External Hard Drive No Longer on my Desktop

The external hard drive that I use for Time Machine is no longer on my desktop. In fact, when I open up the Time Machine preferences, it does not show my external drive as available. There is power available to the external hard drive AND it is physically connect to my iMac. What seems to be the problem? How do I get my computer to "see" the external drive again? Thanks!

Excellent! Glad it worked. I suspect Time Machine automatically ejected the drive after it finished the backup. If this is, indeed, what's happening and you'd like to prevent in the future, you might consider partitioning the external HDD in two so that Time Machine only ejects a partition, not the whole drive.

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I have a MacBook Pro, 10.10.2 Yosemite. My external hard drive no longer appears on my screen or in Time Machine

I have a MacBook Pro, 10.10.2 Yosemite. My external hard drive no longer appears on my screen or in Time Machine. I have gone into Disc Utility to repair disc, and get the message: Error: Partition map check failed because no slices were found. I was trying to follow Melophage's instructions by going into "Terminal" and entering "diskutil list; diskutil cs list; mount" and "diskutil info disk2." Then I entered the command "sudo got show disk1."   I am sure I have made the problem worse. Can you give me some help? Thank you. blelambert
Last login: Wed Mar 11 19:23:03 on ttys000
~ belambert$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         250.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *249.8 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk2s1
~ belambert$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 883A56F4-5559-4872-A8DA-960F99655B63
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
Status:       Online
    Size:         250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
    Free Space:   8921088 B (8.9 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 7EDAFA20-FF9A-45FB-BA44-6526BB46C381
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family B47B0B40-CBF2-4D02-BFEF-182061AC6F8E
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
        Conversion Status:       Complete
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   Yes
        Fully Secure:            Yes
        Passphrase Required:     Yes
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          249779191808 B (249.8 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
~ belambert$ mount
/dev/disk1 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
localhost:/vB3z604U-dvSpES6320fHq on /Volumes/MobileBackups (mtmfs, nosuid, read-only, nobrowse)
~ belambert$ diskutil info disk2
   Device Identifier:        disk2
   Device Node:              /dev/disk2
   Part of Whole:            disk2
   Device / Media Name:      WD My Book 111A Media
File System:              None
   Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Total Size:               2.0 TB (2000365289472 Bytes) (exactly 3906963456 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                Yes
File System:              None
   Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Total Size:               2.0 TB (2000365289472 Bytes) (exactly 3906963456 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                Yes
belambert ttys000                   Wed Mar 11 17:34 - 17:39 (00:05)
belambert ttys000                   Wed Mar 11 17:33 - 17:34 (00:00)
wtmp begins Sun Mar 8 14:40
~ belambert$ ~ belambert$ diskutil list
-bash: :~: command not found
~ belambert$ /dev/disk0
-bash: /dev/disk0: Permission denied
:~ belambert$    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
~ belambert$    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
-bash: 0:: command not found
:~ belambert$    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
-bash: 1:: command not found
~ belambert$    2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         250.1 GB   disk0s2
-bash: 2:: command not found
~ belambert$    3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
-bash: /dev/disk1: Permission denied
~ belambert$    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
~ belambert$    0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *249.8 GB   disk1
-bash: 0:: command not found
~ belambert$                                  Logical Volume on disk0s2
-bash: Logical: command not found
~ belambert$                                  7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C
-bash: 7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C: command not found
~ belambert$                                  Unlocked Encrypted
-bash: Unlocked: command not found
:~ belambert$ /dev/disk2
-bash: /dev/disk2: Permission denied
~ belambert$    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
:~ belambert$    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
-bash: 0:: command not found
~ belambert$    1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk2s1
-bash: 1:: command not found
~ belambert$ ~ belambert$ diskutil cs list
-bash: ~: command not found
~ belambert$ CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
~ belambert$ |
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `|'
~ belambert$ +-- Logical Volume Group 883A56F4-5559-4872-A8DA-960F99655B63
-bash: +--: command not found
~ belambert$     =========================================================
-bash: =========================================================: command not found
~ belambert$     Name:         Macintosh HD
-bash: Name:: command not found
~ belambert$
-bash: 3:: command not found
~ belambert$ /dev/disk1
   Whole:                    Yes
   Internal:                 No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported
:~ belambert$ Last login: Wed Mar 11 19:23:03 on ttys000
~ belambert$ diskutil list
   Whole:                    Yes
   Internal:                 No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported
~ belambert$ Last login: Wed Mar 11 19:23:03 on ttys000
~ belambert$ diskutil list
   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)
   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)

racergirl,
have you tried resetting your MacBook Pro’s System Management Controller, to see if that makes a difference with the heat?

External Hard Drive no longer showing in Devices

My external hard drive no longer shows up as a device on my MBP. It has worked fine since the day I plugged it in.
The Time Machine is using the HD, and continues to do it's backups, so power and USB connection is not an issue
The HD shows up in Disk Utility (The Time Machine portion AND the partition that I've been using for storage)
I ran a repair on the partition in Disk Utility and it checks out OK
I can access this partition from VMware Fusion, so the windows side of the MBP sees it, and it's operational
Used the HD all day yesterday without issue
I've restarted the MBP to see if it would find the HD partition after a restart, it doesn't
I've unplugged (USB) and powered-off the HD, and when I power-on, it still isn't seen.
Any ideas?
John

If TM is turned on and it still doesn't show up then do a SMC reset.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and 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.

External Hard Drive Doesn't Mount on Desktop through FireWire 400

I have an external hard drive that mounts on the desktop when connecting to my iMac via USB, but it fails to appear on the desktop when connecting via FireWire 400. It was glitchy in Tiger as well, and had problems since installing Leopard. I was able to get it to work once, after using Leopard Cache Cleaner (a 3rd party program), disconnecting the hard drive, and unplugging the iMac. I moved my computer this week, and had to unplug it and when I powered it back up, the hard drive doesn't appear on the desktop again through FireWire 400 (still works fine with USB). It also doesn't appear in Disk Utility through FireWire.
What good are FireWire if they fail to recognize a hard drive so often?!

upgrade to latest system, that computer will accept, then try again

LR 5 my external hard drive no longer appears as a hard drive but as a folder under "Volumes"

I am running LR 5 on a MacBook pro and my external hard drive no longer appears as a hard drive but as a folder under "Volumes". will this affect my ability to search and store in this external hard drive? How can I get it back to normal?

I just started having the same problem, oddly enough with a LaCie 500GB D2 Quadra external. Had it connected via FW800 then suddenly it won't appear in the Finder.
It shows up as an "Unknown Device" in the System Profiler under the FireWire Bus.
I do need the data on it so which solution is easier?
Replace the housing? Or am I better off calling LaCie and using the warrenty?
Thanks,
Shannon

External hard drive no longer shows up on Desktop

Hi everyone,
I did what a good person should do with a tech issue and did a long search through forums before I resigned to bothering you all with it.
I've had a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Media external hard drive for 6 months which up until this week, was showing up as an icon on my Desktop. I had named it Eid HD.
I suddenly am unable to access this drive on my MacBook Pro. The Desktop icon has disappeared but the drive still lights up as per normal. I'm using OS X v10.6.8
I tried changing USB cables.
The drive appears in Disk Utility as follows (the yellow icons):
I read somewhere that I needed to mount it. The first yellow icon doesn't have the mount option. The second one (Eid HD) has the option but when I mount it, I get the following message:
Mount Failed.
The disk “Eid HD” could not be mounted.
Try running First Aid on the disk and then retry mounting.
I verified and repaired (First Aid) the disk. Results:
Tried to mount - same error message as above. Mount failed.
I downloaded Disk Warrior and although the drive appears in there, I can't do anything with it. The Graph and Rebuild buttons are both greyed out.
Does anyone have any ideas about how to fix this?
The files are still on the drive as I used it on a Windows machine to test it.
I don't want to format it.
Please help if you can, thank you in advance.
Sam

I verified and repaired (First Aid) the disk. Results:
That quote is from your first post. But I have some questions about that (maybe just to satisfy my own curiosity).
1. When you ran Disk Utility First Aid did you do it on the disk itself (the one that is enabled with the Seagate title)?
2. That First Aid window title line says "First Aid: EID HD" yet my DU window title only shows the name exactly as it appears in the left panel, no "First Aid:" prefix. So is that a change in 10.6.8 (I use 10.6.5)?
3. You display shows lines like "Verifying folders", "Folders verification completed", and "Verifying $...". Again I have never seen DU display that kind of info. Another 10.6.8 change?
As I said, I am only curious. It may not mean anything. But I thought I would point out these details just in case.
If these aren't 10.6.8 changes (I find it hard to believe apple would change DU after all these years just from 10.6.5 to 10.6.8) then just what DU First Aid were you running?

External Hard Drive No longer Appearing on Macbook Pro

Hello, I have a Iomega ldhd-up 1TB external hard drive which I have owned for about 3-4 years. The enclosure case of the hard drive is very poorly designed and the port for the USB cable does not fit the cable tightly. Over the years I often would have to turn off the hard drive and adjust the cord so it would appear on my computer. (yes i know its a bad idea to turn it off without unmounting, but i didn't have much choice)
However, as of today, it is no longer appearing at all no matter what I do. (not on the desktop, or disk utility, or anywhere). It is making the same sounds and the light on the external is showing up as if should be working though.
Does anyone have a fix for this or suggestions to make my hard drive appear and function again. Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you.

Since you have had a history of connection problems with the Iomega, get a new enclosure for the HDD. That of course assumes that the HDD is functional.
Ciao.

External Hard Drive won't mount on desktop!

Hey, guys.
I ran into a problem this morning that I've never ran into before and I wasn't sure where to write it but I thought this is best.
Here it goes...
Last night I had a power surge and when I restarted my computer, my external hard drive did not mount on my desktop. I than proceeded with restarting my computer, I relinked all my connections and I cant seem to get it fixed. I have a lot of material on my external drive that I dont have backed up (I know, a stupid move) anyways, I dont want to lose that information. Also, when I open up disk utility, the icon for my external drive is there and the partition I made for my external drive shows up also but the title of my partition for my external hard drive is not in bolded font. I tried to click the button to mount my external drive cause the specs tell me that it is not mounted but when I press the mount button, it does nothing. I than tried clicking the unmount button and than restart my computer and still nothing.
What problem am I facing and how can it be fixed?
Thanks.

Dear Jason,
Gary's advised is, IMHO, a very sound one.
The only thing I can think of about your problem, given the information you have provided us, is to run Disk Warrior on your external HD.
In fact, DW is particularly indicated in events, like:
"...you should run DiskWarrior when you suspect that there is directory damage on one of your disks. Directory damage can result in the disk not mounting (not appearing on the desktop when the computer is started), missing files or folders, an inability to move or copy files, or crashes when files are used...".
You could actually buy your copy of DW Licence on-line and download it directly onto your internal HD, starting from this "Information you must read before you make your purchase" page. A hardware copy of the software you have so purchased, will follow by postal service (or currier, if so you choose), shortly.
Follow all the instructions you will find in the download to install the DW software onto your main internal HD and then run it on your external hard drive.
DW has saved my data several times and in similar situations as you are experiencing. IMHO, you should seriously give it a try and, even in the unfortunate event it does not manage to solve your problem, it is one of those Mac OSX utilities which ANY Mac power user MUST have handy at all times.
So, no matter what, my opinion is that it is always well-spent-money those used to purchase your copy of DW: in the long run, you won't regret it.
In the event that even DW is unable to retrive your precious data, my suggestion is to contact Micro Com data recovery. It's going to cost you some money, but if you make a leaving out of the data you've lost on your external hard drive, it's going to be worth it.
All the best.
Costa

External Hard Drive not appearing on my desktop...

I am encountering a major problem with my Maxtor external hard drive. I have had the drive a few weeks, and everything has been sweet, swwet enough for me to trust it enough to back up 10 years of professional work and irreplacable photos. Today however it has decided to not show up on my desktop, and instead give me the option of initialising it, ejecting it and ignoring because 'my computer can not read it'!!!
I have tried disk utility but get get end of messages and am unable to repair the disk eeven though it says it needs fixing.
My next step has been to download TechTool, which seems to be sticking a 3rd of the way through a disk surface test?
I am pretty desperate as I REALLY don't want to loose what I have on it, so any light anybody can shed would be HUGELY appreciately.
Thanks in advance
s

Some people recommend erasing a drive (write zeros) before using which may pick up and mapout most bad blocks. Then benchmark the drive over various areas with something like intech speedtools QuickBench 3 and Zone Bench.
I like to load some test data to fill the drive to 90% and then erase and start using. but always keep two backups, one of which is off-line so if something happens you still have the alternate, as a minimum.
Are you using TTPro 4.12? there were problems with earlier versions and FW, and, FW is not immune from problems itself, as each OS X upgrade has attested, and updates to Oxford 911/912/922 chipset.
Also, you would not be alone in having trouble with Maxtor One-Touch. A search on http://www.macintouch.com for one, yields some hits. Another good place to look would be
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com
you can also good for Diamond Max 10/11 or Maxline III.
While you can access the data, backup. Maybe look into external SATA, or build your own FW800 912/922/924 drive and case.
I'm no longer a big fan of 3rd party tools, but Disk Warrior is good to have on hand.
And never, ever, fill a drive beyond 80-85%. After 75% you start to lose performance and high fragmentation can be a problem.

LaCie 120Gb external hard drive no longer recognized

I've had a LaCie 120Gb external hard drive working independently off a firewire cable for a couple of months now. This morning it stopped being picked up as an external drive. It connects because you can feel it whirring, and stops when the computer is turned off (so the cables are working), but it no longer shows up in the finder or disk utility. I tried resetting the PRAM to no effect. Any ideas anyone???
Dave Nicholls, Auckland.

it spins because it has power. maybe your firewire port is damaged? does the drive have a usb port that you can try? if not, you can remove the hard drive from it's enclosure and install it in a tower mac or pc if you have one and see if it shows up then.

HT201250 my external hard drive no longer shows up

I use a LaCie external hardrive for my Time Machine backup on my iMac.. Since October 24th 2012, my Imac no longer recognizes my LaCie..., and in fact no external hard drive is recognized. When I open up Time Machine it asks me to set up another Time Capsule.?? Has somethingchanged either in the operating system [OS X 10.7.5] or with iCloud that would be affecting this? My La Cie turns on and sounds like its working, and I have checked the power supply.

Hi baltwo and Miacc,
I also have a LaCie ext HD of 1T and OS 10.7.5. Since Dec 24th 2012 I haven't been able to mount the LaCie disk. I can see it in the Disk Utility but I cannot mounted. I verified the disk and even repaired it but nothing has happened, actually there is nothing wrong with the disk, but it cannot be mounted.
I did what you suggested baltwo but I'm in the same situation as before. I cannot mount the disk and/or do Time Machine.
Any suggestions?

External hard drive no longer shows up connected

I have been using a Seagate Freeagent 500 GB external HD as a backup storage device for my Windows 7, 64 bit computer. After working well for several years it did not respond the last time I tried to back up and shows up as "disconnected" when
I search for the HD in device manager or control panel. It was assigned Drive I but that drive no longer shows up under drives. I have tried different USB ports without success. Oddly, the audible signal sounds when I remove the USB cable from
a port but does not sound when I reinsert it. I also tried powering down the hard drive and powering up again without success.

Hi,
If other PCs can show this external hard drive, You can try the following steps to clear the write-protected flag to see what's going on:
Open a command with administrator privilege:
type--> diskpart
type--> list volume
type--> select volume #
type--> attributes disk clear readonly
Kate Li
TechNet Community Support

La Cie Porsche Design External Hard Drive no longer working with Time Machine since update to Yosemite.

My La Cie Porsche Design External Hard Drive USB 3.0 is no longer working with Time Machine. Is Yosemite the cause? How do I fix?

Can you see the drive in Disk Utility? If so, try selecting it and using the Mount button in the top menu. You can also run repair disk and repair permissions.

External Hard Drive Doesn't Appear on Desktop / Won't Mount

I have an external hard drive that is used as a server for 3 computers . . . it is hidden from the Desktop.
The "home" computer is running 10.8.5, and the others (which also have the hard drive hidden) run 10.9.5 & 10.10.1.
I can access the drive by going to Go > Recent Folders, and also from aliases to the drive I already have on my Desktop.
The drive shows up on Disk Utility, and was fine when I verified the disk.
I also reset the SMC and PRAM, with no affect on the hidden folder.
The Thunderbolt connectors and Firewire 800 converters all seem to be in working order.
I've seen some fixes out there for the same problem with users running OS X 10.9.3. They've used a Terminal command to reveal the hidden files. Am not sure if the code for 10.9.3 will work for my 10.8.5.
Someone, please help!

upgrade to latest system, that computer will accept, then try again

External hard drive isn't shown on desktop anymore

Hello!
I've got a problem with my external hard drive... I'm using a *G4 iMac* and an *external hard drive* by "iomega".
Today my computer crashed down and I had to relaunch it without having a chance to eject the external hard drive before.
When I get to my desktop again the hard drive wasn't there anymore. I turned the hard drive off ( it was turned on while relaunching the computer) and on again but it didn't work.
The hard drive is shown in the hard drive utility but I can't neither repair nor check it because all the buttons are "greyed out". And when I try to eject it with the utility, it says "Hard drive can't be ejected - Try to switch off all running programs". But I have no access to the hard drive to do so!
I also tried to attach the hard drive to another computer (this time I turned the hard drive off before!) but there's the same problem!
I need the data on it!
Is there any possibility to solve my problem without losing my data???
Thanks a lot in advance!!!
elbin_24

oh, already solved!
After the thousandth relaunch of the hard drive it is working now and it is shown on my desktop as it should be!!!
I'm sorry for causing this trouble here in the forum! Excuse me, please!!!!
elbin_24

External Hard Drive No Longer on my Desktop

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