Click Check Now and let it scan the whole drive fixing any errors it finds.

After more than an hour I came back and the drive showed up on my Mac again.

It can be read on a Windows laptop (after Windows automatically fixed an error).

I tried opening up Disk Utility on my Mac, but it just spins forever trying to mount the external hard drive.

I was not actively reading or writing to the external hard drive, but it did have a list of directories open (no individual photo files, but just the directory names).

Ever since that my WD hard drive has the flashing problem and cant be mounted on my Mac.

I tried changing the Mac laptop, changing the USB cord, same problem.

It says that it detected an error and had the option of automatically fixing it.

I clicked Start and let it ran, but it didnt have a progress bar and just had a Cancel button.

After running for 3-5 minutes, my mom came in and unplugged the external hard drive forcefully (I yelled at her for doing that).

We tried plugging it into the Windows laptop again, and my files and photos could be read But it still cant be read on Mac and has the flashing problem.

Because Im at a point where WDs warranty can give me a new drive to replace it, or I can fix this drive myself.

I have copied the photos out to a new drive on a Windows machine.) Because if it is something that happens with the same frequency in all drives, shouldnt I just fix it.

It seems it was fixed for you when you let the check complete---.

A quick way to fix this is to manually force quit the fsck process from activity monitor.

There might be a volume mounting error or a format error, which can be fixed by using a function in disk utility called first aid.

It should show up.

When it opens you should see a column on the left with all your disks listed there.

Be extremely careful, do not tamper with the internal drives.

Go over the list very carefully and select your external drive.

In your case it should be labeled as something similar to WD passport ultra.

If not, you can look at the storage capacity and check if it matches with your disks (here, 4TB).

A self explanatory button placed towards the start of the row on the top says first aid.

Click and let the magic happen If it doesnt start right away, you may have a different version of macOS.

You could also try reformatting the disk, the steps for which I can edit in later.

I unplugged the WD external, shut down my macbook pro, restarted it again,ran First Aid on Macs Disk Utility again and finally it worked It took about 5-6 min and my hard drive showed again:).

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My Passport For Mac Light Blinking