Cannot see external hard drive in finder even though listed in Disk utility

I have a major problem with my G5 after file vault became corrupted and I had to erase the user account with all my data after consultation with an Apple Store Genius.
I have an external Iomega external back up but the finder does not list it anymore and it does not appear on the desktop. It is seen by disk utility however and I have run disk repair which says its fine. When it is not mounted, the icon next to the hard drive name (in disk utility) is a firewire external drive, but when I do mount it it appears as the unrecognized file type icon (the icon with the piece of paper with a bent corner). It also doesn't show up when I enable hidden folders.
It does however mount on my son's iMac. All my data is on this external disk and its my only copy left.
Please can you help me or point me toward a previous thread. I have tried ejecting it and remounting the HD after turning it off but no luck.
Yours
Mr Desperate

USB and FireWire Quick Assist
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151?viewlocale=en_US
What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire device
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
Dealing with FireWire problems (drives not mounting, devices unrecognized, etc.)
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20041221081432908
 Cheers, Tom

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IMac Finder cannot see external hard drive but Disk Utility can

I have a WD external hard drive and it has been attached to my iMac for a year or two. About two months ago I upgraded to Lion 10.7.5 and hard drive still worked. Then suddenly about a week ago the iMac no longer sees the external hard drive in Finder.
I have connected the hard drive to the iMac with different USB cables and into different ports and it makes no difference so deduce there is no issues with the cables or the ports. I have connected the hard drive to an old Macbook and it can see the harddrive and read some of the info but I really need the hard drive attached to the iMac as I store all my music and photos on the external hard drive.
I read another thread and someone asked if you can see the hard drive in Disk Utility. I tried this and Disk Utility can see the hard drive.
What does this mean? Any suggestions as to how to get the iMac to see the hard drive so I can access the data on it?
I dont really know how Disk Utility works therefore if that is any help to me.
thanks

Open the Finder.
From the Finder menu bar click Finder > Preferences then select the General tab.
Make sure: External disks is selected.

External Hard Drive doesn't mount, not showing in Disk Utility

I have had this Western Digital external hard drive for a few months now and until this evening it worked fine. It won't show up on my Macbook Pro and it is not present in the Disk Utility section. The light on the external hard drive is on so it doesn't appear to be a power issue. I have another of the same exact hard drive and it works fine. I tried switching USB cables and even power supplies and I can't get it to work. Does anyone know how to recover the files or is the hard drive toast?

Something's wrong inside the case; it's either a problem which is preventing the computer from properly connecting to the drive or the drive itself is dead.
Data recovery from a failed drive can only be done by a professional service, which can charge hundreds or thousands of dollars.
(93717)

Problems with External Hard drive, will not mount and errors in disk utilit

i have a powerbook g4 aluminum. i have an external hard drive for it. a simple tech 100gig portable drive, almost brand new. i dont know what happened to it, but one day i was starting my computer up with it attached. it wounldnt fully start up, said "waiting for local disks" so i uplugged the external hard drive. now it wont mount and will only show up in the disk utility of my friends macbook. i tried to verify and repair, and this is the message i got.
Verify and Repair disk “UNTITLED”
** /dev/disk1s1
could not read boot block (Input/output error)
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 non HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
Im in mexico writing a book and so i really need help on this one guys.

Hi, hjbugs, and welcome to Apple Discussions. Disconnecting the drive while your Powerbook was accessing it probably caused your problem. It may be repairable using DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro, but if you don't have access to one of those and aren't going to buy one, reformatting the drive with Disk Utility may be the only other way to make it usable again. If it contains data you need to recover first (i.e., data that isn't also stored on your internal HD or other storage media), download the free demo version of one of the data recovery utilities mentioned in this thread and use it to see what is recoverable. If the files you need are recoverable, buy the full version of one of the utilities and recover them.

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

IPhoto cannot see external storage drive

Very unusual freeze-up while "repairing" iPhoto required a forced shut down. Now cannot see external hard drive with photos on it. Can you help please.

Have no idea the format of the external disk. It plugs into the back of my big monitor and has worked perfectly until I upgraded to Yosemite and iPhoto 9.8 in late December. I had difficulty setting up iPhoto at that time, and you fine folks walked me though the process in mid January. All photos were there and in the proper albums. External disk is a Seagate Free Agent GoFlex, and it is backed up on Mozy and also on an iPad Air 2.
Problem started when I simply plugged in my iPhone and iPhoto told me I had to repair my database, which I did -- it took some time. Then I had to do something with Permissions. That never ended and a Word document froze on screen while I was working on it, and when I couldn't close any tabs in Safari -- couldn't do anything, actually -- iPhoto was continuing to spin with Permissions. Finally after about 15 minutes of that, I did a hard "push the start button" shutdown. The restart took a very long time.
Since I installed Yosemite and got iPhoto working -- when it was working -- the entire computer has been a bit sluggish and slow. And for the first time ever --and I've used Macs since the 1980s -- I had a freeze yesterday. Likely unrelated, but just a data point.
(BTW, is there any way I can find the discussion I had w/you folks back when I setup this iPhoto in mid-January? Anyway to search and find it in Support?)

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 machine not seeing external hard drive in time line

can anyone help
time machine not seeing external hard drive in time line
before 2013
information say in 2009 is not accessable to view this
i must select external drive from finder
the time machine icon not recognising

thanks for reply
when i open time machine the time line on right side of page
has date ranging from 2014 back to 2010 but only highlight date from 2014 back to 2013
anything before 2013 is greyed out and cannot not be selected
when i touch the pages they only rush towards me a limited amount then stops
also why it shows date as 2014 is strange

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

I don't see my hard drive in finder , i wanna know how much hard drive space i have.

i don't see my hard drive in finder , i wanna know how much hard drive space i have.

Check the settings in the General and Sidebar tabs of the Finder's preferences.
(67071)

I have a external hard drive connected, Finder will not let me search for files in the external hard drive how do i search in a hard drive

i have a external hard drive connected, Finder will not let me search for files in the external hard drive how do i search in a hard drive

What are you using to search? You should be able to search any drive in from the Finder. If you're having trouble, try "EasyFind" from the App Store (free). You can search any volumes with it.
Clinton

HT3231 Migration assistant doesnt see external hard drive

Mac OS 10.7.5 Intel 2 gHx Core 2 Duo. Just replaced a crashed hard drive. Migration assistnat doesnt see external hard drive, although it is on desktop and working fine. Connected by USB. I have a backup on the external drive. Too large to place on internal hard drive. So frustrating! I looked at forums online, no help. Any ideas?

1. Definitely 10.7.5
2. I'm not convinced it is a TM drive. It has been used as such, but I am not sure of its current status. Of note, Time machine is currently using it, but I get the sense that it only uses part of the drive. The file I want to use is in a seperate directory of the external hard drive than backups.backupdb, where Time machine is currently writing. The file I want to use is called "Untitled - 2012.01.16-10.17.00.766.FullBackup" and the file type is package. Of note, Time machine let's me have the option to restore the stuff it has been writing for the last few days. Migration assistant, however, is not so cooperative.
3. I have been opening migration assistant, putting in password, choosing "from a Time machine backup or other disk", and then it shows only "Mac OS" as an option under "select your system".
Thanks for your interest and help!

HT3275 Time machine at home and it will not allow me to remove the listing of my external hard drive from the excluded files list.

Please help guys, I have a Time machine at home and it will not allow me to remove the listing of my external hard drive from the excluded files list.
I am trying to use time machine to back up the hard drive. For backing up from Macbooik pro and Imac, there is no problem. It seems to not want to allow the external drive to be removed from the Excluded list and as such will not back up from it.
Is there a way to be able to transfer files (music, movies etc) to time machine, format the external drive then put the files back to hard drive?
Sorry it is a long winded question but it is driving me nuts that I cant sort this out.
The <Macbook and Imac are both running mountain lion.
Thanks Guys

As for the hard drive to which you have never been able to write, is it by any chance in NTFS format? OS X can read NTFS for importing files, but it does not contain code for writing on an NTFS volume. That's a choice, not a bug.
There is third-party software available to install NTFS-writing capability into OS X. An example is Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X. Another alternative would be to use a disk format that both Macs and Windows systems can use for both reading and writing; this would require either a new drive or erase the existing data.
If by "the new system software" you mean OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you may want to repost that portion of your query in the Mavericks forum at https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mavericks . I haven't made the leap yet.
I don't know what other problems you have been having, so I cannot comment on them. You don't seem to have any other recent postings on these forums.

How do I view and open all my files again that are on my external hard drive?? Error message saying 'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer' Three options are Initialize, Ignore or Eject.

I have recently purchased Toshiba 1TB hard drive and I set it up and I was able to transfer all my files onto it such as my music, photos, documents. I had correctly ejected and used it again and all these files were safely stored and accessible afterwards. However after I rebooted my computer as it had been going slow and I had too much clogging it up once I reconnected the external hard drive I have error message saying 'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer' Three options are Initialize, Ignore or Eject. How do I access all my files? I set it up to work on both mac and windows. I have tried both another mac and windows computer and same issue occurs?? I am worried that all my personal files are gone but am confused as the drive has had absolutely no damage to it as it was in a very short time frame and its never left the same spot. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for your quick response. I had a look at your discussion... I tried it on a Windows machine and I thought that was compatible with ExFAT?
Therefore I need to attempt to use my external hard drive with a machine that boasts OS X 10.6.5 or above and then it should work?
Thanks

Cannot see the video behind the title even though I select the option to do so, what am I missing?

Cannot see the video behind the title even though I select the option to do so, what am I missing?

hauntnh,
I assume you're referring to the fifth video, "Add a title to your video." Did you drag the title to the V2 track, as explained at 2:33 in the video? Also, if your main video in the V1 track is not sitting below your title clip in V2, you won't see the video behind the title because there won't be anything behind your title.
HTH,
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Cannot see external hard drive in finder even though listed in Disk utility

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