# My External Hard Drive is not mounting



## yonatan89 (Oct 6, 2011)

Hi, I have a Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB hard drive. When I plug in the usb cable and the adapter, the drive starts spinning like usual and make usual noise like its reading but nothing happens, not showing up in the finder. 

I checked the Disk Utility and it showed the mount point is 'not mounted' and its formatted as MS-DOS (FAT 32). I tried using different laptops (windows) but still wont regonised the hard drive. 

Also tried different USB cables, short and long, but still nothing. 
I really need all the files in it. Cant afford to lose all the data. 
Please help me, any solutions? 

*see attachment*


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## WizardGebbia (Jun 26, 2011)

I believe the only way it works is if it is formatted for the Mac as a journaled. I have a 1tb 2tb and a 750gb and they all work fine. They Are ll formatted as a Mac journaled. I had problems when mine were formatted like yours it never mounted.


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## WizardGebbia (Jun 26, 2011)

Also. If you notice it shows the partition but won't access it because it us unreadable.


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## jaythorpe522 (Sep 7, 2010)

yonatan89 said:


> I checked the Disk Utility and it showed the mount point is 'not mounted' and its formatted as MS-DOS (FAT 32). I tried using different laptops (windows) but still wont regonised the hard drive.
> 
> ,,,
> 
> I really need all the files in it.


Were those files originally put on the drive using Windows or Mac (or both)?

When the drive was working, do you know how it was formatted?

On a windows laptop, does the drive show up in device manager?

Have you tried taking the drive out of the enclosure and mounting it in a computer?

Did the drive/enclosure suffer any physical trauma?

jw


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## yonatan89 (Oct 6, 2011)

jaythorpe522 said:


> Were those files originally put on the drive using Windows or Mac (or both)?
> 
> When the drive was working, do you know how it was formatted?
> 
> ...


The files originally put on the drive using Mac. and it was working fine 2 days ago until it suddenly disconnected.
What I know is i never formatted the hard drive. and i think its always been formatted as MS-DOS (FAT 32).
I didnt check the device manager on windows, I just checked the 'my computer' and it didnt show up.
No physical trauma, I took care of it very carefully. Never been dropped or bumped or anything.

I dont know how to take the drive out, I dont want to take anymore risk by doing so. I dont really know computer stuff.


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## yonatan89 (Oct 6, 2011)

WizardGebbia said:


> I believe the only way it works is if it is formatted for the Mac as a journaled. I have a 1tb 2tb and a 750gb and they all work fine. They Are ll formatted as a Mac journaled. I had problems when mine were formatted like yours it never mounted.


Cant do that. I dont want to lose all the files inside. 
this problem just happened, it always works fine. never got a single problem for 2 years using it until 2 days ago.


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## jaythorpe522 (Sep 7, 2010)

yonatan89 said:


> I dont know how to take the drive out, I dont want to take anymore risk by doing so. I dont really know computer stuff.


Well, it doesn't really sound to me like a problem with the enclosure, but that's always an easy thing to check...

Did you try verifying or repairing the disk? It seems likely that you will need recovery software, or a recovery firm. Maybe an expert from the HDD side of the forum will see the thread and weigh in (or maybe a Mod will put you over there, 'cause this is a HDD problem not a Mac support problem, if you ask me).

jw


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## jaythorpe522 (Sep 7, 2010)

Forgot to ask -- did you recently update your Mac or change anything else?


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## WizardGebbia (Jun 26, 2011)

Copy all the files on to a windows machine then format the drive as a Mac partition then go to the windows machine and copy them back onto the Mac partition.


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## jaythorpe522 (Sep 7, 2010)

WizardGebbia said:


> Copy all the files on to a windows machine then format the drive as a Mac partition then go to the windows machine and copy them back onto the Mac partition.


Will need MacDrive (or something similar) on the PC for this to work. I have multiple Fat32 formatted drives that I use with my Mac -- I think there's a more fundamental problem here, as he's been using the drive for quite some time.

Tho' I do agree, in the future, going ahead with the drive formatted to HFS+ will improve his experience.

jw


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## yonatan89 (Oct 6, 2011)

jaythorpe522 said:


> Well, it doesn't really sound to me like a problem with the enclosure, but that's always an easy thing to check...
> 
> Did you try verifying or repairing the disk? It seems likely that you will need recovery software, or a recovery firm. Maybe an expert from the HDD side of the forum will see the thread and weigh in (or maybe a Mod will put you over there, 'cause this is a HDD problem not a Mac support problem, if you ask me).
> 
> jw


Yes, i did try to verify and repair it but failed with errors.
"Error: 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."

No, i didnt change anything and didnt update my mac as well. 
So, I guess i will try the recovery firm then which will cost me a fortune probably.


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## jaythorpe522 (Sep 7, 2010)

yonatan89 said:


> So, I guess i will try the recovery firm then which will cost me a fortune probably.


I would try software first, were I you. Someone more knowledgeable on this subject could probably walk you through a few easy first steps.

jw


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## yonatan89 (Oct 6, 2011)

WizardGebbia said:


> Copy all the files on to a windows machine then format the drive as a Mac partition then go to the windows machine and copy them back onto the Mac partition.


I dont know how to do it, do you care explain it to me please?


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## yonatan89 (Oct 6, 2011)

jaythorpe522 said:


> I would try software first, were I you.
> 
> jw


well i guess i can try, it wont hurt to try.. Do you know what software I should use?


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## WizardGebbia (Jun 26, 2011)

You'll need to connect the drive to a laptop or desktop that's a windows machine and copy it off.


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## yonatan89 (Oct 6, 2011)

WizardGebbia said:


> You'll need to connect the drive to a laptop or desktop that's a windows machine and copy it off.


unfortunately, my hard drive wont show up as well on windows. So i dont know how this is gonna work.


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## WizardGebbia (Jun 26, 2011)

Sounds like the partition went bad some how if it doest show on windows.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

You could try testdisk. It can try to repair the partition for you. Also, do you remember how much free space was on the drive?


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## WizardGebbia (Jun 26, 2011)

I had a similar problem and I wound up repartitioning it also loosing hundreds of albums of music. Oh well had to start over.


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## jaythorpe522 (Sep 7, 2010)

sinclair_tm said:


> You could try testdisk. It can try to repair the partition for you. Also, do you remember how much free space was on the drive?


Testdisk did wonders for me repairing some windows drive in the past, but I could never get it to fix the one Mac drive I tried it on; only managed to scavenge for files with that other included program (photo-something), which was hell because it saved thousands of files with generic names like "file_000001""file_000002""file_000003"... Mighta been the drive's fault, not the fact it was Mac tho'. Hope it works out for you.


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## yonatan89 (Oct 6, 2011)

sinclair_tm said:


> You could try testdisk. It can try to repair the partition for you. Also, do you remember how much free space was on the drive?


Ok thanks, i will try it. by trying this testdisk, it wont harm my hard drive right? I wont lose any files?
I dont really remember how much left, maybe around 300mb left.


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## Rickcec (Aug 9, 2011)

Try resetting the PRAM on your Mac


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## yonatan89 (Oct 6, 2011)

Rickcec said:


> Try resetting the PRAM on your Mac


How do I do that? Im sorry I really dont really know about this stuff.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Hold down the command, option, P, and R keys when you turn it on. Keep them held until you hear the bong at least 3 times.


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