My Passport with Time Machine. Lost Data on Partition

[John888]

Hi,
I partitioned a My Passport to use for Time Machine on my MacBook, and all was fine for about 6 months.
Then for some reason all the data on the partition is not accessible. But Time Machine seems to be functioning properly.
In Disk Utility the WD partition is grayed out and clicking on it indicates that it’s not mounted. When I try to mount, I get an error message.
Relevant screen shots below.

I contacted Apple Care+ who tried unsuccessfully to help, but they’re out of ideas.

For the WD community, my questions would be:

1. Can I get that data back?
2. Is it safe to continue using the HD for Time Machine?
3. Should I wipe the drive and start over?

Thanks very much. More than happy to provide more info as required.

[Jose2020]

There are several reasons for a WD My Passport hard drive going invisible or greyed out on a Mac system:

1. Corrupt partition table
2. APFS or HFS file system
3. Cryptic Disk errors
4. Hard drive faulty cable
5. Wear and tear
6. Failed Restore
7. Bad blocks on the surface
8. Failed Partitioning on External Drive

Further, I suggest you to check the below link for solution to fix the issue:

FIXED: WD My Passport External Hard Drive is Grayed Out in Mac

Hope it helps!

[Chris.M]

Hello,

We recommend you kindly refer to the following KBA article (Cannot Find My WD Drive on Windows or macOS)