External Hard Drive not appearing on Macbook Pro or 2009 Macbook

Hello,
I have a G Technology G-DRIVE External Hard Drive, that until now has worked perfectly.
I plugged it in today to try and back up my macbooks through Time Machine, like I have done for the last year - and on ether of the computers, the Hard Drive is not appearing in Time Machine or Finder. Having browsed online, I found that it is showing in Disk Utility and in System Information - but other than that I cannot do anthing with it. I even tried to Repair the drive, by erasing it and reformatting it - and I cant do it - I keep getting the messgae 'Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.'
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I use this hard drive as a Time Machine Backup, and I'm unable to do so.

At best, it sounds like this HD is flakey so even if you were able to get it working again, I would not trust it.
PlotinusVeritas gives some great suggestions for purchasing external hard drives in this thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5602141?tstart=0

Similar Messages

Iomega external hard drive not appearing in Disk Utility

I have a MacBook Pro (from 2011) and I'm running OS X 10.9.5. I have an old Iomega external hard drive. I'm not certain but this thing might be about 3-4 years old? When I connect the drive to my MBP, it shows up in Finder under Devices. But what appears is the Windows disk utility that is pre-loaded on the drive. The actual drive does not appear and I can't move files onto it in Finder.
When I go into Disk Utility and try to format the drive for Mac use, it doesn't appear.
Is there anything I can do or am I stuck with this old drive that doesn't work with Macs?

Try following tips.
USB and FireWire Quick Assist - Apple Support

External hard drive not appearing when entering time machine.

Why does my external hard drive back up on time machine ok, but when I enter time machine (and the external device isn't plugged in) i can't see it?
It appears in time machine fine when the external drive is plugged in, but just not if it's been ejected or
I want to have the ext drive backed up in case I lose it or it corrupts....and if that happens I won't be able to plug it in to see the drive in TM - does that make sense?
I am running OSX 10.9.3 on a Mid 2010 Mac Book Pro. The external drive is a samsung and is formatted to Mac OS Extended (journaled). Time Machine is a standard Apple one and has been working fine for a couple of years

Try holding down the Option Key when selecting the Time Machine menu, then select Brows Other Time Machine Disks. See if you can then browse the backup of that drive. The normal Time Machine display is kind of a “live” restore point thing, if that makes sense.
I’m not sure if there is anything in Pondini’s FAQ, but you might peruse it and see if he discusses that issue: http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

External hard drives not appearing on Desktop

I have three external hard drives, none of which are showing up on my Desktop. All three drives are mounted, and I can navigate to them through the sidebar in Finder windows, and the contents of the drives are all fine and intact. In Finder preferences under "Show these items on the desktop", "External disks" is ticked. I've tried unmounting the drives using Disk Utility, then mounting them again, but they still don't appear. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Create a new admin user account, log into it, setup Finder's prefs to show all HDs, and see if the issue persists.

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.

External hard drive not appearing in Airport Utility

I have connected an Iomega eGo portable hard drive to my airport extreme but i cannot access it from my airport utility or airport disk utility.
In fact it doesn't appear at all, even though the disk seems to be powered up and working.
Do i need a separate power supply for the disk or is it a compatibility issue?

not to worry, played around with the cables and it's sorted

External Hard Drive Not Appearing on desktop

My external HD has disappeared from my desktop. If I connect it via FW it does not appear in disk utilities or system profiler but if I connect it via usb it appears in both. I've switched out the cables, tried different ports and reset the PRAM and NVRAM. Can anyone offer any suggestions as to a fix?
Thanks in advance

Scott:
I take it from your explanation that even though it appears in all three of the utilities that my only remaining option is to use DataRescue II. Correct?
Let's say that it is the only one that occurs to me at this time of night
The demo version will at least show you that the data is still there. Another option might be to use SuperDuper to see if you can clone the User's Folder, or indeed the entire volume to an external firewire HDD, then using DU to reformat and erase the HDD (post for directions if needed) and clone back from external firewire HDD.
Yes, the drive does show up in sidebar in all three of the utilities I mentioned.
Is it possible to run Repair Disk in Disk Utility and see how it comes out? Or if you have done it already, what does it say?
While in Disk Utility, select the Manufacture ID of the external HDD and then look at the look at the icons at the very top. Is Mount dimmed or active? If active, click on it to mount the HDD.
Also, what happens if you try to Option boot?
If anything else occurs to me I will post back in the morning.
Cheers
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

Time Machine- external hard drive not appearing

I'm trying to set up Time Machine. However, the Maxtor one touch 4 plus drive is not appearing as an option to choose to set as back up drive?
Any suggestions?

Make sure it's not formatted as FAT32?

I have an Acer external hard drive 500GB. Is it compatible with Apple MacBook Pro laptop?

I have an Acer external hard drive 500GB. Is it compatible with Apple MacBook Pro laptop?

There are only a handful or Hard Drive mechanism manufacturers left. Acer is not one of them, although they may make the enclosure (but probably not that either). So in essence you have a Brand-X enclosure with some sort of Hard Drive inside.
Most of those work fine once they are re-Initialized for use on the Mac. For me, I prefer to use the Re-purposing of a drive as an opportunity to re-write every block with Zeroes (which can take several hours but can be done in the background), assuring that every block is good.

I want to take files from my PC (using a Seagate external hard drive) then plug this Seagate External hard drive into my Mac Book Pro and move the files from the Seagate External Hard drive onto my Time Capsule. I do not want to put these files on my Mac

I want to take files from my PC (using a Seagate external hard drive) then plug this Seagate External hard drive into my Mac Book Pro and move the files from the Seagate External Hard drive onto my Time Capsule. I do not want to put these files on my Mac. How do I do this? Where do I put these files on my Time Capsule? Will it affect the functioning of my Time Capsule?

Mixing files with data is not always great idea.
See info here.
Q3 http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Why not just connect the PC directly to the TC by ethernet and copy the files over?
It is hugely faster and much less mucking around.
In windows load the airport utility for windows.. if you have not already as this will help you access the drive.
There is more info here.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1331

External hard drive not mounting

external hard drive not mounting

I fixed mine by uninstalling the software that came with the harddrive such as Tuxera and reinstalled it now myharddrive works again and i did not have to delete the harddrive and reformat it.
I tried a lot like reseting the Pram And connecting other harddrives but by unstalling the original software it works all over again. I hope this works for you because i was getting pretty frustrated myself.
Im running a 2012 macbook pro with 10.9.3
boom mind blown

External hard drive not recognized in Finder or Disk Utility

Two weeks ago, my 2007 black Macbook stopped recognizing the hard drive. I was told by some IT friends that the controller had likely failed and I needed to purchase a new laptop. I removed the hard drive and placed it into an enclosure (turning it into an external hard drive) and hooked it up to a new Macbook Pro which I purchased a couple days ago. The external hard drive did not show up in Finder or Disk Utility but the light on the enclosure was on and it was making a very soft whirring noise and got warm after a few minutes. I usually backed up the hard drive but, of course, hadn't done it in a couple of weeks before it died so everything I worked on in that time is lost to me at the moment. I'm trying to avoid paying tons of money for a data recovery service so any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

That whirring noise might be due to physical damage on the disk. I know data recovery services are costly but that remains only the solution for damaged HDD. You can get latest quotes on services from different dealers. Proceed only when your data is very important to be recovered.

My Toshiba external hard drive is no longer being recognised by my Macbook Air - solution?

My Toshiba external hard drive is no longer being recognised by my Macbook Air. The light on the hard drive is on, but it won't appear on my computer's desktop or anywhere else. How can I fix this?

Hi rivraff,
If you are having issues mounting an external hard drive volume, you may want to see if it shows up and/or can be repaired in Disk Utility; you may find the following article helpful:
Apple Support: Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1782
Regards,
- Brenden

I have a Firewire 800 external hard drive and need to connect to my new MacBook Air. Where can I get the correct cable?

I have a Firewire 800 external hard drive and need to connect to my new MacBook Air. Where can I get the correct cable?

Apple has announced a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter, but not yet given a release date.

Can't connect my external hard drive to my Mac Book Pro. Any thoughts?

I have a 2.0 TB WD Mybookessential as an external hard drive to my Mac Book Pro and I'm getting a "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" message every time I try to remount it. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the suggestion, Cattus, it is in fact a formatted disk with a lot of valuable data, so I do not want to reformat the disk.
I followed your advice, however the repair failed because of an "invalid B-tree node size".
This is the log:
2011-12-27 17:03:33 +0000: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.2011-12-27 17:03:33 +0000:
2011-12-27 17:03:33 +0000: Disk Utility stopped repairing “disk1s2” because the following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
2011-12-27 17:03:33 +0000:
2011-12-27 17:06:35 +0000:           Name :           WD My Book 1110 Media
          Type :           Disk
          Partition Map Scheme :           GUID Partition Table
          Disk Identifier :           disk1
          Media Name :           WD My Book 1110 Media
          Media Type :           Generic
          Connection Bus :           USB
          USB Serial Number :           574D415A4131363338333935
          Device Tree :           /PCI0/EHC1@1D,7/@2:0
          Writable :           Yes
          Ejectable :           Yes
          Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed :           No
          Location :           External
          Total Capacity :           1.8 TB (1,999,696,297,984 Bytes)
          S.M.A.R.T. Status :           Not Supported
          Disk Number :           1
          Partition Number :           0
2011-12-27 17:06:35 +0000:
2011-12-27 18:22:01 +0000: Verify and Repair volume “disk1s2”
Starting repair tool: 2011-12-27 18:22:01 +0000
2011-12-27 18:22:01 +0000: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
2011-12-27 18:22:15 +0000: Invalid B-tree node size
2011-12-27 18:22:15 +0000: Volume check failed.
2011-12-27 18:22:15 +0000: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.2011-12-27 18:22:15 +0000:
2011-12-27 18:22:15 +0000: Disk Utility stopped repairing “disk1s2” because the following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
2011-12-27 18:22:15 +0000:
2011-12-27 18:31:57 +0000:           Name :           WD My Book 1110 Media
          Type :           Disk
          Partition Map Scheme :           GUID Partition Table
          Disk Identifier :           disk1
          Media Name :           WD My Book 1110 Media
          Media Type :           Generic
          Connection Bus :           USB
          USB Serial Number :           574D415A4131363338333935
          Device Tree :           /PCI0/EHC1@1D,7/@2:0
          Writable :           Yes
          Ejectable :           Yes
          Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed :           No
          Location :           External
          Total Capacity :           1.8 TB (1,999,696,297,984 Bytes)
          S.M.A.R.T. Status :           Not Supported
          Disk Number :           1
          Partition Number :           0
2011-12-27 18:31:57 +0000:

External Hard Drive not appearing on Macbook Pro or 2009 Macbook

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for