External hard drive not responding

I have a LaCie firewire drive that I use for a Time Machine back up. It no longer appears on the desk top. If I reboot the computer I get the message, "the disk you inserted is not readable on this computer." It asks if I want to eject, ignore or initialize. If I select initialize, Disk Utility opens and I can see the external drive in the menu, but cannot execute any task, not repair permissions, not erase, nothing. It's all greyed out.
The disk does not show up in the system profiler. I have Diskwarrior and Tech Tool Pro, but neither can see the drive to do anything. They only see my internal hard disk.
I have another backup so I'm not worried about losing any data, but is there no way to reformat/initialize this drive?
Please help?

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http://www.lacie.com/products/range.htm?id=10030

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My external hard drive not responding

I recently got a western digital 500GB hard drive to back everything up on. I've partitioned it into 4. So far I've only used one of the partitions to act as my main bootable back up. I used free software to do this - Carbon Copy Cloner. I labelled it "main backup"
What's happened is that the partition that I've used does not mount on my desktop. The 3 others (empty) do show up.
I've tried to erase the whole lot using disc utility so that I can start again, however it keeps telling me that I can't do that - I get an error message saying "can't unmount disc".
I've tried using the first aid section of disc utility to verify/repair it but it says "invalid key length" "the volume main backup needs to be repaired" and "the underlying task reported failure on exit".
Any clues on what I should try next?
iMac G5 20" w/o built-in isight 1.5GB RAM WD 500Gb Ext HD Mac OS X (10.4.7) isight ipod mini 6Gb

i have same problem i have wd mybook 320gb external hard drive i backed up into it on partition one i had downloaded some files from the net in wmv format which i cant normally do but i had a trial of flip formac running so i could download wmv files they were in the same partition one that i had created on mybook when mybook opened up next morning only partitions two and three appeared on my desktop partition one was absent having opened disk utility i tried to verify repair partition one it said all ok i noticed there were zero files in this partition so all th info gone i searched all the hard drives nothing.. i erased the partition one in the end and it re appeared on the desktop ready to recieve data with the other two partitions... in subsequent days i backed up to patition one using macos backup plan and so far so good as an experiment i downloaded a wmv file using flip for mac and placed it inside partition two with a few quicktime duplicates and net day lo and behold the lot vanished! so my conclusion is that maybe the wmv files contain some kind of worm that deletse all files around it ? does anyone know anything more about this i have checked all the firewire connections etc it is making me nervous about downloading windows media i have now started backup all my files to removable dvd s as a precaution coulf this be a fault with the wd drive itself......

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

I am planning on using my time capsule as a network and essentially an external hard drive - not just back up, is this ok?

I am planning on using my time capsule as a network and essentially an external hard drive - not just back up, is this ok?

Most users should use the Time Capsule for backups. This assumes that "original" copies of your data are on the computer and backups of this data are stored on the Time Capsule.
If either the Time Capsule or the hard drive on your computer fails, there are at least copies of your important data on the other drive.
If you are asking if you can place "original" files on the Time Capsule, do you have a plan to backup those files?
If the Time Capsule drive has a problem....and your only copy of your important data is on the Time Capsule....you will lose everything.
If you are asking if this is OK, the answer for most folks would be "no".
Can you clarify if this is what you are asking?

Why is my External Hard Drive not showing in Aperture 3.6 Import?

Why is my External Hard Drive not showing in Aperture 3.6 Import?
Only my computer hard drive is and I want to import from an external drive. I have always been able to until I updated to Aperture 3.6 and Yosemite.

Only my computer hard drive is and I want to import from an external drive. I have always been able to until I updated to Aperture 3.6 and Yosemite.
I had the same problem. On the folders on the drive with the Aperture library did show in the Import panel. After I clicked the computer icon in the upper left corner of the Import panel, suddenly all drives appeared.
You can also try to drag the folder you want to import into the Import panel, to point the file chooser to the drive.

I can't import my movies to work on them. They are coming from a external hard drive, not directly from the camera, its type mpeg-e (.mts)

My movies are type MPEG-2
I can't import my movies to work on them. They are coming from a external hard drive, not directly from the camera, its type mpeg-2 (.mts)
What can I do ?

1. Is your external HD connected by firewire?
2. mpeg2 is the final compressed delivery format of a DVD, not intended for editing, and iMovie cannot handle such files, so you need to convert them first:
For that you need mpegStreamclip:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html
which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
which is a mere $20.

Time Machine Restore from Networked external hard drive - not working??

recap: hard drive failure on iMac. Took it to Genius folks, they installed a new hard drive with updated Leopard OSx on it.
I came home turned it on, selected "restore from time machine" feature. It finds my external hard drive (which is connected to an airport extreme via USB 2.0) My computer is connected via ethernet to the airport extreme.
I select the imac backup and up pops the login screen. I log in. Then I get the "Checking Time Machine Backup...." And it just keeps checking and checking. The external hard drive is making all sorts of noises, like it is working away, but it just keeps checking. Also have the spinning beach ball....
How long does this go on before we get on with it?

LOL.. didn't see your answer until now. I feel pretty good as I did exactly what you recommended. Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it.
Here's the rundown on what I did.
LOL. I see y'all didn't know what to do either!!
Well after puzzling for a bit I finally aborted the process. I tried connecting my hard drive directly to the computer - but then it would not recognize the backup on the external drive.
So finally, I rebooted using the install disk and selected utilities and restore and voila, we were in business.
Restore said it would take 16 hours and went to bed - 11am. Got up at 5 and it was complete (guess it really didn't take that long) So far, everything looks great!!!!!
Hope this helps someone out there.

External hard drive not visible in disk utility or finder

Hi all,
I have had a good look through previous discussions and I can't seem to find an issue relevant to mine.
My external hard drive has 2 partitions (1 time machine back up, 1 general hard drive). The issue is that the HD is running when it is plugged in however it is not visible in either disk utility or finder.
I am running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) on a 2010 MacBook Pro. I also have parallels desktop running windows 7. When I boot windows and plug in the HD I usually get the option to mount the HD to either OS X or Windows. With this issue the option window appears for a split second (not enough time to select either) and then disappears. It seems that the HD may be ejecting itself as soon as it is registered by the computer. I have tried using a different power cable for the HD and also a different usb cable, this doesn't help.
The external HD is a Samsung D3 Station, which i have had for 6 months now and never had an issue with.
Any help is appreciated
Thanks,
Bruce

An update for anyone who can help me:
I have tried the external hard drive in other computers (mac and windows), each time I get the same problem above.
I have removed the HD from the enclosure and purchased a docking station for it (3.5" SATA). When I plug it in to the laptop it disconnects itself straight away before it is visible. With the windows computers it installs the drivers and says that the device is ready to use, then disconnects before it shows up.
As the HD is not visible there is no option to re-format or anything.
This is very frustrating as I was using the HD with no issues and it randomly disconnected and I have not been able to access since.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Bruce

External hard drive not working with Time Machine

I have an Iomega network hard drive attached via ethernet cable to my Airport Extreme router.
I plugged the hard drive in. Everything works like it should. I can see the drive in Finder and I can read and write to the drive. I do share the network drive in a mixed WIN and OS X environment. I never had to reformat the drive and I can read/write to the drive with no problems from all of my computers.
I turned on Time Machine on my iMac and walked through the simple setup screens there. I never set anything up on the hard drive through the drive interface software. And Time Machine worked fine for about 4 months. Then all of a sudden, Time Machine just stopped backing up and I got all kinds of error messages saying that the TIme Machine backup failed.
So I went into Time Machine, turned it off, turned it back on. No luck. Same error messages.
So I started fresh. I deleted the prior Time Machine backups and I am back at the TIme Machine set up screen. OS X can see the TIme Machine share on my external hard drive and I tell the setup wizard that's the drive I want to use.
Then I get a window that says it's trying to connect to the external hard drive which I call "Cloud_Drive". After about 30 seconds, I get an error window that says
"There was a problem connecting to the server "Cloud_Drive-TimeMachine"
The server may not exist or it is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again.
At this point the external drive is still visible in FInder and I can read/write to it from my iMac. I just cannot understand why Time Machine was working and then all of a sudden it stopped.
I did go into the software management of the drive and found an area in which to turn Time Machine on on the drive's side. Which I never did before so I turned it on and then I'm prompted to enter the name of the computer and the ethernet ID. I entered the name of the iMac and I have tried using the WiFI MAC address - no luck getting TIme Machine to work and I've also entered Terminal, found a MAC address under the line titled "ether" and still the same result.
I have also changed the destination of the Time Machine files on the external hard drive and the Time Machine wizard does write a sparcebundle file to that new location but still get the same error message above.

Is it a firewire ext. HD?
Yes, many are reporting same, there is a firewire fault and TB HD on external HD from LaCie (Seagate) and from WD especially.
Technicians are looking into it.
Until there is resolution, consider setting up a USB ext. Time machine HD.
Until then consider confining Mavericks use with USB HD.
Ive tested a long line of USB HD on Mavericks, all seem fine.

External hard drive not recognized after time machine locked up

I was backing up to an external hard drive (300GB Western Digital) and time machine locked up. I had to shut down the computer and restart. Now the external hard drive does not show up on the desktop?
I can see it in disk utility but I am not able to mount or unmount the disk, I keep getting an error that the disk is in use. I tried to erase/reformat the disk and no luck.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help

KTM450rider wrote:
Do I need to boot from the install DVD?
this is often the easiest and eliminates any "busy drive" problems. what's wrong with booting from the install DVD? takes a couple of minutes.
My main hard drive is OK... the drive that I am having problems with is an external hard drive that I was using to back up my lap top. I just want to get the external drive reformatted, but disk utility will not erase it. I get an error that disk utility shut down, "please check the drive and make sure that the drive is not in use or programs are still running"
Is their a way to do a hard or forced reformatting of an external hard drive, I don't care about the information on the drive
I also tried disk warrior to recover the info on the disk and all it does is crash my mac pro????
Thanks again for the help

Time Machine is causing my external hard drive not to be recognized or read

I have been using Time Machine on my MAC. I don't like it. I now have gone into preferences and stopped it from further backups. Now, I want to restore my Toshiba External Hard Drive and have it backup. When I look into my Macintosh HD, it does not "see" the drive. It doesn't appear in Finder. I am assuming that Time Machine configured it or reformatted it? So, how do I get it "back" from Time Machine? One person commented that this is an issue of formatting my hard drive, but the problem started with Time Machine. Where should I post this question, if not here?
Thank you!

I'm guessing that Time Machine hides it from Finder as most users aren't going to want to be mucking around in it. Try opening up Disk Utility and see if you can see it. You can reformat it from there as well.

[Solved] E4200 - External hard drive not recognized

My external hard drive, a 2TB WD Elements, does not appear in the storage list in the web utility of my E4200. The drive is formated as NTFS, single partition. It works fine if I connect it to a computer.
If I connect a 4GB USB flash drive (FAT32) to the router, it does appear in the list.
I'm using the latest firmware, version 1.0.02.
Edit: Down(up?)grading to firmware version 1.0.01 fixed the problem.

Carborundum wrote:
Edit: Down(up?)grading to firmware version 1.0.01 fixed the problem.
not surprised. I was going to reccomend you dropped down too. But I see you fixed it. Kudos to you. Im glad it works. Lots of drives dont work with the E4200.
please fix the E4200 media server in .02 firmware

External hard drive not spinning up

Hi,
I have a 160GB Freecom FHD-3 external hard drive connected to my iBook with USB 2.0 that I use to store all my music / movies etc. I have a slight problem with this drive and i was wondering if anyone could help me.
Firstly when i turn the iBook on with the drive connected it takes a long time (>3 mins) to boot up. Secondly if the drive is connected and i put the iBook to sleep, the drive spins down and automatically powers off. When i wake the iBook the external drive does not spin up and my iBook freezes with the spinning pizza of death as it is desparately searching for the external HD with my iTunes music folder in.
I did not have this problem with my Mac Mini and i was wondering if there was anything i could do to sort it out.
Cheers

dickonhowell, Welcome to the discussion area!
I am guessing that the Mac mini keeps the USB ports powered even when sleeping. I would bet that the iBook turns off the USB ports when sleeping. That is probably why you experience different things with the 2 different Macs.

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

IMovie Project from External Hard Drive not Opening?

Please help!!
Fairly new to MACs, iMovie and iDVD, I didn't have a clear understanding of how saving iMovie projects worked. Reading various tutorials, I thought I had a clear understanding of how they work. Apparently not with my recent frustration with iMovie.
I created several iMovie Projects but needed more space in order to make more projects for my internship thus I did what I thought was common sense -- get an external hard drive.
I exported iMovie projects into my user account and from there, dragged the saved projects into an external hard drive and then deleted the iMovie projects from my user account.
However, when I needed to retrieve these projects, I simply turned on my hard drive and clicked on them to open. However, whenever I tried opening them, they wouldn't open. Is it because I didn't export them to the hard drive in the first place?
What I don't understand is why iMovie is not opening or recognizing the saved iMovie projects from the external hard drive when the size and kind clearly indicate that it should open with iMovie automatically.
What is the proper way of saving my iMovie projects and events so that I can always have access to whenever I need to open up an old project or simply edit?

Freeing up space on your Mac hard drive in iMovies ’08.
The application iMovie ‘08 has two main libraries displayed in the iMovie window: Events and Projects. Events are the main imports from your video camera, say. These files are big and you have the option to save them on an external hard drive and so iMovie knows to find them there. Projects are your editing instructions like what clips you want and where. The files are small and you save them on your Mac hard drive. They are NOT the clips only signposts where to find them (in Events on your external hard drive). You can move Projects to your external hard drive as back-up but iMovie will not find them there. If you then delete Projects from your Mac, iMovie can no longer make use of them unless you manually export them back into iMovie from your external hard drive. See Apple Article HT1026 iMovie '08: Moving iMovie footage to another drive (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1026). Here the external hard disk is used for moving Projects from one computer to another and, by implication, back to the source computer.
Sharing the projects to iTunes for syncing with Apple TV creates (publishes) movies that take up the same amount of space on your Mac as the source Projects. You can still burn DVDs in iDVD using the iTunes Movies as your Media so provided you have iMovie Projects backed up on your external hard drive you can delete them from your Mac and just use the iTunes Movies (for Apple TV and iDVD). In addition, publishing iMovie Projects in iTunes for syncing to Apple TV results in these files being duplicated in both Movies/iMovies Sharing/iTunes AND in iTunes/iTunes Music/Movies so delete them from here and get even more GBs back! Tell iTunes in Advanced not to save these iTunes published movies anymore in order to stop further duplication ocurring.

External hard drive not responding

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