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Hi! I can't access WD My Passport External Hard drive on my MacBook Air (Catalina). I have updated everything I've been asked to - but when I plug in my external hard-drive - it does not show up on my desk top. Please help.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15
how do I reformat and is it for sure that the folder on it will be deleted? I tried to back it up but there was not enough room to take it all off - It's not the end of the world - but if there is a way to save the files - I'd like that option - if not - then - c'est la vie!
It depends on how important the contents are for you.
There are more sophisticated recovery software that might be able to recover stuff from the drive. And there are specialists in these sorts of things. It costs $$$.
On the other hand, drives do fail. And if it is failing, I would not trust this drive.
Of course there could be some other reason why it is not working, and it may be that after reformatting it will work.
This is a good reminder to always have backups!
To reformat, select the whole drive in Disk Utility and click Erase. Choose Mac OS Extended or APFS with GUID Partition Table (usually Mac OS Extended is still preferred for hard drives, and APFS for SSD).
Or, if you need to use this drive on mac and pc, format it as ExFAT with Master Boot Record.
How is the drive formatted?
Open Disk Utility. Does it appear there?
Are you able to mount it in Disk Utility?
Thanks Luis,
It appears but says "unmounted"
When I click "mount" it says, "Could not mount “My Passport”. (com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error 49153.)"
There appears to be some problem with the drive.
Try running First Aid on it and see what it tells you.
It won't allow me to run First Aid.
That is worrying. The drive may be failing.
I hope you have backups of any important things in that drive.
If you do, or if you don't have important stuff on it, you may try reformatting the drive.
Can't access My Passport External Hard drive
