Summary: This article analyzes why the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting on Mac and how to fix this issue. If you worry about losing data from this hard drive, you can recover data with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery at first.
If it's not showing up in Disk Utility and won't mount, then it's probably failing. You can try unplugging it and plugging it back in several times to see if you can't get it going again.
Hello, My 1 TB WD external drive was working fine, and I plugged it in today and no files are showing up. Disk utility shows that there is still the 200 GB being used, but is unable to unmount it. Any help would be great! Configuration: Mac OS X.
Overview of WD My Passport for Mac hard drive
I have a 2TB My Passport External Hard Drive that I have been using for the past few moths with no issues. A couple of days ago I accidently pulled the cord out of the USB port without properly ejecting. My Passport (2TB) suddenly not showing up on Mac. WD External Drives. WD external drive is not seen by Windows or Mac and data on the.
The WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is specially designed for Mac mini computers, iMacs and MacBooks. This trusted portable storage always offers quick and easy way to expand the storage space of your computer and to store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents. The WD hard drive comes in some amazing features like cloud storage, password protection with hard drive encryption, and compatiblity with Apple's Time Machine backup software. But the problem is that no matter how powerful this hard drive is, it is possible that this WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting on Mac computer.
Here is one typical case from apple.stackexchange.com:
My WD hard drive (WD My Passport for Mac) didn't mount on my MacBook Air, not even in Disk Utility. I have 1 TB family photos on this hard drive, which are very precious for me. How to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error? Any data recovery solution? Thanks a lot!
In fact, this is a common annoyance for many WD customers that the hard drive fails to mount in Finder or Disk Utility. If you are confronted with the same issue and haven't got an effective workaround to fix this unmounted drive on your Mac, check this page and learn why it happens and how to address this disk problem.
Why WD My Passport for Mac is not mounting?
This issue may be caused by various factors, such as virus infection, internal file system errors, sudden power failure, sudden power outage, unwanted interruption during transferring data, etc. For all kinds of reasons, your Mac won't recognize this hard drive and thus this external hard drive won't mount.As a result, you can't open this WD hard drive nor access your important files.
How to fix the unmounted WD external hard drive on Mac?
Step 1: Check whether the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is set to show up on Mac
Go to Finder > Preferences and confirm if the 'External Disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' is selected. This will ensure if the external drives connected to this Mac are allowed to show on the desktop.
This operation will show up your WD My Passport drive on the desktop in most cases, but if it failed, you can move to the next point.
Step 2: Check if the WD Mac hard drive is showing up in Disk Utility
You can go to Utility and see if this hard drive appears in the left sidebar. If your WD hard drive for Mac is not mounting but grayed out in Disk Utility, you can right-click and select the 'Mount' button to mount it manually. However, if this external hard drive is corrupted, the 'Mount' button will not be available.
When these two checks didn't make any difference and the WD My passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting still, you need to check some hardware that get involved in the disk connection. Let's start with the basics by following the steps below.
Step 3: Check the power supply
It's well known that insufficient power supply or damaged USB ports could also lead to hard drive not mounting issue. Therefore, you should make sure the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is getting the appropriate power. If the drive came with a Y-cable, use both USB connectors. Moreover, do not connect the drive through a USB hub, connect it directly to the Mac. Make sure the power adapter is connected directly to a wall outlet, not to an extension cord.
Step 4: Check the USB cable
Ensure the cable is properly connected to both the drive and computer. Then try connecting your WD My Passport for Mac hard drive with a new USB cable if you can fetch another one.
Step 5: Check the USB port
If the problem still continues, try using a different USB port. Cheat engine for mac. Perhaps your Mac has two USB port - the back and front ones. Assuming the external hard drive is plugged in the front USB port, try to insert the drive to the back USB port.
Step 6: Check for driver update
If the hardware seems to be OK, let's check the software that related to this disk problem - the driver. A driver is a software component that allows the operating system and a device to communicate with each other. If your driver files go missing, outdated, or turn corrupted due to any virus invasion or invalid operation, the hard drive attached to your Mac will faile to work, resulting in an external hard drive not mounting on Mac.
Step 1: Click the Apple icon and select 'App Store…'
Step 2: Click Update (NOT UPGRADE!) to install a specific update or Update All to install all available updates.
But sometimes, a hard drive is not mounted because of internal disk errors like file system corruption, partition table lost, the directory is corrupted, etc. You WD hard drive will not be recognized by your Mac in these cases. Fortunately, you can fix the hard drive not mounting issue with the native disk repair tool, Disk Utility.
Step 7: Run First Aid to fix WD My Passport for Mac not mounting error
Disk Utility's First Aid is a Mac built-in tool to verify and repair minor problems of a hard disk. Whenever you have troubles with a hard disk, First Aid is your first solution.
Step 1: Go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/, then click Continue.
Step 2: In the sidebar, select the not mounting WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.
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Step 3: Click the 'First Aid' button.
Step 4: Click Run.
If Disk Utility reports that the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive appears to be OK or has been repaired, you're done. Otherwise, you have to retrieve as much of your data as possible.
How to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error without losing data?
However, if First Aid is unable to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error, the last solutions is to reformat the hard drive. But reformatting will delete all data stored on the hard drive, and most of the time, many important files are stored on the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive. If you haven't backed up important files, it's high time to recover data from the unmounted hard drive first.
Step 1: Recover data from unmountable hard drive with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery
As for Mac data recovery, iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is highly recommended. iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is a free Mac data recovery software that can easily recover data from not mounting WD My Passport for Mac hard drive, recover data from unreadable hard drive, recover data from unrecognized hard drive, recover data from corrupted hard drive, recover data from unmountable hard drive, recover data from inaccessible hard drive, recover data from uninitialized hard drive, etc. on macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/10.12 Sierra and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Besides, iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is also best APFS data recovery software that can recover data from formatted APFS hard drive, recover data from unmountable APFS drive, recover data from unreadable APFS hard drive, recover data from corrupted APFS drive, recover lost data from encrypted APFS volume, recover deleted/lost APFS partition, etc.
1. Free download and install iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.
2. Launch iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery and select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.
My Passport For Mac Tutorial
3. Click 'Next' to search for all lost files on this drive.
4. Preview the listed scanning results, choose files we want, and click 'Recover' button to get them back.
Step 2: Fix WD hard drive not mounting error by reformatting
After getting lost files back, you can fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error by reformatting without worrying about losing data.
1. Launch Disk Utility from Utilities.
2. Select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive on the left part of the window.
3. Click the 'Erase' on the top of the Disk Utility window.
4. Complete the related information (name, format, scheme, etc.), then click the 'Erase' button.
Conclusion
This article mainly talks about a WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting issue, analyzing why this issue occurs and how to repair this disk error without losing files on this drive. You can also easily recover data from external hard drive with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery if the drive is corrupted due to virus attack, corrupted file system, power failure, etc.
For any questions or suggestions, please email us below. Thanks a lot!
'My 1TB WD external hard drive is not working on my Windows 10 PC and I can do nothing to the drive since it fails to show up in This PC. I've changed the USB port but it still not working. How to search for a word on a mac. I don't know what reasons have made the drive not responding, and neither I know any solutions. I've saved quite a lot of important files inside the drive. If you have any methods to fix my issue and make the WD external hard drive work again, please help me. Thank you.'
Though it's no longer a new problem that external hard drive fails to work or suddenly fail to show up in PC. But it's still a tough issue for ordinary users when their external hard drive, USB or SD card etc devices suddenly become unrecognized, not working or responding in PC. Here below, you'll find 1 quick fix and 4 methods to fix WD external hard drive not working issue. If your external hard drive or storage devices are having this issue, relax and just follow to get your problem fixed right here now.
Quick fix WD external hard drive not showing up/unrecognized/responding error
1. Click Start > Type: devmgmt.msc in the Search box and hit Enter. 2. Open Device Manager > Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers. 3. Right-click on the USB Root Hub > Select Properties. 4. Go to Power Management and uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
After this, reboot PC and reconnect WD external hard drive to your PC, then you'll be able to use the drive again. If this quick fix doesn't work, relax and just follow below-offered methods to repair not working WD external hard drive or devices now.
Fix WD external hard drive not recognized error
Here you have two methods to follow and fix WD external hard drive not recognized or undetectable error in Windows 10/8/7:
Method 1. Reboot PC into Safe Mode to make WD external hard drive recognizable
Go to Setting > Update & security.
Tab on Recovery > Advanced Startup > Restart now.
PC will automatically boot into another Startup Settings screen.
Press F4 to initiate PC reboot into Safe Mode.
Then check whether the WD external hard disk can be detected or not.
My Passport For Mac Not Backing Up
Method 2. Change drive letter to make unrecognized WD external hard drive detectable
The other way is to change the drive letter with Disk Management tool so to make unrecognized or undetectable WD external hard drive to show up in PC:
Right-click on This PC/My Computer > Select Manage.
Go Disk Management > Find your external hard drive and right click it by choosing Change Drive Letter and Path..
Assign the drive with a new letter that doesn't exist in your PC and mark the Partition as Active.
Click OK.
Restart PC and your External hard drive will show up and work again.
Fix WD external hard drive not working/responding issue
My Passport For Mac Not Showing Up On Desktop
When WD external hard drive, USB or other brands of storage devices are not working or not responding to any operations in your PC, don't worry. You can follow below-offered methods to get problems fixed right now:
Method 1. Update WD external hard drive driver to make it work
1. Click on Start > Type: devmgmt.msc in Search to open Device Manager by hitting Enter. 2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers > Right-click every USB device found there and select Uninstall. 3. Then check out whether any devices show up as unrecognized or not:
If WD external hard drive shows unrecognized, go to drivers tab and delete/uninstall the driver; Then check out whether the external hard drive shows up in My Computer/My PC or not.
If it doesn't show up, reboot or restart PC;
If it shows up but disappears later, repeat above steps and go to Disk Management, change the drive letter of your WD external hard drive and reconnect it to PC to let PC detect it again.
Method 2. Repair corrupted system files/bad sectors on not working WD external hard drive
Corrupted system files or bad sectors on WD external hard drive or other storage devices would block your device from working or responding in Windows PC.
Professional partition manager software from EaseUS will repair bad sectors and fix corrupted system files to make your WD external hard drive work again. Free download, install it and follow below guide steps to fix bad sectors and corrupted system files on your drive now:
Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.
Step 2: In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.
Step 3: The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.
Extra Tip: WD external hard drive recovery
After fixing not working external hard drive on your Windows PC, you may continue using it for storing fancy data again. But if you lost files or valuable data on the drive, don't worry. Professional WD external hard drive recovery solution offered by EaseUS hard drive recovery software is what you exactly need. It will simply restore lost files from WD external hard drive within 3 simple steps on Windows 10/8/7 etc PC. If you lost files after fixing WD external hard drive not working issue or cannot access saved data in your storage devices, just free download EaseUS hard drive recovery software and let it help now.