External drive not visible on macbook

Hi all
I am brand new to the mac from windows, so far so good! However I have an external hard drive that I want to plug into my macbook and back up onto. Problem is when I connect it it is not "seen" in the finder window. The drive is presently formatted as NFTS. I want to reformat it for mac but unable in the disk utility option as it can't see it! Covered the basics ie drive works and is powered as checked on the (ex) windows machine, so macbook is powering it but nothing more. I have tried reformatting it under windows, the only choice I have is to NFTS. Am I missing something glaringly obvious here. Am sure this may be the first of many posts.....!!
Thanks in advance
Ynot

One basic problem is bus-powered USB drives that require a little more power than the port is capable of delivering.
I have a WD Passport drive that only comes with a single port cable and mounts fine on any machine I've tried it on.
I have a SimpleTech Pininfarina Design USB drive. It powers up fine on a Toshiba Satellite with just one port. On my iBook G4 1.42 and MacBook I need to use both plugs (one is designated as "power only" of a Y-cable plugged straight into both native ports. I tried it with the main one to the MacBook port and secondary one to an unpowered hub (with other components) but it doesn't work that way, or with the single plug. It also has a port for a 5V power supply, but I don't have one that will work.
When it doesn't work, the power light still goes on the drive but doesn't otherwise mount on the desktop or show up in System Profiler. There's enough power for the drive to make a bunch of noises, but that's it.
Some bus-powered drives have an external power supply port, while others will only take more power with one of those Y-cables. Could you tell us what brand and model? I think people can give you suggestions with that as a starting point.

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External hard drive not visible on macbook

Hi all
I am brand new to the mac from windows, so far so good! However I have an external hard drive that I want to plug into my mac and back up onto. Problem is when I connect it it is not "seen" in the finder window. The drive is presently formatted as NFTS. I want to reformat it for mac but unable in the disk utility option as it can't see it! Covered the basics ie drive works and is powered as checked on the (ex) windows machine. I have tried reformatting it under windows, the only choice I have is to NFTS. Am I missing something glaringly obvious here. Am sure this may be the first of many posts.....!!
Thanks in advance
Ynot

Hi! Is the drive a portable drive that doesn't have a separate power supply? If it's a portable put the drive up to your ear when you plug it in and see if it spins up or clicks. Inadequate usb power is often the problem. tom

I have my Time Machine on an external drive (not connected to Airport Extreme) and I have an external HD attached to airport extreme. Is it possible to have Time Machine backUp computer HD AND external HD connected to Airport Extreme. How?

I have my Time Machine on an external drive (not connected to Airport Extreme) and I have an external HD attached to airport extreme. Is it possible to have Time Machine backUp computer HD AND external HD connected to Airport Extreme. How?

Is it possible to have Time Machine backUp computer HD AND external HD connected to Airport Extreme.
Sorry, but no.
Time Machine will backup your Mac, but not the hard drive attached to the AirPort Extreme.
Time Machine will back up a hard drive only if it is attached directly to your Mac via USB or FireWire.

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.

Is their another way like to use my time capsule as an external drive not using time machine?thanks

is their another way like to use my time capsule as an external drive not using time machine?thanks

You do not have to use Time Machine.. but the TC is hardly suitable for a NAS.. it has no means to back itself up and is relatively slow. Still that is up to you..
CCC or Superduper are good backup softwares .. and there are a number of others.

Firewire drive not visible on desktop

Firewire drive not visible on desktop
System profiler knows it's there.
Disk Utility indicates that it can be un-mounted (only a generic 'turned down page' for volume icon however), Disk has full Hard Drive logo...
But I cannot access it on this machine, but plug it into another and it's ok...

(only a generic 'turned down page' for volume icon however), Disk has full Hard Drive logo...
You can see that appearance in Disk Utility if the volume permissions are such that the current user has "No Access."
Since it can be accessed normally from another machine, connect it there and do a Get Info from Finder, looking at the Ownership and Permission Details at the bottom. Assuming this is not a startup disk, if any of the permissions is set to "No Access", change it to "Read and Write". Don't click "Apply to enclosed items" however.

External hard drive not visible in disk utility or finder

Hi all,
I have had a good look through previous discussions and I can't seem to find an issue relevant to mine.
My external hard drive has 2 partitions (1 time machine back up, 1 general hard drive). The issue is that the HD is running when it is plugged in however it is not visible in either disk utility or finder.
I am running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) on a 2010 MacBook Pro. I also have parallels desktop running windows 7. When I boot windows and plug in the HD I usually get the option to mount the HD to either OS X or Windows. With this issue the option window appears for a split second (not enough time to select either) and then disappears. It seems that the HD may be ejecting itself as soon as it is registered by the computer. I have tried using a different power cable for the HD and also a different usb cable, this doesn't help.
The external HD is a Samsung D3 Station, which i have had for 6 months now and never had an issue with.
Any help is appreciated
Thanks,
Bruce

An update for anyone who can help me:
I have tried the external hard drive in other computers (mac and windows), each time I get the same problem above.
I have removed the HD from the enclosure and purchased a docking station for it (3.5" SATA). When I plug it in to the laptop it disconnects itself straight away before it is visible. With the windows computers it installs the drivers and says that the device is ready to use, then disconnects before it shows up.
As the HD is not visible there is no option to re-format or anything.
This is very frustrating as I was using the HD with no issues and it randomly disconnected and I have not been able to access since.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Bruce

External hard drive not visible in Finder or Disk Utility

Hi everyone,
My Wester Digital 2TB external hard drive has disappeared, so to speak, with all my photos. I work as a freelance photographer. Mostly on Lightroom 5.6
When I plug it in, with firewire, I can feel the disk rotating normally however it does not appear in finder or disk utility.
I've tried using a USB cable, restarting my mac, forced restart, changing firewire ports (HD has 2 ports), plugging the HD into a different laptop and nothing.
Ive also searched Finder prefrences and visibility is enabled.
I have no idea what could have caused this as I was using the HD the night before. I didnt pullout without properly ejecting. Maybe the HD is full or almost, but I dont think that would the cause of these troubles.
I'm using a late 2011 Macbook Pro OS X 10.9.4
Any suggestions??
Thanx

An update for anyone who can help me:
I have tried the external hard drive in other computers (mac and windows), each time I get the same problem above.
I have removed the HD from the enclosure and purchased a docking station for it (3.5" SATA). When I plug it in to the laptop it disconnects itself straight away before it is visible. With the windows computers it installs the drivers and says that the device is ready to use, then disconnects before it shows up.
As the HD is not visible there is no option to re-format or anything.
This is very frustrating as I was using the HD with no issues and it randomly disconnected and I have not been able to access since.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Bruce

External hard drive not visible in Finder, but is operating

iMac, 2 Gb RAM, Snow Leopard 10.6.4.
It has 4 external USB drives attached through a powered hub. All of a sudden, after about a year, one of them no longer shows up in ‘Finder’. However, all four drives have an icon on the desktop. The drive is visible and verifiable in ‘Disk Utility’. Double clicking the desktop icon opens the drive and I can copy a file from it. iTunes can see it. From a Macbook’s ‘Finder’, over WiFi, I can see and copy files to and from the drive. Finder Preferences shows nothing amiss. I’ve shut down and restarted the iMac several times with no change. The drive just does not show up in Finder on the host iMac.
Searching this forum has not helped. Any suggestions?
Max

Well, this is embarrassing. A suggestion from an older thread on Macrumors.com called "Hard Drive does not appear in Finder / Desktop", solved this problem. Simply drag the missing drive icon from the desktop to Finder! Perseverance and different search wording AND reading a lot of stuff pays off.
If other's problem is not solved with this fix, you might benefit from this 10.5-based thread. They also mention an Apple 10.5 fix. Both URL's below.
The op's problem was that the drive did not appear in Finder OR the desktop but was operational. There was a lot of in-depth information with this fix embedded.
Thanks for the interest and suggestions.
Max
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-209905.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25203?viewlocale=en_US

External hard drive not visible on Mac Mini

I just purchased a Mini with Lion. The Seagate Freeagent external hard drive is visible from finder on the Mini but it is "read only" and it is not visible on the wireless network to my macbook. How can I make the external hard drive read write and make it visible on the network?

OS X can read an NTFS formatted drive, but not write to it.
Sharing drives | Utilities - Page 1 | Macworld
If you want to use the drive for sharing files between Window's and Mac's, then MS-DOS / FAT-32 works fine, except that it has a 4GB single file size limit.
If you are going to use the drive exclusively with your Intel Mac's for sharing, backup and booting, then use GUID Partition Table / Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the Partition Scheme and Format.
Format a Drive to Boot Intel Macs | Tips | The Mac Observer

External drive not working on iMac, but works on Macbook Pro

I have read a few different threads relating to this question, with no real luck of a permanent solution.
I have an external drive that works perfectly on my Macbook Pro. My new iMac will not show the drive though (both with the current software).
The drive itself shows a power light and appears to be running/powered by the USB port.
I have tried several ports.
It does not show in Disk Utility.
The option in settings is set to show the drive in finder and on the desktop (I have checked this).
I have tried restarting the iMac.
I have also had this problem after the iMac has been turned off overnight, and turned on in the morning (and then plugging the drive in after powering on).
I resolved this issue once by turning off the iMac, removing the power cord for a few minutes, and powering it up again.
I don't think it should be something I have to do every time I would like to use the drive though - It would be very irritating if I had to do that every time.
Any advice or options here?
The iMac has only been used since Christmas day, 2014 - and has had this problem since that day (in which i solved it by the turn off/unplug thing).
Sorry, I am aware this question has been asked a lot. I haven't come across anything that is giving me a long-term solution to this problem.
Happy new year!

Some USB-powered drives are just crappy. They require too much current from the USB and cause the bus to fail or the bus can't provide enough power for it to fully spin up. You can often hear or feel them clicking periodically (like once a second) as they are trying to spin up.
If this is the case, a powered Hub, external power supply, or Y-cable will be necessary to consistently use the drive.

Hitachi X500 external hard drive not working with MacBook Pro

I purchased a new Hitachi X500 500GB external USB hard drive today and when I plug it into my MacBook Pro the drive makes a clicking noise and never mounts. When I try it on my wives MacBook it boots up fine. I bought one early in the day and the same thing happened, so I returned it and got a new one and the same thing happens. Any thoughts?
Looks like it's formatted with Fat32 when I look at it on the MacBook.
Thanks

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Does the external drive have it's own power brick? If not, it's bus-powered and may not be getting enough juice to run.
Also try all the USB ports on your MBP. Although they are "supposed" to be producing the same amount of power, posts around here suggest that's not always the case.
If the drive does not have a power brick, you can get an inexpensive powered USB hub (it has a power brick) like this one:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Belkin/F5U403P/
Adding a powered hub fixes problems with bus-powered USb external drives about 95% of the time.

External Drive not mounting on Desktop but visible on sidebar

I have an external drive Iomega 1T that appears on the destop on Snow Leopard and all is perfect with it, but not showing on the destop in Lion (installed on another internal), it shows up on the sidebar and can access it from there without issues. Disk utilities shows it and can repair permissions and all but can't mount on desktop, my only option there is to unmount it, but is not even showing up on desktop to unmount it.
Do I need to reformat it to mount on desktop? Any help is appreciated.

A little bit, yes. What got me a little confused was that all of my 3 internal drives showed up, and I thought that by selecting it to appear on the sidebar would be visible on the desktop. Thanks again, Lion is very snappy on my early 2008 8 core 2.8, like having a new Mac .

External Hard drive not visible on newtork

Im using my xbox as a server so i can watch movies from my laptop on my tv. i can see anything that is on my hard drive but my external does not show on the xbox but does on the laptop.
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IMovie projects on external hard drive not visible

Thanks for the help. I recently received a free upgrade to iMovie 10 (I think that's what it's called) and now I can no longer view any of my existing projects or events that I had saved on an external hard drive that's connected via Thunderbolt. Is there anything that you can advise me to do before I condemn the new iMovie any more than I already have!??? Thanks again!
Chris

I wish I could help. I found the same thing when I "upgraded" to the new version. When I launched iMovie 10, I allowed it to update my movie library and in the process it seems to have copied everything to my Mac's hard drive. I had all my events stored on an external drive and I don't want those files on my internal drive.
Here's the best part: In case you have't figured it out yet, iMovie 10 will reset ALL of your iMovie '11 preferences, so when you decide to go back to using the old version (as I have) you'll have to go through every page of prefs and "fix" them.
I may eventually try using the new version, but only after they've replaced most or all of the functionality of iMovie '11. This is almost exactly how things played out when Apple replaced iMovie HD back in 2009. It's like they have no beta testers at all.

External drive not visible on macbook

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