External Hard Nrive Suddenly Not Recognized...

I've had my 200GB Western Digital external hard drive for almost two years. About 3 days ago it suddenly wasn't recognized by my Macbook. It's disappeared from Finder, it's not in Disk Utility, and I don't know how to fix it. It powers up when I plug it into the USB drive, but none of the 170GB of music files that I store on it can be found by iTunes.
I'm convinced that I'm basically screwed.
Someone please tell me that I'm wrong.

I'm guessing it's connected via USB, however, if connected via firewire I'll include the following links.
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151?viewlocale=en_US
What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire device
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
Dealing with FireWire problems (drives not mounting, devices unrecognized, etc.)
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20041221081432908
Common fixes for USB device issues (unrecognized, etc.)
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070824012114701
 Cheers, Tom

Similar Messages

External Hard Disk SUDDENLY NOT RECOGNIZED!

The mac is suddenly no longer recognizing my external hard drive. I have called apple support, but the only solution they suggest is for me to bring it into an Apple store for a repair... Unfortunately I don-t have the time right now to go to an apple sotre, and I was wondering if any of you out there had a solution,
ISSUE: External Drive (Buffalo Ministation 1TB) no longer recognized by mac.
INFORMATION/TESTS:
- PRAM AND SMC rests were done, but this made no change.
- Safe boot and login with another account didnt change anything
- Disk doesnt appear on disk utility
- Did another update of OS X 10.8.2
- The external drive works fine on other macs and PCs so the external drive it self is fine.
- All the USB ports are fully funcitional with other USB sticks and External hard drives.
PROBLEM:
I believe and so does the apple care, that the computer is no longer supplying sufficient power to the external drive in order for it to run.
Does anyone know a fix?
OR, is it possible that a hard disk, which has both USB 2.0 and 3.0 capabilities, suddenly stops working on USB 3.0 ports but continues working on a USB 2.0 port? I have no other USB3.0 ports in my hands in order to test the device!
Thanx for your help!

I'm guessing it's connected via USB, however, if connected via firewire I'll include the following links.
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151?viewlocale=en_US
What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire device
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
Dealing with FireWire problems (drives not mounting, devices unrecognized, etc.)
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20041221081432908
Common fixes for USB device issues (unrecognized, etc.)
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070824012114701
 Cheers, Tom

External Hard Drive suddenly not recognized

I have a WD 500GB external hard drive that I use to back up my data. I only have one hard drive as I'm currently living abroad and couldn't bring a 2nd with me.
I plugged in my external last night to back up my MacBook Pro and it backed everything up. I even went into Time Machine to go back and restore a file or two and that worked without problem. I have been using this drive for about a year to back up everything on my Mac and, although sensitive, it seems to work okay.
I plugged it in this morning and nothing. My Mac will not recognize that the drive is not plugged in in Time Machine or in Finder. If I go to Apple Logo > About This Mac > More Info... > Storage tab, it just shows my internal hard drive and my CD/DVD drive. If I click on Disk Utility with the drive plugged in, it shows my Hard Drive (Macintosh HD) with two icons, one inset below the other and both in black font, and then my external hard drive has two underneath, but only the top one is black font - the one underneath is greyed out.
It goes like this:
250.06 GB Hitachi...
     Macintosh HD
500.08 GB WD My Passport
     Time Machine Backups (greyed out)
Superdrive (greyed out)
When I clicked on the 500GB one and told it to repair/verify it said the disk was working fine. I tried unplugging and replugging in the drive (it is not recognized in Finder so I could not properly eject the disk). I restarted my Mac with it unplugged and plugged it in afterward and nothing.
The HD itself is working, the light is blinking (not solid) and I can feel the hard drive spinning, but I'm at a loss as to what to do to get my Mac to recognize it again.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thank you!

I also wanted to add, when I click on the greyed out Time Machine hard drive that's listed and then click "Info", this is what it says:
Name : Time Machine Backups
Type :           Partition
          Disk Identifier :           disk1s2
          Mount Point :           Not mounted
          File System :           Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
          Connection Bus :           USB
          Device Tree :           IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/EHC2@6,1
          Writable :           Yes
          Universal Unique Identifier :           56EF6088-FFCE-300B-81D7-3E0986532AB5
          Capacity :           499.74 GB (499,735,552,000 Bytes)
          Owners Enabled :           No
          Can Turn Owners Off :           Yes
          Can Be Formatted :           Yes
          Bootable :           Yes
          Supports Journaling :           Yes
          Journaled :           No
          Disk Number :           1
          Partition Number :           2

My external hard drive suddenly not recognized (retina macbook pro)

Windows 8 has a great feature which is "windows to go", so I have installed windows 8 in my external hard drive. The problem just happened. I was using windows via my hard drive. I shut down the computer and turned on mac system. Then the hard drive wasn't detected!
I have tried doing following things but didn't work:
I plugged out and plugged in the the external hard drive again.
I restarted the mac system.
I put my charger on.
I opened the console and here are the "Message"...:
1/18/14 8:53:51.000 AM kernel[0]: USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 012345678933 0x152d 0x539 0x1302, 3
1/18/14 8:53:52.000 AM kernel[0]: MacAuthEvent en0   Auth result for: 10:bf:48:3d:cb:03 Auth request tx failed
1/18/14 8:54:39.000 AM kernel[0]: MacAuthEvent en0   Auth result for: 10:bf:48:3d:cb:03 Auth request tx failed
1/18/14 8:57:13.000 AM kernel[0]: MacAuthEvent en0   Auth result for: 10:bf:48:3d:cb:03 Auth request tx failed
PLEASE HELP ME!

It is formatted for both PC and Mac
I have tried finding it in Disk Utility, no dice...
Tried both USB Ports
And a reboot is still unsuccessful..

My external hard drive is not recognized by my computer.

My external hard drive is not recognized by my computer. I used it earlier and it was fine however my computer froze and I unplugged my hard drive without properly ejecting it. Now when I plug it in nothing pops up. I've tried on three different computers and no luck. I hope this is fixable! Please help.

Care to share which OS you are using?
Repair permissions & restart your computer.
Zap the PRAM

The external hard drive is not recognized by my macbook pro (yosemite).

The external hard drive that was recognized by my older iMac (snow lion), is not recognized by my new macbook pro (yosemite).
Can anyone help me with this? Thank you!

Can you see the drive in Disk Utility?
See mount section in 1st linked article.
Disk Unmount Using Terminal
Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

External hard drive is not recognized in Migration Assistantt

I had my hard drive replaced on my iMac, Mac OS 10.4.11, Snow Leopard.
I backup my computer using Time Machine onto an external hard drive.
In Migration Assistant, the external hard drive does not show up. There are no choices to choose to migrate from.
Any suggestions please!

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

External hard drive is not recognized after attempt to format

I just got a new macbook and couldn't use my external hard drive because it was formatted on a PC and only allowed me to read the data. I backed up the data on the 250gb hd and then used Disk Utility to erase the hd and format it as "Mac OS extended (journaled)." After beginning, Disk Utility stopped working and showed up as "not responding" in the Activity Monitor.
Now the hd does not show up on the desktop and can only be seen in Disk Utility. If I try to erase again or partition the hd the utility stops responding. If I try to zero out the drive it continues to say "preparing to zero" indefinately. Now the hd is also not recognized by windows except in the windows disk utility, but it does not even give the option of formatting/initializing it, so that is not an option.
Has anyone ever seen anything like this before, or have any idea of something that I haven't tried yet. I really want to get the drive working and have exhausted all the ideas I can come up with. The internet has not provided too many ideas either.
Thanks so much for your help.
Black MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I have crazy solution to format it to FAT 32, it work a couple times on my several MAxtor, and Western Digital HD. But this is the last resort and if you are not handy and familiar, don't do it.
It happen on my external HD, so I crack the enclosure open, pulled the HD out and attached it as internal HD on a PC after adjusting the jumper to master and make sure no other HD attached to the motherboard. Make sure the motherboard detected (you can see it from bios menu).
Insert a bootable installer disk before XP ('98, ME, or 2000), and start from there until a promt comes, and type fdisk and you delete the old partition and create a new partition and restart once using the disk still and format it using FAT 32.
After that you put it back to the enclosure, and mount it to MacBook as a new HD with default factory format.
If you don't have the installer disk, this might help :
http://www.bootdisk.com/
But if your maxtor still under warranty better talk to them first and they might willing to reformat it for you.
Hope this help your external back and let you use it on your MacBook.

My external hard drive is not recognized

I have the apple external disk drive. I have used it numerous times. I just plugged it in and the computer is not recognizing it. I have tried both USB ports. How can I fix this?

A: USB desktop or 2.5" port powered?
B: did you just install mavericks
C: DOES IT show in disk utility?
Can you confirm it on another Mac?
Apple doesnt make HD, what HD is it marked as?
Likely its a dead SATA bridge card, a very very common problem with USB and external HD
see here:
Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD
report back with more info

Music from External Hard Drive suddenly not playing...

The other day I disconnected my external hard drive to use it elsewhere, plugged it back in later, then suddenly none of my songs located on it could be played on itunes...
Funny thing is that if I right click and go "show in windows explorer" it takes me to the correct directory on the external...however when I go to play the song the small speaker icon appears next to it, however without the "sound waves" that appear when a song is playing....
Can anyone help me out???
Thanks

If you have relocated the media folder to an external drive and then start iTunes with the drive disconnected iTunes will reset the media folder to the default location on the internal drive. It will also assume that all files on the drive are "not present". Correct the location of the iTunes Media folder, then close iTunes, wait a few moments and open it again. iTunes should now find your files.
tt2

HELP, external hard drive suddenly "not readable"

Hi everyone,
It appears that my external hard drive that held most of my film material is messed up. It's not being recognized by my mac and the drive was really hot when I touched it.
I have to try to figure this out as on this drive I have 100's of hours of edited material in this one film that I was almost finished with.
Does anyone know anything about this type of stuff, what might of happened and how I might be able to recover the drive?
I'm so lost right now.
It's a 250GB western digital.
when i reboot, the mac sees there is a new drive attached and asks if I want to format the new unformatted drive. To be exact it says:
The drive you inserted was not readable by this computer.
The it provides the following buttons: INITIALIZE - IGNORE - EJECT
Please, any help would be sooooo appreciated.
Jay

Open the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and try using the Repair Disk function on the drive; if it doesn't work, an utility such as TechTool Pro or DiskWarrior may be able to repair the drive. If you have AppleCare for that machine, you have or can get TechTool Deluxe, which can be used for this task.
(18251)

External hard drive suddenly not readable

Help!
I have an external 160GB hard drive (LaCie; Firewire connection) that has suddenly stopped mounting on my desktop. I have used this drive with no problem for ages and with OSX 10.4.
Now I get the message:
'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.'
With three options: Initialize; Ignore; Eject.
I have lots of valuable data on this drive that I need to access. What can I do? I have looked at Disk Utility and the disk shows but still will not mount.
Please help!

External hard drive spontaneously unmounted? Try these tips:
NEW FIRMWARE: Try updating your external hard drive's firmware, which is available from your drive manufacturers Web site--or just use VersionTracker's (www.versiontracker.com) search function to find it. Be sure to back up your data before applying the update, and carefully follow the manufacturers instructions.
OUT OF iSIGHT: If you're using an iSight camera while you're using a FireWire drive, the camera may be interfering with the drive's ability to stay mounted. Try temporarily disconnecting your iSight and moving it to a separate FireWire port. If you have multiple FireWire devices, try using a FireWire hub.
POWER PROBLEM: A faulty power adapter could be causing your drive to unmount. Your drive may not be getting enough juice to stay on, causing the drive to turn off and thereby unmounting it from your Mac. Alternately, the power adapter may not be providing a steady amount of power, causing your drive to turn on and off. Try replacing the adapter. If you can't get a replacement adapter from the hard drive manufacturer, try your local electronics store. Just make sure the adapter you choose has the same connector and input/output voltage. you can find the input/output voltage on the adapter itself.
Cheers!
DALE

External HDs, Digi002 suddenly not recognized by Mac Pro or G5

I have a very strange problem that I have not seen on any of the forums. Neither of my two Macs, a G5 or a newly purchased Mac Pro, recognize any of my external hard drives or Digi002, which is a controller used by Pro Tools. I have changed the ports, cables, everything. None of them will mount or be recognized by either computer. They do not show up in Disk Utilities or System Profiler.
Neither of my two Macs, a G5 or a newly purchased Mac Pro (I just purchased this today), recognize any of my external hard drives or Digi002, which is a controller used by Pro Tools. I have changed the ports, cables, everything. None of them will mount or be recognized by either computer. They do not show up in Disk Utilities or System Profiler.
All of the five external HDs I own, the external DVD burner, and Digi002 stopped mounting/being recognized on my G5. I needed to upgrade my computer anyway, so I purchased a Mac Pro. None of the above are recognized by the Mac Pro either.
I have tried FW400, FW800, and USB slots in both computers, and none of them will mount or be recognized.
Interestingly, all three of my USB drives mount in the USB ports that will not show any of my external HDs.
_*G5 (OS10.5.8, G5 PowerMac7,2, 4G RAM):*_
- None of the four external drives or Digi002 (FW400 connection) shows up. This does not matter whether it is USB, FW400, or FW800. Only USB drives show up.
_*Mac Pro (OS10.6.6, MacPro1,1, 4G RAM)*_
- None of the external drives or Digi002 (FW400 connection) shows up. This does not matter whether it is USB, FW400, or FW800. Only USB drives show up.
- I cannot get iTunes to play through the 1/8" output.
- Pro Tools 9.0.0 does not have input/output, and of course, does not recognize Digi002.
Thanks for any help you can give.
Message was edited by: elevenshadows

Your new Mac Pro, by default, boots 64-bit kernel mode; requires 64-bit drivers or you will need to switch to 32-bit mode. At least to test.
Non-system drives are best formatted with the latest OS; and use GUID rather than Apple Partition Map.
Between a new Mac, new OS and all the changes, try a very simple approach.
Also, hope that you didn't migrate / import or use Setup to bring applications over to the Mac Pro; and don't use the G5 drives until you can reformat those to GUID.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350
http://macperformanceguide.com/SettingUp-Kernel64.html

My external hard drive is not recognized on my new MacBook Pro, even though it is recognized on my older MacBook and other computers. Help?

Please help me find a solution to my new MacBook Pro not recognizing my hard drives. Yes, thats two hard drives I have that don't seem to work on this computer but both work on my older MacBook and many other computers.

It is formatted for both PC and Mac
I have tried finding it in Disk Utility, no dice...
Tried both USB Ports
And a reboot is still unsuccessful..

My Passport for Mac external Hard drive is not recognized

I recently had to purchase a new MacBook Pro, and when I tried to get files off of my Passport for Mac external hard drive. I get an error stating "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." And when I try to initalize, and verify disk, I get this message "Partition map check failed because no slices were found.". I have already updated firmware for the external hard drive. One site I found stated that it could be that the USB port is not strong enough, and I would need a 2.0 Booster cable. Does anyone know if this would work?

What did you old Macbook die from? Likely the HD in it is still ok, yes?
You can remove the HD inside your old dead Mac and put it into a $20 HD enclosure or HD dock, and remove the photos that way, very easy.........IF your old Macbook died from something other than ALSO a bad HD.
You said----my OLD Macbook pro which recently lost video
What happened with your old "dead" macbook? Still have it?

External Hard Nrive Suddenly Not Recognized...

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