USB HD only mounts when OSX booted in safe mode

I

ignorami

Registered
Hi there

I have an external USB 1TB Hard drive that I use in 2 partitions. One is my time machine back up, one is for video's and music.

I'm running OS 10.6.6 (Snow Leopard)

As of tonight, every time i start the machine up, the drive (both partitions) mount for a brief second before disappearing and complaining that they have been disconnected without ejecting properly. From that point on, they won't show up in disk utility at all.

If I start up from the install DVD, they show up in disk utility, and that verifies them as "fine"

If I start up in safe boot mode, the disks both mount, and are fine. (but time machine doesn't appear function)

This suggests that it's not the external.

I did spend some time earlier today trying to get a couple of USB flash drives to mount. Is it possible I knackered something at system level doing that?

Would reinstalling from the install DVD fix it?

Would reinstalling from the install DVD kill my user accounts?



Help please.
 
Try to do a disk utility repair on both partitions of the external while safe booted and see what happens then post the end result (turns out ok, repaired successfully or repair failed).
 
Thanks for the response.

I attempted a disk repair, but the verification stage claimed no repairs were required. (I did this one selecting the drive rather than the individual partitions, but Disk Utility scanned both partitions separately from there, and said both were fine)

Despite everything previously pointing to a system problem rather than disk problem, I have tried a different disk (no partitions), and that one is still mounting fine.
 
P.S. On waking this morning, I have another Hard Drive icon showing (a mystery one), that is named: Client Node. It is showing as empty
 
I'd imagine its something wrong with the actual circuit board of the external HD enclosure itself. The best way to really know for sure is to remove the drive from the enclosure itself and put the drive into a usb/firewire dock and see how it acts. You can always purchase another HD enclosure to put the drive in. We do these kinds of things all the time for customers.
 
I'm going to take it to work tomorrow to try it on another computer. If it behaves the same there, I'll pick up another enclosure. Fingers crossed ;-)
 
Have now reset the PRAM. No joy. Have reinstalled Snow leopard, no joy.

Just to summarise. The disk mounts fine on this machine booted in Safe Mode, and in Disk utility if starting up from install DVD. Other (unpartitioned smaller) hard drive mounts fine under all circumstances. Problem drive mounts fine on another computer.

I have reinstalled system (without erase and install), and problem still persists. Can't erase and install, as I won't have a back-up, as this is my back-up disk.

Am worried that if I shell out on buying a replacement that if it is a system issue, the new one won't mount either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top