Dual External Drive Issue

I have two WD Passport drives. One serves as my Time Machine back up drive and the other for my iPhote and iTunes library. My issue is that when I plug both of them into the USB ports, my Macbook Pro only recognizes one of them. Why? I can only think that the Macbook cannot power both from the USBs. This also means that Time Machine is not backing up my other external drive as they both cannot operate at the same time. So, would then need to move my iPhoto and iTunes back to the hard drive which is more than half full already. Any help????

Do both HDDs operate correctly when attached individually and do so on all USB ports? If so, the MBP should be able to power both.
Try SMC and Pram resets:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
If they do not solve the issue, a work around is a powered hub but an appointment at an Apple genius bar should be made so that the problem is identified and corrected.
Ciao.

Similar Messages

Mavericks and unmounting external drive issues upon sleep

Greetings fellow Mavericks users,
I'm hoping someone here can provide some insight as to how to correct the issue I'm experiencing.
Little background:
I was using 10.6.8 for years on a 2008 Mac Pro. I saw no reason to update the OS until I recently acquired a USB 3.0 PCI card and an external drive. In order to use my new hardware, I had no choice but to upgrade to a new version of OSX. Rather than spend money, I took advantage of the free 10.9.2 upgrade available for my machine. The upgrade went surprisingly well with no major hiccups or problems encountered. Yes, a few apps and programs I had running prior to the upgrade were no longer compatible but in the grand scheme of things, my Mac Pro was still alive and kicking along with my most important programs and data. In fact, the upgrade to 10.9.2 fixed a sleep issue I had with 10.6.8 which required the use of an app called PleaseSleep. I don't need that app anymore as the machine goes to sleep and wakes up fine.
Now, on to my dilemma. Prior to the upgrade, I was using an external USB 2.0 drive to house media that I'd share between multiple network devices around the house via SMB (AFP stinks in this regard, hence my refusal to use it); i.e. BoxeeBox. I had run out of space on the USB2 drive hence the need to move everything to my new external USB3 drive that's connected to an internal USB3 PCI controller. The first problem I ran into was that Mavericks now uses Apple's own iteration of Samba (SMB2). After a bit of head scratching and research, I used an application called SMBUp as a replacement to Apple's SMB implementation. That's one problem solved. The next thing that I kept running into was that whenever the machine would sleep then wake up again, I'd get an annoying "Disk was not properly ejected" error message. After more head scratching and research, I've discovered that this appears to be a bug in OSX and how the OS interfaces with 3rd party USB controllers. Fine. I purchased a small app called Jettison which for all intents and purposes unmounts any external drives automatically before allowing the system to sleep. This is where my long-winded (apologies) description above starts to come into play. Now that I have the SMB issue figured out and am using Jettison to eject this USB3 drive when the machine sleeps, I've discovered that I'll still get the "Disk did not properly eject" error message despite Jettison IF there are users connected to the USB3 media drive. Is there a work around this where I can either get Jettison or Mavericks to kill the network connection to the share drive before it's unmounted prior to the machine sleeping?
TL:DR?
Using Jettison with Mavericks, I'm still getting "Disk did not eject properly" when waking the machine from sleep mode. Any way to fix this?
Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions provided.

I had the same problem with Time Machine and solved it by enabling "Enable Power Nap" in Energy Saver:
System Preferences...
Energy Saver
Restore Defaults
Check "Enable Power Nap: While sleeping, your Mac can back up using Time Machine and periodically check for new email, calendar, and other iCloud updates."
2013 21.5 iMac
OSX Mavericks
Seagate 1 TB slim USB 3.0 (power is drawn from USB port), formatted to Mac Journaling File System

External drive issue

Hello everybody,
I have an external, PC formatted (NTFS) 1 GB drive that I was using without issues until yesterday.
I did a "Verify Disk" to the external drive with Disk Utility, and it recognised some errors in the drive, suggesting me to do a Repair Disk, which I did...
Sadly, it threw an error in the repairing, and now the disk is not mounted anymore (I can still see it in Disk Utility). I cannot do anything else, since Disk Utility has all the options in gray, so I'm unable to do any kind of repair or diagnose.
I also tried to use the disk on a PC that a friend brought, but it says that the disk is not formatted, and is asking me to do so... obviously I don't have plans to do that.
Does anybody know how to proceed from here? I really need to recover the information on the drive.
I have a 2012 Macbook Pro Retina, and I'm using NTFS for Mac OSX, in case this info is useful.
Thank you!
Martin

Once I reformatted the drive and put the old data back on, it worked fine. Still doesn't make sense.

Transferring files from iMac to External Drive issues. Please help

I have a 500gb Western Digital external hard-drive. I began using it on a PC, but got a Mac a couple of months ago. There are a couple of problems that I am encountering. First of all, the folders that I had on my external drive (music, movies etc.) are all locked, and no matter what I try on the Mac, I cannot unlock them.
That really did not cause too much of an issue, because I would just drag them onto the drive, and put them in the proper folders when I connected it to a Windows machine.
However, recently when I try to transfer an album from the Mac to the external, I get an error message that says:
The finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "Song/Album.mp3" could not be read or written. (error code -36)
Basically my two questions are how do I unlock the folders on my external drive, and what is causing this error to start all of a sudden?
Any help would be appreciated

Open up Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. Select your external drive on the left then under the Erase tab select MS-DOS(FAT) as your volume format. Keep in mind that re-formatting your drive will erase all of the data so make sure you have it all backed up on your computer before you re-format.
http://ftp.georgetek.com/George/DiskUtilMS-DOS.png
Are you replacing your PC with the iMac or are you still going to use both computers?
George

Another external drive issue with Frontrow

I've already looked at these treads,
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1511877&tstart=2
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8593111&#8593111
But they aren't really everything. I have an external drive that I have my Movies, TV Shows, and Music on. I changed the location in iTunes, and everything imported fine. My AppleTV sees all of them just fine. However Frontrow won't. I can put an alias in the Movies folder as described, but then I don't see anything in the TV Shows menu option in FR. Sure they are listed under the movies, if I put a shortcut in there for them. I want Frontrow to work just as it did when all my media was on the local drive, how do I do that?

Hello Brett!,
A rule i usually live by when purchasing externals, is to firstly check the file format (many are factory formatted in NTFS or FAT32) and if that is the case then change them to HFS+ using disk utility. That is of course if you intend to only use it with your mac, for example i use an external formatted in FAT32 and it works on Windows and Mac.
Secondly its a good code of practice to make sure the drive spins up, as that is the easiest way to check for a dodgy powersupply.
Thirdly and hopefully finally, if those tips don't work then try mounting it on another mac or pc and see if it is detected in any form, that'll tell you if there is a connection issue.
Regards,

Encrypted External Drive Issue

I have a WD 1TB external hard drive I formatted / encrypted using the Disk Utility function when I was running Lion. I have since upgraded to Mountain Lion and whilst I can still view and read the files from my Mac, I cannot seem to delete the files, or at least they show as deleted, but no additional space is made available on the drive. The drive does not seem to be completely compatible with Mountain Lion. Has anyone encountered a similar issue and have a solution that does not involve me reformatting my external hard drive? Thank you in advance for any responses.

Hi, I tried your advice and it tells me the external drive is ok, and the ERASE section is grey, probably because I encrypted the disk!?!
Still the same issue: every time I enter my password to access the external hard drive, it restarts the macbook and I get a screen that says: the computer restarted because of a problem... so frustrating!
Any other ideas?

USB External Drive issue with 10.5.7

Just as infos : i have experienced a weird issue regarding my external USB Lacie Drive. It has been recognise by 10.5.7 as a SAMSUNG drive. I use this external drive with time Machine for backup. Everything dispite that seems to work, but can't take the risk as i didn't noticed improvement in my system of Logic with the new OS, i have decide to downgrade.

thank you everybody for your replies, but as i said i went back to 10.5.6 and everything works perfectly here. Yes under USB (system profiler) the drive is well recognise by the system, it's only under 10.5.7 that that drive was listing as a SAMSUNG. Anyway, i will give another try to 10.5.7 in few weeks, as i am in a middle of the projet (CD for a local artist), it might be wise i stay under 10.5.6 as it works well on my system.
PS (as i said earlier the drive was working well under 10.5.7 but just listed as a Samsung drive). I am not be the only one ?

IPhoto '09 Rebuild Library on External Drive Issue

I am trying to rebuild my library with the option + iphoto launch, but i keep getting the window asking me "What photo library do you want iPhoto to use?"
I select the default library on my external drive, which is the only library I have, while still holding down the "option" key, select "choose" and then the same window pops open again "What photo library do you want iPhoto to use?"
Keeps going in circles and never gives me the options to rebuild.
I also tried to releasing the option key when this window opens and the result is just that it launches iPhoto.
What is the issue here? Why does it keep asking what library I want to use? How do I default this window automatically so it knows already the library location and then I can proceed with the rebuild?
When the library was on the local drive months ago, it never did this.
Thanks in advance.

It keeps asking you which Library you want to use because you keep using the keystroke that gives you that option.
If you want to rebuild the Library you need to hold the *command and option (or alt) keys* when launching to get that menu.
Regards
TD

ITunes library on external drive issue....

I have my entire iTunes library on an external hard drive. I recently moved and had to restore my computer because of some issues. The computer is working now but iTunes does not recognize my library on the external drive. It shows everything I have purchased in the cloud but anything that I have manually put in my library doe snot show up in my library. When I look in the external drive all my media is there, I just can't get to it through iTunes. The path that can be changed in the advanced settings is not right and I am not sure how to correct the path. Thanks
I have a late 2008 iMac - 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - I just upgraded RAM to 6GB - right after I upgraded the RAM iMac booted into disk utilities - had to end up reinstalling OS and basically restore my files from Time Machine. Since I had to redownload iTunes the path under Advanced settings is not correct - it is not linked to my external. How do I fix this - I have had my library set up like this for years I just can't remember how to do it.
Thanks

dekker1 in your screenshot the folder that is usually 'one level above' that has the 'iTunes Library.itl' and the 'iTunes Music Library.xml'. Do you have copies of those files?
Those two are the files that maintain iTunes Data (playlists, ratings, song info …). Purchased files come from iCloud so that is why they always show up for download. According to Apple the library files should be placed in your home folder…
iTunes: What are the iTunes library files?
Can you restore those files back to /Users/[username]/Music/iTunes/ ?
If you don't have these files the only choice I can see is to import all the files & manually recreate all the playlists (this loses metadata, play count etc).
Normally you also have the following at the same location in your /Users/[username]/Music/iTunes/ folder.
Album Artwork/
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
Previous iTunes Libraries/
If you also have copies of these, restore them too.
The media folder can live anywhere, but you set the preference in iTunes to that location. It looks like your library may be in a mess already, the duplicate "Automatically add to iTunes" folders are a sign that you have chosen the wrong folder for iTunes media at some point.
Apple have a guide for moving the media, you need to ensure the media library is in the same path as on the old system, otherwise links to files will break.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
Once the media is working you can 'consolidate it' but it must be in a good state before this.
I hope that makes sense, does this clarify anything? I use those Apple pages as a guide for moving & handling iTunes media.

USB external drive issues

Just connected my external drive to my Airport Extreme and when I click on Disk in Airport Utility, it sees the disk. However, whenever I try to do a backup, it fails. I get an exclamation point in the Time Machine symbol (top right corner of the menu bar). When I click on the symbol and open up the preferences, it shows the name of the drive (so clearly it is seeing it) but next to Available, all I see is "--". Can anyone help?

Two things strike me:
Have you been able to get any USB drive to work in the port, even a "thumb drive"? That might help you differentiate between a problem with the drive and problem with the router's port. I don't have a MyBook drive, but I'd be shocked beyond belief if this was a compatibility issue. Yes, I know that truth is often stranger than fiction, but to get that status, it first has to be proven true and then strange. At this point every USB device I've plugged into that port on the back of the router has been recognized, that includes a WD Passport drive.
Have you tried something simple like just using a different USB cable? A friend of mine was having difficulties getting an external drive to be recognized by both computers in her home. It had me really scratching my head. Long story short, when I swapped out her cable with the cable from that Passport drive everything worked just fine on both machines. She got a new cable for herself and all is well. The KISS principle really does work sometimes.

Windows 7, iTunes 10 and Seagate FreeAgant External Drive issues

I'm having some serious problems with making the three mentioned above to go along with one another. The thing with my iTunes library is that it had started to take up some much of my PC's internal hard drive space that I decided to move it all to my Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 3TB external drive. The problem itself is that while syncing my iPhone with the contents on that drive, iTunes is, more often than not, non-responsive. It simply freezes up for longer periods of time. And when it unfreezes, it moves forward with the the syncing process for just a bit. Moreover, it's not only iTunes that freezes like this. The same thing happens with the external drive and even, which seems oddest to me, Safari. It all makes the syncing process extremely slow in regards of transferring files to or from my 32GB 3GS iPhone. For example, I have started syncing my iPhone some time after 10A.M. Right now it's nearly 4 P.M., and iTunes has optimized (and only optimized) 1,205 out of 8,303 photos. This is just a nightmare... :/ Worth mentioning here is that I keep all my photos and the iPod Photo Cache folder on the external drive as well.
I had heard that Windows 7 has some communication issues with various peripheral devices, and I am not sure whether this is the case or not. I'm also not sure whether this is a Windows 7-related problem only, or does iTunes contribute to it as well.
If anyone was able to help me resolve this problem, I would be really grateful

I must say it's a bit of a relief to know someone is in the very same situation and that one another can relate. Writing my previous post, I forgot about polydorus' question regarding any constant backup process running in the background, and so I can answer this question here: No, there are no backup processes running in the background. This question, however, made me wonder what else could be slowing the external drive/iTunes down. There is a Dashboard software related to this specific external drive which starts along with every system startup. I quit this software before starting the syncing process again (I got an electricity cut off during the previous syncing, so I simply had to start it all over again :/), and now iTunes doesn't show in the Task Manager as "Not Responding". At least it doesn't happen until another application turns non-responsive, when it does, iTunes and Safari turn non-responsive as well.
But even though iTunes shows as "Running" most of the time now, the syncing process is still as slow as h-e-l-l :/ I began this last syncing yesterday at 8:09P.M., and right now it's nearly 12:00P.M. :/ iTunes looks as if it was running, since the rotating arrows icon next to my iPhone name on the left pane don't stop, but iTunes stops from time to time, without going any further with optimizing photos - it looks as if it was waiting until it could access the external drive.
I don't know what else could be slowing everything down like this :/ Could it be iPhone itself, which slows down the communication between the PC and the external drive, because it's also connected to the USB port, taking up some of its bandwidth?
igbg: My driver is running on 6.1.7601.17514 drivers' version. Even if there is a newer version of these drivers (which, basing on your post, I guess wouldn't solve the problem :/), I can't update it now, while syncing
P.S. As for my music, I keep it on my D drive, and have no problems with playing it. It's only the whole rest (books, movies and photos) which is stored on the external drive

External drive issues

hello,
so my aging iBook G4 is giving me serious grief with external drives. i use an external DVD drive and an external hard drive for backups/extra storage. i have been using them fine for a while now, but this past month everything has stopped working.
so here are my problems in detail:
1. when i try to backup using SuperDuper it gets about 3/4 of the way through then just hangs. SuperDuper doesn't freeze, it just stops reading my internal and stops writing to my external. i tried CarbonCopyCloner, same problem. I completely reformatted by external and the problem still persists. have plenty of space so that is not the problem.
2. when i try to eject either my external hard drive or dvd drive, it doesn't. the icons dissapear from my desktop, but it isn't properly ejected. when i try to open disk utility it just hangs at the "gathering disk information" screen and i have to force quit it. if i try to restart my ibook, everything closes so only my background is showing, and then it just hangs and i have to hold the power button down. my only option is to unplug the external drives, and it then gives me the warning message about removing them without ejecting properly.
3. when i try to copy stuff off the external hard drive, sometimes it gives me error messages either about permissions or currently being in use.
4. when i try to burn a dvd, at the finalising stage it stuffs up. have been using toast and disco, both have the problem.
please help, i am trying to backup so i can transfer my files to my macbook air! [ethernet is painfully slow, but at this stage it would have been faster!]
the problems do not lie with the external drives as they work fine with my macbook air.

Hi mich the pixie , and a warm welcome to the forums!
have plenty of space so that is not the problem.
Does that go for the Internal drive too?
At this point I think you should get Applejack...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596
After installing, Reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 5 of it's things.
The 5 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.
At least if it doesn't fix it, it'll eliminate a few questions.
Besides, once you really, really need it... you can't install it!

Passport External Drive Issues

Love, love, love my new iMac BUT... I am having a problem using my Passport external drive with it. It recognizes it, but every few minutes it will lose the contact and then give me an error message about not having removed the device properly. (I did nothing) It is more than a tad annoying as I work mostly with Photoshop and I have been trying to work on on an image in camera raw, and just as I find the image I want the connection is lost. Has anyone else had this problem and found a solution please?

Hi KathrynG
Welcome to Apple Discussions
If your plugging it into the keyboard, try connecting it to a port on the back of the iMac for a couple of reasons. (1) The keyboard may not supply enough power and (2) The keyboard's bus speed is the slower USB 1.1 instead of High Speed USB 2.0
I also know that the passport's cord is short and stiff and about impossible to connect to a port on the back of the iMac. I easily connect mine to a powered hub sitting on my desk that has a port on the front. You might want to consider a USB hub, a USB extension cable or longer cable to use with the WD Passport.
Dennis

X99S XPOWER AC : USB 3 External Drive issue

Hello team,
If I want to copy files onto my USB3 drive windows hangs on "calculating.."
Thi shappens with files larger than + - 120 mb..
I tried with my client pc and it worked.
I on my sons socket 2011 pc ( USB 3) and it worked.B
Reinstalled Window and the ( latest ) drivers. The same issue.
What can I do.
It seems like a socket 2011-3 driver issue.
For my flightsimulator i need to connect 8 usb devices.
Help is appriciated...

Quote from: Saldo on 16-October-14, 12:13:40
A very expensive mobo and still no reply from MSI ......
Stop bumping please: >>Please read and comply with the Forum Rules.<<
This is a Users-to-Users Forum. If you want a reply from MSI contact MSI: >>How to contact MSI.<<

ITunes to external drive issue...

iTunes won't recognize iTunes folder on my external drive. I hooked up a Firewire external drive to my Powerbook and moved my iTunes folder to it to free up disk space on my Powerbook. I then went to Advanced preference in iTunes and repointed iTunes to the external drive. All was well - when I got info on my iTunes music, the file info said that the file was coming from the external drive. With that done, I erased the iTunes folder on my Powerbook. However, when I reopened iTunes the Library was empty and playlists gone even though iTunes was still pointing to the external drive. So, the question is why won't iTunes recognize the iTunes folder on the external drive.
Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Did you perform all the steps in this document?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
Trashing your complete iTunes folder will also trash the 'iTunes Library' file, which holds all the data about your music files, ratings playlists etc.
That file must not be moved.
If you did not empty the trash yet, put it back in it's original location.
M

Dual External Drive Issue

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