External hard drive

The External hard drive i used on my old toshiba laptop will not come up on my new imac.

What connections are you using?
It may help to know the make and model of the ext drive, too; not all are compatible with Mac.
The ext will certainly need reformatting for use with the iMac, but you need to get it mounting first.

Similar Messages

Iomega external hard drive either 'not found' by Time Machine or is now in 'read only' format

I don't know what's going on with my iomega external hard drive. Sometimes the HD is recognised by the computer; other times it isn't; if it isn't I can restore to an earlier back up via Time Machine app; but it's like the disk isn't writable.
Ten days ago, I had trouble backing up my iMac using Time Machine. After turning it off and restarting my external hard drive, it backed up successfully.
However, today I am trying to back up my files, and TM tells me it can't find the external hard drive. Nothing has changed -- I have been out of town this past week -- but somehow my HD now seems to be in 'read only' format. It does turn on, and I could restore my computer to an earlier back up.
"Mac OS X can't repair the disk. You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can't save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can."
Annoyingly, despite my HD not showing in Finder or on my Desktop (as it usually does), when I simply turn it off I get that warning message "The disk was not ejected properly".
Have tried verifying and repairing using Disk Utility, to no avail.
Am prompted to reformat but I don't have a good understanding of what this means and how to do it. I'm guessing this would wipe the disk clean and I'd have to create the initial back up image all over again -- I'm reluctant to do this since this HD is my only back up and if it all goes tits up I'll be up that famous creek without a paddle.
Thoughts, suggestions, input all welcome and deeply appreciated -- thank you!

fzgy wrote:
"Mac OS X can't repair the disk. You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can't save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can."
It's possible a heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app can fix it, but they're expensive (DiskWarrior is about $100), and there's no guarantee it can do it.
Am prompted to reformat but I don't have a good understanding of what this means and how to do it.
That will erase it. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #5.
It sounds very much like the disk is beginning to fail, although it's possible there's a bad port, cable, connection or power supply (if it has its own).
I'd suggest getting a new one, and using it for your Time Machine backups; once you have a good backup there, reformat the old one (and select Security Options to write zeros to the whole drive -- if that fails, you know the drive is toast). Use it for secondary backups, per FAQ #27. If it has failed, get a second new one for secondary backups.

Back up using time machine and external hard drive

Hello,
I am having a difficult time deciding the best way to back up important documents.
I have:
1TB internal hard drive
3 TB external hard drive and
1TB external hard drive
I currently have about 1TB worth of data to be stored, but that will increase to about 1.5TB once I get a bunch of stuff off the HD camera's hard drive. I would like to keep my internal hard drive somewhat free to keep the computer running fast, but also want to make sure I am properly backed up.
Should I put ALL (or nearly all) of the files on the 3 TB external hard drive, and have time machine back that up and not worry about the rest? I'm a little weary about putting all of the files on one device even if it is backed up by TM.
If I do this, do I need to back up the 3 TB external drive in addition to using TM?
Thanks!

iMac11,2
OS X 10.6.8

How can I use one external hard drive for both Time Machine and iPhoto Library?

I have been using a 1 TG LaCie external hard drive for Time Machine backups. My (older) Mac has 160 GB and is almost full. I would like to move my iPhoto Library to the external hard drive, but I've heard Time Machine doesn't share one space well. Should I
1. create another partition (but will this erase what I've already saved) with Disk Utility? *I am running Snow Leopard*
2. create another volume to use for iPhoto, and if so, should the two volumes be of equal size?
3. leave it with one partition and move the iPhoto Library to the same partition with Time Machine back ups?
I know I don't need the entire 1 TG for back up of 160 GBs. Please advise the best path to take. Thank you!

You are getting incorrect information from your ASP. If you look at drive specifications the heat generated is no different for high vs low capacity drives.
I have upgraded the internal drive in my iMac 2007 with a 3TB Hitachi drive without any heat issues or other problems.
Larger hard drives have higher density platters so to access any given amount data the drives travel a shorter distance. Higher capacity drives should therefore run cooler than lower density drives because the drive spends less time spinning to access data.

I need to delete a lot of duplicates on iPhoto. I just bought my MacBook Pro and was so excited I downloaded my external hard drive without thinking through the process. I now realize I had my photos doubled up. So I actually have the same library twice.

Hello All!
I am so excited about my new computer and I didn't know that my external hard drive had so many pictures duplicated on it. So I downloaded the entire hard drive. I thought iPhoto was going to be my answer, and now after reading a lot of discussions, it seems I have royally screwed up. Please help me fix this problem. I am a computer novice. An even more Mac novice. I need very simple directions. I would just start over with iPhoto, but I downloaded my digital camera with brand new photos on iPhoto and also downloaded my digital camera software on my new MacBookPro. I am afraid if I "start over" with iPhoto I will lose my digital camera pictures. I bought the Mac to finally get my pictures straight, and look at the mess I have made. I had AVG PC cleanup and used that program last night to delete duplicates from my PC. I also used it to delete duplicates from my external hard drive. I omega. I know, I know, too late huh? But I am teachable. And I now have my external hard drive fixed. But now, my question to the community is how to fix my new Mac, and my iPhoto.
Thanks,

SweetThunder73 wrote:
When you say to remove the photos out of the iPhoto folder, then import the clean single copies, I am understanding that the "original" file that the decloner was run against is now the "clean" single copies?
Ok, you've got iPhoto Library that you have imported everything into, you can't delete the iPhoto Library and start over because you have only one copy of some pictures in there, combined with a lot of duplicates.
You want all the duplicates out, but it will take you ages to do it by hand.
What you do is.
1: Right click on the iPhoto Library and "Show Package Contents"
2: You will see a folder called Originals, these are all your original photo's, copy this folder to a external drive someplace, it's your backup.
3: Select the Originals folder again and from the Finder Menu > File > Duplicate.
4: Now you will have a OriginalsCopy folder, move that OriginalsCopy folder onto the desktop area out of the iPhoto Library folder. Close the iPhoto Library folder/window.
5: Download the Decloner software and install it, use it to find all the "real" duplicates, via it's content on the OriginalsCopy folder.
6: From the Finder menu > New Folder, now send the duplicate files to that folder, so all that is left in the OriginalsCopy folder is 1 copy of your pictures, minus all the duplicates which are now in New Folder.
7: Open iPhoto and remove all your pictures in there. The iPhoto Library will update to become empty.
8: Now import the pictures from the OriginalsCopy folder, these will now have only one copy of each picture.
9: Open your New Folder, from the Edit menu > Select All and
10 From the Finder > File Menu > Open With > Preview.
Now you have one copy in your iPhoto Library and the duplicates in a New Folder opened with Preview which you can compare to make sure.
Make as many backups of your pictures as you think you need during this prcess, but eventually you only want 1 picture of all you have in the iPhoto Library.
Some pictures may be the same thing but a little smaller etc., these obviously are not duplicates, and you can weed those out by hand in iPhoto.
Good Luck.

IPod cannot be synced because external hard drive could not be read

I moved my music folder to an external hard drive to create space on my laptop, and changed the location under Preferences / Advanced. Since I did this, my iPod trys to automatically sync but gives the error message "The iPoD "[name]" cannot be synced. The disk could not be read from or written to." The external hard drive is on and working. Is there some reason that the iPod will not sync with this external hard drive? What do I need to do to fix it? Thanks, Bill

First question, since you made
the change, can you still play your music from within
iTunes?
Patrick
Sorry for the delay in answering as I have been traveling. Yes, I can play music from iTunes. The music is located on my external hard drive. iTunes software is on my laptop, and the music library points to the music folder on my external hard drive.
Thanks, Bill
Dell Laptop Windows XP

My external hard drive is no longer recognized by my Mac

I have used Time Machine and a WD external hard drive to back up my computer for several years. Now, when I connect the hard drive, the drive lights up as though it's working, but the connection does not appear on my Mac -- the external hard drive is not listed in Device (in Finder). Any suggestions?

power feed issues and data appearance/disappearance are both symptoms of the SATA bridge card,..arguably the most failing modern computer component made.
throwing more power to the drive wont fix that.
SATA bridge card as found inside all USB HD devices which has an extremely high failure rate.
Inside a USB hard drive, containing the HD and SATA card
Countless 1000s of good external hard drives are thrown away each year because the owner thought the HD was bad when it fact it was the SATA bridge card which had failed. This card is removed in a matter of mere second once an external USB HD is cracked open from its plastic casing to reveal the bare HD and the attached SATA card which attaches between the HD and the USB cable.
quick and easy option is to crack open the WD USB drive, and remove the SATA card, and put the WD drive into a new enclosure ($20)
HOWEVER, if its an OLD WD drive, the SATA interface is permanently attached to the HD and the OP is "out of luck".

My WD external hard drive is no longer show up on my computer-it no longer recognizes it.

I have a WD external hard drive for sometime that I have been using to backup my computer and generally keep some of my bigger things on it(such as degital copies of movies). But suddenly one day my computer won't recognize my external hard drive when I went to plug it in. The light on it that is on when it is plugged in is on when I do plug it in, yet I can't actually find and acess my external hard drive. I don't know whats wrong and how to fix it so I can continue using my hard drive.

dead sata bridge card. very common problem.
see all about it here:
Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD
verify HD on another Mac however, if same, dead SATA card most likely

Since last leopard update, i can no longer see my external hard drive

After last leopard update my external hard drive is no longer visible on the desktop, tried connecting to the laptop but this has also had the same update and the same problem, any ideas??

Open Disk Utility, select the External Hard Drives first icon in the list of Drives, click the Repair Disk button.
Dennis

I have moved all my songs onto a new external hard drive but it has wiped my iPod clean. Although when I connect my iPod it's starts teh process of sync'ing - so many songs in I get a pop up advising the siong could not be read or written to?

I have moved all my itunes onto a new external hard drive to free up space. It has wiped my ipod clean! I can still see the itunes on the new hard drive so I restored my iPod and tried to sync. Although when I connect my iPod it's in the process of syncing, so many songs in I get a pop up saying could not copy to my iPod as xyz song title could not be read or written. I click ok for this pop up to dissapear and then another pop up appears saying could not coyp to iPod because of unknown error.!!! Help I'm going crazy.

Did you go into iTunes to change the location of your media files? if not you will need to go into iTunes and click on preference and select the advance tab then click the iTunes Media folder location. Select the location of your on external hard drive.

PSE 8 - Archive on external hard drive including captions and tags

I started my above discussion some time ago with Mark and due to the lateness in my responding the case appears to have been closed. However I am hoping that someone can comment on my intended course of action, see below, based on his suggestions?
Just recapping having successfully migrated my Photoshop Album 2 catalog including captions across to PSE 8 and now my objective is to move my entire PSE 8 catalog to an external hard drive leaving only thumbnail view to remain. Obviously I am anxious to avoid any catastrophe and therefore would appreciate comment on the correctness of the steps involved. I have arrived at these by simply modifying Mark's original steps. Please correct where necessary.
1) Connect my external hard drive where I want to copy the files too. Make sure I can 'see' it in Explorer
2) Open Photoshop Elements 8; click the Organize button on the Welcome screen
3) Displayed in my welcome screen is my entire catalog with each album matching in title and file (photo) content to the folder title and file (photo) content in the folder location displayed to the left of screen.
4) Go to the File menu, and select 'Write Keyboard Tag and Propertise Info to Photo'. In my case most but not all files (photos only) will have tag and caption data. Rather than attempting to select the files that I wish to embed tag and caption metadata does Organiser have a global 'search and embed instruction' so that when it gets a 'match' on .jpg number it will embed automatically?
5) After completion, I go to the File menu, and select 'Copy/Move to Removable Disk...' click the MOVE button to move the files from their current location to my nominated external hard drive.
6) Click the Next button, and select the external drive in order to copy the files to the drive.
Can you confirm?
* On completion of the above steps my external hard drive will allow access to full resolution versions of the file from Photoshop Elements including any existing caption or tag data organised identically to my PSE 8 catalog (only one catalog)?
* Am I correct in assuming that also all original photos from my laptop will be removed and if not can be deleted given their existence on my external hard drive?
* Is the data which now resides on the external hard drive capable of being read on any other PC which may not have Elements software?
Neil

I have 2 laptops an aging Dell and new HP. I have successfully followed your
instruction and deleted 1 & 2 below on both.
The Dell PSE 8 now has:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PSE 8 (240Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Elements Organizer 8.0 (502Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.EXE (1.17Gb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\ PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.7Z (1.06Gb)
Giving a total of 2,972Gb
The HP PSE 8 has:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PSE 8 (240Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Elements Organizer 8.0 (502Mb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.EXE (1.17Gb)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\ PhotoshopElements_8_WWEFDJ.7Z (1.06Gb)
But a total of 3,894 and I am unable to identify where the additional 1Gb
resides. In Documents & Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Elements
Organizer is 120Mb. I have attempted to delete this but lost the catalog in
the process so had to restore from the Recycle bin and it now appears to
have reconnected correctly. Frankly I can live with these large file sizes
but would like an opinion on their potential adverse impact at sometime in
the future.
I am not sure whether I need to start a new thread for "Are there any known
bugs in PSE 8 surrounding the burning of discs" I have attempted to burn
onto a new CD-RW my slideshow. The process of burning appeared to work but
the written to CD does not play on the DVD. I have also saved the slideshow
as a PDF. I can't recall exactly how but in selecting an incorrect option I
no longer have visibility of projects in 'Folder View'. The projects are a
single slideshow and PDF copy of the same. How do I regain visibility?
Neil

HP SimpleSave External Hard Drive - Can't Access Files, Says to Re-Format

I have had a SimpleSave External Hard Drive for over a year now, and have never had any problems with it.
Recently, I am unable to access my files on the hard drive when it is attached to my computer. It tries to load, and then gives me the error message "You need to format the disk in drive H: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?". I don't want to format it because I don't want to lose all of the files that I have stored. When I press "Cancel" i also get the error message "H:\ is not accessible. Data error (cyclic redundancy check).
I have not changed anything recently so I do not understand why it has all of a sudden stopped working.
I am using an HP notebook (G62 Notebook PC) and Windows 7 Home Premium operating system.
I am connected to the hard drive via USB. I have tried turning off my computer and turning it back on, and unplugging the drive. I have tried using other USB outlets.
My SimpleSave information: model no hp md1000h
P/N HPBAAD0010HBK-00
The blue light is still blinking on the front of the hard drive.
I would like to access my files and get the external hard drive working properly again. Please help!
Thanks in advance!

I too have the exact same problem on my HP SimpleSave (sd500a) external hard drive. I got through to WDC, and they apparently support these devices now. They asked me to send them a copy of my purchase receipt in order to extend my warranty in their system in order to help me (ridiculous!!). I sent the scanned copy of the receipt to [email protected], and got an auto-reply that they will get back to me within 1 day. I also went on their website, and they refer to the device in their system as 'ED Caviar Blue EIDE Hard Drive'. It has the same serial number as my product from HP, so I guess they have acquired these products or at least support of them (?). In any case, I'm freaking out because I have tons of family pictures, video and my entire iTunes library on the device. If any one is able to get help for this, please respond. I am desperate to get this resolved.

External hard drive gone kaput

I have an old Mac mini (1.42 GH PowerPC G4, Mac OS X 10.4.11) with an 80 gig internal startup HD, and an external 250 gig Firewire HD. For the last couple of days, the external HD has not been getting recognized by the Mac. When I run Disk First Aid, the drive shows up, but the disc itself - "disc2s10" - is greyed out. When I run "Verify Disk", and subsequently "Repair Disk", I get the following response:
"Checking HFS Plus volume
Invalid node structure
Invalid node structure
Catalog file entry not found for extent
Volume check failed
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error"
I've tried everything - power on, power off, disconnecting and reconnecting every cable both on the Mac and on the external HD, but nothing seems to work.
I tried looking at solutions in the Apple Support section, but frankly, I've not had much success and am not even sure whether I did the right things.
Losing the disc would be a disaster - not least because I've painstakingly organized 18,000 songs in my iTunes library, and those songs are all stored on the spoilt HD!
The only other thing I can add is that the disk went bad after I Installed the latest Apple security update a few days ago. I don't know whether that had anything to do with this.
Finally, I've had some problems in the past with this HD - which is housed in a casing that has the same form factor as the Mac mini - in that it sometimes did not mount. But I believe that has been due to some loose internal connections between the disk and the casing. At any rate, that has not been a major problem.
Clearly, since the Mac mini says the disc is unreadable, it can "see" the disc.
Could somebody please help? Thanx.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
When you get this message, does is also show a -9972 error number? If so, the Apple disk utility can't repair the drive. As Boece recommended, Disk Warrior, or similar, program would be your next step, and it can often repair what Disk Utility can't repair. However, if Disk Warrior can't repair it, then you want to look at other software to try and recover the data, as the next step would be an erase and restore. And if that didn't work, then the drive is toast. There are services that can recover the data off a dead drive, however, they are not inexpensive.
Some other thoughts ... can you open the hard drive case and pull the short cable off the hard drive and put it back on? Make a difference? Do you have another mac available to you that you could hook your external hard drive up to? Just to see if there's any difference in accessing it? Is it only a USB connection or can you also connect via firewire?

External Hard Drive Input/Output error

I recently started having problems with an external hard drive setup that I did not have problems with prior to upgrading to 10.5.5 and trying to setup the drive to be compatible with Time Machine.
The hard drive enclosure that I have has 2 bays for two SATA drives. I have used this enclosure without any problems until I tried to get 1 drive to act as the backup drive for Time Machine and the other to be storage. I formatted them using Drive Genius. I used the option for GUILD or GUIL which it said was the better format for using with Time Machine.
The first problem I ran into since upgrading and reformatting the drives is I got an "input/output" error the first couple times I connected the drive via USB to my Mac. I could still use the drives but I got weird errors every once in a while like "input/output error" or "device was not ejected properly" even though the device had not been unplugged.
Now the drives will not mount using OS 10.5.5. The drives show up when I open Disk Utility, but I cannot get them to mount. I have ran Disk Utility First Aid, and it says the drives are fine. There is one error that shows up when I run the "Repair Disk" feature. It reads "Invalid content in Journal". But Disk Utility also says "The volume was repaired successfully".
I have seen some posts when I do a search in google about this issue and it seems this is a known issue. Every suggestion I see says to insert your Tiger DVD and reformat the drive using that and the problem will be solved. The only problem with that is I have a lot of important files on the drive that I cannot lose. I had the files backed up until I moved them to the new drive a while back. Now I do not have a backup because I was in the process of switching to bigger drives and erased the old drives after doing so because everything was working fine.
I am hoping someone out there may have some suggestions (other than erasing the drive) to get my dives to mount so I can transfer the data off to another drive and reformat after.
Thanks,
Paul Rugg

Thanks for the suggestion.
Do you think that would work better than Drive Genius? I bought Drive Genius 2 and it does not even see the drives when they are plugged in unlike Disc Utility which can see the drives but cannot mount either one.
Maybe this following post I made to a different questions may help. The data on the drive is other buying another program for if it will work. I think my next step may be to go over to a friends place and try to mount the drives on his computer and transfer stuff off if they connect.
text below posted to other question relating to external hard drive problem.
I have recently had the same mounting issue with my new external hard drive. I just purchased a new 750Gb Western Digital Sata drive and got everything transfered over to it. Immediately, I got an error saying that the drive had been ejected incorrectly even though it was still plugged in. I was a little curious. I restarted the computer (hard drive still plugged in via USB 2.0) and the drive showed up just fine. I plugged another 250Gb drive into the same case (2 bays) and the 250GB drive showed up just fine.
Well, I then noticed there was an OS upgrade available when I ran Software update so i ran it and when I rebooted the drives were gone. I can see the drives in Disc Utility, but they will not mount. Drive Genius cannot see either disc. Disc Utility says I need to repair the drives, but when I do it says they are fixed but they don not mount.
The problem really seems to be related to mounting USB external drives. I got ahold of 2 seperate external firewire hard drives and one shows up just fine while the other has the same problem (both work on other systems. I would try wiping the drives and reformatting but ALL MY stuff is on them and not everything has been backed up. Yuck! I have not tried connecting my hard drive to another Mac yet.
The drives being used are #1 Maxtor Maxline Plus II 250GB SATA/150 HDD 1.5b/s 7Y250m00654ra
and #2 Western Digital WD7500AACS WD Caviar GP Green Power drive.
I have another post similar to this and I have not received any feedback, but I have been doing my own searching and have found similar posts on the net.
Anybody have any clue what might be going on here? It really seems to be related to my upgrade.

How do I know external hard drive is working?

Sorry for the simplistic nature of the questions but here goes:
Purchased a Toshiba external hard drive - plugged it in and Time Machine asked a few questions and soon it asked if I wanted to back up my internal hard drive.
After 40 plus minutes the task was completed - it stopped doing whatever it was doing - that much I'm certain.
How do I know the Toshiba is continuing to back up material? The light on the Toshiba is 'on' at times and 'off' on other times - so it's backing material up when the light is on??? Automatically, on its own?
Time Machine and/or the Toshiba do not appear to have any schedule for routine back-up (such as one would find on an anti-virus application), is there a way to schedule a backup?
Under Time Machine preferences it shows the Toshiba as the external disk. Plus I just noticed that it states the next back up will be 8:34 am today - 22 minutes from right now. What an odd time and it isn't a time I selected, at least I don't think so!
How do I access the Toshiba to see what, if anything, it has backed up?
Finally, assuming the external has backed up all the important data and should my (brand new - but that's another story) hard drive crash, how do I get the computer to ignore the damaged internal hard drive and start using the Toshiba?
As you can tell these question would be easily answered by most anyone with a modicum of computer knowledge but for me, thank goodness for Apple Discussion!
Thanks in advance.
Bob

See > Setting up Time Machine backups using an external drive
From Here > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
More Info > Time Machine Tutorial
Bob13018 wrote:
... how do I get the computer to ignore the damaged internal hard drive and start using the Toshiba
This is Not how TM works... It is not a Bootable Clone... Read Here...
Time Machine vs. Clones and Archives

External hard drive error / disk utility not repairing

I am having problems with a particular external hard drive. Device is a Transcend StoreJet 25M (640GB) currently formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It was previously formatted in FAT32, exFat, and also Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It started giving me problems when I used it to store all my music on it. My iTunes library and music files were all stored on it, and at one point iTunes started acting funny - it would play a song for a few seconds, pause, play for a further few seconds, pause again, and so forth. I decided to stop using it and when I shifted the iTunes library to the Mac internal hard drive and the music file into another external hard drive, iTunes worked fine. So I figured it must be a problem with the external hard drive itself.
I recently reformatted it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and transfered some data on to it (include a back up of the music folder). I noticed that Spotlight keeps trying to index the drive but never actually managed. Times indicated for indexing runs into days. The hard drive tends to be slow to load files expecially when there are multiple folders and tiers, and is generally unreliable. It occasionally unmounts, or when I try to unmount it I get an error saying it cannot unmount because it is being used (but no indication as to which app is using it even if all apps are closed except for Finder).
I tried repairing it using disk utility. The attached image shows the results. It seems that it can't be repaired by disk utility. At this point, and after much deliberation, I would have to questions:
1. Should I just smash the thing on the floor?
2. Is there another application I could try and repair it with?
3. Even though I have reformatted it several times, it keeps giving me the same problem. When I do a disk verification of the hard rive itself it all seems fine, however when I do a disk verification or repair of the volume I get the error shown in the image. Is this a problem being caused during formatting?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Oh, I forgot to attach image....
Message was edited by: TheSpoon

External hard drive

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