10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10

After updating my Mac to OS X 10.4.10, my external FireWire/USB2 drive didn't mount any more (if plugged in via the USB2 port). I thought about an interface failure specific to my enclosure, but searching on the web, I saw that it was a common problem for 10.4.10 users with Intel Macs and external enclosures. Moreover, I tested the drive on another Mac with 10.4.9 and it worked flawlessly. So it was a problem with the 10.4.10 update.

The only solution found until now was downgrading to 10.4.9 again, but this is a real pain. I was ready to use Pacifist to replace the new USB kernel extensions with the older 10.4.9 ones. But before doing this, I wanted to check if I could force the drive to mount in some way, and accidentally found the workaround.

I used System Profiler to list USB devices and get the VendorID/ProductID of the drive; it was listed amongst my other devices. As I needed some more device information, I launched USB Prober (included with Apple's Xcode Developer Tools) and ... the drive mounted on desktop! Apparently the polling that USB Prober does on USB devices causes OS X to realize that the device is a USB Storage Class product and finally mounts it. I tried several times and it always worked: USB Prober makes the drive mount.

So, if you have the same problem with your external USB device, here's a workaround until Apple fixes it:

Plug your drive in
Launch USB Prober (/Developer » Applications » Utilities » USB Prober)
After the drive mounts, quit USB Prober

That's it! The only drawback is that you must have the Developer Tools installed (as USB Prober comes with them). If you don't want to install all of the developer tools, you can simply extract the application from the installer package using Pacifist. Hope this helps!

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10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10 | 26 comments | Create New Account

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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

A SECOND SOLUTION
Authored by: wallybear on Fri, Jun 29 2007 at 8:17AM PDT

SECOND SOLUTION

I see this tips doesn't works for everybody but just a few. I think it could be due to the chipset used in the hard drive enclosure.

If the solution no. 1 does not work, here is a more radical solution:

In a Mac of one of my clients I solved the problem reinstalling ONLY the following two 10.4.9 kernel kexts:

IOUSBFamily.kext
IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext

I did this using Pacifist on the 10.4.9 Combo Update Package (don't know if those kexts are present in the 10.4.9 standard update (aka delta) package).

This will give you the previous 10.4.9 USB functionalities.

Do this with Pacifist, not by hand! Otherwise be sure to fix the ownership of those files, or they won't be loaded on startup and you will loose keyboard and mouse. Anyway if you did it by hand, then fix them just doing so:

sudo chown -R root:wheel IOUSB*

Do this before restarting your Mac, or you will have to do this launching from Install CD and using Terminal (or via Terminal on another Mac, using ssh).

A SECOND SOLUTION
Authored by: Mato on Sat, Jun 30 2007 at 12:50PM PDT

My problem is not exactly the same. I use a headset, and the mic isn't playing anymore. It's recognized in the input list, but nothing more.

I tried the 10.4.9 replacment but it was obviously for HD, can you tell me wich .kext I have to replace for my microphone to work again ? thanks

---
You dont have to swim faster than sharks, just faster than the guy next to you

10.4.8
Authored by: galo on Thu, Oct 25 2007 at 11:59AM PDT

10.4.8 Kexts work for me, with an external USB drive with 2.5" 80Gb HD, and using pacifist from the original 10.4.8 Dvd. I have a Macbook C2d. Thank you all.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: phoomp on Fri, Jun 29 2007 at 9:50AM PDT

Third solution:

Get Apple to fix it's buggy bug fixes.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: wallybear on Fri, Jun 29 2007 at 10:27AM PDT

eheheh

yes that's better.

But in the meantime....

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: NovaScotian on Sat, Jun 30 2007 at 7:53AM PDT

Never having used the USB Prober before, I started it and explored a bit. In the /Developer/Applications/Utilities/USB Prober > USB Logger pane I pressed the "Start" button. That resulted in a message to asking to install a .kext required for logging. I clicked OK. Pause, then crash, (veiled screen, muliti-lingual message), power button restart required. Crash report sent to Apple. Apparently the kext involved is not compatible with 10.4.10. Interestingly on restart (which took forever) Google Desktop crashed too. The perils of playing around.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: tatilsever on Fri, Jun 29 2007 at 11:00AM PDT

I'll just wait for 10.4.10-B. I am not suffering any bugs that will be fixed by this update, so why take the risk?

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: makilleen on Sat, Jun 30 2007 at 6:42AM PDT

This hint did not work for me - but it did get my hopes up.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: pjournel on Sun, Jul 1 2007 at 5:10AM PDT

Hello,

I tried this trick to mount a brand new Memorex Ultra Traveldrive on my MacBook to no avail. I guess I'll have to return it to where I bought it. :-)

The drive is not mounting either on a PC.

Thanks anyway,

Pierre.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: dan55304 on Sun, Jul 1 2007 at 7:02AM PDT

I'm having a different problem related to a USB 2 drive. I have a 320g external Buffalo drive that has been running for a year on a MacMini serving up my music and photos.

Now, the drive periodically has the access light stay on and freezes all activity on the Mac until the drive is powered off. You know, the spinning lolly-pop of death. It seems to happen after the mini goes to sleep for some period of time.

I don't recall if it started after the .10 update or just before.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: JadeNB on Sun, Jul 1 2007 at 1:12PM PDT

MacFixIt suggests deleting the kernel extensions cache. I tried it, and it has fixed the problem for me permanently. (This problem only occurred on one of the computers I use, though; the other experienced no trouble with USB drives, even after the update.) I find it delightful that this was all caused by an update specifically designed to increase the reliability of USB drives!

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: JadeNB on Sun, Jul 1 2007 at 6:46PM PDT

Oops, sorry, that MacFixIt article is behind the subscriber wall. All I had to do was to delete the following:

com.apple.kernelcaches (a folder in /System/Library/Caches)
Extensions.kextcache (a file in /System/Library)
Extensions.mkext (a file in /System/Library/)

and then restart.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: wallybear on Mon, Jul 2 2007 at 4:45AM PDT

Tried earlier this method, and din't work.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: kainewynd2 on Mon, Jul 2 2007 at 8:22AM PDT

I guess I'm the only one who actually had 10.4.10 *fix* a non-mounting USB drive.

I was actually to the point of returning the drive before installing the combo updater and happily watching my drive start mounting correctly.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: tattooedpierre on Mon, Jul 2 2007 at 10:13AM PDT

I tried both methods (delete ~/Library/Cache/ stuff and this hint) and the USB Probe trick gets my drive to mount. But when I try to open the drive I get the "Device Removal" alert box. And the drive unmounts. :[

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: wallybear on Mon, Jul 2 2007 at 4:22PM PDT

Apple just posted 10.4.10 update 1.1 that fixes the problem (and audio problems too).

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: wallybear on Mon, Jul 2 2007 at 5:05PM PDT

uhmmm.... I'm not sure the new update will fix the mounting problems; I compared the old and the new update and the changed kexts are only audio related.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: Mato on Tue, Jul 3 2007 at 9:16AM PDT

Audio update didn't solve at all my plantronic microphone input problem :(

---
You dont have to swim faster than sharks, just faster than the guy next to you

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: jrguitar21 on Fri, Apr 25 2008 at 6:00AM PDT

If apple has fixed this problem then why does it still happen for me on 10.4.11?

PS: the USB Prober solution worked for me.

---
the journey is the reward

Totally stuck
Authored by: ParadisePete on Mon, Jul 2 2007 at 9:41PM PDT

Nothing I've tried solves the problem. I've tried the USB probe, and I've followed the macfixit instructions on how to use the IOHIDFamily.kext and the IOUSBFamily.kext from 10.4.9.

Then I tried the 10.4.8, as per their "backup" suggestion. No dice. It knows it's out there, but it won't mount it. Nor can I mount flash drives. All other USB devices work fine. Even connecting my digital camera works.

What's even more annoying is that Windows under Parallels mounts the flash drive with no problem, and also tries to mount the hard drive, failing only because of the format.

I have a bad feeling that because of the holiday it's going to be a while before this gets fixed, and will seriously hamper my work-flow.

I've been using Macs since before they introduced the 512k "fat" Mac, and this is the first time I've been burned by an update. I can understand it going wrong, but I don't understand why it isn't a high priority fix. Maybe the phone got in the way.

Totally stuck
Authored by: wallybear on Tue, Jul 3 2007 at 3:06PM PDT

In one of the iMac i fixed installing the two 10.4.9 kext, I also had to clear the caches, or the USB drive couldn't be mounted.
An easy way to clear all the caches is AppleJack (http://applejack.sourceforge.net), that has an option to do that. Clear caches and user caches when prompted.
old kexts + cache deletions revived the drive.

Totally stuck
Authored by: ParadisePete on Wed, Jul 4 2007 at 2:33PM PDT

Hey, success! Thanks Wally.
For completeness, and anybody still stuck, here are the steps I took:

- Download the 10.4.9 combo update
- Download Pacifist
- Download and install Applejack
- Mount the combo update dmg
- right-click on the update package and select open in...Pacifist
- In Pacifist, navigate to >System>Library>Extensions
- Scroll down to IOUSBFamily.kext
- Right-click and Install to Default Location
- Agree to replace any files it asks about
- Repeat with IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext
- Restart the computer, holding down Command-S as it's starting
- You'll get a black screen with text. Type exactly: applejack AUTO restart
- If you want to, you can now skip the first two operations
- The third step cleans the caches. Don't skip that.
- You can quit at the next prompt, then restart

Let the computer restart normally. You should, with luck, again have access to your USB drives.

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: Guillaume69 on Mon, Jul 16 2007 at 11:07AM PDT

Hey - just a short one to say MANY THANKS for that summary, as I just managed to mount that USB mp3 player again :)) I just wish I hadn't reformated it as they all advise on various sites :(

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: xx/xy on Mon, Jul 23 2007 at 9:33AM PDT

I've encountered this problem with my Buffalo Drivestation since upgrading to 10.4.10. It's only been affecting this drive, and none of my other USB devices nor a more recent Buffalo external USB drive. It shows up in USB probes but simply will never, ever mount.

I followed the above suggestions (clearing cache, downgrading IOUSBMassStorage and IOUSBFamily via Pacifist, many many resets) to no avail. However, I then observed the below appearing in console.log:

load_hdi: IOHDIXControllerArrivalCallback: timed out waiting for IOKit to finish matching.

On a hunch, I also downgraded the IOHIDFamily kext to its 10.4.9 version, and cleared the kernel caches from /System/Library/Caches again. One reboot later, the drive is back and consistently working.

If this fails, do check your new kext versions against those in the 10.4.9 tree by looking in their version.plists - for some reason, it took two attempts for the correct files to be installed (may have been user error on my part..). They should be:

IOHIDFamily - 1.4.10
IOUSBFamily - 2.6.5
IOUSBMassStorage - 1.4.7

YMMV, I get the distinct impression this is caused by a number of factors..

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: cowlag on Sun, Oct 21 2007 at 2:53AM PDT

I am still not able to mount my drive I have tried all of the tips and tricks suggested should I just try reinstalling the 10.4.10 combo update? or is there another way?

The drive showed up fine the first couple times and then I tried a bunch of command lines in the terminal and ever since the drive won't even show up in disk utility on my laptop but I tried my desktop which is 10.4.10 as well and it works completely fine the desktop one that works fine is the Intel one and the laptop which won't work is the PPC please help!

10.4: A fix for non-mounting USB drives in 10.4.10
Authored by: F-3000 on Mon, Nov 24 2008 at 4:07AM PST

This trick didn't work for me, sadly.

Only way for me to mount the USB HD - if I connected/turned it on after booting - is to switch it off and then back on, or unplug & plug the USB cable. Sometimes one attempt does the trick, sometimes I need to do it several times before my eMac mounts it.

An utter annoyance, been there since I bought the HD few years ago.

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