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

Similar Messages

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.

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.

Cant seem to get a seagate external drive to show up in finder when on the

cant seem to get a seagate external drive to show up in finder when on the airport extreme base station. ver 7.5 using 10.6.2 any special setting to show it up in finder?

I tested a FAT 32 drive and it will show up.
Open your Hard Drive and look for your AirPort Extreme under the SHARED heading
Click the AirPort Extreme icon and then click Connect As at the upper right of the window
Your drive should appear
If not, click anywhere on your open desktop so that the Finder menus appear at the top of the screen
Click Finder, then click Preferences, then click the General tab
Under the heading of "Show these items on the desktop", make sure there is a check mark next to "Connected Servers"

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.

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.

Usb external drives not showing up in lion

My USB external drives are NOT showing up in finder or my disk utlity.
But they are showing up in my System Information!?
In addition, they both work fine on my other laptop.
I can I troubleshoot this on my mac?
Relevant Info:
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5
MacBook Pro
USB Kindle Updated OS
USB External Drive

I reset my PRAM and it works now. I've no idea what that did...
Thanks for the help.
MC

1 TB External WD Drive Not Showing Up In Finder/Disk Utility/Terminal

Hey everyone,
First time posting here so forgive any mistakes. I recently purchased a Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina, 15-inch, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 from Apple. Previously, I had the late 2007 Macbook Pro model until a friend spilled some water on it and corrupted the motherboard. Regardless, I was using a Western Digital 1 TB external hard-drive to keep all my documents and files backed up, manually, alongside the time machine feature built in. (This was not connected at the time of the spill, and was not thereafter, so rule out water damage) During the period between when the old one died, (earlier this year May-2013), I kept the drive safely in storage because I knew I would want to transfer my 100gb music librairy along with my photos and other files when I finally got the new one later that year (was waiting for the hardwell processors to come out for the MBP). Just recently after this purchase I tried to connect the drive to my new MacBook Pro but it was not showing up. I have scowered the online forums for trouble shooting tips and took all the steps to no avail. I have replaced the data-drive cable with a new one, connected it to the wall outlet in case it wasn't drawing enough power from the laptop, among a few other simple tricks, but still it would not show up in either Disk Utility or the terminal command to show all active drives, all that's there is the internal Macintosh HD one. It was a fairly quiet drive-however I do notice there is not much of a 'spin-up' noise or any sound of it begining to work when turned on or plugged in, so I'm worried there might be something wrong with the drive itself. Nonetheless, the power signal continues to flash but still no recognition from the computer that it's there, so I'm certain it's not reading it. I have tried on my other buddys Mac and it is the same situation, as well as my roommates PC (which I figured wouldnt anyway because of how its formatted, but it was worth a shot) I am not sure which avenue to take next as I have all my files and college work that I still need access to on the drive, and would really hate to have to format the drive or anything drastic as such. Possibly there is a part I can buy and replace myself to make it start up and spin again, but I am not sure what that part could be or if there is an easier solution out there.
I would greatly appreciate any information or help on this problem, thank you all for the time and advie.

Clicking from a hard drive is bad. Does the external drive have an external power supply? If it does I would use this supply.

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.

Internal hard drive not showing up in Finder

Hello. Whenever I use Lightroom and Photoshop, I have been getting the error about my startup disk being low on space. I've read through several threads and instructions on different strategies to take. However, many of them start with being able to click on the internal drive within the Devices section in Finder.
My internal harddrive does not appear in the Devices section in Finder. I have iDisk and then two gray harddrive icons that have the name of my external drive. Even when my external drive is not connected to the machine, I have these two.
When I click on them, it just keeps whatever I had clicked on previously. For example, when I click on "Desktop" it shows my desktop and when I click on the mystery gray drive, it keeps desktop.
I've run disk utility > repair permissions and I get several messages that permissions differ on some things and warnings about SUID files on other things.
Am I in the right spot to fix my problem? What kind of error should I be looking for and when I find that error, what do I do?
My thinking is that once I fix this problem, I can move on to my low disk space problem. Finder shows that I have 8.39GB of free space but that goes down to Zero fairly often.
Thanks in advance for your help.

jstetson wrote:
My internal harddrive does not appear in the Devices section in Finder.
Go to Finder Menu > Preferences > Sidebar > DEVISES and check the box next to Hard disks.

.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.

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 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 drive not showing in event library

I was creating a video, where some of the clips were on the iMac harddrive and some of them were on an external SeaGate harddrive. I was waiting for an optical flow rendering of one of the clips and walked away from the computer. Unfortunately, the computer screen saver came on and logged me out. When I logged back in, and opened Final Cut, the only clips showing available in the library are those on the iMac. The SeaGate files briefly appear in the event library only while final cut is loading, but once it completely loads it disappears (and can't be accessed), and all of the clips from there are showing as red "missing file." Therefore, my video is not there. Any suggestions on how to get back to where I was before the computer logged out? Or why the SeaGate is not available anymore?
When FCP is loading, here is the event library... but see next picture... when it is loaded and opens the video, the Seagate disappears.
Here is what my video looks like.
I have tried rebooting, changing document names to not have the word "final" in them, moving my GOPRO files to a new folder that doesn't have the name GOPRO.
The Seagate is formatted for a mac and still shows in the finder.

I had previously posted and I think my issue was solved... see here...
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24014301#24014301

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 Drives not showing up in finder

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for