Can't see hard drive icon on desktop

Just got my daughter a new MA 13" 2011...installing some software via the external superdrive when I realized that I can't see the HD icon on the desktop...am I missing something to make it visible? Other than that if functions properly...I can "see" it when installing software as it lets me choose it as an install destination....
Thanks,
Daryl

Activate the Finder, select Preferences from the Finder menu, click on the General icon in the toolbar, check the boxes for what you want displayed on the Desktop. You can do the same thing for the sidebar by clicking on the Sidebar icon in the toolbar.

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Second user can't see hard drive icons on her desktop

I added my wife also as an administator, but she can't see the hard drive icons on her desktop. Not even the Macintosh HD icon. Hard drives are connected thru USB.
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To show your hard disk icons on the Desktop, open Finder > Preferences > General and mark “Hard disks” and “External disks”. Your hard disks icons will show on the Desktop

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1. It needs more power than the USB port provides. Try plugging it into a powered hub or a port on the computer itself.
2. It is formatted with an incompatible file system. Check to see if you can select the drive in Disk Utility.
3. The Finder preferences for viewing disks are set to not show this type of device.
4. The file system is corrupted or the device is kaput.
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Hi everyone,
Hope this isn't too annoying for you experts out there. I am new at this installation thing.
I have installed a Seagate Ultra ATA/100 200 GB internal drive to my G4. It shows on the apple profiler but I can't seem to figure out why it doesn't show up on the desktop. Any suggestions?
Any help would be much apprecitated!
(I did go to Other World Computing to make sure the installation was correct-and it was)
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G4 Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Hi, hardware!
Welcome to the Discussions!
Have you initialized (fancy word for an initial format) the drive using Disk Utility after installing it? It must be formatted in order to mount. Launch Disk Utility from your startup drive, highlight the new drive (on the left side of the window), and use the Erase window to format with Mac OS Extended format, if you haven't already done so. Check the box to install the OS 9 drivers, which won't take up any user space on the drive. Optionally (recommended), use the Options button on the Erase window to overwrite the drive with zeros, which will take time, but will map out any bad sectors which may be present, precluding their future use and giving you some insurance against data corruption if any are present.
If it was already formatted, are both drives configured for Cable Select? If not, how are they jumpered?
If they're both jumpered for Cable Select, then hold down the cmdoption+pr keys at startup and do a PRAM reset and please let us know what happens.
Gary
ps: Folks come here to either help out, to get help, or both. Please feel comfortable asking any Mac-relative question you might have. We're all members of the same Community and happy to help each other out if we can. Even the most experienced member here at one time had to deal with the unknowns of installing a drive for the first time.
1GHz DP G4 Quicksilver 2002, 400MHz B&W rev.2 G3, Mac SE30 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 5G iPod, Epson 2200 & R300 & LW Select 360 Printers, Epson 3200 Scanner

How can I put a hard drive icon on desktop?

how can I put a hard drive icon on desktop?

Click on the Desktop. Select Preferences from the Finder's menu. Click on the General icon in the toolbar. Check the appropriate boxes.

Hard Drive icon missing - Desktop folders won't open - Need Help!

I need help! I have a 400 MHz PowerPC G4 with 768 MB SDRAM, no DVD drive - was running OS X 10.3.9 quite happily. We became owners of a new iPod Nano - so we had to upgrade to 10.4.
(I'm writing this on my 800 MHz PowerPC G4 with 768 MB SDRAM, (also no DVD drive) that I upgraded from OS X 10.3.9 to 10.4.11 without incident.)
Installed 10.4 using a FireWire Hard Drive - installed software updates to 10.4.11 - ran Disk Utility - ran MacJanitor - ran DoktorKleaner - everything was working well.
Rebooted and the Hard Drive Icon had disappeared from desktop. Folders on desktop have all lumped together in the top right hand corner of the screen, and refuse to open.
Only programs in the dock still work - clicking on the Finder icon only gives the option to hide. New Finder Window does not work. Programs can be found in Spotlight, but if they're not in the dock they won't open. Trash won't open or empty.
I attempted to reinstall Mac OS X using FireWire, but now the Hard Drive is full and is telling me it will erase and reinstall. I need to save files off this computer now (Sadly no backup exists) before my wife readies divorce papers.
I tried using FireWire Target Disk Mode to copy files - with the 400MHz as Target I just get a spinning Beach Ball any time I click on the Icon. After far too long it opened up an empty window.
With the 800MHz as the target, the 400MHz does not show it on the desktop, so I have no way of copying files to it.
Anyone have some advice that doesn't involve a time machine?

Whenever something starts going wrong with the computer I suggest you first boot from the installer disk, select language if applicable, choose utilities, run Disk Utility and verify (and repair if necessary) the drive. Then repair the permissions on your computer. You can also repair permissions from DU on your main drive while booted, but to properly verify and repair your drive you have to run it from a drive other than the boot drive.
[Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214]
[Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672]
[Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751]
From BDaqua (couldn't have said it better):
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
Then Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes."
A few questions:
Was this a retail installer disc that you used to do the upgrade?
How much free space do you have on the computer?
Did you use the [PPC Combo updater|http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html] to get to 10.4.11?
Did you do all these updates in one single session or restart and check your computer had accepted them okay between each update? It is critical to repair permissions before and after each update otherwise the installers won't install fully and you end up with a mix of versions.
You can set the Finder Preferences, general, to display a hard drive icon, but it sounds like your problems are going beyond that?
You can also try trashing your Users -> home folder -> Library -> Preferences -> com.apple.finder.plist file and see if that clears up the issue. That sets the Finder preferences and if it gets corrupted it will cause Finder problems.

2 hard drive icons on desktop?

I am new to mac computers and have just inherited an old blue iMac which I already have updated to system OSX
However one thing I don't understand is that I have 2 hard drive icons on my desktop with different names, one contains the OS9 and OSX - the other is empty but says it has around 3GB of memory on it - is this really another hard drive thats been installed in the past? - and can I use it, and if so, what for?
many thanks
iMac Mac OS X (10.4)

Hello Swiss Kate,
I believe what you have is a hard drive that has been partitioned. This means it has been formatted as though it was 2 HD's. Sometimes what people do is use one portion for 9 and the other for X..... You have many options for using the 2nd section of the HD. Perhaps you use it for job storage or pixs etc. I would think about installing the OS 9 on the second (smaller) partition. That way you may be able to boot up if there is a problem with X.. Until you get used to the mac I think I would just use it for storage of important data you enter. HTH.......mGb.......Jim

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With my G4 I was able to copy and paste a picture onto my hard drive icon, changing its appearance on the desk top. With my G5 and Tiger, I am no longer able to do this. Apple support was unaware of this issue. Is anyone else with Tiger and a G5 able to go to info and copy and paste a new icon for the drive? Is there anyone else having this problem with Tiger when a new icon cannot be copied?
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Just to clarify: when you open the hard drive info window and paste, does the icon change there, but not on the desktop? Or will the icon not change in the info window either? If the latter, it might be worth temporarily (can't stress enough the temporary part...)changing the ownership rules. When you get the info window, go down to Ownership & Permissions, then the Details section and change owner from system to your name from the list (You'll be prompted to enter system password). Do the cut & paste, then re-set the owner to system. This has worked for me on stubborn system icons.
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Respectfully submitted,
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Can't see hard drive icon on desktop

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