My Passport for Mac won't show up on my desktop. HELP

I use a Macbook Pro and a couple of days ago, as I was moving some picture files onto my drive, it suddenly said that I had somehow ejected it the wrong way. The thing is, I hadn’t ejected it at all.
The following day, the same thing happened as I tried to move the same files again. It might be worth mentioning that I was moving a lot of picture files, and they were heavy picture files.
Now, whenever I connect my passport to my Macbook, the WD Smartware icon appears, but My Passport icon does not. I can’t access my hard drive, or any files on it.
Sometimes my hard drive will be accesible, but then it ejects itself as soon as I click on it, saying that I didn’t eject it properly.

Is the problem to do with the USB connector? Or the actual hard drive? What should I do?


Edit: Now, not even the WD Smartware icon will appear. It won’t show up as being connected to my Macbook at all, and when it does connect it just ejects itself over and over.

It could be a power issue. First run First Aid to verify if any problems. Try the drive with a different computer and different cable to see if there’s any difference.  

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Same thing is happening to me! I am on an imac, running 10.6.7. I started receiving the same alert msg. that the disk was not ejected properly, though I had not ejected it. Then the WD software icon started appearing & disappearing, then my drive icon did the same, and now I my mac does not see it at all. I tried to update the WD firmware, but it won’t work because it does not see the drive. Mine is connected via Firewire 800, not usb. I’ve tried the usual, unplugging, rebooting, etc., but to no avail. HELP!?

You can try my suggestion above as well :wink:

Yes, I saw your suggestions before I posted. My mac does not have “First Aid” but I ran my Disk Utilities before I posted and all is well with my mac. I don’t have another mac to plug it into to & don’t want to use on a pc, which is why I bought the mac version. Also, my understanding is if the problem was power-based, the FW connection would not be an issue, but a usb might. Mine is connected via fw 800. Are you suggesting the fw cable that was shipped with this drive may have all of a sudden went bad? Would this really cause what appears to be a drive software issue? This doesn’t make sense. Usually when a cable goes bad, it just doesn’t work. I don’t think the erractic behavior of the wd software icon appearing & disappearing would happen if a cable went bad…?

lmwlmw wrote:

Are you suggesting the fw cable that was shipped with this drive may have all of a sudden went bad? Would this really cause what appears to be a drive software issue? This doesn’t make sense. Usually when a cable goes bad, it just doesn’t work. I don’t think the erractic behavior of the wd software icon appearing & disappearing would happen if a cable went bad…?

It could be the cable, or it could be the drive it self. Best way to test it is trying it with a different computer or different cable. Disk Utility should show first aid on Mac OS X 10.4 and above. If you want to get to first aid for the drive just select the drive that your going to test on Disk Utility and you’ll see the option. Further info on what to do can be found on this  link

I know you’re trying to help, and I appreciate that, however since my mac cannot recognize the drive, the disk utility cannot verify or repair it. It doesn’t show up on my mac at all.

lmwlmw wrote:

 the disk utility cannot verify or repair it. It doesn’t show up on my mac at all.

What a bummer. Well it looks like the drive has gone bad. As a last resort you can connected to your Windows machine and update the firmware on the drive. This might make it work again on the Mac. To download the firmware on the Windows computer go  here. If that does not work the drive needs to be replaced.

It shows up on my disk utility if I leave it there long enough now. And the option to either verify or repair it is available to me. However, whenever I try to, it stops after about ten minutes and disconnects itself again. Does that sound like the cable is faulty? Or the actual drive?

ilsejudith wrote:

Does that sound like the cable is faulty? Or the actual drive?

Tricky question. One of the two is having issues, best way to determine is trying a different cable. Although sounds more like the drive is having issues, but it will not hurt to try.