External Seagate drive suddenly "not readable" by iMac

I'm having a problem with a Seagate Backup Plus external desktop hard drive.
It was working fine, but then I restarted my computer and got a window with the error message: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." and options to Initialize…, Ignore, or Eject.
I rebooted my computer a few times, and each time I get the same error message. When I open Disk Utility, I see the hard drive listed in the side bar, but it is not mounted and will not mount. Each time it is labeled something like "disk2s2," "disk10s2" or "disk6s2," etc. That changes slightly each time like that, but seems to always begin with "disk" and end with "s2."
I ran repair disk and got the following result:
The drive is about three months old. I think it did something like this when I first bought it (I remember seeing the "disk2s2" label in the Disk Utility sidebar), but restarting solved it then. Now it seems to keep happening every time I restart.
I would really appreciate any help or information any of you can provide.

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

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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

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)

FAT formatted external hard drive is not 'readable by this computer'

Hello support community
The problem: when I insert my 'FAT' formatted external hard drive (Samsung M3) into my mac book pro it comes up with the error message that says "the inserted disk is not readable by this computer" and I therefore cannot access the files.
The story (potential further details):
1. I had a problem with my mac where it took hours to load each time I turned it on, would only work when power was plugged in etc. so I had to reformat my mac hard drive (when I tried to veriify it said repair, that wouldn't work). So i'm starting with a recently reformatted, clean mac.
2. Before doing this I reformatted my external hard drive (whilst on windows machine) to FAT32 (so I can use on both windows and mac) so that I could back up my files.
3. I then transferred files from mac onto external hard drive and then also put them on a windows machine.
4. After reformatting mac hard drive when I then tried to transfer files back onto the mac I get the 'not readable' error.
The technical details:
Thank you very much indeed anyone who can help or can try and help
Cheers
Andy

Erase the drive and reformat using your Mac (Disk Utility)

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

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.
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It goes like this:
250.06 GB Hitachi...
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500.08 GB WD My Passport
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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
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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..

How do I save my iTunes library and iPhoto to an external drive and not to the iMac drive?

how do I save my iphoto library and itunes library to an external drive and not to the imac drive?

For iPhoto, see > iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
For iTunes, see > iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

I recently updated my Mid 2007 iMac with the latest OS 10.8.5 now my external hard drives will not show up. They show up when I boot them up on a machine running and earlier OS. Is there a fix for this?

I recently updated my 20-inch, Mid 2007 iMac with the latest OS 10.8.5 now my external hard drives will not show up. They show up when I boot them up on a machine running and earlier OS. Is there a fix for this?

Can you see them in Disk Utility?
If so, can you select and Mount them?
If not, disconnect them, reset the iMac's SMC and then reconnect them.
Intel-based Macs: 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.
If you still can not see them, connect them back up to the iMac running the older OS, open Disk Utility and look to see how they are partitioned and formatted.

Two external hard drive are not appearing on the desktop anymore on my 2008 24" iMac. One is a Lacie d2 Quadra and the other is a G Drive. Both are 1 Tb

Two external hard drive are not appearing on the desktop anymore on my 2008 24" iMac. One is a Lacie d2 Quadra and the other is a G Drive. Both are 1 Tb

Are they daisy chained? Have you tried them one at a time? Have you tried a different FireWire cable? Do they show up in either system profiler or Disk Utility? Have you reset the SMC? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

My Western Digital external hard drive suddenly stopped showing up on my Macbook Pro and disappeared from Disk Utility. It works on a PC.

My Western Digital external hard drive suddenly stopped showing up on my macbook pro and it disappeared from disk utility. I have tried making invisible files visible but nothing has worked and my hard drive shows up on a PC but not my Mac anymore.

What is the manufacturer of the external and how old is it? Does it have its own AC power supply or is it USB bus powered?

Lacie external hard drive no longer readable by computer

I am using a lacie tb hard drive, and ran data rescue 3 recovery software on it. Now, when I plug it in, the hard drive is not readable by the computer at all.
Advice?
thanks

Hi BoyHowdyDoo,
This is an external drive that traceyx is talking about, so no need to boot from the OS DVD to run DiskUtility.
I'm a bit suspicious that the drive is actually physically failing, I'm afraid in this case, given the mention of bad blocks etc.
Tracey, I'm not sure from your comments whether you have actually already managed to get the things you want from the drive off it or not?
Running DiskUtility over it shouldn't hurt the drive, and may repair it sufficiently to get it "seen" again. I very much doubt if Drive Rescue has really done any serious damage to the drive if it was healthy beforehand, but the mention you made of bad blocks being reported is a worry, and the WD external drives unfortunately don't have a very good reputation for reliability.
If you were trying to recover the deleted files to a disk that was itself already damaged then unpredictable consequences could have occurred.
In this situation myself, assuming this is a Mac HFS(+) formatted external drive, If Disk Utility didn't fix it I would probably use Alsoft's "DiskWarrior" to try to repair it. It is capable of dealing with problems that are beyond the ability of DiskUtility . If that failed I would use DataRescue to try to recover the contents to another external.
Rod

Do I need external hard drive to back up my iMac before update to mountain lion? My is OS 10.6.8

Do I need external hard drive to back up my iMac before update to mountain lion? My is OS 10.6.8.

First, repair your hard drive and permissions:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Second, make a bootable backup to an external drive using the Restore option of Disk Utility:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Third, purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Be sure you meet the requirements for Mountain Lion:
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
     Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.
     For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion.

External hard drives suddenly changed to read only

Three of my external hard drives suddenly changed to read only. These hard drives have been working on my macbook pro for months. When I click on get info 'read only' shows up and there is no lock icon nor is there a window that shows name | permissions, also in disk utility the 'verify disk premissions', 'verify disk', 'repair disk', and 'repair disk premissions' buttons are ghosted and I can not select them. I have not made any changes to my computer and I have read many other posts and have not been able to find a solution.

About a hundred times with no luck. Some of my research is leading to Western Digital, there may be a problem with the drives' 'smartware' software. I've been using this drive for months and I never used the 'smartware', but I tried it anyway with no luck. I just remembered that four days ago I had this drive plugged this drive into an Iomega wireless storage device and it seemed to work fine. Now the wireless storage device can't find the drive at all. I just need to know if there is a way I can change the permissions back to read/write, otherwise I will have to buy another drive and transfer all the data to the new drive and re-formatt the wd drive.

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 Seagate drive suddenly "not readable" by iMac

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