External Drives won't let iMac to Restart...???

I have three External HDs connected to my iMac. One Firewire800, one firewire400 and one USB 2.0... and everything works great until I restart the iMac, it keep a blue screen stand by forever, and I need to disconect the drives to restart the iMac and everything goes normal again, I always connect the drives after the restart and so on.... Help

Amigo, this is the iMac Intel forum.
If you have issues with a G4, you should post in the G4 forum. Your Mac works different than ours.

Similar Messages

LaCie external drive won't mount on iMAC

Hi,
My external LaCie external drive won't mount on my iMAC running 10.6.8 but will mount and show up on my PC as working fine, however I am not able to read the information on it as it was formatted for my iMAC. Therefore it leads me to believe this is a software issue.
I have reason to believe someone had changed the permissions and prevented the mounting of this external drive (which belongs to me) so that the contents won't be found on my iMAC.
How to resolve this issue?
Thanks in advance,
Cait

Cait,
Please try a SMC reset, it may take 2-3 attempts for it to work. Look over the instructions below carefully.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

After Mavericks installation USB extern hd won't let the system shutdown

after the Mavericks installation my UBS extern hard drive won't let the system shutdown or restart.
If I unmount the USB HD and shutdown from apple menu or keyboard combination(control+eject key) then goes system down but without unmount shows just grey display with cursor and never go out. And the after the key combination control + eject then i can see the login field with restart, shutdown button then i can click shutdown button the system goes down. What do I have to do?

Bump.
Lots of people are having this issue with no real good answers. I hope apple devs are reading the blogs and get us a fix for this quick. I had this problem after upgrading to mavericks, then I did a clean install to mavericks and still have the same issue. I already miss Steve.

I recently purchased a new iMac with an external drive. I want to transfer my files from my old iMac to the external drive, but I'm afraid that doing that will compromise the use of the external drive on my new iMac. Comments? Help?

I recently purchased a new iMac with an 1 Terrabyte external drive. I want to transfer my files from my old iMac to the external drive, but I'm afraid that doing that will compromise the use of the external drive on my new iMac. I have not downloaded the external drive's software onto my old Mac because of this concern. May I simply "drag and drop" the contents I want transferred to the external drive, then set up my new Mac with the drive and download there? or is there a better procedure? Comments? Help?

If your intention is to copy a just documents and data (word processing files and music for example) then yes, you can use drag and drop. If you want to transfer data and applications and permissions, it would actually be easiest to connect the drive to your old computer and turn on TimeMachine. Once TM is finished, connect the drive to your new computer and restart it holding the option key to get into Recovery mode. Then you can use the restore from TM option to transfer your data and programs to the new computer.

External drive won't mount after plugging in iPhone - MacBook 13'' (2,1)

Hi Support Crew...
I have a 13" MacBook(2,1) running OS X 10.6.2. This is a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo machine w/ 4 GB RAM & 320 GB hard drive.
Today, I had the Iomega drive plugged in via USB, along with my soundcard (MOTU 828mk2) plugged in via FW. This is a very normal setup for me which has been bug free since I bought this computer over 2 years ago. When I plugged in my iPhone 3G via USB I got an error message which comes up when you incorrectly remove a device. This was strange because I didn't unplug anything, I only plugged in the iPhone. The iPhone was playing music when I plugged it in and I had to unplug and plug is back in to get iTunes to recognize it.
Ever since this happened, my Iomega external drive won't mount. I am able to access it via Disk Utility (and ran the Verify Disk/Repair Disk - everything is "ok"), however I can't access the data on the drive. I really really need the data but of course can't access it to backup.
Disk Utility log:
500.11 GB Ext Hard Disk Media (black text)
Iris (grey text) - I ran Verify Disk & Repair Disk
2010-01-22 14:20:51 -0800: Verify and Repair volume “Iris”
2010-01-22 14:20:51 -0800: Starting repair tool:
2010-01-22 14:20:51 -0800: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
2010-01-22 14:20:52 -0800: Checking extents overflow file.
2010-01-22 14:20:52 -0800: Checking catalog file.
2010-01-22 14:20:56 -0800: Checking multi-linked files.
2010-01-22 14:20:56 -0800: Checking catalog hierarchy.
2010-01-22 14:20:58 -0800: Checking extended attributes file.
2010-01-22 14:21:00 -0800: Checking volume bitmap.
2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: Checking volume information.
2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: The volume Iris appears to be OK.
2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: Volume repair complete.
2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800: Repair tool completed:
2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800:
2010-01-22 14:21:01 -0800:
System Profiler shows the drive (on both FW & USB ports when I tried other cords). This drive does not require power and I am not using a USB hub, strictly the laptops ports. And yes, the laptop's power adapter is plugged in.
System Profiler: Device Tree log:
Iomega eGo HDD:
Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
Product ID: 0x047c
Vendor ID: 0x059b (Iomega Corporation)
Version: 0.01
Serial Number: 000000066273
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Iomega
Location ID: 0xfd300000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 0
Partition Map Type: APM (Apple Partition Map)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
Iris:
Capacity: 499.97 GB (499,972,702,208 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s10
When I tried to run Migration Assistant, I just get the spinning search circle and none of the drives come up, just endless searching.
The fact that I got the "Improperly removed device" error when I plugged in the iPhone makes me think something weird is up and it's not actually the external drive. There is clicking/whining/noise, the drives powers up fine and is recognized by the system but the mount point is now "not mounted".
Does anyone have any idea how to fix? If you live in SF, I will buy you a beer.
J

I meant to say; "There are NO clicking/whining/noise sounds made by the external hard drive"

I have just purchased an iMac which has no CD Drive, when I downloaded my Elements 8 from my external drive onto my new iMac I just get Error Code 150.30 does this mean that I have no way of retreiving my existing software?

I have just purchased an iMac which has no CD Drive, when I downloaded my Elements 8 from my external drive onto my new iMac I just get Error Code 150.30 does this mean that I have no way of retrieving my existing software?

According to Adobe instructions installation files are not available for Elements 8?
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File 1 of 2 (1.2 MB)
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My external drive won't mount. Disk Utility says it can't repair disk and to backup the disk and reformat, but how can I do that if it won't mount?

My external drive won't mount. Disk Utility says it can't repair disk and to backup the disk and reformat, but how can I do that if it won't mount?

See mount section in 1st linked article.
Disk Unmount Using Terminal
Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

I installed the latest security update now my Lacie external drive won't show up in finder. Any Help?

I installed the latest security update now my Lacie external drive won't show up in finder. Any Help?

Does it show up in Disk Utility?
See mount section in 1st linked article.
Disk Unmount Using Terminal
Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

External drive won't mount- which software is best for data recovery?

Hi,
My external OWC drive won't mount to the desktop. It is visible in Disc Utility, but can't be manually mounted from there. Verify and Repair disk functions state that the disk appears ok (log below):
Verify and Repair volume “OWC Mercury Elite AL Pro mini”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume OWC Mercury Elite AL Pro mini appears to be OK.
Drive lights up and spins. No weird sounds, just won't mount.
Not everything on the disc was backed up before the problem occurred. It's still under warranty with OWC, but I'd like to attempt to recover the data before sending it in for repair/replacement. The OWC tech on the phone said he's never seen this specific problem with this drive.
I'm thinking Data Rescue 3 would be the best software to try, but does anyone know of any other options to try first?
Thanks!

JohnDoe2009
I concur with the previous poster that if Disk Utility found no problems running TechTool Pro, Drive Genius or Disk Warrior might get it going. If you don't have any of those you could try
• Download and install Applejack
• Restart computer holding down Command + S
• When Command line comes up type in
+applejack AUTO+
Let is run all five functions.
In terms of Data Recovery
DataRescue 3
Virtual Lab
FileSalvage
are all excellent tools, and all offer a demo version.
Dr. Smoke's FAQ Data Recovery offers excellent tips on how to do it.
Good luck.
cornelius

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.

What are the best affordable external drive options for my iMac ?

Hello,
I am a fairly recent newcomer to Macintosh as my primary personal computing platform. I have recently installed Adobe CS4 Design Premium Student Edition on a late 2006 20in iMac and have several important questions about external hard drives. First of all, everyone knows that using any personal computer (whether you its a Macintosh, or a PC running Windows and/or Linux) without an acceptable way to backup critical data is no different than driving in your car without your seat belt fastened. I need advice for a good external hard disk solution for backup and several other important computing tasks given the following realities
1. Contrary to what I to originally thought, I do not have Firewire 800, but instead have access to dual firewire 400 ports in addition to USB 2.0. My concern over connection speed in regards to Adobe's recommendation to use RAID 0 arrays for scratch disks used by Photoshop CS4. Adobe also recommends that scratch disks for photoshop CS4 are assigned on a hard disk that is not your startup disk. Nontheless, Adobe has no objection to use your startup disk assuming it has plently of Free space (and mine does w/ 189.53 GB available)
2. Do really need RAID 0 to achieve the performance I would need? I had prior Mac based training with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign, in High school. I have not used this software in 4 years and am not only trying to refresh my skills but to learn the software. In other words I am still in the beginner stage With practice and patience, I will certainly learn the software and use it to the best of my creative energies. Given the situation if my work becomes complex enough over time how important is RAID 0 when I make purchase of an external hard disk? I known that the disk utility in Mac OS X allows the user to create a Raid array. This seems like the cheapest way to accomplish the job. However, the purchase of an external Hard Drive must be able to safely backup my system and also provide adequate performance.
3. Speaking of backup, I am one of those users who is still stubbornly clinging to Mac OS X Tiger. However, updating to a new OS has been required ritual for my previous two PCs. That said given that Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard will be out in mere months, I do not see the wisdom now in upgrading to Leopard. After all as a higher education student, money is tight and see Snow Leopard as far more compelling and future-proof upgrade. Snow Leopard is getting better plumbing and will also include Microsoft Exchange Server support (possibly the biggest selling point). I also have interest in using Boot Camp in 10.6 (or 10.5) for running windows software (that are useful for my academics) and games (particularly Half-Life 2 and other Steam games that can run well within my Mac's fairly limited gaming capabilities. If I decide to use Boot Camp I have to partition my internal hard disk. This further complicates finding a very reasonable, affordable, and reliable external disk solution given everything that I have mentioned. Any help is highly appreciated.
Thanks.

I don't think you should worry about the RAID stuff. The only way you could create a RAID is by using external drives, or one those external enclosures with two drives inside. Any speed advantage of such a RAID would be mostly negated by the FireWire 400 connection.
Use your internal drive space for speed critical functions. Use a FireWire 400 external drive for additional storage space, where speed is important but not critical, such as storing your existing media (including your things like your iTunes library files). Use a separate cheaper USB 2.0 external drive for your Time Machine (or whatever method) backup archive, where speed is not that important at all (some people even use a network connection for their Time Machine backup).
You can get a FireWire 800 drive and use an adapter to connect to FireWire 400. The connection won't be any faster on your iMac, but you can use the drive later with a Mac that does have FireWire 800. There are drives that have FireWire 400 and 800, and USB 2.0.
I like the drives sold by OWC
http://www.macsales.com/
I often buy the drive enclosure empty and find a good deal on the hard drive mechanism that I want. OWC sells most of their drives empty. My current Time Machine drive is actually one of these USB adapters
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NV2SPATA/
connected to a Western Digital 750GB SATA drive that I got for about $70. Found that deal through dealmac.com. Couldn't think of a cheaper way to add that large amount of backup space, and it works very well. The internal drive in my iMac is only 160GB, so most of my personal data is on an external FireWire 400 drive; both drives are backed up by Time Machine.

WD External drive won't mount

Hello everyone! I haven't been here in a while because I just haven't had any Mac issues. Now I do.
I have a 1 TB WD external HD that won't mount. I connect it via firewire to an Old G4 Sawtooth running OS 10.5.8. My mac sees the drive, it just won't mount. I've also tried to mount it via USB, but again, my system sees the drive, but won't mount it. I inadvertantly disconnected the firewire cable, which I didn't realize for several hours. I reattached the cable, tried to mount it, and nothing. I ran disc repairs, and Disc Utility actually told me the drive was successfully repaired. Again I tried to remount it, but nothing. I repaired permissions, and this didn't work. I've tried different cables, and this doesn't work.
I don't have another Mac to connect it to, so I don't know if this would work. Here's where things get a little wierd, but interesting. I connected it to my PC laptop, and it mounted. Now, this is a drive that was formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) on my G4, so I have to use Mac Drive so my PC will recognize and mount The Drive. So My PC sees The Drive as Mac OS Extended, and mounts it. All files are in tact, and the drive runs normally. This is a music drive and it plays normally on my PC. Meanwhile, if I try connecting it back on My Mac, the name of The Drive randomly changes from 931.5 GB WD to 931.5 GB WD My Media Book. I believe My Media Book is the factory name of The Drive before OS formatting. The Volume name remains the same on my G4 each time I've tried to mount it.
I do have another identical drive that mounts from all the bus ports on my G4. Any ideas here? Can I get my Drive to begin mounting on my G4 again? Any and all answers are appreciated.

Terminal List. disk4 is the malfunctioning drive.
Last login: Mon Feb 25 19:25:12 on ttys000
raymond-medinas-power-mac-g4-agp-graphics:~ raymondmedina$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *111.8 Gi   disk0
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         31.5 Ki    disk0s1
   2:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk0s2
   3:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk0s3
   4:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk0s4
   5:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk0s5
   6:             Apple_FWDriver                         256.0 Ki   disk0s6
   7:         Apple_Driver_IOKit                         256.0 Ki   disk0s7
   8:              Apple_Patches                         256.0 Ki   disk0s8
   9:                  Apple_HFS Mac Leopard II          91.8 Gi    disk0s10
10:                  Apple_HFS Mac Tiger               19.7 Gi    disk0s12
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *186.3 Gi   disk1
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         31.5 Ki    disk1s1
   2:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk1s2
   3:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk1s3
   4:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk1s4
   5:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk1s5
   6:             Apple_FWDriver                         256.0 Ki   disk1s6
   7:         Apple_Driver_IOKit                         256.0 Ki   disk1s7
   8:              Apple_Patches                         256.0 Ki   disk1s8
   9:                  Apple_HFS Mac Leopard I           186.2 Gi   disk1s10
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *465.8 Gi   disk2
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         31.5 Ki    disk2s1
   2:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk2s2
   3:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk2s3
   4:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk2s4
   5:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk2s5
   6:             Apple_FWDriver                         256.0 Ki   disk2s6
   7:         Apple_Driver_IOKit                         256.0 Ki   disk2s7
   8:              Apple_Patches                         256.0 Ki   disk2s8
   9:                  Apple_HFS 500 GB HD               465.6 Gi   disk2s10
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *931.5 Gi   disk3
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         31.5 Ki    disk3s1
   2:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk3s2
   3:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk3s3
   4:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk3s4
   5:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk3s5
   6:             Apple_FWDriver                         256.0 Ki   disk3s6
   7:         Apple_Driver_IOKit                         256.0 Ki   disk3s7
   8:              Apple_Patches                         256.0 Ki   disk3s8
   9:                  Apple_HFS 1 TB Music Drive II     931.4 Gi   disk3s10
/dev/disk4
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *931.5 Gi   disk4
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         31.5 Ki    disk4s1
   2:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk4s2
   3:             Apple_Driver43                         28.0 Ki    disk4s3
   4:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk4s4
   5:           Apple_Driver_ATA                         28.0 Ki    disk4s5
   6:             Apple_FWDriver                         256.0 Ki   disk4s6
   7:         Apple_Driver_IOKit                         256.0 Ki   disk4s7
   8:              Apple_Patches                         256.0 Ki   disk4s8
   9:                  Apple_HFS 1TB Music Drive         931.4 Gi   disk4s10
raymond-medinas-power-mac-g4-agp-graphics:~ raymondmedina$
Terminal info on disk4s10.
Last login: Mon Feb 25 22:22:41 on ttys000
raymond-medinas-power-mac-g4-agp-graphics:~ raymondmedina$ diskutil info disk4s10
   Device Identifier:        disk4s10
   Device Node:              /dev/disk4s10
   Part Of Whole:            disk4
   Device / Media Name:      Apple_HFS_Untitled_1
   Volume Name:              1TB Music Drive
   Mount Point:
   File System:              Journaled HFS+
   Owners:                   Disabled
   Partition Type:           Apple_HFS
   Bootable:                 Is bootable
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 FireWire
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Volume UUID:              61A8EAFF-E1C9-3605-AF92-5A210E3C781A
   Total Size:               931.4 Gi (1000069726208 B) (1953261184 512-byte blocks)
   Free Space:               0.0 B (0 B) (0 512-byte blocks)
   Read Only:                No
   Ejectable:                Yes
   Whole:                    No
   Internal:                 No
Disk Utility Info on 1TB Music Drive.
Name :
1TB Music Drive
Type :
Volume
Disk Identifier :
disk4s10
Mount Point :
Not mounted
File System :
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus :
FireWire
Device Tree :
IODeviceTree:fwx/node@90a9c5c29aa50b/sbp-2@c000
Writable :
Yes
Universal Unique Identifier :
61A8EAFF-E1C9-3605-AF92-5A210E3C781A
Capacity :
931.4 GB (1,000,069,726,208 Bytes)
Owners Enabled :
No
Can Turn Owners Off :
Yes
Can Be Formatted :
Yes
Bootable :
Yes
Supports Journaling :
Yes
Journaled :
No
Disk Number :
4
Partition Number :
10
I've read that WD uses crappy chipsets in their external drives. I'm wondering if the chipset is suspect here? Just not sure. I did discover that I can clone the drive from my PC as an exact Mac OS Extended (Journaled) drive, and my Mac doesn't even know the difference. I've also read that I can initialize the drive, and reinsert the drivers, and the drive should function normally. Interesting, huh? Well, let me know what you come up with BDAqua. And again, many, many thanks.

External drive won't mount w/o shutdown/startup

I have about a two year old LaCie Firewire 400 external drive (w/two partitions) that I've run about three hours per week for backups (via SuperDuper). I have retired my old G3 iMac (Panther) and am now running a 3.06 iMac w/Snow Leopard. I am connecting the LaCie to the iMac using a 400/800 adapter. When my iMac is on, and I turn on the drive or plug it into the iMac after the LaCie is on, it will not mount in the Finder, nor is it visible via Disk Utility. (I have "Show External Disks" checked in Finder Prefs.) I can disconnect it or turn it off w/o a warning showing up. Once I tried do do a "Restart" after the drive was on and connected (but not showing in Finder), and the restart locked up at the initial white screen. However, if I shut down the computer, turn on the LaCie, and then start up the computer, the two partitions will mount and they appear to be fully functional. (I haven't attempted to backup to the drive yet.) From reading other threads it appears there may be a problem w/Snow Leopard on this one. Any input?

Power down and disconnect the ext HD. Zap the PRAM as detailed in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 Connect the ext HD and power it up. That should do it.

External drive won't mount. Options?

Hi everyone. I've used a LaCie 250GB D2 external hard drive for a little over two years with no problems. A few days ago, I bought a Western Digital 500GB drive to serve as my main external drive, so I decided to erase and reformat the LaCie drive, which I had previously partitioned into two volumes, to serve as an archive drive.
That's where my trouble started.
I deleted all my files off the drive and then selected Erase in Disk Utility. I checked the option to eight way random write over format the disk for increased security, but that seemed to be taking so long I just quit Disk Utility. I figured since I didn't have any data I was afraid of losing, it wouldn't be a problem.
The next day I tried to erase it again, but I got an error message that said something about my partition (sorry but I can't recall what the message was; at this point I still didn't think there would be any problem).
Yesterday night, I tried again to erase and reformat the disk. I selected the option to zero all data because I thought that might solve any hard-to-fix problems. I left Disk Utility running overnight and all day today--about 20 hours in all-- but the progress bar showed no progress. None.
Now, as of this evening, I can't get the drive to mount at all. When I plug the drive in (and I've tried all three interfaces), the blue activity light starts blinking and I can hear it spin for a little while. It eventually stops spinning but the light keeps blinking.
I've tried unplugging the drive and plugging it back in. Nothing. I own DiskWarrior, but as far as I can tell there's nothing DiskWarrior can do if the drive won't mount.
I'm wondering if disconnected the drive while it was running could have caused this problem. I might have done that inadvertently when it was taking so long to format. I figured that might result in loss of data, but I wouldn't think it would render a drive completely non functional.
I'm guessing the problem is probably a failure of the drive, but the fact that this only cropped up when I tried to reformat it seems suspicious to me.
If anyone has any suggestions for ways to get the drive to mount or format it, I'd sincerely appreciate hearing them. Thanks.

Thanks for quick reply. Boy, I really screwed up. I guess I didn't think I could permanently ruin a drive that way. I just assumed as long as the drive could spin and wasn't going bad, you could always reformat it.
Just so you know, I let my iBook run untouched for literally 20 hours in the zero out erase mode, but the progress bar showed no progress at all, so I think the drive must have already been broken by that point. I was prepared for it to take a day or more, but with no visible progress in 20 hours it would have taken weeks.

Using existing external drives (am a new iMac user) & photos

I am a new convert to iMac from PC this weekend. Have searched support questions but not finding a match.
What I have is two portable external drives - a 160 gig for all my photos (all sorted into annual folders then monthly folders, close to its limit around 140gig), and a 300 gig drive for "everything else" ie movies, music, documents etc etc.
I have always kept everything on these drives - never been a fan of keeping anything on actual computers.
Anyway - today I downloaded photos from camera to the "finder".
Then I plugged in the 160 gig drive and in a separate Finder screen I have tried to create a Feb sub folder in my 2012 folder. So I can drag or copy todays photos into it from the mac.
But a) its not letting me create a new folder - actually I cant see any options to do so.
b) its not letting me drag or copy paste the photos into any folder on the external 160 drive.
Any tips - please in really plain english as after 20 years of Window use I feel like I am learning Apple english today. Its all a bit foreign !
A few people on facebook suggested "reformatting" the external drives but to be honest that scare the heck out of me as to me reformatting basically means risking losing everything on those drives.
Another problem to do with the photos I downloaded off the camera today:
What is known as "properties" in Windows usually shows me exactly what date and time the photo was take, when it was uploaded, and when it was edited.
Half the photos I downloaded today off the camera do show their Info as that - but half show their info as "today" and I know they are several weeks old.
As I rely on the integrity of the photos "properties for all my sorting - I am not sure how or why it is removing the correct information and replacing it with "today".
Any help for a real newbie is appreciated.
Thanks

NTFS (New Technology File System) is the standard file system of Windows NT, including Windows 2000,Windows XP, and all their successors to date.
NTFS supersedes the FAT file system as the preferred file system for Microsoft’s Windows operating systems.
SW = software. Do NOT use software to convert your data.
The Mac operating system uses HFS Extended (Journaled), and until you reformat your external hard drive to that (using Disk Utlity) you will not achieve full functionality.
Obviously that should have been done before you installed anything so you now need to clear all data off the external hard drive (by copying to another hard drive already formatted correctly) and then copying back. Easier still, format a new hard drive correctly, copy existing data to that, reformat the older hard drive and keep for further backups.
Kinda wished they had mentioned all that before I spent so much cash!
A little bit of reserarch and preparation before purchasing would not have gone amiss!

External Drives won't let iMac to Restart...???

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