Can't find my external drives in Lion. Where did they go in Finder when I upgraded?

Check the settings in the General and Sidebar tabs of the FInder's preferences.
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HT4889 Migration Assistant to update my new Mountain Lion iMac from an external USB hard disk drive, it is constantly saying that it is "looking for other computers". It doesn't find the external drive. Why is it looking for other computers?

I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to update my new Mountain Lion iMac from an external USB hard disk drive. I told it to look for a drive, yet it is constantly saying that it is "looking for other computers". It doesn't find the external drive ... it just endlessly looks for other computers. Why is it looking for other computers at all, when I told it not to?

Wow, the wording in Migration Assistant is misleading. I've never used it before, so I thought I would try to copy my files from the external drive ... my old iMac died, but I managed to get everything I need off it, using the 'cp' command in single-user mode. So I guess I'll just have to manually copy the files from the external drive to the new machine. I was hoping that Migration Assistant might help somehow, but obviously not.
Thanks for the quick reply!

HT201250 I've just used an external drive to back up my Mac with Time Machine. I have Lion, but didn't click and check the "Encrypt Backup Disc". What should I do? Can I delete the external drive and start again, or can I encrypt later?

I've just used an external drive to back up my Mac with Time Machine. I have Lion, but didn't click and check the "Encrypt Backup Disc". What should I do? Can I delete the external drive and start again, or can I encrypt later?

I guess if stolen or lost it would protect my "stuff", and if I'm travelling would protect my privacy.
You must understand the purpose and implications of encryption before deciding whether to use it.
Encryption locks your data with a password. If you forget that password, the data is lost beyond any chance of recovery. Neither Apple nor anyone else will be able to help you recover that data if you don't know the password.
By the same token, the password must be strong enough to provide the security you want. For example, if you're the potential target of industrial espionage by a government or large corporation, you need the strongest possible password. To create and manage such a password safely is a task in itself, not to be undertaken lightly.
If you're only concerned about casual snooping by someone with no special skill, a weak, easily-remembered password is appropriate.
But regardless of the strength of the password, if you lose it, the data is gone forever.
Another point to remember is that if you encrypt your data on one storage device, you must also encrypt it on all other storage devices that would be accessible to the same attacker. Otherwise the data isn't protected. For example, if you keep your computer and your backup drive in the same room, and the internal drive of the computer is not encrypted, then there's no point in encrypting the backup drive.

Migration cant find my external drive

I can USB connect my external drive that I ran time machine backups on before I repleaced the hard drive. I've now installed Mountain Lion and I am trying to utilize migration assistant to reload apps and files but it just spins like it can't find my external drive. I can use finder and see the files on my external drive, why can migration assistant find it?

Howdy all,
This may be a resolution to the issue here…it worked for me, so I am sharing in case this works for others.
In trying to migrate my older MacBookPro to a new MacBookPro, I was having the same issue that many folks are having where the Migration Assistant doesn’t see the external USB drive with my Time Machine backup. After reading through the posts by a user, Pondini, I discovered that I had the “bug” that was causing my automatic backups to exclude the Applications, System and Library folders. For those of you not familiar with this “bug”, it is described by user Pondini here: http://pondini.org/TM/D10.html. I performed the following steps which seemed to resolve the backup issue and subsequently allowed the Migration Assistant to “see” my external USB backup drive and perform the data migration:
1. I performed the “Full Reset of Time Machine” as described by user “Pondini” here: http://pondini.org/TM/A4.html. I first deleted the file: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist. NOTE: I DID NOT IMMEDIATELY PERFORM A NEW TIME MACHINE BACKUP AT THIS POINT…I did the next steps first.
2. I quit ALL applications - including any that might be running in the background…like Intego’s Virus Barrier software that continuously runs “Real-Time Scanning” of my system. I believe that the Virus Barrier software was interfering with the Time Machine backup process and causing the Applications, System and Library folders to somehow be excluded from my backups. However, I cannot say this definitively. But turning off Virus Barrier seemed to solve the issue for me. Is anyone else with this issue running Intego’s Virus Barrier? Or perhaps something similar in the background?
3. Next, I did a fresh Time Machine backup selecting the same external USB drive I had been using. When this subsequent backup was complete, the Application, System and Library folders were there.
4. I turned on my new MacBookPro (running Mavericks), and started the Migration Assistant application. DO NOT PLUG IN THE EXTERNAL DRIVE YET. I selected the option to migrate from an existing Time Machine backup. Once at the screen with the spinning grey wheel that says: “Looking for sources…”, THEN I plugged in the external USB drive, turned it on and it was immediately discovered. I hit “Continue” and it transferred everything to the new MacBookPro as it was supposed to.
5. I have run subsequent Time Machine backups from my new MacBookPro running Mavericks and have not seen the exclusion issue reoccur, but I’ll keep an eye on it.
Hope this helps. Thanks to all for their input on this issue…especially user “Pondoni” - who I understand passed away before this issue was resolved.

I'm trying to find an external drive for the MacPro that will allow me to password protect the external drive in case it is taken. Any suggestions on a very reliable on that is 2TB or a third party software that is compatable with the need I describe?

I'm trying to find an external drive for the MacPro that will allow me to password protect the external drive in case it is taken. Any suggestions on a very reliable one that is 2TB or a third party software that is compatable with the need I describe?

How much of a hurry are you in, and are you considering upgrading to Lion?
File Vault on Snow Leopard only encrypts home folders you select, and doesn't work well with Time Machine.
But Lion will have "full disk encryption" of local or external disks. See File Vault 2 here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html

Updated to Mavericks OS X but can't use my external drive by WD My Passport. The Mac reads it but I can't add/remove files to the external drive. Help?!

Updated to Mavericks OS X but can't use my external drive by WD My Passport. The Mac reads it but I can't add/remove files to the external drive. Help?!
The WD My Passport, I purchased back in early December 2013 & I just used it the other day after I updated my Macbook... & of course it says in the online manual it works for Mac Lion, Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard but not this new Maverick update. Is there anything I can do?

I like the free demo of SuperDuper to make clones. It's free, Tiger and Leopard ready and is easy to use. If you buy the full version you can do incremental backups.
You should use Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, booted up on your install disk, before you make a clone of it.
I then partition my external disk, in Disk Utility, with a partition that is the same size , actually a tad bigger, as my system disk. I then use SuperDuper to clone my system disk over to that partition.
With a clone on an external FireWire drive (USB drives are not bootable on some Macs) you can bootup on it to do your repairs or just run your Mac anytime you have trouble with your main drive. Be careful, there are a few external FireWire drives out there that are not bootable on Macs. Check the drive's manual to be sure.
 DALE

Can't Boot From External Drive

Situation:
Prior to upgrading to Lion I used SuperDuper to create a copy of the existing internal hard drive on an new external drive (iOmega eGo 500GB).
Tested booting from the external disk and it appeared to work correctly.
Upgraded to Lion.
Several days later attempted to boot from the external disk (by setting the start up disk in the system preferenes ) but it fails.
The system always boots into Lion.
What I've tried:
Setting the start up disk through system preferences
Holding down the option key to select a disk on startup - interestingly enough I only see the internal hard disk and a recover HD. No sign of my external disk.
Using a clean partition on the external hard drive I installed SL from the retail DVD. This produces the same effect of system booting to Lion on the internal drive, which suggests that the problem is not related to the copy I made using SuperDuper, but rather has to do with the external drive or something in Lion that prevents using an external drive (but I've never heard of such a thing).
Talked to technical support at Apple since I had newly purchased Lion. They couldn't offer a solution but did give a lot of thought and suggestions - but they don't support booting from an external disk.
Talked to iOmega technical support. Not helpful but did figure out at the end of an online chat that they don't support their disks being used for external booting.
Emailed SuperDuper. Very helpful. They offered some suggestions but in the end these didn't work.
Characteristics
Lion 10.7.4
iMac 2007
External Drive Interface FW800
I'd appreciate any suggestions as to the cause of the problem and possible fixes.
Thanks

@shootist007
Still no success but more information:
I found the USB cable for the drive, connected it to a powered USB hub (note that there are two cables going into the hub that must merge and go into a single connector for the USB interface on the drive). with both cables plugged in I still can't get the external drive to boot.
I need to do one more experiment on this. The hub is fully loaded so I'll try removing as much load as possible on the USB to see if I can get it to work.
Regarding your question, there is no way to get power to the drive. (Now I think about it, the design is for a portable drive that you can carry around with you so iOmega aimed the design at not needing a power supply to make it very portable). Hmmm, didn't think about that when I purchased it.
If reducing the load on the hub doesn't make it work then I'l have to get a replacement drive with its own power supply.
Thanks for your help. Even though no success yet I suspect you've identified the problem.

How do I access my iphoto library on time machine backup external drive using Lion, originally saved from old computer and system

how do I access my iphoto library on time machine backup external drive using Lion, originally saved off old computer and system. It's not letting me open the folder???

Once again here's how to restore an iPhoto Library from Time Machine:

How do I move a back up to another external drive and how does the Mac Book then find the new back up?

how do I move a back up to another external drive and how does the Mac Book then find the new back up?
I currently have the back up on a Time Capsule, I want to move it from the Time Capsule to another external hard drive.

Did you read the link to the Pondidni website? You will have to select the Time Machine HDD for the new MBP and the old one in System Preferences>Time Machine:
Ciao.

Started to run recovery disc assistant on a backup hard drve-stopped when it said it would erase all data-but now can't inialize the external drive nor repair it with disc utility?

started to run recovery disc assistant on a backup hard drve-stopped when it said it would erase all data-but now can't inialize the external drive nor repair it with disc utility. what to do?

Activity Monitor – Monitor Performance Problems
Performance Guide
Why is my computer slow
Why your Mac runs slower than it should
Slow Mac After Mavericks
Things you can do to resolve slowdowns see post by Kappy
Try running this program and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read.
Etrecheck – System Information

Can't see my external drive on fcpx

Hello,
I saw an earlier discussion in Apple support about my problem, I did make the recommendations,
But i still can't see my external drive in FCPX.
Please help.

I'll try again.

Can't see my external drive anymore after updating to 10.5.5

Hi! Another problem after updating to 10.5.5: I can't see my external drive anymore. It's a lacie quadra, plugged to my iMac via firewire 800.
Really hope they fix this update really soon...
Any of you knows how much time Apple usually takes to solve upgrade bugs like these we're all experiencing with 10.5.5? Do they do it fast?

Hi Barry, I'll eventually do, but there are other people that have had the same problem right after upgrading to 10.5.5. I really think it's an os x bug, just like the other graphic problems that people are reporting now.
I think Apple should take these reports quite seriously.
Anyway, also think that probably these bugs are confined to iMac intel, as some one else pointed out before in this forum, because some friends of mine upgrading their MacPro, didn't have any trouble.
Bye!

Have made a rebbot from Time Machine, and now I lack a lot of pictures. Can see icons, but not enlarge them. Especially pictures where 2009 is included in the date is missing? When I set up my desktop, I can find some of the pictures. Where do They hide,

Missing Pictures.
Have made a rebbot from Time Machine, and now I lack a lot of pictures. Can see icons, but not enlarge them. Especially pictures where 2009 is included in the date is missing?
When I set up my desktop, I can find some of the pictures. Where do They hide, and what shall I do.
Have made back up, but unfortunately a little too late. What to do?
MacBook Pro 15 "late 2008, Processor 2.53 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB, Software Mac OS X 10.7.4 Lion (11E53).

1. You did not get an error message telling you that your iPhoto library was getting full. You got a message telling you that your HD was getting full, right?
OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on.
Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially.
Your first priority is to make more space on that HD. Nothing else can be done until you do.
Purchase an external HD and move your Photos and Music to it. Both iPhoto and iTunes can run perfectly well with the Library on an external disk.
Your Library has been damaged from being run on an overfull disk.
How much free space on it now?

I have just over 100gig of music in my iTunes library plus what ever else I add in the future. Because of the amount I had to save my music library on an external drive as my laptop did not have the memory to hold it all. I want to back up my iTunes libra

I have just over 100gig of music in my iTunes library plus what ever else I add in the future. Because of the amount I had to save my music library on an external drive as my laptop did not have the memory to hold it all. I want to back up my iTunes library and save it on a different external drive, one I store all my back ups on. Is this possible? If so how can I do it?

To import music into your iTunes library on the computer go to iTunes>Help>iTunes Help>Add items to iTunes and follow the instructions
Delete the "songs" that do not play in your iTunes library and reimport them.

Recently got a new computer and installed itunes from external drive - all music shows up in the library, however when i click on a song i receive this message "the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". What do i do?

I recently got a new computer and installed itunes from which had been saved onto an external drive - all music shows up in the library, however when I click on a song I receive this message "the song "abc" could not be used because the original file could not be found". What can I do?

I was given the option to locate the file where the song is held. If so select "locate" and direct it to the folder / file where the song is and open it. itunes then will give you the option to use this process to update all of your library. OK that as this will do it automatically instead of doing them one by one. I hope this helps.
Martin

Can't find my external drives in Lion. Where did they go in Finder when I upgraded?

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