Can't find External Hard drive in Finder / Disk Utility.

I have a Seagate 3TB drive that I have split between Time Machine and general storage. The drive is no longer able to be found in Finder or Disk Utility. I've restarted the drive, reset the PRAM and SMC (another thread suggested this) and it still has not worked. Any idea how to view this drive?

Is it a USB drive? Is it detected in another port?
Do other computers detect it?
If you boot to recovery (hold cmd + r) does disk utilities see it there?

Similar Messages

Can't modify external hard drive partition with Disk Utility

Hi,
I have an external 750GB hard drive that I previously formatted as FAT 32 because I wanted to be able to plug it into Windows computers as well. I was not very thoughtful at the beginning and I just created one big 750GB partition. I currently have 450GB used and about 300GB free.
I would like to create a new partition in the free space without losing the data I have in the disk, and format the new partition as Mac OS Extended to use it for Time Machine backups. Presumably Disk Utility can do it, but when I go to the "Partition" tab it says "This partition cannot be modified" and the "+" sign below it is grayed. Can anybody help me repartitioning my drive without losing my data?
Thanks!!!

That would likely be because the drive is partitioned MBR and not GUID. You cannot repartition an MBR partitioned drive on the fly. What you need is a drive that is partitioned using GUID (GPT) with on partition formatted for the Mac and the other formatted FAT32. But to do that you must start the drive from scratch:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard 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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the entire partition in the rectangle by clicking on it (the lines will turn darker blue) and click on the [+] Add button. The volume will be divided in two. Select each volume and resize as your require.
5. Select one of the volumes you just created. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button.
6. Repeat Step 5 using MSDOS as the format type.
This will work with any PC that understands the GPT partition scheme which is Vista and Windows 7. Otherwise, you should just leave the drive as it is and forgo using Time Machine or purchase another drive for Time Machine.

How do you fix bad blocks on an external hard drive without using disk utility

so basically does anyone know how to fix bad blocks on a external hard drive without using disk utlility please

Oh...if you have data you are trying to save then its best to try cloning the drive to another one, which should save its data as-is to another drive. Hopefully you can do so without there being hangups around the bad blocks and keep at least most of your data intact. I'd recommend you try using Carbon Copy Cloner to do this, but you will need a secondary drive that is at least the size of the data on the problematic drive.

External hard drive seen in Disk Utility, but will not mount.

My external hard drive has power and is spinning, but will not mount. It was fine yesterday. It shows up in Disk Utility and is verified and repaired. Tried the drive on 2 other macs with same result. Tried a new enclosure and that did not work. Tried all ports...usb and firewire. Any way to save my data?
I have screen shot of the partition info from Disk Utility for the hard drive included:

Hi Dominic,
If this is still not mounting, it may be worth trying a PRAM reset...
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Ben

External Hard Drive showing in Disk Utility - but not desktop.

A little background:
Yesterday, I moved my shelf where I have my modem, Airport Extreme, Airport Express and an external HD connected to the extreme to be a wireless HD for all users to access. Everything worked great - no problems whatsoever.
Problem: I have reconnected everything exactly as it was and reconfigured it as it was and now the external HD is having issues. When connected to the extreme, I can see it in the airport utility, but cannot gain access to it in that way. When I connect directly to my macbook, it is recognized by the disk utility, but does not appear on the desktop.
I don't know if this may have caused the problem, but I carelessly, unplugged the power bar for which all the above mentioned hardware plugs into when moving the shelf. Now, everything works as it did, except I can't get the express to show up once it is configured (but this isn't surprising as I had to fight with it the first time I configured it - not uncommon I am told), and the HD is no longer accessible via the network, or when directly connected to my macbook.
Help! According to the utilities, the data is still on the disk, I just can't access it in any way.

From the Disk Utility, select the drive and click on the Repair Disk(not Repair Permissions) button. If the Disk Utility finds a problem it can't fix, DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro will likely succeed.
(24355)

Why won't my external hard drive mount in Disk Utility even when it shows up on the list?

Hey all,
For the last few years I've used a Samsung S2 1TB external harddrive to back up all my files, this includes photos, music and a vast amount of resources required for Uni. However I plugged it in for the first time in about two months and discovered that neither my Macbook Pro (late 2011) or my Mac Mini (early 2013) are able to mount the hard drive.
It shows up in Disk Utilty however the harddrive is greyed out and when I manually try to mount it I get an error message saying that it can't be mounted and to use the first aid 'Repair disk permissions' feature which would be all good and well were that not also greyed out.
I've read a fair amount on this forum that suggest that Mavericks has caused quite an issue with harddrives and although I don't know for sure, the harddrive did stop working at a very similar time to when I updated. I've sinced used the basic version of 'Disk Drill' on the harddrive and all the files show up perfectly which leads me to believe that perhaps the issue isn't with the harddrive itself but perhaps a compatibility issue.
I was just wondering whether anyone had any advice or had suffered a similiar issue, preferably in relation to the Samsung S2 harddrive. The partition type is a Windows_FAT_32 and it's a USB hard drive.
Thanks in advance!

Because there's a problem with the disk's directory structure; these are often the result of improperly unplugging drives or forcing a computer to shut down. Proceed as instructed, or try using a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior to repair it.
(111975)

Cannot see external hard drive except in disk utility

when i open it in disk utility, all the buttons are grey, and i cannot verify or repair the disk. This happened once i updated it to mavericks.

Hi Dominic,
If this is still not mounting, it may be worth trying a PRAM reset...
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Ben

How long to erase 3TB external hard drive 7x with disk utility?

Just wondering, started Sunday afternoon and its still going 2 days later.

The 7x erase formatting was added to Disk Utility because of government agencies who have it as a requirement for their security. For most people a 1x erase and zero all data is sufficient. Do you really need to do the 7x?
Best of luck.

Finder can't see external hard drive

All of a sudden, my PowerBook G4 can no longer see my external hard drive (Maxtor 160 GB drive). The drive doesn't appear in the Finder, and it doesn't mount on the desktop. Thus, I have no way of accessing the files on my external hard drive.
I can see the external hard drive when I launch Disk Utility (and also when I launch TechTool Pro), so I know the hard drive and the USB connections are working.
Can someone please help on this?? I've tried unplugging everything and rebooting with no results. Thank you.
PowerBook G4 Titanium 1ghz processor Mac OS X (10.4.2)

By the way, here are my test results from running Disk Utility and Tech Tool Pro. Everything looks clean, I think?
Disk Utility says:
"The volume External Hard Drive appears to be OK.
Mounting Disk.
1 HFS volume checked.
No repairs were necessary."
TechTool Pro volumes test says:
Volume Structures
Thursday, March 29, 2007 6:24:26 PM US/Pacific
Passed
Volume: External Hard Drive
Mount Point: /dev/disk1s3
Format: HFS+ (Mac OS Extended)
Journaling: Enabled
Case-sensitive: No
Created: 03/26/07 01:26:09 AM
Modified: 03/26/07 01:26:09 AM
Capacity: 152.54 GB
Used: 49.81 GB
Available: 102.74 GB
Files: 86,074
Folders: 16,342
Writable: Yes
Ejectable: No
Removable: No
There are a variety of invisible files, settings, and parameters that the Macintosh file system uses to locate files, free disk space, and for other maintenance and management routines. Damage to these critical data structures can result in lost or damaged files and may even necessitate a complete reformat of the volume.
Precheck Structures
This test checks the readability of the various volume structures.
Boot Blocks
This test validates the Boot Blocks portion of the volume. This block of data is created when the volume is blessed.
Boot Blocks <Passed>
Master Directory Block
This test validates the Master Directory Block portion of the volume. This block of data is created when the volume is created and contains important data about the rest of the volume.
Master Directory Block <Passed>
Volume Header
This test validates the Volume Header portion of the volume. This block of data is created when the volume is created and contains important data about the rest of the volume like number of files and folders, and the amount of free space available on the volume.
Volume Header <Passed>
Allocation File (Bitmap)
This test checks the Allocation file. This file indicates which blocks are allocated for use and which blocks are free.
Allocation File (Bitmap) <Passed>
Extents File (B-Tree)
This test checks the Extents file. This file contains the extent data for the entire volume. Extents are the separate components of a fragmented file.
Extents File (B-Tree) <Passed>
Catalog File (B-Tree)
This test checks the Catalog file. This file keeps track of all the files and folders on the volume.
Catalog File (B-Tree) <Passed>
Attributes File
This test checks the Attributes file. This file tracks all of the attributes of each file and folder on a volume. Some attributes include whether the file is locked or not and the last time the volume was backed up.
Attributes File <Passed>
Startup File
This test checks the Startup file. The parameters within this file contain the information used by the computer ROM to determine what program will boot the computer as well as other system-specific aspects.
Startup File <Not Present>
Completed
Passed
Tech Tool Pro File structure says:
File Structure
Thursday, March 29, 2007 6:30:25 PM US/Pacific
Passed
Volume: External Hard Drive
Mount Point: /dev/disk1s3
Format: HFS+ (Mac OS Extended)
Journaling: Enabled
Case-sensitive: No
Created: 03/26/07 01:26:09 AM
Modified: 03/26/07 01:26:09 AM
Capacity: 152.54 GB
Used: 49.81 GB
Available: 102.74 GB
Files: 86,074
Folders: 16,342
Writable: Yes
Ejectable: No
Removable: No
This test checks for file resource corruption on the volume 'External Hard Drive'. If any damaged files are found, TechTool Pro will let you know which files have corrupted resources.
Analyzing File Structures
Passed
I'll let you know if Tech Tool Pro's surface scan of the drive turns anything up (it's running right now - takes several hours to run), but hopefulyl this provides a good starting point into painting a picture of my system...
Thx - Bob

Time Capsule can't backup external hard drives connected to it. Got that.

Hello Apple Support Communities! This is my first post. Hope this finds you all well My first year as an Apple user. I bought a 2-Tb TC and am running my first backup to my MacBook as I write this.
Problem statement: TC can't backup external hard drives connected directly to it, but the ones connected to the Macs that are connected wirelessly to it. Duly noted. However, the Spotlight will reindex the hard drives connected to the Mac and that will take hours; the whole backup will take days. Thus, excluding the hard drives at "System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy tab" will probably help reduce the time of backup, or just ejecting them will do too. That itself has not proven effective coz it's still taking forever (50Gb in 2 days, still going).
Questions:
1) Do I wait until my first backup to my MacBook's internal hard drive is done before I connect my hard drives to my MacBook and attempt another backup? If yes, how do I go about the excessive time Spotlight reindexing takes if I intend to backup my hard drives connected to my MacBook?
2) Is there any other way of speeding up the first-time backup?
*Note: All versions of OS and firmwares are up-to-date. TC is connected to an external wireless router. TC is intended to be used as backup device and / or file server only.
P/S: Apologee if this has already been discussed before, thus, a link to previous discussion thread would highly be appreciated)
- Shook Hashem, Malaysia.

How do I backup the externel hard drives connected to my MB. I was under the impression that that has already been done, because I've read it somewhere in a discussion that said it's done automatically unless I exclude it from a backup, which I didn't. So it's supposed to backup the external hard drivestoo because I had them connected to my MB the entire time during the backups.
By default an external drive is excluded.. the list is odd.. if I plug a drive into the mac.. it immediately is listed as excluded.
This is not the list of included.. this is the list of excluded.. remove it from the excluded list to include it.
It is kind of reverse polish notation in backups.
If I want to enter the Time Machine, should I enter it with the TM turned on or off?
Not sure what the question means. If you use the star wars display and want to recover files then use TM off.. but read up pondini.. how to do restore etc.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
15A in particular on the how to use TM.
When do I uplug the ethernet and use the wireless connection instead?
Once you have finished the main backup you can go back to wireless. The incremental backups are mostly very small.

Laptop no longer can mount my external hard drive

After updating to Mavericks, my laptop no longer can mount my external hard drive. What on earth is going on here and how can I fix this?

The drive is spinning and I was using it the night before I updated my macbook. It is viewable in disk utility but not in finder, and attempts to mount it are thwarted. The problem is literally coincident with updating the mavericks. When I click verify it didn't appear to have any problems but I will retry when I am back at home and report the findings.
It is a Toshiba 1GB external hard drive and has adequate power. Lights are on, etc.
I have not checked on another computer as do not have one available, but that will be my next step.

PowerBook G4 can't see external hard drive

All of a sudden, my PowerBook G4 can no longer see my external hard drive (Maxtor 160 GB drive). The drive doesn't appear in the Finder, and it doesn't mount on the desktop. Thus, I have no way of accessing the files on my external hard drive.
I can see the external hard drive when I launch Disk Utility (and also when I launch TechTool Pro), so I know the hard drive and the USB connections are working.
Can someone please help on this?? I've tried unplugging everything and rebooting with no results. Thank you.
PowerBook G4 Titanium 1ghz processor Mac OS X (10.4.2)
PowerBook G4 Titanium 1ghz processor Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Everything looks clean, as far as I can tell.
Disk Utility says:
"The volume External Hard Drive appears to be OK.
Mounting Disk.
1 HFS volume checked.
No repairs were necessary."
TechTool Pro volumes test says:
Volume Structures
Thursday, March 29, 2007 6:24:26 PM US/Pacific
Passed
Volume: External Hard Drive
Mount Point: /dev/disk1s3
Format: HFS+ (Mac OS Extended)
Journaling: Enabled
Case-sensitive: No
Created: 03/26/07 01:26:09 AM
Modified: 03/26/07 01:26:09 AM
Capacity: 152.54 GB
Used: 49.81 GB
Available: 102.74 GB
Files: 86,074
Folders: 16,342
Writable: Yes
Ejectable: No
Removable: No
There are a variety of invisible files, settings, and parameters that the Macintosh file system uses to locate files, free disk space, and for other maintenance and management routines. Damage to these critical data structures can result in lost or damaged files and may even necessitate a complete reformat of the volume.
Precheck Structures
This test checks the readability of the various volume structures.
Boot Blocks
This test validates the Boot Blocks portion of the volume. This block of data is created when the volume is blessed.
Boot Blocks <Passed>
Master Directory Block
This test validates the Master Directory Block portion of the volume. This block of data is created when the volume is created and contains important data about the rest of the volume.
Master Directory Block <Passed>
Volume Header
This test validates the Volume Header portion of the volume. This block of data is created when the volume is created and contains important data about the rest of the volume like number of files and folders, and the amount of free space available on the volume.
Volume Header <Passed>
Allocation File (Bitmap)
This test checks the Allocation file. This file indicates which blocks are allocated for use and which blocks are free.
Allocation File (Bitmap) <Passed>
Extents File (B-Tree)
This test checks the Extents file. This file contains the extent data for the entire volume. Extents are the separate components of a fragmented file.
Extents File (B-Tree) <Passed>
Catalog File (B-Tree)
This test checks the Catalog file. This file keeps track of all the files and folders on the volume.
Catalog File (B-Tree) <Passed>
Attributes File
This test checks the Attributes file. This file tracks all of the attributes of each file and folder on a volume. Some attributes include whether the file is locked or not and the last time the volume was backed up.
Attributes File <Passed>
Startup File
This test checks the Startup file. The parameters within this file contain the information used by the computer ROM to determine what program will boot the computer as well as other system-specific aspects.
Startup File <Not Present>
Completed
Passed
Tech Tool Pro File structure says:
File Structure
Thursday, March 29, 2007 6:30:25 PM US/Pacific
Passed
Volume: External Hard Drive
Mount Point: /dev/disk1s3
Format: HFS+ (Mac OS Extended)
Journaling: Enabled
Case-sensitive: No
Created: 03/26/07 01:26:09 AM
Modified: 03/26/07 01:26:09 AM
Capacity: 152.54 GB
Used: 49.81 GB
Available: 102.74 GB
Files: 86,074
Folders: 16,342
Writable: Yes
Ejectable: No
Removable: No
This test checks for file resource corruption on the volume 'External Hard Drive'. If any damaged files are found, TechTool Pro will let you know which files have corrupted resources.
Analyzing File Structures
Passed
I'll let you know if Tech Tool Pro's surface scan of the drive turns anything up (it's running right now - takes several hours to run), but hopefulyl this provides a good starting point into painting a picture of my system...
Thx - Bob

Can not get external hard drives to connect to my computer 17" Mac book Pro 10.7.5

can not get external hard drives to connect to my computer I am using a 17" Mac book Pro 10.7.5.
I have 2 iomegas and 1 LaCie. Changed cables. I can feel the external hard drives running and
I can hear them running but I can not get them on the computer any more. They did work at one time.
Can any one PLEASE help?

Nothing appear on my desktop.
I did Repair and Verify the HDDs in Disk Utility>First Aid from the
Utilites App about a dozen times ans they all said everything was good
except for the last time there were erors found and I ran the
Disk Utility from the Start Up Disk and the repairs were made and everything
was subposed to te good and still Nothing on the desk top.
Ginger

Can not fine external hard drive for time machine sence lion was installed

I can not fine external hard drive for time machine sence lion was installed, it don't reconise it at all.

I have a Mac Mini (late 2009) and I have an iomega 1TB external hard drive connected to my mini via firewire and usb (usb allows me to use the usb ports on the external 1TB drive to daisy chain other devices). Since I installed Lion, my Time Machine and this 1TB drive (and its partitions) is finicky. Sometimes it is mounted and sometimes it is not. This issue has only surfaced post Snow Leopard and in the Lion era. I am not the first to say this but the whole reason I went Mac was b/c of Vista. I am beginning to think that Lion is the new Vista. Sorry for the latter, just venting... b/c this ain't the first issue with Lion.

Hello, I have two questions on time capsule I can only have it on my external hd files and free up my internal memory to my mac I can use an external hard drive, in my case a lacie rugged as shared memory for my two computers

Hello, I have two questions on time capsule I can only have it on my external hd files and free up my internal memory to my mac I can use an external hard drive, in my case a lacie rugged as shared memory for my two computers

I have a mackbook pro and an iMac if I buy a time capsule 2tb airport, I can use it with time machine and what would be the best way to use it.
There is no particular setup required for TM.. both computers will create their own backup sparsebundle which is like a virtual disk.. Pondini explains the whole thing if you read the reference I gave you.
and how to use time capsule airport whit other external hd to use my old lacie airport with the new time capsule
Up to you.. you can plug the external drive into the TC and enjoy really slow file transfers or you can plug it into your computer and use it as external drive.. which is faster than the TC.. and TM can include it in the backup.
Again everything is explained in the reference.. you are not reading it.

Can you use external hard drives with the HP Omni 10 5600US

Since this a Windows tablet, can you use external hard drives with the HP Omni 10 5600US?
I know there is a micro-sd reader for additional storage but can you use the usb for external hard drives like a regular pc?
I tried looking at the spec's for this tablet and it said the usb port was host only. I'm not sure what that means exactly.

Yes you can. You'll need to purchase a USB OTG (on-the-go) cable. I recommend using a drive that has its own power supply but I've successfully used small USB powered drives also.

Can't find External Hard drive in Finder / Disk Utility.

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