I have a Western Digital 1TB MyBook Studio external hard drive, with a triple interface: USB, Firewire 800 and eSATA. It's lovely - quite, roomy, and previous WD drives have been very reliable. It's under a year old.
It has all of my last year's work archived on it. A LOT of work.
It suddenly failed to mount on my Mac.
The disk would spin up - I could hear it spinning the disk up (it's v. quiet, mind) - but the cylon lights on the front wouldn't light up, and it wouldn't mount to the desktop. Checking system profiler for Firewire devices only showed an Unknown Device, and a transfer speed of up to 800Mbps.
Disk utility completely failed to see it.
So - I'm sitting here thinking that I'd need to rip out the drive, find an enclosure, void my warranty... you name it.
And then I found this:
http://www.fixya.com/support/t394049-drive_listed_as_unknown_device_mac_os
Feb 14, 2008
- After posting my question, I got through to a Wd service manager who checked everything out with me and finally suggested I tap the drive sharply on the back since a power button would sometimes stick. I did that and the button must have released since the drive then became bootable, recognizeable and has been working since. Sorry to have been such a bother for so simple a solution; I had tried to work the button but I quess it needed a slap--maybe I do too!
Martin
So - I've just unplugged my drive, given it four hard taps with my knuckles on the casing at the back - and bingo. It works again. Yay!
So - how to solve a problem with a Western Digital MyStudio 1TB hard drive failing to mount on a Mac. Worked for me, deserves some google juice.
4 comments:
Wow. I have dead WD MyBook. Died during Routes. I will try this.
I have dead WD MyBook. I will try this. Thx Kim.
Just had the same, with all four of my MyBook Studio's.
What helped in this case was to disconnect the firewire connections and reconnect them one by one with USB. After this I could rewire them with Firewire - and they're back online..
Will try the slap next time first though! Good for the anger-management :)
It actually did work, thank you Google, and thank you!
Well, this was the day I "knuckled up my drive".
Its … Amazing!
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