Case of the disappearing or self shut down of the Passport external drive

Lbert · October 15, 2015, 1:30am

My external Passport drives started doing a self shut down after a few seconds of connecting to my Mac. After much agony and many wasted hours, I finally resolved the problem. As of today, 8/26/2015, the problem is the WD Utilities software update ver. 2.0.2.18.

To fix the problem:

Remove both WD Utilities and WD Security from your Applications Folder. Go to Finder, Applications, and select both apps and delete.

Restart your Mac.

Reinstall WD Security only. Update to latest WD Security version if you like.

As for now, Do NOT install WD Utilities app.

Trancer · October 15, 2015, 2:58am

Which version of Mac OS do you run? Does this happen in other Mac OS systems you have tested?

Lbert · October 15, 2015, 2:58am

Yosemite 10.10.4 This Mac is my primary laptop. This is the Mac that had the failure, and I used this Mac to resolve the problem.

I had an access to an older Mac. Unfortunately I am not able to test it on this Mac because I have already returned it to its owner.

barcab · October 15, 2015, 2:58am

Lbert, After 6 days of trying every suggestion I could find from Apple, WD Community, and online blogs, this one worked perfectly!

Thank You!!

RB

aminor · October 15, 2015, 2:58am

Please help, I’ve also been reading and trying different methods from several forums, with no luck.

I plug in my external, it starts beeping/clicking with the light flashing and the disk inside spinning until the beeping & spinning stops. Leaving just the light flashing, slower than before. I’ve changed the wire, deleted wd utility, replaced wd security. Nothings changed.

The WD security only recognizes the external being plugged in after the disk stops spinning (& I can’t do anything to it) the rest of my computer doesn’t see the external. I’m lost, any suggestions?

Lbert · October 15, 2015, 2:58am

RB, you are welcome!

Lbert · October 15, 2015, 2:58am

aminor,

It possible your hard drive directory got corrupted.

Run Disk Utility app. Depending on you OS version, the app can be found in Launchpad/Other/Disk Utility. Open Disk Utility and select your external disk. First run First Aid and see if it can be fixed. If you are out of options, and as a last resort, run Erase to reformat the drive. Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

Eduardo_T · December 27, 2015, 5:49am

I LOVE YOU!!!
Una solución tan simple, pero estuve medio día para encontrarla!

MUCHAS GRACIAS!!