External Hard Drive acting strange, any thoughts on what's happening?

I have a Seagate external and was working off of it today, and when going into it to open up some garageband files, the image/icon by the file name is gone and appear to be blank. When clicking on the file name it then disappears too. However the space where it belongs is still reserved, there is just nothing to click on. When I close out of the hard drive and then open it again the file name shows up again but the icons are still blank. My files are disappearing. A few weeks ago I had a similar thing happen on my other external and then a few weeks later it died. Is this hard drive dying too? Am I doing something to cause this? I really need to be able to rely on my externals...thanks to anyone that can help

did you ever find a fix for this?
my ext FW800 drives constantly spin down, then when i do something later i get the beachball until they spin back up

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How can i reformat my external hard drive without loosing any data?

how can i reformat my external hard drive without loosing any data?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
It's impossible to format a hard drive without losing the data. One thing you can do before formatting is to copy the files from the external drive to your internal drive, and then, format the external drive. After formatting, copy the files to the external drive again, and everything will be as before formatting it

HT1751 My iTunes won't drag to my external hard drive...any suggestions?

When I attempt to drag my iTunes library to my external hard drive, it will not transfer the folder. I am using a Mac osx and a free agent external hard drive. Any suggestions?

See this migrate iTunes library post. Depending on the layout of the library you may simply need to copy the entire iTunes folder using Windows Explorer without ever firing up iTunes.
tt2

What External Hard Drive to Buy, any Suggestions.

Hi all, i need an external hard drive. Easily answered i hear you say, here's where it gets harder. I dont want to buy a case and a drive and then build it, i want to buy it off the shelf. I need....................
Firewire
Oxford chipset
300-500 GB
and most importantly not going to cause me grief as im going to be using it with ProTools LE
Thanks in advance guys.

I just bought my second Vantek NexStar 2 enclosure model NST-355UF. It is the firewire case my usual source recommends because they have been reliable. I am getting a Seagate 320G drive to go in the case. It's 7200 RPM with 16 MB of buffers. The extra buffers should help with smooth streaming. And right now it seems to be the best buy in capacity and speed per dollar.
I don't know if Vantek uses the Oxford chip set. Neither System Profiler nor Disk Utility appears to report the remote chip set and there is no mention in the manual. If you know any easy way to check, I'd like to find out.
I can say that it works well with Final Cut Express, using firewire passthrough to my camera for both video capture and display during editing. That's a fairly demanding use, so there's a good chance that it will be OK for audio.
Two advantages of the case: it has an efficient switching power supply, and an internal fan. The fan can be important with a 7200 rpm drive. The down side is that it tends to transmit vibration to the desk it is sitting on despite having rubber "vibration dampers". I ended up putting it on a piece of flat cardboard with a layer of foam underneath.

External Hard Drive not Mounting any more

Hi all,
I have noticed since couple of kernel updates, my external hard drive - plugged via USB doesn't get mounted any more. To access the drive I need to reboot the computer with the hard drive switch on.
See below for the dmesg output, regular usb keys get mounted normally, I have check autofs set up and it seems fine compare to the wiki,
Many thanks for taking the time to read my topic,
Looking forward for your replies,
[ 37.753349] usb 2-6: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
[ 38.139340] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[ 38.175765] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[ 38.175829] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 38.175830] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[ 38.240086] scsi8 : usb-storage 2-6:1.0
[ 38.240226] usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-cypress
[ 44.726882] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access ST325082 3A PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 44.727768] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] 488397168 512-byte logical blocks: (250 GB/232 GiB)
[ 44.728724] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
[ 44.728727] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Mode Sense: 33 00 00 00
[ 44.729729] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 44.753026] sde: sde1
[ 75.466677] usb 2-6: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
[ 75.591741] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI disk
[ 2243.446832] usb 2-6: USB disconnect, device number 4
[ 2278.086455] usb 2-6: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci_hcd
[ 2278.211117] scsi9 : usb-storage 2-6:1.0
[ 2285.078375] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access ST325082 3A PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 2285.079220] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] 488397168 512-byte logical blocks: (250 GB/232 GiB)
[ 2285.080209] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
[ 2285.080212] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Mode Sense: 33 00 00 00
[ 2285.081222] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 2285.101763] sde: sde1
[ 2285.105212] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI disk
[ 2316.159787] usb 2-6: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci_hcd

Yes I have checked System Settings -> Removable Devices - but there is no option for an external hard drive.
And yes it is a ntfs drive, but as I said it worked before couples of updates ago, and just to be sure I checked ntfs-3g - it is installed.
Oh, and I should have said, checking /dev/by-label the drive appear there once turn on, but doesn't get mounted, I use to have a line in the fstab file, but I removed it because it tried to mount it during booting process, and it work anyway.
Any other advice?
Last edited by sweetthdevil (2012-01-24 19:03:00)

I'm looking to buy a external Hard Drive, is Maxtor any good?

I am looking for a external Hard Drive for my Mac Mini, i heard that Lacie is pretty good because it fits right under the Mini but i have never heard of this brand and $130 is a little to much for me right now.
I have found a Maxtor 100GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive for only $70 but i don't know if Maxtor HD's work with Mac's, should i get WD's My Book HD instead or stick with Maxtor?
EDIT: I Just noticed that the one and only Firewire connection on my Mac Mini is free, is FireWire a better way to go?
Thanks.

I've had my Maxtor external OneTouch 250GB for about 18 months now and it hasn't skipped a beat. I have hear of people having their Maxtor drive just up and die but you will probably find that goes for all manufacturers.
By the way, Maxtor is, amongst others, an OEM supplier to Apple.

Trying to save external hard drive. . . any ideas?

I have an Aluminum 15" 1.67 GHz Powerbook. A few months ago, I replaced the 80 GB internal hard drive with a 250 GB drive. That process went well, and I'm very glad I did it.
I had intended to put the 80 GB drive I removed from my Al book into my old Ti Book (400 MHz). I have an external firewire enclosure that is housing the 80 GB drive right now.
The problem: When I was trying to copy the TiBook's internal drive to the 80 GB one via Carbon Copy Cloner, the process basically hung, and after about an hour and a half of frozen progress bar, I hard-reset my machine. That apparently killed the external drive. Now, when I plug the external 80 GB drive into either of my computers, it does not show up on the desktop. Disk Utility can see the drive, so I try to use Disk Utility on either machine (the TiBook is OS 10.4.11, the AlBook is OS 10.5.3), but re-formatting the 80 GB drive always fails immediately after I click "erase", with an error message: "Failure due to input/output error." I actually removed my internal TiBook drive and put it in the enclosure, then hooked it up to my AlBook. That worked fine, so I know the problem is with the 80 GB drive, not the external enclosure itself.
I bought DiskWarrior ($100!), hoping it would do what Apple's Disk Utility couldn't and erase and reformat the drive. But when I try to use it to "rebuild" the drive, it, too, hangs (I've left it for up to 3 hours with no change in the progress bar) and I have to either force quit diskwarrior or reset the computer.
Am I out of options? Is the drive simply dead as a doornail and there is no way I can bring it back? I don't really care about the data that was on the drive, since that is all backed elsewhere. I was just hoping to use it to go from 10 GB to 80 GB in my TiBook, and I'm kind of peeved that Diskwarrior was $100 worth of useless.
Thanks!

Nice long story, but the short version would be better. Is this drive now in the external enclosure? If so connect it to one of your computers and try the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
If the drive is not accessible in Disk Utility or is not visible in Disk Utility then either the drive is dead or your enclosure is dead, or you have a defective cable.

I want to upgrade my software, but it says I need more start up memory. I keep my stuff on an external hard drive so I don't know what is eating my memory. How can I check this?

How can I figure out what is eating my memory so I can upgrade my software?

Do you mean disk storage space or physical RAM? The latter is memory, not the former. If you mean the former:
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.
If you mean RAM, then you have to add more to the computer which is not possible on Air models.

HT3275 can´t any longer find my Iomega MiniMax hard drive on my Time Machine. What has happen?

I can´t see my Iomega in my Time Machine. It has suddenly stopped to work. And I can´t find a reasonable answer for that. Can some one help me?
Jorgmol

Sounds like the external disk drive has died.
If you have access to another computer, try testing it there. If not, you might be able to get the Apple Store to test it for you.

For some reason, my USB flash drive is being recognized as an external hard drive, is there any way to fix this?

I think I used Disk Utility on this flash drive before and know it won't show that it's a flash drive, my other flash drives still show up as flash drives so is there anyway to fix this? I'm on Mac OS X 10.9.3.

A workaround.
If you would like to change the drive icon:
- Under Finder right click on a flash drive and choose " Get Info "
- click on the disk icon at the top, from the desktop menu select Edit -> Copy
- Under Finder right click on the problematic volume and choose " Get Info "
- click on the disk icon at the top, from the desktop menu select Edit -> Paste
Cheers

Is it possible to keep all iTunes media on an external hard drive and not on my Mac Book and have ITunes still function?

Let me begin by saying I'm new to the Mac world as well as to the realm of online forums so I apologize if this is a question that was already asked and/or if it is a very noobish question...
But anyway, I just recently got the new Macbook Pro 15" with RD and I am curious if I can keep all of my Itunes media on an external hard drive without keeping any of it on the Macbook itself and have Itunes still function (when the HD is connected of course). I am trying to keep the computer memory clutter free and not fill it up with music and stuff so I want to keep all of my media on a 1T Buffalo external hard drive so the computer stays like brand new for a long time..Right now I have about 5G worth of music on my hard drive and I thought it was only on the hard drive and I just recently found out that it is also within the music folder on the computer itself. Any thoughts? Sorry if it is an odd question, I can try to rephrase the question if need be. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated, Thanks!

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
If you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)
Longer answers if for any reason you do not think all library files are inside your iTunes folder (changed preferences settings at some point):
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168
2011 ilounge article: Transferring your iTunes library - http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/ - An article with good background information (similar to the links above), particularly if you are not sure your media files are all grouped for quick answer above. Unfortunately under the single term "transferring library" it describes two very different moves; relocating just your media (not really transferring your library and not recommended unless you really need this configuration), and relocating media+database (really your whole "library"). Make sure you understand the difference before electing to move only media.

Transfer photos/videos from MacBook Pro to External Hard Drive (not iPhoto)

I've read all the other threads regarding how to transfer photos from iPhoto to an external hard drive (i.e., format your EHD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)), however, I do not believe my situation applies.
In short, I download new photos/videos from my iPhone to my MacBook Pro twice - in two distinct methods. The first method (and the one I favor) is to use the Preview Application to download photos to the MyPictures folder. Once this is done, I revise the name of each photo so that I can tell not only the date but also the event. Once this is done, I then also download the same photos to my iPhoto Library via iPhoto but I don't make any revisions to the file names (I don't know why I continue to download photos into my iPhoto Library since I don't like iPhoto, but I guess I feel like it is a "backup" of sorts).
My problem now is that my internal hard drive is filling up and I must transfer some photos to an External Hard Drive (EHD). I thought the simplest solution was to transfer my iPhoto Library since I don't really use it anyway and many people advise to simply format my EHD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). However, if I do that, my understanding is that I will not be able to then transfer the files to a PC, if I decide in the future to do so. The solution, as suggested by others, was to then format my EHD as "ExFAT". However, if I do that, my understanding is that iPhoto will not function properly.
So my questions include the following:
1. Is there any harm in simply deleting my entire iPhoto Library from my internal hard drive to free up space since I believe I have been downloading all my pictures in a separate location anyway (MyPictures folder)? Or will deleting my iPhoto Library somehow delete these other photos (even though they are not named similarly)?
2. If I decided that transferring my iPhoto Library to a Mac OS Extended (Journaled)-formatted EHD was the best solution, what would my options be if in the future I wanted to transfer the photos to a PC? Is that option lost forever? Or could I somehow transfer the photos from the EHD to the MacBook Pro, then re-format the EHD to ex-FAT, copy back the photos from the MacBook Pro to the ex-FAT-formatted EHD and then transfer the photos/videos to my PC? Is there an alternative better solution?
3. Any other suggestions?
Thank you

1 - no - if you do not like or use iPhoto then yu have no need for the iPhoto library - it is sefl contained and deleting it will not affect anything except iPhoto
2 - you can export photos form iPhoto to any format drive - it is only the iPhoto library that has drive format restrictions
Reformatting a drive totally erases it so you can not simply change the format of a drive without removing everything on it
3 - deciede what you want - if you use iPhoto then it has no cross platform capability and nothing you do in iPhoto is directly of use on a PC - you have to export from iPhoto to a volume that a PC can read
Since you do not like or use iPhoto and it will not do what you want I have no idea why you are messing with it at all
LN

FCP Won't Startup Without External Hard Drive

I tried posting something about this earlier, but I don't think I titled or explained myself well.
I cannot get FCP to startup unless my external hard drive is running and mounted. This is happening on 2 different computer with different drives (1 is firewire 800, the other and eSATA minitower). With the drives off, FCP stalls on startup and I have to force quit it and sometimes 2 other identical applications titled the same: MultiMediaImporter.
After the drive is turned on the FCP opens to a new, untitled project and works normal. I can unmount the external drive and run FCP as normal as well.
I can't open any past project until that drive is up and running. I have some projects that contain no media on the external drives, and other projects that do. The only thing that is stored on these external drives is P2 media that I have imported into the FCP projects via XML.
I don't know what else to post, I'd add the problem report, but each computer seems to be stalling out at different points on boot up. However, those positions are strange, one being CoreGraphics the other on FamilyControls.
Oh, and I have tried deleting the prefs. No help at all.
I appreciate any ideas. Thanks

From the FCP menu bar: Final Cut Pro > System Settings > Scratch Disks.
What drives are set to be used as Scratch Disks? If those two externals are included in the list FCP will always look for them. As it will if the project file contains pointers to media that it expects to find on those disks, even if the media is no longer there.
You need to open each project, reconnect the media to the location where it actually is and save the project with that updated information.
Did I mention that it is not a good idea to keep FCP media on your system drive?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

How can I add media from an external hard drive into Premiere Elements? Please answer.

Alright, so I have looked all over the website and the way adobe's frequently asked questions about adding media did nothing for me. I am editing a large full length video in premiere elements 13 and so I would like to add media from my external hard drive and edit from that location. Is that possible? Because I do not have enough space on my laptop to keep hundreds and hundreds of GB of videos on my internal hard drive. I have looked on how to add media from the hard drive location and adobe says to add it using the files and folders tab, but when I select it to add it, it says I need to use the Video Importer. So I go to use the video importer and have no way of figuring out how to select my hard drive. Any ideas?

Spencer WhiteOut
Thank you for the follow up with the information
it is a MacBook pro retina . OS X Operating system. External hard drive is connected by the USB cable. fat32.
It is my understanding, whether you have Premiere Elements on Windows or Mac, if you have files on an external hard drive, you do not select
Add Media and head for a choice that includes Video Importer. Instead, you select Add Media/Files and Folders and navigate to the external hard drive to select your file(s) for import into the project.
But, you seem to be saying that when you do you are met with a message to use the Video Importer. Does the message give you any other related information on why you are being detoured to Video Importer since Video Importer does not import from an external hard drive for me or you. It does for me using Add Media to get the files from my external hard drive into a project. I am strictly an Elements Windows user, so my Mac information is from what I have read. Based on that...
1. Please evaluate the format of your external hard drive. Please review the following if you have not considered this point before.
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-an-external-hard-drive-for-use-with-os-x/
There are many online articles on this matter which would point you away from Fat32 as the format for a external hard drive Mac.
2. From what you wrote, you are not dealing with a DVD drive so I see no way to implicate one of them in this issue. You are dealing with an
USB external hard drive and not a USB external DVD/CD drive. Correct?
Please review and consider.
We will be watch for further news from you.
Thank you.
ATR

External Hard Drive acting strange, any thoughts on what's happening?

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