iMac WILL NOT START with new empty 'WD My Book Essential 3.0 3TB' connected

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for macOS
1

I’m going crazy here. My iMac will not start with ‘WD My Book Essential 3.0 3TB’ connected to the USB. It just stays with the white/gray screen until I unplug the hard drive. After that the apple appears in two seconds and the computer starts without problem. If I do not unplug the hard drive it takes about 15-20 minutes for the apple to appear and then the computer starts without the hard drive beeing mounted and discovered. When I then unplug and plug in the hard drive while computer and OS is running it starts and works properly. The only problem is that you can not start the computer with the hard drive connected.

I have four other external hard drives (Two WD and two Seagate) (only the two WD:s connected on regular basis) wich works just fine, and the hard drive with the problem is partitioned and formatted the same way as the others. I have done a "verify disk" on the hard drive and it says something is wrong with it and that I have to repair it. When I do the repair it looks successful, but when I right after do the “verify disk” again the same error still comes up. It actually says something about a problem that may cause the computer having problem starting up. A “verify disk” on the partition, the unit under the actual hard drive in the list, is carried out successfully.

First I thought the hard drive was broken, so I took it back to the store and got a new one, but yesterday when I came home with a new exactly the same disk it had the exact same problem. So it can not be broken. Anyhow something is wrong with it, or that model. All my other hard drives work, both when plugged in via a USB hub and directly into the computer.

Does anyone know what to do about this? Is there a known problem with that disk? I really need this to work now, otherwise I will have to return it again.

Much grateful for help.

2

I don’t know much about Macs. Are the drives that work USB 3.0 or 2.0? Did the 3.0 come on the Mac or is it an addon?

Joe

3

I have the same problem, but in my case, the imac starts slowly, It takes about 4-5 minutes. When I start the imac without the MyBook Essential 3.0 2TB unit, the imac takes about 1-2 minutes to start, so the problem is in the external drive.

4

I think it’s just 2.0 on iMac, but it shouldn’t matter. The manual says the disk is suppose to go with whatever it’s connected to – 1, 2 or 3.

5

Well then, I guess I’m gonna return that **bleep**. Strange, because I have two other what I think also is “My Book”:s, but the ones with the two blue bars on the front instead of the white flicking dot, and I have absolutly no problem with thoose.

6

There is a lot of trouble with USB 3.0 in general. I don’t thinlk it was well coordinated between all of the people involved with software and hardware. Mac was also slow releasing USB 3.0.

Joe