External HArd Drive not recognized by MAcBook Air

Hi,
I bought an external hard drive(from LaCie) few months ago and plugged it once to my Macbook Air. I tried to plug it again last month and my MacBook Air didn't recognize it. I also tried to plug it in a PC and not recognized as well.
I've been told to check in the disk utility folder and to format (erase) my hard drive in order to have it running again, but even in the disk utility, hard drive is not recognized.
If anyone had the same problem before, i'd be gratefull of some help.
Many thanks

what lacie hard drive did you buy?
some hard drives require power supplies. if your hard drive requires one make sure it's firmly connect at both ends. If you haven't done so try another outlet. Also some lacie hard drives have a 3 mode switch on the back. make sure it's set to on, if your hard drive has a switch.
Some of the lacies hard drives have a blue button on the front. try another cable. see if the hard drive shows up as a USB device.

Similar Messages

External hard drive not recognized by Mavericks?

I have a Western Digital My Passbook 500GB external hard drive connected to my MacBook Pro via USB.
It worked fine until I upgraded to Mavericks. Now it is not recognized at all in my Finder.
When I go to Disk Utility, it finds it and says "not supported". When I do "disk verify" it says it needs to be repaired.
When I try to repair it, it says it can not.
What do I do?

See: http://wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/wdsmartware.asp?id=wdfGeneric&os=mac
WD SmartWare update highlights:
Mac release 1.3.6 (updated 11/25/2013)
Fixed an issue related to reports of some customers, under certain conditions, experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9).For more information on this issue, please click here.*Please note that if you have a previous version of WD Drive Manager installed on your computer, this software package will automatically uninstall the old version and install a new version.

External Hard Drive not recognized.

Hello everyone,
I have a probem where my external hard drive is not being recognized by my late 2009 iMac.
The hard drive is an OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro connected to the firewire port.
It was working fine till this happenend:
I keep all of my iTuned music on the external hard drive.
I was using a meta tag fixer type program.
I dragged the files from itunes into this program (Tune Up) to fix the meta tags.
However, I missed the program and dragged thusands of .mp3 files onto my desktop.
My computer, of course, became unresponsive.
So I used the power button on the back of the iMac to shut it off.
I used my MacBookPro to connect to my iMac as a target drive, and deleted all the .mp3's from the desktop there.
Once I restarted my iMac everything was fine, except that the external hard drive has not been able to be recognised ever since.
The same drive shows up just fine on my MacBookPro.
Help!
Thanks!

I had the exact same problem! I had to force shut down my iMac (24in, Mid 2007) due to a system freeze. After restarting, everything was working fine, except for my external 1GB G-Drive, which was connected through FW800 port.
The drive connected fine to my MacBook Pro, but it would not be recognized by my iMac. I tried restarting, but neither Disk Utility, nor System profiler would see the drive.
What worked though, was Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC):
1.          Shut down the computer.
2.          Unplug the computer's power cord.
3.          Wait fifteen seconds.
4.          Attach the computer's power cord.
5.          Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
The drive mounts fine now. I am surprised this is not mentioned by Apple in their support documents! It has happened twice to me and it was the only thing worked both times. The link for the resetting the SMC is here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Hope this helps solve your problem too.

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.

Thunderbolt 2 external hard drive not working with Macbook Pro (early 2011)

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and I hope you guys can help me with this:
I've recently bought an external hard drive that works on Thunderbolt 2 (LaCie d2 3TB). When I connect the new drive to my Macbook Pro through the thunderbolt port, the drive isn't recognized. However, the drive works fine through a USB connection.
I thought that Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 are compatible, however this doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe it's because the OS X / driver / firmware version that I'm working on that is not updated? I work on an early 2011 Macbook Pro: OS X Version 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).
Thank you very much for your help!
Daniel

Hi danielsh6,
I recently bought the new Lacie Thunderbolt 2 D2 3TB and I had the same problem as you, i have a macbook pro early 2011, those support thunderbolt but many times there is a bug that doesn't let you connect any thunderbolt drives to your computer. The solution I found was installing this update:
Thunderbolt Firmware Update v1.0
Before doing this I would recommend you updating to mountain lion (not yosemite yet as there is still some glitches and more on preview's macbook pro's).
Hope this helped!
Forest

WD external hard drive not recognized after improper eject

I have a WD Passport external hard drive that I've been using for a while with my MacBook Pro. The cord got yanked, causing the drive to improperly eject. Now my computer isn't recognizing the HD. Help! Of course EVERYTHING important is on this drive!
I tried plugging it into a Mac desktop, which also did not recognize the drive.
I plugged a different Passport into my MacBook Pro, and it was recognized, so I know it's not the USB Port that's causing the problem.
I used the cord from the HD that mounted with the problem HD. Didn't mount with the new cord. So I know it's the passport that's causing the problem, not the MacBook, not the USB port, not the cord.
I ran the disk utility, and the HD does not appear...It is powering up though- the light on the HD is lighting up. Oh please help!
Did I kill my disk? Of course I just moved my entire iPhoto library to this location, and I haven't backed it up yet....

No. It may just require a 00 Phillips driver depending upon the enclosure. Do the swap on a towel so that the little screws don't bounce away from you. You will have to pull the HDD out from the connecting plug. Do it in a straight line,don't bend it, and you may have to slowly increase pressure to get it out of the connecting plug.
It's not rocket science.
Ciao.

How can I transfer my files and documents from external hard drive to my new MacBook Air?

I recently bought a new MacBook Air and I would like to transfer my files and documents which I already saved in my external hard drive to this new mac. Unfortunately, I have not been able to do it so far. I tried to drag some files but the rest of the documents cant be transferred.
I appreciate it if anyone could help me in thsi regard.

Describe exactly what you did when it failed and the error message you received that told you it failed. Dragging and dropping files from one drive to another will work. Having said that however, you need to be aware that trying to copy items with the same name will result in a warning dialog box offering several different options including canceling.
To better help you it would also be helpful to know about the external drive. Did you use TimeMachine to back up to that external drive? Did you copy files from another computer to the drive?

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

External hard drive not recognized to install

I have a MacBook from Dec 2008 that I've upgraded to OS X 10.8.4. I just purchased a WD My Passport external hard drive for Mac. It should just open the installation guide when plugged in but nothing happens. I turned off/on the computer, checked for missing updates, tried to manually install the hard drive utilities to no avail. The external hard drive makes a noise and the indicator light blinks when I plug it in the the USB cord (it's configured for 2.0 & 3.0) but nothing shows up on the computer. Does it have somthing to do with upgrading to Snow Leopard/Mountain Lion? Did some driver get lost along the way? The only solution I can think of is that the WD drive is defective, but I hope not. Help is much appreciated.

Hey, I'm trying.
WD website says:
Does my Western Digital Hard Drive require a driver? Where do I get one?
Most current WD drives do not require additional drivers on the Windows or Mac OSX Operating System (OS) beyond the ones that are included with the OS.
In order to simplify the installation process WD elected to use the standard drivers that are built into common operating systems. While there are a few exceptions to this, in general, there are no drivers provided by WD for our drives. That's because the drivers a WD hard drive or SSD uses are part of the Operating System being used. As such, any trouble with these drivers should be handled by the regular line of support for the Operating System in question - in most cases by contacting the system's manufacturer, IT department, or the publisher of the OS.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1708/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzc 3NDczNDE5L3NpZC9pWWl1a0h5bA%3D%3D

External Hard Drive not recognized by Airport Uitlity

I've got an Airport Extreme (not the dual band model) running 7.4.2 and Airport Utility running 5.4.2. Trying to use it with an external hard drive I just bought (Iomega 1TB with 3 partitions). Formatted the HD for MAC and have made several backups with the HD connected directly to the Macbook (running 10.6.2). Airport Utility will not recognize the HD under "Disk" tab. Sharing is set on, and when I plug in a regular old flash drive it works perfectly. I've done every power cycle possible, switched cables, added a USB adapter to the back of the Extreme. Yet still Airport Utility does not recognize the hard drive.
Message was edited by: mmc_m3
Message was edited by: mmc_m3

Trying to use it with an external hard drive I just bought (Iomega 1TB with 3 partitions).
The bottom line: The AirPort Extreme (802.11n) works with disks that have a single partition and are not software RAID volumes (no more than one volume per physical disk). If the disk is a self-contained RAID that presents itself to a computer as a single volume requiring no software support, then it is supported.
(ref: AirPort Extreme (802.11n): USB storage device supported formats and protocols)

External hard drive not recognized... help please.

okay, well here is the story:
my iBook G4 had its stock 30gb hard drive in it and it was running extremely low on space. so i figured i didn't want to carry around an external hard drive, therefore i would buy an internal hard drive an install it. so i purchased a new 2.5" 80gb hard drive and called up the local apple store. they told me that although it was under warranty, that it did not cover hard drive installation. so i looked it up online and found step by step instructions to install the hard drive. so after lots of hard work and many screws, i installed the new hard drive successfully... but i still had this perfect 30gb hard drive. i thought maybe to save a few bucks i could turn it into a usb external hard drive. i found an enclosure for the hard drive and a usb 2.0 cable and plugged it into my ibook. it was recognized and everything. i put some files on the external hard drive and transferred it to another mac. this is where the trouble started. i plugged the hard drive into a PowerMac G4, and it was not recognized... so i tried it on a different mac. this time on a PowerBook G4, but no luck. this issue has been troubling me for a few weeks. but then i tried it on a similar iBook G4... and it was recognized. but i don't know why it was only recognized only on the iBook G4 (not the same iBook G4 it was pulled out of) and no other macs.
does anybody have any ideas what we can do to get this hard drive to be recognized by other macs?
any of even the smallest ideas would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
tyler
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I can walk you through formatting the hard drive:
1. Hook it up to an iBook that recognizes it.
2. Go into your Applications folder, then scroll down to Utilities. Open Utilities and scroll down a bit and you should see Disk Utility. Double-click.
3. On the left side you should see your internal hard drive and your external one. Each hard drive will have a sub-catagory with the partition indented.
4. Your external hard drive will probably be the second catagory. Click it.
5. In the center-top you should see the tabs First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID, and Restore. Click the Erase tab.
6. You should see Volume Format: and then a drop down menu, and Name: and a text box. Type in the name you want the external hard drive to be named.
7. In the drop down menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
8. Then, simply click Erase, watch the progress and it should be good to go!!
Hope I helped you out. Oh, and it might be the enclosure...and also what OS's? Since it's USB it is probably using a USB Mass Storage driver. Mac-wise, if formatting doesn't help, I would get a FireWire enclosure because FireWire is much faster than just USB 2.0. Oh, thats nother thing...Is the enclosure Hi-Speed USB? If it isn't, I would definitely get a FireWire one...If it is, the PowerMac G4 doesn't have Hi-Speed so you're not taking full advantage..Just some insight
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 512 MB Ram, CD-RW Combo Drive, 40 Gig HD, bought in October of 2005...
Message was edited by: Hilary_Rose

External hard drives compatible with 2008 macbook air

Does anyone have advice on the best external hard drives currently available for the 2008 MacBook Air?

While most any external drive may work, the Toshiba Canvio USB 3.0 drives have generated quite a few threads on this board with people having problems in getting them to mount. While some cludgy work-arounds have been useful to some, I think the best one is just to avoid the drives until Toshiba works out the compatibility problems.

Toshiba External Hard Drive not recognized by computer. Please help!

I was wondering if anyone could help me. I have an external hard drive and it will not show up in "My computer" when I plug it in. I have tried other USB drives and other computers. I am starting to think it is a hardware issue but I don't want to lose hope. The blue light is coming on when you plug it in but it doesn't blink and there is no noise whatsoever. Is there anything I can do to fix this issue so that I can recover the information on it? Thanks in advance for any help. It is greatly appreciated.
Additional information: I'm not sure how old this thing is but the model number is HDDR160E03X.

Same problem: I can't see my Toshiba PH3100U-EXB (Gen 2) external hard drive when I plug it in. After awhile I get this error message (see attachment): USB Device Not Recognized. One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. FOr assistance in solving this problem, click this message."
When I click it, I get a list of USB ports and devices, with Unknown Device in bold face. No real information there.
Yes, I ran Disk Management and the Toshiba did not show up when I plugged it in and hit Refresh.
Does it make a difference that the last time I used the external hard drive, we were in Windows XP and now we're in Windows 7?
Please help! It's not just the backing up I'm worried about...it's being able to retrieve files later!
Thanks!
Attachments:
USB-NotRecognized.jpg ‏28 KB

How do I make an NTFS external hard drive compatible with my Macbook Air?

I have bought an external hard drive with NTFS. How do I transfer files to this drive from my Macbook Air, and write files on it? I also would like to use the hard drive for a pc as well so any suggested solutions that allows me to use across my mac and a pc would be greatly appreciated.

marshalltimd wrote:
Never seen the term exFAT in a post previously - is that an enhanced version of FAT32?
Yes it is. Here's an abstract from this Microsoft KB page
The exFAT file system is the successor to FAT32 in the FAT family of file systems. The exFAT file system is a new file system format that addresses the growing needs of mobile personal storage on different operating systems. The exFAT file system handles large files, such as those that are used for media storage, and it enables seamless interoperability between desktop computers and devices, such as portable media devices. Because of this functionality, you can easily copy files between the desktop and external devices or between the desktop and other operating systems.

External Hard Drive Not recognized when trying to boot from it.

So I am trying to boot from my external hard drive through firewire but my computer doesn't seem to recognize the external. There is some problem with my Macbook not booting up correctly and I want to backup my data before reinstalling Tiger. They did this at the Apple store and ran disk utility on it my Macbooks hard drive. I could access all my data, but now when I get home and plug in my hard drive, hold down option after booting, the only drive that pops up is the Mac HD. I read somewhere to try partitioning the external drive as Mac Journaled and I did so with my working Macbook Pro. Any ideas whats going on?

Well i got most of my information off the old one, now I am trying to reinstall Tiger to the MacBook. Problem is I initially tried to do an archive install and the install kept failing after the second disc when it asked for the second install disc.
The people at the Apple store suggested that I try to do a wipe of the hard drive and install. Now when I put in the Disc 1 install disc and boot from the cd drive it just sits for a while and then ejects disc 1 and goes back to the place where the install failed from before ie: it keeps asking for the second install disc.
I can't figure out a way to get around this and just do a clean install on the machine. Any thoughts would be great.

External HArd Drive not recognized by MAcBook Air

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for