Windows based WD external hard drive not showing up in Disk Utility to reformat to Mac... how can I erase the drive

We have a WD external harddrive previously used with a PC that we want to completely erase and reformat for use with our iMac desktop for use with Time Machine. The drive shows up on the desktop of the Mac, but it does not show up in Disk Utlity, assuming because it's Windows format. Outside of the standard "erase" feature in Disk Utility, is there any way to reformat this drive for Mac OS X? Or how can I get this drive to show up in Disk Utility? Note: The drive functions properly, has power, and we are able to view its current contents through the desktop icon, so it is a working drive. And we are ok with losing all the current data on the drive.

Hmm strange, I had just moved my external Lacie drive from my windows machine to my iMac and it was showing up in disk utility still formatted fat32 or whatever. I would disconnect the drive and restart the machine then replug the drive and try again.
Also not that it will make a difference ( I dont think it will but hey why not ) try accessing disk utility from the install disk?

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Western Digital drive not showing up in disk utility--Help please.

Hello all. This is my first post. I am having trouble with my WD 500GB external hard drive. It is not showing up in disk utility when connected either via the firewire or USB ports. I purchased the drive about 8months ago, brought it home and set it up as my Time Machine backup drive. It worked great for several months, until it got full. Then it stopped showing up on the desktop for no apparent reason. I discovered through reading support documents on the Apple web site that when I set the drive up initially I should have changed the partitioning protocol from master boot record to GUID, but I did not. I followed the apple web site instructions for making the change expos facto, but was instructed to press buttons that were "grayed out". As such, I couldn't do it. Perhaps foolishly, I thought that I would just start all over by reinitializing it, formatting it correctly (with my new found knowledge) and then do the time machine backup fresh. However, the drive no longer shows up in disk utility no matter how or in what order I connect it. When the drive is connected by firewire there is evidence of some recognition of the drive in system profiler, but it is listed as "External HDD Buttons and Lights". There is also evidence of the My Book showing up at a minimal level (eg. the firmware revision and a few other details are listed). On the front of the drive is a ring of blue lights that progress in a clockwise direction as soon as a connection is made via either firewire or USB. Before that it is solid blue. I have read through all the info that I can find on this site, and all the suggestions require the drive being recognized in disk utility. Without that, I am stuck. I know this must be a solvable problem, because the drive just a bucket of parts before it was manufactured. I just don't know enough to solve the problem or even know what qeustion to ask. I would really appreciate some help. Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post.

If you can't boot from an OSX DVD, it sounds bad. Yet I think you said you were running Disk Utility from the DVD?
I got an external Firewire drive enclosure for 2.5 inch IDE drives from Other World Computing (OWC)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MOTGFW400/ but similar items are available from many vendors like Newegg. About $60 for the basic model. More money can buy additional interfaces on the enclosure like FW800 and USB2; an AC adapter instead of letting the firewire bus power the drive (usually OK).

External hard drive not showing up in Disk Utility

I'm attempting to transfer something from my Mac to my Windows with a Toshiba 1 TB USB external drive. When I plug it in, however, it doesn't show up in Disk Utility, Finder, or the Desktop

No I don't, I was using it less than a half an hour before then I plugged it in, and it wasn't popping up again.

Hard drive not showing up in disk utility

We had a couple power outages a few days ago.
But everything worked fine last night when I shut down.
Started up--no chime--and got question mark in folder flashing icon.
Started up with G5 OSX install disk 1. Ran Disk Utility and hard drive DOES NOT show up. Checked again and again. Same thing. Zapped PRAM and did the "X" key thing (according to Apple documents). Now it starts up with chime. Still no hard drive.
I read other older posts with similar problems. Sentiment was that the hard drive was fried.
I have most clients work backed up. But if I can retrieve their data, I'd give up the whole computer. I really need that data. What are my chances that the hard drive is gone? I don't want to spend alot of money with an apple tech out here if its probably dead. I'll just buy a new hard drive and start all over.
Took the Tech Tool disk that came with Apple Care (on another computer; I don't have Apple care on this G5) and ran diagnostics. It just hangs up at "Scanning Volumes" with nothing labeled in the Volume drop-down menu.
Please advise!

Yeah, dadof3, you were right. I dropped it off at a authorized repair shop in Evanston, IL (lapin systems) and they told me the bad news. So they're putting in a 250 GB startup drive w/a new Tiger system AND putting aside a new Lacie 250 GB external firewire drive for me.
Instead of archiving jobs once a month and never doing back-ups, I'll be backing up my production folders DAILY with that external drive. I'll unplug it from the power supply upon completion of the backup.
Thanks for the last-ditch suggestion. I'll do the freezer thing and then connect to bay 2. Meanwhile, I'll be calling clients and dreading revision or re-order requests from jobs started between September and now (gulp). At least I have backups on another computer for my latest jobs.
This was a terrible lesson. Bitter, yet humbling. To all those who use their computers to put food on the table, don't be a fool like me! NEVER go without daily backups for jobs in progress or jobs not archived.

New hard drive not showing up in disk utility

I just purchased a WD 320 GB SATA hard drive to replace a defective drive in the Macbook Pro. Western Digital says I got a defective hard drive. Is there any other possible answer?

Yes, you could have a damaged hard drive cable or a faulty hard drive controller on your MBP's logic board. But if WD is willing to exchange your drive, take them up on the offer and see whether the new one works better, before you do anything else.

I have an external hard drive that shows up in disk utility but Verify and Restore are greyed out.

I have an external hard drive that shows up in disk utility but Verify and Restore are greyed out. I am trying to determine what is wrong with the drive.
I need the data on the drive and it won't show up in Disk Warrior. I have tried different Mac's and different USB cords only to find the same outcome. When selected in Disk Utility the information read as such...
Disk Description : WD Elements 1023 Media                      Total Capacity : 500.11 GB (500,105,740,288 Bytes)
Connection Bus : USB                                                               Write Status : Read/Write
Connection Type : External                                                     S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
USB Serial Number : 575837314135304D36373132        Partition Map Scheme : Unformatted
As the drive shows in Disk Utility there must be some life left in it surely. There is a possibilty that the physical connection between the USB cord and the external drive is damaged but since the drive shows up I believe it's unlikely... before I give it to the pro's is there anything else I can do to diagnose the issue?

Hello,
I have just experienced the same thing!
Although my external drive shows in Disk Utility, it does not show in Finder.
And the Verify/Repair buttons are also greyed out.
Also, although the drive is 2TB. DU shows it as having Total Capacity of only 4.14GB! (Which should be the Free Space).
I was wondering if you solved your problem, & if so, would you share your solution.
I´m afraid to Erase in case I lose all my Data on the drive.
Thanks in advance for your reply!

My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya!

I have a mid-2010 iMac and just purchased a 2TB TC, can't join existing wireless network with AC standard so attached to iMac via ethernet with TC wifi turned off. How do i access TC now? not showing up in disk utility or on desktop. working fine with TM

I have a mid-2010 iMac and just purchased a 2TB TC, I just found out that it can't join existing wireless network with new AC standard so attached to iMac via ethernet with TC's wifi turned off. How do i access TC now? not showing up in disk utility or on desktop. It is working fine with TM. My cheeper seagate drives etc kept crashing, so i didnt trust cheeper back up options anymore. Connected those drives to TM via firewire and could see the drives and access them.
Also, I didn't want to bridge TC with my new fios router that I paid 100 dollars for, to get N speed and also paying 10 dollars more a month for fast speed. I heard that bridging slows down everything and then there can be port issues with mail etc. I connect to the internet via airport only and it is pretty fast. Getting over 50mbs downloads and over 30mbs uploads. Plus everything in my home it connected to my fios router, airport express for music streaming, two apple tvs, vuezone camer system. I really didn't want to monkey around too much with my system. But are there other options to connect the new TC. Can't find info anywhere for this and called apple who gave me the info above. after hanging up, i see that i cant access my TC and I am wondering if i would have to reset it to turn wifi on again to make changes to the drive, turn off blinking light or repair it in disk utility if it should become corrupted.
For other with similar issues i did solve some other problems: when i connected it to my ethernet port on my iMac wifi stopped working. Found that I had to turn off the ethernet in the system>network screen, but then TM didn't see the TC so i restarted after changes and then it saw it.
Now a rant. I can't believe in this wireless age that Apple would make a product that cant join a wireless net work. The apple rep said i could return it and look for the previous TC that would join an existing wireless network. Are we going backwards?
Thanks!
lennydas

Ok... it is getting a bit clearer but there are still some questions.
I connect to the internet via airport only and it is pretty fast.
I was assuming airport in this statement in your first post meant the TC or the Express.. but I now realise we are still in the mass confusion stage where apple calls everything wireless an airport. So what you mean is the airport internal card of the computer??
Also, I didn't want to bridge TC with my new fios router that I paid 100 dollars for, to get N speed and also paying 10 dollars more a month for fast speed. I heard that bridging slows down everything and then there can be port issues with mail etc.
I think this is mistaken.
Putting the TC in bridge mode plugged into your FIOS will not slow the network.. nor will it cause mail or port issues.. in bridge the TC is just a fancy WAP and switch plus the network hard drive.
If the computer is close it will be faster than the FIOS.
You can run both wireless networks with different names.. so it is clear which is which. But you can also setup roaming so the computers themselves pick which is the best wireless.
I tried extending the wireless net work and tried joining wireless network, but the TC kept crashing and I had to keep resetting the TC. the Apple support person said these, extend wireless network and joint wireless network, are no longer a connection option with the new TC because of the new AC protocol.
Thanks again!
You cannot extend to a non-apple wireless router.
You cannot use join a wireless network because when you do the ethernet ports will be cut off.
But that has not changed.. I don't think Apple support is correct.. there has been no change with the AC model.. it is simply a fact that apple routers do not work in join wireless mode other than as a dumb client. The same applies to AC as to the earlier version.. but I have asked another person to check this.
Join in the express is the only apple router that still allows an ethernet connection.
For now you best use of the TC is bridged to the FIOS. Wireless you can sort out between several options.

Edu DVD in computer iTunes but does not show up in iPad iTunes or iPad video. How do I make the DVD contents available on the iPad?

Educational DVD added successfully to computer iTunes but does not show up in iPad iTunes or iPad video. How do I make the DVD contents available on the iPad?

Thanks! For whatever bizarre reason for which I have no answer - I sync'd my iPad to my MBP the old fashion way (not iCloud) and the movie showed up just fine. It is Nikon camera 'how to' video. I like to watch them for a better indepth discovery of what the camera can do. The only weird thing about the hard wire sync is that it was placed in a catagory "home movies" which was never there before...actually it showed up in two places "home movies" and TV shows.
So, thanks anyway! Pretty cat!
Mona

I'm trying to install an update to itunes that downloaded but can't complete installation as its trying to install onto D: drive. I don't have a D drive and i'm not given option of selecting the drive to install on. How can i select the drive that i want

I'm trying to install itunes but can't complete installation as its trying to install onto F: drive. I don't have a F drive and I'm not given option of selecting the drive to install on. How can I select the drive that i want to install on?

Hi,
How do you connect the printer to the XP machine ? If USB, you need to make that machine as a Print server. Please try this:
http://techtips.salon.com/make-windows-computer-print-server-11914.html
Regards.
BH
**Click the KUDOS thumb up on the left to say 'Thanks'**
Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.

HT3951 I purchased a movie on the AppleTV 2 but it is not showing up in iTunes on my desktop computer. How can I sync? (have lastest version of iTunes and ATV2 software)

I purchased a movie on the AppleTV 2 but it is not showing up in iTunes on my desktop computer. How can I sync? (have lastest version of iTunes and ATV2 software)

Of course it always works, what are you talking about.
I appreciate that re-downloading is only available in the US and then only with certain content. However content that cannot be re-downloaded is not offered for purchase on the Apple TV.

How can I erase the data on my 2009 macbook pro that won't turn on because of a faulty motherboard? Do I just remove the hard drive, install it in a working mac, and erase it that way?

How can I erase the data on my 2009 macbook pro that won't turn on because of a faulty motherboard? Do I just remove the hard drive, install it in a working mac, and erase it that way? Thanks.

You put the internal drive in an enclosure. If you choose to keep the drive, you don't need to erase it.
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HT4623 my iphone is not showing any updates it has 4.2.1 version how can i update it to 6.1

my iphone is not showing any updates it has 4.2.1 version how can i update it to 6.1

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HT1386 I bought a new computer and I cannot transfer my library to this new one. The message says that I'm not allowed to sync with two computers??? How can I delete the previous from my account???

I bought a new computer and I cannot transfer my library to this new one. The message says that I'm not allowed to sync with two computers??? How can I delete the previous one from my account???

You cannot transfer from the iPhone to the computer.
You must move the contents of your old computer to the new one directly.
Use an external hard drive perhaps or restore your old computer backup to your new computer.
The iPhone is not the source of your data, that is the computer, the iPhone is only a slave device to iTunes.

How can i erase the OS from an external HD but retain some data?

I have an external HD, a lacie 640gb triple interface, connected to my macbook pro via firewire. i have installed the OS to it as well as some data. The disk only has one partition. How can i erase everything [the operating system, applications etc] but keep some of my data in the disk? Which is the best way to do it? Should i use drive genius, which i have, to create a new partition to the HD, move the data that i do not want to be erased to it and then format the other partition and then reunite the two partitions or is there a better way to do it?
Thank you for your help.

No, as far as I know from this site, Drive Genius is your only hope. I have never used the product or that function though. Another member here says it works.
Your other choice would be to store the data on another drive temporarily. Erase, partition and transfer back.
 Cheers! DALE

Windows based WD external hard drive not showing up in Disk Utility to reformat to Mac... how can I erase the drive

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