WD External HD issues on MacBook Pro and MacBook Air

[blueflower]

Hey everyone I have a MacBook Air 2020 M1 with 256gb ssd, got an external HD the WD My Passport for Mac 4TB since the 256gb was too small for me. I use the drive say every 3 months to move data from my air. Earlier this year the drive was not showing up on the desktop and the light on the drive would come on initially and then go out. I got a MacBook Pro and wanted to do some data transfers the drive behaved the same way. A friend of mine suggested using a different thunderbolt cable with the external HD, I used the cable from my MacBook adapter and the drive came on but on the Pro it would only show the folders with no data in the folders. On the Air running Monterey 12.1 the drive showed up and I was able to browse the folders but then suddenly the drive would be "disconnected" and a message would come up saying disk not ejected properly.

I tried downloaded the WD Mac apps and in fact I think they made things worse because since installing them the drive now refuses to show up on both the air and pro now since installing it. Uninstalled it still not showing up. Tried the drive on a lenovo Thinkpad and it shows up as a device in the taskbar as an ejectable but not in my computer as an actual storage device.

On parallels on my MacBook Pro as soon as I insert the drive it asks "Parallels Desktop wants to access My Passport 260F" but when I click allow the drive shows up briefly then disappears.

Can anyone assist me to browse the drive so that I can take my data from it?

 

[Flav]

Maybe you accidentally marked this drive to not be accessed.

Check this guide:

If your Mac asks you to allow an accessory to connect - Apple Support

You need to allow new USB or Thunderbolt accessories and SD cards to connect before you can use them with your Mac laptop computer with Apple silicon.

support.apple.com

and set "Ask every time" and try using the drive again.

 

[MikeG17901]

Sounds like a power issue. Did you try a USB-C to USB-C cable directly into the MBA? According to WD, these are USB 3.2 Gen 1, which could technically use USB-A, USB-Micro, or USB-C cables - but they come with a USB-A to USB-C cable. If you have a USB-C to USB-A adapter off the MBA, then USB-A to USB-C cablefrom the adapter into the drive - maybe that is an issue? Otherwise, the drive may be defective.

 

[Fishrrman]

At the very least, get a replacement drive as soon as you can.**

Sounds to me like the WD drive has either failed or is in the process of failing.

It's not a "thunderbolt" cable.
It's a "USB" cable.
At the very least, TRY A DIFFERENT CABLE.
(this could be the source of random and sudden "disconnects")

Does the WD drive have more than one port on the back?
If so, are they the same?
Or... are they different?
Take a pic and show us.
When one port is giving trouble, try the others, if available.

The MacBook Air -- is that the only Mac you have available?
Or... do you have another Mac you could try the WD drive with?
The idea is to see if the results are the same.

** I suggest that you DO NOT buy WD or Seagate drives in the future.
I don't know "how large" your storage needs are, but I'd suggest a Samsung t7 "shield" SSD. If 1tb isn't enough, perhaps 2tb? I have found these to be rugged and reliable.

And one last thing:
No matter which drive you have, if your data is on only ONE drive, well, it's not safe from loss.
You need a backup on ANOTHER drive as well.
For creating a backup, I'd recommend either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner -- either will make AN EXACT COPY on the backup drive.