I have a passport 5tb external HD connected to my computer which has a time machine backup partition and two exfat partitions. Suddenly today the disk will no longer mount on the desktop when I connect it, nor does it show up in disk utility. However, I no the hard disk is mountable and functioning properly because the two exfat partitions show up when I plug it into my Windows machine. The only clue I have to what might be happening is at one point a dialogue box popped up on my Mac saying something about the time machine volume could not be unlocked. This makes me think it is some issue with the time machine partition (which is encrypted) which is preventing the disk from showing up on my Mac desktop. How can I troubleshoot this?
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external hard drive with TM backup suddenly will no longer mount
- Thread starter sovre
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FreakinEurekan
macrumors G3
In Disk Utility, click View menu > Show All Devices. Does the disk show up there?
If so, you can Erase the disk there, and set it up again.
If not, best bet is cabling. Is the cable connected directly to the Mac, or through a hub or adapter? Try changing to a different port, or eliminate any adapters you can.
If so, you can Erase the disk there, and set it up again.
If not, best bet is cabling. Is the cable connected directly to the Mac, or through a hub or adapter? Try changing to a different port, or eliminate any adapters you can.
It didn't show up there.
I found that by removing it from my hub and connecting it directly, (not exactly directly with a usb-a to c adapter) I was able to get the disk to mount, then I was able to make a new TM backup volume.
The only issue now is it still doesn't seem to want to mount if I connect it to my hub, and I need to be able to use the hub because the computer only has two usb-c ports and I have a number of things I need to connect, most of which are USB-A.
Why would my drive have suddenly stopped working with the hub when it always worked before? Does it mean the hub is malfunctioning/broken?
I've also got another issue going on that just started which I think may somehow be connected with this hard drive problem, which is that my computer is freezing, crashing and restarting very frequently during use - first time I had this happen since buying the computer, and it just started yesterday.
The message I'm seeing when the computer restarts for the error is the following: SOCD report detected: (iBoot async abort)
Any idea what this means? Could it be related to the hard drive issue or does it indicate an actual hardware failure in the laptop itself?
FreakinEurekan
macrumors G3
Sounds like the hub is causing kernel panics (and not working with the disk). Could be the hub itself, could be cabling, could be an updated driver is needed (if your hub uses a driver - some do, some don't).
