External drive not showing up on desktop

I have an external hard drive (2T Newertech ministack). We had a power outage the other day. Even though the drive is on it no longer appears on the desktop. I went to Disk Utility and see if it could be repaired but the drive is not even showing up there. Does this mean the ministack was fried by the outage or is there another way I can save it? And yes, the finder preferences are on for external drives to show up on desktop.

It's not likely it would be fried if it's connected to a UPS because then it would not lose power and crash. Have you tried disconnecting the device from the computer, rebooting the computer, then reconnecting the device?
Since you have another Mac try directly connecting the device to it and using Disk Utility to repair the drive. Then give it a try on the other computer.

Similar Messages

Some External Drives not showing up on Desktop

I have 3 external drives hooked up to my Macbook for backup; a 120 GB Firewire external hard drive (Mac formatted), an 80 GB USB 2 external hard drive (Dos formatted), and a 256 MB Thumb Drive (Mac formatted).
Here's the problem. Sometimes after a restart all 3 drives show on the Desktop. Other times after a restart, the 120 GB and the 80 GB will show on the desktop. The 256 MB is nowhere to be seen and thus unusable for backup. And other times after a restart, the 120 GB and the 256 MB will show but the 80 GB is nowhere in sight and thus unusable.
How can I get all 3 drives to always show up on the desktop after restarts?

Hi Alan,
Have you shut down your Mac and disconnected your firewire cables from both ends and let it sit about ten minutes then reconnect and try. Also, it is important to disconnect the AC power to your Mac, to reset the FireWire port(s).
-mj
[email protected]

USB External drive not showing in Finder, or on Desktop

I have two USB external drives from the same manufacturer. One is for regular storage, the second is for Time Machine and movies.
The first one shows everywhere, on the desktop, in finder and in Disk Utility.
The second drive shows in Disk Utility only. However, it is functioning fine with Time Machine. So it is mounted. I have tried several repairs, and it reports no fault found. So it is certainly functioning correctly, but a setting or error in the operating system is not allowing it to be viewed in finder, or on the desktop.
Any suggestions.

Correction: Title should be Firewire External drive not showing in Finder, or on Desktop.

Hard drive not showing up on desktop

My hard drive is not showing up on desktop. Hardisc repair says drive is not formatted yet would not format drive or failed after initial attempt. I did put the same drive into USB external case and then it showed up on desktop. I then was able to format disc and install OS 9.2 onto disc but when I reinserted disc into Lombard (Powerbook G3 M5343) it was back to not appearing and identifying disc as not formatted.
When I turn on -getting a prompt that says built in memory test says there is something wrong with memory cashe could this have something to do with problem?
I don't think there is a problem with Motherboard as I just replaced it. I also don't think it is the drive cable as it identifies drive and also I have a "spare-parts" Lombard with a defective motherboard and I tried attaching drive with that drive cable and still had the same problem. Unless both drive ribbons are defective -I assume not...but maybe that could be the problem?
Any ideas?

Richard,
You do have a failure of the backside L2 cache, a common problem on the Lombard. This memory is soldered to the microprocessor card and the only fix is a replacement card.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=51159
I don't know if the failed L2 cache memory would cause a problem with the HD on the internal IDE bus controller; it apparently does not via the USB bus.
Generally, users who have the failed L2 cache do not have a successful startup unless they reset the power manager. Try this: With the Lombard turned off, reset the power manager and see if it will start up to the internal HD. If no success, shut down, insert your OS 9.2 CD, reset the power manager, and see if the HD appears on the desktop after booting to the CD.

External drive not showing in sidebar

I have set my Finder Preferences for the Sidebar to show connected servers and external drives. However, I can not get a mounted external drive to show under Devices in the sidebar. It has appeared previously, but now I can't get it to stick on the sidebar when dragging the external drive from the finder window to the sidebar. Noticed some older posts on the Internet from others experiencing this issue. Is there a fix?
MacBook Pro RD, early 2013, OS 10.8.5, with attached Dell external monitor.

Can you see it in Disk Utility? If so, try the mount command in the top menu bar.
You can also try deleting the Finder .plist.
In Finder hold down the option/alt key while selecting the Go menu item. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.
Re-launch Finder by logging out/in and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.
If the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer ones.
If you want to make your user library permanently visible, run the below command in Applications/Terminal.
chflags nohidden ~/Library/
You will need to do that after any updates.

External drives not showing on desktop

I have a situation where my external drives are not showing up on my desktop and need additional help on figuring out the problem.
So far I have read the suggestions to Repair permissions in Disk Utility. However, the drives that aren't showing on the desktop are not showing in Disk Utility either.
I tried downloading the 10.4.4 Combo Update but upon trying to install it, I am being told that neither my system drive nor my 2nd, internal drive will accept it (red explaination points on both drive icons).
I tried unplugging all firewire and USB devices and then unplugging AC power. Left computer shut down for 4 hours. No fix.
Tried zapping P-Ram. No fix.
Tried my external drives on a G4 computer at work (running OS 10.3). Worked fine.
Swapped out fire wire cables. Nothing.
Ran Tech Tool pro. Tests confirm that fire wire drivers are working properly. Passed. I know that this test only checks for drivers and not whether the info is being passed through the connectors.
The only thing I didn't try was replacing the battery. However, my clock and all other battery dependent items are working just fine and not showing any spuratic signs of malfunction.
The two external drives I am using are a Western Digital and a one Touch Maxtor. The Maxtors, (so I've read on this thread) have been known to show some signs of inconsistent behavior. However, I've had no issues with it up to this point and I've had it for over two years.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks to all of you who have already posted some possible fixes. I appreciate it greatly.
Thanks.
Steve
Power Mac, G5 Mac OS X (10.4.10) 2.5 GIGS RAM, Dual processor

DP
Thanks. Are you talking about booting from my external drives?
Yeah, I haven't actually booted from any of my external drives as they do not have any system software on them to boot from.
If you have a good backup procedure, I'd love to hear it as I'm always documenting and using new ways to backup my info.
From here, I plan on going in and running Tech Tool on my two external drives, (now that the computer is regognizing them) to see what I can find out. My guess is that my firewire ports or drivers on the G5 may have gotten a little mixed up when last Thursdays lightning strike cut the power to the neighborhood. However, I do have a battery backup/ surge protection system that's been in place for about a year. It's been working great so the lightning strike may not be the problem. It was a pretty harsh one, though. After looking over the backup system, nothing looks fried or damaged in any way. Still working fine.
As far as not relying on just one drive, I'm heading into town and picking up a third drive that will back up what's on my existing two externals. This will then be kept safely stored away. By the way, what does IMHO mean? I'm a little rusty on my computer accronyms.
Thanks again!
Back to work.
Steve
Power Mac, G5 Mac OS X (10.4.10)
Power Mac, G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

External Hard Drive/Not Showing Up on Desktop

I have a G4, running OS X 10.2.8 and recently my kids deleted some important data. So--we bought an external hard drive (WD MyBook 160 GB Essential Edition, which says on the box that it runs 10.2.8 and higher).
We took the external hard drive and the computer to a reputable repair place, the guy there took the hard drive out and using a G6 system, restored what he could to the external hard drive.
We bring it home, plug it in, and the computer is not reading the new external hard drive. I did check in disk utility, and it shows up as a greyed out item on the disk utility.
The external hard drive does show up when hooked up to my husband's office PC.
Any ideas as to why this is happening and how to correct it?
Thanks, Ruth

OK, I figured it out (in case anyone else needs to know) with this information from the Western Digital site:
Macintosh Operating System 10.3.x or earlier will only recognize FAT32 partitions that are smaller than 128-gigabytes. Multiple FAT32 partitions smaller than 128-gigabytes will need to be created in order for Macintosh Operating System 10.3.x or earlier to recognize the partitions. You will need to use a Windows based computer to create FAT32 partitions, as Macintosh does not have the ability to create them.
Macintosh Operating System 10.4.x or later can recognize FAT32 partitions over 128-gigabytes.

Why does the external drive not show up on the desktop.

My wife has a G5 (iSight). When we turn on the external drive it does not mount. We have tried restarting the iMac with the external drive on and it still does not show up. What is the problem and what is the fix?
Thanks

Is it by chance a WD MyBook? They are known for problems like that. Could be the cable -- try a different one. Or it could be the Firewire port on the computer. Try a different port on the computer or on the external, if it has one. Have a look at this Apple article with other troubleshooting steps.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151
Message was edited by: WZZZ

External HD not showing up on Desktop

I've been using a WD 500gb Firewire HD for my Time Machine backup for some time now without problem. Just noticed that the WD disc is not showing up on my G5 iMac Desktop and the last backup was on March 8. I've tried unplugging the WD drive, disconnecting the firewire cable, etc., but I haven't figured out how to get the external HD to remount. This has happened occasionally in the past and some seemingly random combination of unplugging, disconnecting seems to get it to remount. When I go into Disc Utility it doesn't show up. Any advice appreciated.
Thanks, Jim

kaks4 wrote:
i am having the same issue. the external HD appears in disk utility but not as a mounted drive
when i run disk utility repair, its unable to repair it and gives me a "sibling link error"
If Disk Utility can't repair it, a heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app might or might not. DiskWarrior is probably recommended here most often. It's about $100. There are some less expensive ones, for less money. Check with Google, VersionTracker.com, MacUpdate.com, and the like.
If neither can repair it, you might be able to erase and re-use it with Disk Utility, but it's probably dead or dying.
Is this a TM drive, or does it have other data on it?
If it's other data, you do have it backed-up, don't you?

External Drives not showing up in finder

I have two external hard drives that will not show up in my finder as if it is not activated in my Sidebar or Desktop (even though it is). They don't even show up in my Macintosh HD directory. My other external drives work fine and show up everywhere they are supposed to. This is happening on both my computer and another Intel 8-core, so I am assuming it has something to do with the external drives. They do, however, operate as expected when accessed through the network and when using spotlight.

Sounds like the Invisible bit got set on those drives. Take a look at the article I wrote on the problem as it first appeared in Tiger:
http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/invisible.html
There is a new wrinkle to this old bug in Leopard, where the invisible bit is sometimes immediately being reset back to invisible. So far there is no solution to that. See this discussion:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5751668
If you are lucky the reset described in the first article will work for you.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

External drive not showing up

Hi everyone, I'm having some problems with my latest upgrade to Mavericks. Since I upgraded my 1 of my external drives is not showing up. I was able to find it in disk utility, but the name is grayed out. I've tried first aid on it which seems to be successful, but it won't mount. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have a MacAir. I did not have any problems previously to this, so any suggestions would be appreciated. However, reformatting is not an option. I have too many pictures and documents on this drive (business), but I have to be able to view it. Thanks in advance.

Hi, just some ideas that might help. Is it possible that the drive is just not showing up in the sidebar? Have you checked by looking under the Devices section in the sidebar of the Finder and clicking on your computer?
I'm assuming you are probably looking on the desktop for the drive to show up though. If it is not showing up there at all, I would suggest trying some of the suggestions in this thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24530176#24530176
That is, can you connect the drive to another computer and see if it mounts there? Does it show up in the system profiler?
Do you own any disk recovery software in case there is a problem with the disk that Disk Utility can't repair? e.g. Disk Warrior.
If none of these suggestions works, I'd suggest you post your results and also some more information about the drive (e.g. the brand and capacity) and the connection (presumably USB?) you are using in case someone else can help you.
Ivan

External Drive not showing up in Finder? Can't access files?

My blue 1TB external WD Passport Drive (whose name is Ralph and who holds all kinds of precious things that I love and can't lose) isn't showing up on my Finder screen. Whenever I connect him, his light turns up and blinks as usual, but I can't access anything on him. I don't even get an error message when I disconnect him without ejecting. I've tried using different USB ports and different cables, but it's not helping. I've also tried connecting him to different computers (3 different macs and 1 Windows 8 PC), but NOTHING.
I've been trying everything the past few days to get him to work. He shows up on Disk Utility occasionally. I've tried verifying and repairing him through Disk Utility, but it says that the verification could not be completed, or that it can't repair him. It tells me to back up as many files as I can and then restore him, but I can't access the files to back them up in the first place. Also, the partition name seems to have changed to 'disk1s3', which appears greyed out on the Disk Utility screen.
In regards to mount point, it says that the disk isn't mounted. I tried mounting it by right-clicking it on Disk Utility, but the mount failed.
I tried restoring him onto another 1TB WD drive (Oscar), but that failed too.
How can we help Ralph? I don't believe in much, but I believe in Ralph.
And that's why we have to help him.

You can call Western Digital, but most likely they will give you the advice they gave another user recently to send it to Drive Savers for data recovery. Drive Savesrs quoted him a price of $999 to just recover his photos from the drive.
There is software you can try. Both have demos.
FileSalvage $90
Data Rescue $99
DiskWarrior might be another option you can try. There is no demo. $99.99 http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
Drive Savers
http://hard-drive-recovery-services-review.toptenreviews.com/drive-savers-review .html
In the future, you need to backup your important data to another external drive just for situations like this. Another option is to use a service like DropBox to upload files. This is mirrored on your drive so it's not always the best option.

Folder problems on external drive, not showing correct file size

I've run across a strange problem. I'm media managing for a tv show, meaning I'm offloading video from CF cards onto 2 external drives, one is a Drobo Raid (set up for backup) and another is a Lacie rugged drive. After copying the media to both drives, the folder I copy will match, but sometimes as I drill upward in my folder structure, suddenly the file sizes will not match. To be more clear: 2 folders will show differing file sizes, but inside that folder is only another folder,nothing else, which matches across the drives. I've shown all files in finder and there's no hidden files, though sometimes I see the ds_store files are different sizes (8k vs 16k), but that's not always the case. Sometimes if I simply create a new folder and move it's contents into it I can get the folders to match, but sometimes that doesn't work. It's part of my workflow to show that these copies match exactly via screenshots, and although the most important folder (the direct folder holding the footage) always matches, these folder problems are super frustrating as it's not constant, and any workarounds also work inconsistantly.
I had an accidental disconnect of the Drobo one time, and although none of the data seems to have any problem, I fear it's done something to the directory. The rugged drive is swapped out every few days and the problem seems to be on the Drobo. Because the nature of the data is pretty important, I'm afraid to just try messing around with repairing or other software solutions unless I know it's super safe and won't harm the data.
I'm at a loss as to what's causing it and at the very least how to avoid it cropping up. Any help or insight would be appreciated!

I had the same problem with my iMac, first I repaired the disk, then I ejected the disk, restarted, and then reinserted the USB in a different port. All of my files magically showed up. I don't know what caused the error but it has been working fine since.

.m4v movies on external drive not showing in my library?

Some movies held on external drive are not showing in my library. I can open them with iTunes through Finder but they still don't appear in my library. Any ideas why. All my iTunes downloaded movies are there but the .m4v that I have loaded are missing.

Again I do not have iTunes 12 but I recall seeing a picture where movies have their own library section.
I did not fully understand your last post (cosignee?) but if iTunes is playing a file then it is in the library somewhere.
I know with my version of Quicktime Player it shows tag data in a separate information window I can choose to display. You can also use a tag editor such as MetaZ or Subler to edit movie tags.

USB thumb drives not showing up on desktop.

After updating to 10.4.7 last week, when I insert a USB drive it does not show up on the desktop or in the finder. When I open System profiler and click on USB it shows up there but I have no way to mount the drives.
Is this something that happened to anyone else or am I alone in this?
When I plug in a USB mouse into the ports it works fine so the USB is working, just not mounting the drives. I am able to mount the drives in other macs I have here.
Dave

You might check your Finder preferences and make sure
you're allowing removeable to appear on the Desktop.
Nope checked that and the boxes are all checked.
Tried plugging my iPod in using the USB cable and still does not show up. Does not even show up in iTunes.
Also tried plugging in a firewire drive and that does not mount either. And the iPod also does not mount using firewire.
This is really getting frustrating!!!
Weird thing is it shows up under firewire & USB in system profiler.
Dave
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

External drive not showing up on desktop

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