not to use Time Machine; I don't like it because I can't boot with it and I don't feel it is very reliable either, so I'd suggest downloading either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner (I use both). Install it in your Applications folder. Open Disk Utility and - either with your WD or the new drive attached - format the drive (click on the partition tab):
Choose how many partitions you want (one or ?) and name each one.
Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
Under Options, choose GUID partition scheme (necessary to make it bootable).
Click Apply.
NOTE: this will erase all contents, so if you have anything on it you need, temporarily copy if elsewhere via drag 'n drop.
After it's finished, open CCC or SuperDuper.
Choose your internal as the source.
Choose the external (partition) as the destination.
Click on copy.
When finished (my 80 GB takes about 40+ minutes), test it by going to Startup Pane in System Preferences, choose the external clone and click on Restart. If it does, all is well, and you can go back to restart with your internal. Once back on the internal, you can eject the external and unplug it/turn it off.
You now have a fully bootable clone of your entire system.
I update mine about once a week (that is all I need) - you can do it more or less often.
Now, I maintain two bootable clones because hard drives can (and will) fail at any time. So, you could do a Time machine backup on the other one if you want.

[solved] Digital Camera not recognized in device-manager

My digital camera "Canon Powershot SX120 is" is not recognized by the devicemanager. I have read Digital Cameras.
$ groups
wheel storage users printadmin
The "camera"-Group isn't needed anymore and this group doesn't exist on my system.
The Powershot SX 120 has a MTP/PTP connection mode (as the manual says). But:
# mtp-detect
Unable to open ~/.mtpz-data for reading, MTPZ disabled.libmtp version: 1.1.6
Listing raw device(s)
No raw devices found.
gphoto succeed:
$ gphoto2 --auto-detect
Modell Port
Canon PowerShot SX120 IS usb:002,019
A gphoto --summary could be found here
There is no udev-rule for this camera. If i create one while copying a rule from a similar camera from /etc/udev/rules.d/69-libmtp.rules, and store it into /etc/udev/rules.d/69-canon.rules, the device-manager shows up. My udev-rule:
# Canon PowerShot SX120AX (PTP/MTP mode)
ATTR{idVendor}=="04a9", ATTR{idProduct}=="31e0", SYMLINK+="libmtp-%k", ENV{ID_MTP_DEVICE}="1", ENV{ID_MEDIA_PLAYER}="1"
The device-manager shows me only the option to open with a file-manager. Doing so will result in an error:
The file or folder udi=/org/kde/solid/udev/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-8/ do not exist.
With my udev-rule:
solid-hardware listen
Object::connect: No such signal org::freedesktop::UPower::DeviceAdded(QDBusObjectPath)
Object::connect: No such signal org::freedesktop::UPower::DeviceRemoved(QDBusObjectPath)
Listening to add/remove events:
Device Added:
udi = '/org/kde/solid/udev/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-8'
Without the active udev-rule, "solid-hardware listen" produces nothing, but
udevadm monitor
monitor will print the received events for:
UDEV - the event which udev sends out after rule processing
KERNEL - the kernel uevent
KERNEL[5077.662572] add /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-8 (usb)
KERNEL[5077.662655] add /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-8/2-8:1.0 (usb)
UDEV [5077.681178] add /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-8 (usb)
UDEV [5077.693035] add /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-8/2-8:1.0 (usb)
Don't know what to do ... is a udev-rule necessary to bring up the message from device-manger? Or is the Camera not recognized as a mtp-device (the Camera has no such settings)? How could i figure it out?
With Digikam i could import Fotos, but i would do so with gwenview. I've tried to check it out with gwenview_importer:
$ gwenview_importer --udi '/org/kde/solid/udev/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/usb2/2-8'
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
gwenview_importer: Missing required source folder argument.
(don't care about the different udi, i took this example from a former try) but i don't know, how to find out where the "source folder" is ...
Last edited by quiqueck (2014-02-26 20:10:25)

I have solved this by making an extra udev-rule for my camera. See my adventure on forum.kde.org for details

Western Digital MyPassport 1TB not recognized

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for