WD Passport not visible on Mojave

[usmcgymnast]

I finally talked my mom into replacing her 2008 MacBook (El Capitan 10.11.6) with a 2019 iMac (Mojave 10.14.5). Last year I bought her a WD Passport Ultra 1Tb to serve as her Time Machine. I have a 2016 MacBook Pro (High Sierra 10.13.6). I backed her 2008 MacBook up tonight with her Passport Time Machine, then I connected it to the new iMac and nothing. Didn't appear on the desktop, finder window, or disk utility. The LED light on the drive comes on and it is clearly spinning, but nothing on the iMac. I tried all four USB ports as well as both USB 3 ports with a USB 3 to USB adapter. Next I tried plugging it back into the 2008 MacBook to see if the drive crashed. Nope, still good. I can open it, look around, even went to Disk Utility to First Aid - it reported the drive was in good shape. Next I tried plugging it into my MacBook Pro. Nothing. Just like the iMac - didn't show up anywhere (and yes, I tried clicking "show all drives" on the Disk Utility - it wasn't there and greyed out - it just doesn't exist at all.) I updated the Mojave software to the latest version. I also downloaded onto the iMac WD Discovery and NTFS for Mac - neither recognized the external hard drive.

Next I pulled out an older Passport 500GB. It plugs in and is visible on all three computers - but it has nothing on it. I tried swapping cables - no change. I tried plugging both into the 2008 and using the disk utility to check formatting - both are formatted OSX Journaled with GUID.

I'm currently backing the 2008 up on the 500GB to see if I can see it on the iMac once it has something on it, but I'm asking here just in case that doesn't work. I'm only in town for another 12 hours and would really like to have this solved before I leave.

 

[Fishrrman]

Stay away from NTFS.

Here's what I'd do, and if you do this, I GUARANTEE that it will work:

1. Take the Passport drive back to the 2008 MacBook and connect it.
2. Now, open Disk Utility and ERASE it (yes, erase it!) to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled", GUID partition format.
3. Download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
https://bombich.com/software/download_ccc.php?v=latest
CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days
4. Use CCC to create a bootable cloned backup of the 2008 MacBook drive
5. Now take that drive to the new iMac and see if it connects and mounts on the desktop. I'll bet things are different!

 

[usmcgymnast]

I was able to get it working with the 500gb passport. I'll be sending the 1tb back to WD . . . Thanks for the advice though.

 

[NoBoMac]

Drive might be good, just that it might be a little out-of-spec re: power draw. I've seen that with a couple of USB HDDs and my new MBP. Old 2008 MBP did not have the issue.

If I use a powered USB-C hub, all ok.