My USB drive won't show up on my MacBook Pro (2012 non retina)

Okay, so I have 2 Macs. 2012 MacBook Pro, and a PPC iMac G4. I want to load music onto my USB drive, but it dosen't show up on my MacBook Pro. My iMac can read the USB without a problem, but the MacBook Pro will not. Iv'e made sure to check off everything in Finder Preferences, and also reveal everything in the Finder Side Bar, but still nothing will happen. I even tried looking for it in Disk Utility, and still nothing. Please Help.

Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
Try a different cable.
If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
Disconnect all other devices on the bus, or as many as possible.
Test the drive with another Mac. Test another drive with this Mac.
If the drive is bus-powered, but has an AC adapter, connect the adapter.
Boot into Recovery and launch Disk Utility. Is the drive recognized?
If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, and if another drive does work with the same Mac, then the drive has failed. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

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PLEASE HELP me select new internal hard drive for Macbook Pro 2012 (non-retina)

Good afternoon.
I just bought a Macbook Pro 2012 (non-retina) 15 inch from a friend. I think it is running Mountain Lion (has not been upgraded to Mavericks yet), and has iLife on it. It came with the stock 500 gb 5400 rpm internal hard drive. At home, I only have the Snow Leopard OS installation Cds and a copy of iLife 2011 installation Cds. I am going to buy 16 gb of RAM from Other World Computing to install.
I want to replace the hard drive with a 1 tb hard drive, preferably something that is $100 or less.
I talked to Other World Computing (OWC) and looked at the Data Doubler Option to replace the optical drive with a Solid State drive, but decided that for now I want to keep the optical drive inside the computer for portability issues.
I know that Solid State drives are better, but they are still too small, and I want the ease and portability of a 1 tb size INSIDE my computer.
Initially I was going to order this from Other World Computing: 1.0TB 2.5" HGST Travelstar 7K1000 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 9.5mm Notebook Drive 32MB Cache. *'New' Factory Replacement with 2+ Year HGST Warranty*    As of April 4, 2014 it's on sale for $79
But then I started reading some of the discussions online and thought maybe I should get a hybrid solid state drive?
I saw on Amazon the Seagate 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA 6Gbps 64MB Cache 2.5-Inch ST1000LM014 It's on sale for $94.
But according to some reviews, this Seagate has a platter that is only 5400rpm, unlike the previous Seagate Momentum that has a platter speed of 7200rpm.
How reliable are the Seagate, versus a Toshiba or Western Digital or Hitachi or something else?
Here are my questions about replacing the hard drive:
1. Is a hybrid solid state drive going to need some kind of special formatting after I put it into the macbook so that I can put the operating system on it?
2. Is a "normal" platter hard drive more reliable than a hybrid solid state drive?
3. Is there any additional driver or special software that I have to install for a hybrid solid state drive?
4. Currently there is no personal data stored on the computer. Can I just put the new hard drive in, and then insert the snow leopard install cd?
5. If I install snow leopard, can I just go to the App store and get the free upgrade to Mavericks?
6. If I want to do the "Data Doubler" option in the future and add a normal Solid State drive into my computer, will it have trouble interacting with the 1 tb hybrid solid state drive?
I would love to get some recommendations about the smartest option to upgrade my hard drive with something that will be fast (I edit lots of photos) and large (1 tb) that isn't going to cost too much. I don't know much about the different brands or options (and there are so many listed in tons of online reviews), that I got really overwhelmed and confused by the info out there.
I would really appreciate any help and advice. I've never switched out a hard drive before.
PLEASE HELP !!! Thanks!
Here is the "About this Mac" Info:
Macbook Pro 15-in Mid 2012
Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1
Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Software: OS x 10.8.5
Storage (Hard drive): APPLE HDD ST500LM012 Media, Rotational, SATA, GPT (GUID Partition Table)

1. Is a hybrid solid state drive going to need some kind of special formatting after I put it into the macbook so that I can put the operating system on it?
The boot drive, regardless of what it is, needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This is standard with OS X.
2. Is a "normal" platter hard drive more reliable than a hybrid solid state drive?
There are arguments pro and con. Bottom line, SSD's and hybrid drives are still quite expensive per GB than standard hard drives. If you have the bucks and are a speed demon, go ahead.   I have better use for my money.   Standard hard drives are mechanical and may wear out over time. But even though SSDs are not mechancial, they can still go bad and ultimately they even have a limit to their write capacity. The jury is still out on this debate.
3. Is there any additional driver or special software that I have to install for a hybrid solid state drive?
No
4. Currently there is no personal data stored on the computer. Can I just put the new hard drive in, and then insert the snow leopard install cd?
You can physically put the hard drive in but probably not install Snow Leopard on this MBP.
The mid-2012 MacBookPro9,1 models came with Lion 10.7.3 (11D2097) preinstalled.   It is very unlikely you would be able to install Snow Leopard on it. Historically you cannot install a version of OS X that is earlier than the version that came with your Mac (even if you replace the hard drive).
5. If I install snow leopard, can I just go to the App store and get the free upgrade to Mavericks?
Not via Snow Leopard on this MBP. See my response to #4.
6. If I want to do the "Data Doubler" option in the future and add a normal Solid State drive into my computer, will it have trouble interacting with the 1 tb hybrid solid state drive?
No. They are completely independent of each other; they are just independent storage units (drives) and their RAM does not interact.

My external hard drive won't show up on my MacBook Pro

So, I'm trying to transfer my music from my PC to my MacBook Pro. I put all my music on an external hard drive, but for some reason when I plug it into my MacBook it won't show up on the desk top. I've already changed my preferences in Finder so that hard drives and disks will show on the desktop, but still nothing. I looked in utilities to see if the hard drive was there, and still nothing. The hard drive is a Toshiba and is fairly new, the light goes on when I plug it into my laptop, so I'm very confused. Can anyone help me with my predicament?

Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
Try a different cable.
If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
Disconnect all other devices on the bus, or as many as possible.
Test the drive with another Mac. Test another drive with this Mac.
If the drive is bus-powered, but has an AC adapter, connect the adapter.
Boot into Recovery and launch Disk Utility. Is the drive recognized?
If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, and if another drive does work with the same Mac, then the drive has failed. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

My Western Digital external hard drive suddenly stopped showing up on my Macbook Pro and disappeared from Disk Utility. It works on a PC.

My Western Digital external hard drive suddenly stopped showing up on my macbook pro and it disappeared from disk utility. I have tried making invisible files visible but nothing has worked and my hard drive shows up on a PC but not my Mac anymore.

What is the manufacturer of the external and how old is it? Does it have its own AC power supply or is it USB bus powered?

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When I connect my external hard drive to my MB Air it is to recognizing it. It did 2 days ago and it is compatible I have been using it for a month now. Also when I connect my iPhone 6 to it, it won't show up in iTunes anymore......please help

Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
Try a different cable.
If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
Disconnect all other devices on the bus, or as many as possible.
Test the drive with another Mac. Test another drive with this Mac.
If the drive is bus-powered, but has an AC adapter, connect the adapter.
Boot into Recovery and launch Disk Utility. Is the drive recognized?
If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, and if another drive does work with the same Mac, then the drive has failed. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

My new flash drive will not show up on my macbook pro?

It's really strange because I know my usb ports are working, the flash drive works perfectly fine on the mac desktops at my school and if I open up system profile it shows that it's plugged in! But it won't show up anywhere for me to actually access it! Not on my desktop, not in my finder, I've tried searching for it and checked to make sure I have my finder settings checked to show external drives on the desktop and in the sidebar in finder windows. I checked on one of the desktops and it is formated as...FAT 32 bit I think? something like that. I've also restarted a couple times already and plugged and unplugged it a few times to try and get it to work. The last time I plugged in someone else' flash it showed up too so I don't know why this one won't show up, I've looked everywhere to figure out why it might not be working, but I need it to work so I can get my school work off my school computer before the end of the semester!
If anyone can give me some suggestions or help I would really appreciate it!
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Product ID: 0xb107
Vendor ID: 0x03f0 (Hewlett Packard)
Version: 40.96
Serial Number: AA1B132C00000354
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: HP
Location ID: 0xfd130000 / 5
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 200

Press the Repair Disk button. If it doesn't find any issues or repairs those it finds, press Mount.
If it finds issues that it can't fix, run a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior or a data recovery product on it.
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Can I use a USB drive to install windows 7 on my Macbook Pro?

I currently have the Windows 7 iso on a usb flash drive. I am running bootcamp 4.0.3, and there is no option to create a windows 7 install disk via usb drive. Also I cannot download the Windows support software. Is there a direct download to the drivers, or another version of bootcamp that would allow me to install via usb, like the MBA? Or is there a way to work around this problem? I don't have access to any writable CD/DVDs so the usb drive is really my only option currently.

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Instructions for the Air: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4407
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https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3410900?start=45&tstart=0
http://simplyburns.en.softonic.com/mac
If for some reason you downloaded Windows from Microsoft instead of buying a package with a disc, you need to download the ISO version and burn it to a DVD. See this article on downloading the ISO: http://www.mydigitallife.info/windows-7-iso-x86-and-x64-official-direct-download -links-ultimate-professional-and-home-premium/ (Make sure you choose the ISO that matches the version you bought).
Here's instructions on burning an ISO with Disk Utility: http://lifehacker.com/251758/mac-tip--how-to-burn-an-iso-or-dmg-file-to-disc And this thread on burning a Windows DVD in OSX: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2039118?start=0&tstart=0 (Summary: you can use Disk Utility to burn the ISO, but choose a slow burn speed)

Hi all, My external hard drive does not show up on my MacBook Pro again. I've tried connecting it to another Mac desktop as well but doesn't work either. any suggestions on how to fix this?

Hi all, my external hardrive is no longer being recognized on my Macbook pro after I tried to transfer some documents from another Macbook( that used the Lion operating system) to mine. i'm currently using the Mac OS X 10.6.8. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

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Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select the USB drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to MBR then click on the OK button. Set the format type to MSDOS. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.

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It has all my iTunes and iPhoto files!
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I have a very similar issue. I have a seagate external usb drive 500 GB that is partitioned. One FAT 32 the other MAC OS Extended (Journaled). It has suddenly for no apparent reason stopped being able to mount the Mac OS volume. The FAT 32 vol. works fine. Disk Utility says that it is fine when I do a repair or verity etc. When I click on mount, it won't work. It says mount failed. Try running First Aid on the disk and then retry mounting. Same thing happens once that is done. ??????Any ideas?????

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dead sata bridge card. very common problem.
see all about it here:
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Power down the system and restart with the drive connected, go to DU and see it it is seen.

My USB drive won't show up on my MacBook Pro (2012 non retina)

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