The drive did not completely unmount before the computer. I know how to mount a volume by its disk identifier e. Mac os x and macos both come with a builtin compression system that can zip and unzip files. Most of the times, accessing the external hard disk on mac will be as easy as eating a pie. To fix this, just remove the pen drive and clean the usb slot on your mac. Available in most metros, or free nextday delivery on select instock apple products ordered by 5 p. Apr 30, 2017 unmounting external drives on a mac is usually done quick and simple by either dragging drive icon to the trash, or by using the eject symbol in a finder window. If you are not sure if there is a problem with the usb port hub, you can plug a working external drive in to a porton a hub, unmount and eject it. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your macs usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. This article will teach you how to unmount a drive to remove a usb storage device. Visit the apple site to learn, buy, and get support. This integrated system is relatively basic, which is why many thirdparty apps are also available. Well show you two ways to force your mac to let go. I can see it in the system profiler, it draws 500 ma current, which apparently is all it requires.
I hope this article helped you to fix couldnt unmount disk mac with several easy methods. If your mac is getting the couldnt unmount disk error, dont worry because there are several ways to handle this problem. I know this is a common problem, but ive found no comprehensive answer. I hear it move and power up on reboot, but the cd drive simply never mounts. When you unmount a disk on mac, its made inaccessible by your pc. How to create a bootable vmware esxi usb drive on macs by jesus vigo in storage on july 31, 2017, 1. If i unmount the drive in disk utility, i can just remount it, but if i eject, its gone.
However, there is a way to do this via the command line, of which i am a big fan. However, when i connect them via usb, the go pro chages but the mac cannot see it, so i cannot import files into gopro studio. The option key is held during the booting and then the attached boot. Jan 19, 2018 how to install and uninstall software on a mac. This trick works with external usb disks, hard drives, firewire, thunderbolt, dvds, cds, network drives. All it requires is to unbox the new external hard drive and connect it to mac s usb port for instant usage. Buy wd 3tb my book for mac desktop external hard drive usb 3. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Once your device is not in use by anything on the host os you should be able to claim it on your vm client.
Only way i know to re mount a drive is to disconnect the usb cable from my mac and reconnect it. Solved how to fix couldnt unmount disk error on mac. Automatically ejectmount disks on sleepwake mac os x hints. For many users, the easiest way to unmount a drive in mac is to either just drag a volume into the trash, use the eject keys, disconnect the drive, or use one of the force eject methods. Force an external mac drive to mount via command line terminal. Mar 23, 2016 usually, disk mounting is an automatic process and happens when the external hard drive gets connected to mac via one of the usb ports. In mac os x, select the disk image on the desktop and drag the disk image to the trash, which will change to an eject icon. Dec 05, 2017 just to let you know, if you buy something featured here, mashable might earn an affiliate commission. Once the disk image has been mounted, its contents will appear as a physical disk in the computer. Once you parse out the mount points, you can unmount those drives. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os x. Whether you plug the drive in before booting to singleuser mode or after, the drive doesnt seem to show up in dev here. Run ubuntu on macbook from usb flash drive running a linux distro from usb drive can be very useful, you can do almost anything just like from an installed operating system. Mounting usually happens automatically when a new drive is inserted into a usb port or sd card slot.
Mac getting the couldnt unmount disk error and how to. This is a good example of why its very valuable to have a bootable usb thumb drive set up with whatever version of mac os x is running on your macs, because without a separate boot drive some of these errors would be unresolvable. Mount usb memory sticks in single user mode mac os x hints. Moving the data from the mac hard drive to an external media assures the os x gains plenty of free spaces for smoother operations. Open terminal, which is in the utilities folder of your applications folder. If you want to use your usb stick with an apple mac, you will need to restart or poweron the mac with the usb stick inserted while the optionalt. Connect the usb flash drive or other volume that youre using for the bootable installer. Hard drive mounting can be done manually using disk utility. Before running the following commands, i recommend.
One hub adds an extra usb c, two usb as, sd, and microsd to your mac. How do i safely remove a usb device from my computer. This is because apple s startup manager, summoned by holding the optionalt. Apr 25, 2012 macbook pro how to mount a hard drive. This mode was available in android till jelly bean. Your usb stick should appear as goldyellow and labelled efi boot. How do you eject a time machine drive saf apple community. How can os x mount and unmount a harddrive by its uuid as displayed in disk utility. Get 3% daily cash with apple card or special financing.
Jul 12, 2017 external storage devices work alright on chrome os, but you wont find a lot of extra features. Reboot your mac and hold option key while its booting. If your mac has already mounted the drive the option unmount will be displayed instead. How to resolve the unmount error with a usb boot drive. To unmount a disk image in windows, open my computer, select the disk image, and click eject this disk. Sometimes this is because a program is using a file on the volume in question, but other times the volume just seems to be stuck. I want to just connect my new gopro session to my mac using usb, which should be quick and easy, plug and play etc. Make sure that it has at least 12gb of available storage and is formatted as mac os extended. How to install and uninstall software on a mac macintosh.
Creating a bootable live usb for linux distros to live boot into linux on mac, you will first have to create a live usb for the distro you want. Resolve a couldnt unmount disk error in disk utility. Click the restore popup menu, then choose the volume you want to copy. The device is ejected to ensure that nothing is being written to the memory card when its removed. When your usb flash drive is not showing up on your mac, the reasons might be the usb port, or usb contains errors that make the drive undetectable. Check out macbook pro, imac pro, macbook air, imac, and more. So, if youre wondering how to create a live usb, and boot into live linux usb on mac, here is how to do it. External hard drives free delivery possible on eligible purchases. Then plug the unmountable external hard drive into that porthub. Anker usb c hub adapter, 5in1 usb c adapter with 4k usb c to hdmi, ethernet port, 3 usb 3. And, while you can connect a dvd drive to your chromebook via a usb cable, you can only access the files on it. After a while, insert it once again, and check if it has been detected or not. Repair a storage device in disk utility on mac apple support.
As bitlocker doesnt have a builtin backdoor, it is so secure for all of us to use it. After following the steps described in this article, you will be successfully able to mount and unmount a usb storage device to and from your system. How to create a windows 10 installer usb drive from a mac windows central. Mounting a drive means to make the drive available for the operating system to read and write. Resolve a couldnt unmount disk error in disk utility for mac. How to access a usb drive while in mac singleuser mode. Apr 26, 2019 most of the time, the mac internal hard drive, usually known as macintosh hd, is the system drive of the mac computer, from which your mac start or boot up. Is there a command that i can use to remount the drive. Unmounting external drives on a mac is usually done quick and simple by either dragging drive icon to the trash, or by using the eject symbol in a finder window. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the finder in the lefthand column under devices, since macs treat them the same way as. It will scan all system files, dlls and registry keys that have been damaged by security threats. The process is fairly painless and, if you have a bit of time and patience you. I frequently eject an usb stick, and then realize i still need it.
The above command will burn the iso to usb to the drive specified by you. How to mount a drive using disk utility on mac medium. There is a right way and a wrong way to eject a usb device or memory card on your mac. How to create a windows 10 installer usb drive from a mac. You can choose either one or all procedure to fix the issue as per system requirement. Sep 30, 2019 the fsck command takes a while to run, maybe 5 or 10 minutes, although that will vary depending on the size and speed of the drive. If youve ever come across a great deal on mac software on the web, you might feel frustrated once you. Wd 3tb my book for mac desktop external hard drive usb 3. What to do when your mac cant mount, repair, or erase a drive when you have a problem with a drive, dont overlook the cables. The only way for this is to mount your device in usb mass storage mode because by default, mac supports fat32 and vfat file systems. I replaced it with a new mac mini, and all the problems went. This is a software process that stops the macos from.
Couldnt unmount disk error when using disk utility on mac. You can mount and unmount drives, volumes, and disks from the command line of macos and mac os x. If it is greyed out in disk utility, you can manually mount this usb flash drive. How to eject usb devices and memory cards in macos laptop mag. This is the volume that is erased and becomes the exact copy. Feb 01, 2016 well show you to create a bootable usb flash drive with the windows 10 installer from a mac. Restore a disk using disk utility on mac apple support. Many mac computers have usb a ports sometimes referred to as usb 3 ports, which look like this. For example, theres no way to partition your device or rename it without heading to a windows, mac, or linux computer. I need a reliable method to mount unmount a specific hard drive connected via usb. Follow with steps further to forcibly unmount the disk from your mac.
None mount, but they are also not seen by disk utility. You can make use of this utility for burning iso to usb on mac only when you have access to linux. Hes had this happen routinely with a mac mini using flash drives and external hard disk drives hdds. Reinsert the usb drive if you have not properly inserted the usb drive to mac, then you might encounter this issue. Cannot mount external hard drive on mac, how to fix. What to do when your mac cant mount, repair, or erase a drive. Disk utility can fix certain disk problemsfor example, multiple apps quit unexpectedly, a file is corrupted, an external device doesnt work properly, or your computer wont start up. Lacie d2 thunderbolt 3 usbc user manual unmounting your. Solution disk erase failed with error couldnt unmount. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs, you should format the disk with the exfat file system instead. Select the volume in the sidebar you want to restore, then click the restore button. If the macintosh hd wont mount in disk utility, all the data on the mac hard drive becomes inaccessible, and most of the operations are greyed out or disabled except the erase button. Mounting external usb cd drive on mac boo apple community.
Repair your errors automatically team is trying to do its best to help users find the best solutions for eliminating their errors. Ive had the disk fail to unmount more than once using the terminal command. Do you have a friend or apple store nearby where you could download the mavericks installer on another mac then use this utility with an 8gb or larger usb key to make an installer. Only way i know to remount a drive is to disconnect the usb cable from my mac and reconnect it. Sometimes os x doesnt want to let you eject a volume or an external drive. Cddvd drives are disappearing from computers, leaving usb storage as the only option when reinstalling an operating system. Nov 14, 2019 get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. You can move ahead to the next solution if you find it complicated. How to mount a drive using disk utility on mac kepler donald.
How to manually mountunmount a usb device on ubuntu. For many users, the easiest way to unmount a drive in mac is to either just drag a volume into the. How to create a bootable vmware esxi usb drive on macs. By default, they format disks with the mac only os x extended file system. Along the same lines, if you want to remount a drive you can usually just physically unplug the drive and plug it. External hard drive not mounting apple developer forums. How to mountunmount bitlocker encrypted drive in macos.
How to create a bootable installer for macos apple support. Mar 12, 2020 connect the usb flash drive or other volume that youre using for the bootable installer. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os. Better than using sudo to unmount as root, just install the pmount package and do pumount media usb as man pumount says name pumount umount arbitrary hotpluggable devices as normal user synopsis pumount options device description pumount is a wrapper around the standard umount program which permits normal users to umount removable devices without a matching etcfstab entry. However, it may drive you crazy if the mac internal hard drive wont mount. Have you ever tried to format a disk in mac os x and disk utility wont unmount the hard drive for formatting. That is how android file transfer works for mac, since apple doesnt support mtp mode by default. It does not mount on any mac computer and is not visible in disc utility. Its an easy way to run something on linux or just see how ubuntu works, the biggest disadvantage is that the usb flash drives are much slower than ssd drives. Connect the external hard drive to a different usb port or a different mac. Feb 27, 2020 learn about connecting usb devices to your mac. I tried reformatting the usb as fat32 on the pc, but the issue remains. However, this method may seem complicated to some users. Or, your mac will run mavericks, but you will need an installer.
Mount usb memory sticks in single user mode authored by. Time machine external usb drives will not unmount because the system says that another program is using the drive. The mount command is necessary because your hard drive is mounted readonly by default, so this remounts it in readwrite mode. How to boot a mac from usb drive with pictures wikihow. May, 20 you can mount and unmount drives, volumes, and disks from the command line of macos and mac os x. Aug 30, 2012 so i have been trying to mount an external usb cd drive the macbook air superdrive. It is formatted as fat32, which should be visible across platforms. Usb is an industry standard for connecting computers and other devices. But still, we do use portable usb drives for transferring some small files or use an external hard disk to store plenty of data. How to eject a usb device no icon from a mac to be used in vm. Mounting an external disk intends to make the storage device available for. Disk images can also be unmounted, which may free up some ram used by the system to mount the image. So i have unmounted a usb external hard drive but i went to re mount it.
There are a few additional considerations when booting the usb stick on apple hardware. Some usb devices, such as a flash drive or a memory card connected with a usb card reader, must first be ejected before they can be removed from your computer or shut off. This will help you if your system fails to automatically make the usb. How to open an external drive thats not showing on mac. Reconnect your external hard drive to your mac and ensure that it fits the usb port snugly. If this error occurs in that the disk to be modified is the boot drive, the simplest solution is to boot the mac system from another drive. In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. Click the restore popup menu, then choose the volume you want to. Disk images may be mounted by either the operating system or a disk utility program, such as nero for windows or apple disk utility for the mac. This is the recommended method because it should always fix the error. Macbook pro usb ports only work with external hard drive. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os x disk utility duration.
Then you can option key boot to the installer and format the drive and install. So your first move is to make usb can be recognized again, and then you can use mac hard drive data recovery software to recover files if the usb becomes inaccessible. May 16, 2010 my brother was issued a mandatory usb drive at school, but the drive doesnt mount on any mac computer it works fine on the pc. Type or paste one of the following commands in terminal. How to mount and unmount drives in macos and os x from the. Jun 14, 20 attach the usb boot drive to the mac and reboot hold down the option key during boot, then select the attached boot drive typically has an orange icon at the boot menu at the boot menu, choose disk utility if using an installer disk, pull down the utilities menu to access disk utility. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided.