Resolve a couldnt unmount disk error in disk utility for mac. Does not show in finder but does show as mounted in disk utility, although the partition does not mount. Usually, you would see the external hard drive not initialized. I think this wd passport hd is ready for the graveyard. However, if wd my passport for mac hard drive still wont mount on mac, the last solutions is to reformat the hard drive. At the boot menu, choose disk utility if using an installer disk, pull down the utilities menu to access disk utility go to first aid and verify the disk, then repair if needed now perform the original task that threw the couldnt unmount error. Otherwise, on a healthier external drive, this option works flawlessly. If your my passport hard drive is not working for the same reason and you havent got an effective workaround to fix this unmounted drive on your mac, check this page. It would say all good, but the drive would not mount.
Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. I have checked the disk on my lap top running yosemite and the disc is fine. In diskpart window, type commands given below and press enter after every command. Reboot your mac and hold option key while its booting.
To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Formatting a wd my passport for a macbook air macrumors. Jan 27, 2018 i have a wd passport for mac which i can see in my disk utility but it is not mounting. Solved how to fix wd my passport uninitialized on mac. To achieve this goal, you are supposed to format wd elements for mac to fat32 or exfat which is compatible on both windows and mac. Have you ever tried to format a disk in mac os x and disk utility wont unmount the hard drive for formatting. Oct 06, 2016 force an external mac drive to mount via command line terminal commands in mac os x. Wd my passport greyed out in disk utility and unrecognized. I also use it as a portable external hard drive to store other important files and my itunes library. After having confirmed that the wd my passport is formatted with ntfs, many people will choose to convert ntfs to apfs for macos catalina, mojave and high sierra or reformat the wd my passport hard drive to make the wd external hard drive compatible with mac. Then go to the erase tab and in the left column select the new drive.
Solution disk erase failed with error couldnt unmount disk mac. Doing otherwise might lead to issues when formatting the wd passport for mac. If you would like to arrange oneonone help or remote help, please contact us. To check the connection, disconnect the storage medium and connect it with another usb port, usb cable, usb adaptor, or usb card reader. If it does then run disk first aid and tell it to repair. Formatting can be done with the mac os x disk utility, found in the applicationsutilities folder. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time i comment. Its proper for the operating system to not unmount a volume if there is, on the volume, an open file that can not be closed.
Cant unmount or reformat wd essential 2t wd community. What to do when your mac cant mount, repair, or erase a. The easiest way to format the drive is by using macos builtin disk utility app. If using on both mac and windows could use exfat formatting. Error message when formatting a new drive wd community. Wd passport does not mount after upgrading from high sierra 10. In the disk utility app on your mac, select a volume in the sidebar, click the partition button, then click partition. I just erased my empty disk and now the formatting works, whew. Fix external hard drive not initialized io error guide 2020. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods.
Wd my passport not recognized on mac not showing up detected. I intend to use the drive with time machine for back ups. Partition failed with the error, could not unmount disk. So, i followed the steps i went into disk utility, selected my passport, clicked erase, selected. If western digital included any maccompatible utilities, do not use or install any. How do i initialize my external usb hdd wd my passport. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os. Set the file system to ntfs, which is the default windows file system, and leave the allocation unit size to default.
How to partition and format a wd drive on windows and. An introduction to wd my passport drive recovery from mac. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system part 3. Resolve a couldnt unmount disk error in disk utility. Jun 18, 20 if western digital included any maccompatible utilities, do not use or install any. Itll show a warning that other programs might not work, click yes. Nov 14, 2019 mac not formatted to display external drives on the desktop. In fact, installing an ntfs for mac driver is a much easier way. I am extremely interested in migrating all of this to the cloud but want to resolve my access to this drive first.
Stepbystep tutorial to recover lost data from uninitialized wd my passport on mac. You may notice the menu is empty or does not contain the virtual disk file we created earlier. Find another computer, thats not a macbook or imac or anything what works with osx system. The accepted answer to the volume cant be ejected because its currently in use. Sep 06, 2019 click disk drives and check if there is a yellow exclamation mark with wd hard drive disk device. I mistakenly ordered the wd my passport ultra drive for windows instead of my passport for mac.
I started up the disk utility and tried to erase it and make it apfs, but every time i try, i get the following error. Rather than send it back, id like to format it for my macbook air. Formatting a wd my passport for a macbook air macrumors forums. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os x. How to resolve parameter is incorrect external hard drive issue. Wd passport external hd not recognized on windows 10. Disk utility error message when formatting in macbook pro, imac, mac mini, mac pro, macbook air. How to solve my wd hard drive not recognized in windows 10.
Due to this error, the user fails to transfer files from the external hard. Jun 14, 20 at the boot menu, choose disk utility if using an installer disk, pull down the utilities menu to access disk utility go to first aid and verify the disk, then repair if needed now perform the original task that threw the couldnt unmount error. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. My passport wd external hd fails to mount to desktop ifixit. External hard drive not mounting mac apple community.
If he switches his wd drive between windows os and mac os frequently like dual boot os on a pc, he needs to format the drive to a file system which works well in both operating systems. When i charged up my mac again it says that the disk was not. It will check your disk file system and will repair it in case of any finding any problem. This disk holds very important photo libraries that support my photos app and i want to be sure i dont lose any of this stored data. With disk utility running see if it shows on the left side. Aid or formatting a nonboot disk, the above means will not make effects surely. It is one issue that continues to bother irrespective of the mac versions you might use. Then later on that day i had the same problem and i performed again the errorchecking tool process but this time i noticed it took longer. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd community. Even if that is the case, the drive will still appear in the lefthand column of the finder menu under devices. It will scan all system files, dlls and registry keys that have been damaged by security threats. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. Then, type exit and press enter to close this window.
Erase the drive using disk utility mac os extended with journaling enabled. The volume label field can be customized in order to give the volume a desired name, such as my book or wd black 1. Unable to mount external hard drive on mac solved youtube. Error message when formatting a new drive external drives for mac. Yes, im trying to format it on a mac sorry, i thought i had posted in the mac section. The wd passport ultra was plugged into my macbook on battery. Stellar data recovery professional supports the recovery of files from an external hard drive on macos catalina, mojave, high sierra and other macosos x variants. Although mac os x is quite reliable, but still it is not free from glitches. Western digital manufactures two types of the wd my passport hard drive. Replace devdiskx with correct disk number follow with steps further to forcibly unmount the disk from your mac. How to repair a corrupted hard drive and fix my storage disk.
Solved cant unmount disk error on mac free data recovery. Free download western digital fat32 formatting tool for. Partition a physical disk in disk utility on mac apple support. Partition wd my passport for mac, teach yourself in 10 steps. But here is a twist, an unmounted drive be it a wd my. Just attach the drive then open disk utility from the applicationsutilities folder. But sometimes, you cant mount a hard drive on mac because of internal disk errors like file system corruption, partition table lost, the directory is. One situation is that you can see the exact disk space but it appears as unallocated space. Thank you for helping us maintain cnet s great community. The first thing to do is with it connected, start up disk utility from the utility folder in the application folder on your computers hard drive. Other than using wd drive utilities to turn off the sleep timer, i didnt want to use the other features, and ive set wd discovery not to run when i boot up.
If you did, then next time you plug the wd mybook to the mac, the wp unlocker will not start automatically it is a glitch i have seen only with the mybook. Update fix corrupted external hdd macpc wd my passport. If it is, right click wd hard drive, choose properties and click update driver under driver tab or click on uninstall. This is a updated version of a old video on the same topic. Possible reasons why wd my passport does not work on mac. I was not actively reading or writing to the external hard drive, but it did have a list of directories open no individual photo files, but just the directory names. This will check the disk for any errors on the disk that can be repaired. Even though my western digital 1tb external hard drive wasis visible icon in explorer, i could not accessopen it. How to mount a drive using disk utility on mac kepler. Try to find a windows system plug in the wd to the computer that has the windows system. Weve compiled a list of the most commonly asked questions we get, and the answers to them. It doesnt matter how the drive is formatted out of the box, since you can re format any way you like. Hd my passport ultra 2tb for some reason i cant figure out why it is not working in win10. My passport wont format external drives for mac wd.
Do not specify casesensitive unless you have good reason to. Now, the erase dialogue window appears, here select the volume format dropdown list and choose msdos fat or exfat file system. The drive does not appear on the desktop or the finder. Reboot your mac computer to see if your wd my passport drive is not showing up in disk utilityfinder or not. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os x disk utility duration. Then, you can restart computer to see whether the wd hard drive is recognized by windows 10. Jul 29, 2019 after using for a long while, there are chances that you may find the external hard drive not showing up in windows file explorer. Wd my passport will not mount will not mount in highsierra 10. Therefore, some user needs western digital fat32 formatting utility because he wants to connect his ntfs formatted my passport ultra to mac os. The other type is ntfs formatted and is simply called wd my passport no for mac after the title whether you have the wd my passport for mac or have bought the ntfs version they both.
Aug 16, 2019 hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy. In this video you will learn how to force a disk to unmount when disk utility wont do it. Wd my passport for mac hfs data recovery software for mac hfs. It can happen for external usb and firewire as well as internal disks. In the pie chart, click the partition you want to delete, then click the delete button. There is a common need to make wd elements drives usable on both windows and mac so that you can transfer data between the two environments. I did restart the computer as you suggested, but again received the message the disk you inserted is not readable by this computer. In fact, this is a common annoyance for many wd customers that the hard drive fails to mount in finder or disk utility. Disk utility would not allow me to use the erase function to re format. 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. This could be occurred due to logical or physical damage of the external hard drive and makes the external hard drive inaccessible. In the situation of corrupted hard drive this solution do the trick most of the time. This video show an alternative way to reformat and erase your sd drive when you receive the.
Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Besides, it can also recover lost data even emptied from mac trash bin, recover lost data from formatted drive, recover lost data from unmountable drive, recover lost data from unreadable drive, recover lost data from inaccessible hard drive, usb flash drive, sd card, memory card, pen drive, digital camera, etc. Jul 31, 2016 wd passport external hd not recognized on windows 10 i know similar cases have come up before, but mine is slightly different. Jan 16, 2020 the affected storage device might not have been connected properly. If you want to use the wd passport for a time machine backup, format the disk as mac os extended journaled. Mar 23, 2016 if the disk is visible in disk utility but it did not mount, select the disk and click on firstaid. Fix wd my passport for mac not showing upnot working on mac. Thats why i used partition with one partition with guid with the journaled formatting. The drive comes with an app called wd discovery, and with that you can download other apps, including wd drive utilities. In that case, you can open disk managementto see its status. You will need a mac running os x and this is supported in all versions. You dont need them and there have been reports of problems associated with their use. When i try to format my western digital mybook external.
Formatting wd elements for mac by quick workarounds. Happens 710 times on macs with random drives when there is an open hidden process having access to the drive, just restart your mac and try again, and if you still have problems then use the installation discbootable usb lion of your mac and format the drive like if you were going to install osx on the drive failproof. This method can be beneficial when the disk error occurs while formatting a. When wd my passport external hdd changes to raw file system, the disk will stop working normally. I have a wd my passport and this problem does not exist. I followed the directions on how to partition and format for the mac. Apr, 2015 the only thing i can think of is that youre accidentally typing it wrong. All of these my passport drives include builtin hardware level encryption which at face value sounds like a good thing. Type sudo diskutil unmountdisk force devdiskx line. It could be that your mac already recognizes the device, but just isnt showing its icon on the desktop screen. Jun 23, 2017 now, click on the drive letter and click change. What, how did this work, damn bro, i owe you a beer for that. Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available. Now, click the erase, button and wait a few minutes and let the macos.
Sometimes, users also have to face wd my passport drive recovery from mac issues unexpectedly. Now in the format dropdown select mac os extended journaled then apply that format by clicking the erase button at the lower right and you are done. Hit that disk and it will start the process of renaming the volume, and a simple format. Next is the file system, which controls how the data is read and written. Force a hard drive to unmount for formatting on mac os. Everybody knows that the most important thing is to restore all lost data when a wd my passport drive is not recognized on mac, but many people still like to know the reasons why an external hard drive stops working on mac. If it has not appeared, your mac s usb port could be malfunctioning. This is a file system limitation that affects both mac s and. Will i lose all my data by reformatting to mac in my external.
Hello all, today i bought the 4tb my passport from best buy. I recently came into possession of a 500gb passport marked for macintosh, needed to be repartitioned and formatted for use on windows. Fat32 file allocation table readwrite fat32 from both native windows and native mac os x. Since the unlocker will not show up, the hard drive will remain unseen by the mac. Erase would then function, which indicated i had fixed the issue. Solution disk erase failed with error couldnt unmount. Once you have activated the mac recovery tool you can recover as many. This article helps to solve the error stating cant unmount disk mac.
Also, when i start up disk utility, it takes a long time to appear on the list on the left hand side and when it does and i attempt to use first aid, it. How to fix deep formatting problems with os x drives macissues. When i played around with disk management originally it didnt show all the disks to the right of the tab. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting error. Access terminal application input diskutil list line when the list of all disks appears you need to found the disk that you want to force unmount. For example, when a device cannot erase the drive or attempting to fix the. There is one big issue i didnt realize coming into this and i likely would not have bought the my passport mac or not. Data on the device should be able to be read as usual if this is caused by a faulty connection. Go to disk utility and identify if your wd my passport is listed on the lefthand side of the interface.
Not sure if the batch file worked or not but it was exciting to see what happened to the mac. May 01, 2017 note there are plenty of options you will find on internet for this issue, e. I have a 2tb wd my passport for mac that i use as the time machine for my mid2010 inch macbook pro. Mar 22, 2019 the parameter is incorrect, is probably the most common issue thats associated with external storage drives. Check the box labeled perform a quick format and click next. Apr 05, 2014 i then checked after the mac finally came back from the white screen to see if diskutility could do anything. If the delete button is dimmed, you cant delete the selected partition. You may have to still change the number it may not be devdisk2 but devdisk3 or something else, but most terminal command not found errors ive seen have been due to people not typing exactly what theyre seeing no space where there should be one, or an i instead of 1. Click the folder icon just to the right of the dropdown menu. By the way, choose the first drive you see on the list. When i charged up my mac again it says that the disk was not ejected properly. Wd passport not showing files mac forum hard drivessd. How to fix wd my passport for mac hard drive not mounting. I have a wd passport for mac which i can see in my disk.
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