Finder will not detect hard drive; disk utility will

Finder will not detect my hard drive. Disk utility will, however, it will not eject the harddrive from the computer. Any help?
I have a lot of files on it, so I would not be happy if they cannot be retrieved. It has been working for the past 2(?) years without much issue.

SilverSkyRat wrote:
Have you checked the manufacturer's web site for any firmware updates for the drive?
In Disk Utility, select the drive and click Repair Disk. If any errors are displayed, rerun Repair Disk until no errors occur.
You can't run repair disk while booted from the disk to be repaired.
Boot from Recovery, then run Repair Disk.

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Will not detect hard drive

I am trying to help out a friend who bought an Ultra2 board (no raid) on my suggestion...it will not see the hard drive. I have tried 3 different hard drives and different cables. This is the second board he has ordered with the same problem and he has also replaced the RAM.
HELP!!

As you said "When entering the BIOS the screen goes blank for at least 30 seconds before the BIOS is displayed", can you check what is shown in the D-Bracket? Btw, did you enable/disable the RAID?
Please check the jumper on the WD hdd. Set it to Cable Select and try again with the mobo on all IDE channels, including the RAID IDE too. If BIOS can't detect it, maybe RAID will. You may also try with jumper at MASTER and SLAVE. Also, just try with this single HDD without any CDROM or CDRW attached. There must be something you can set/configure to get it work if the HDD is not faulty.
If the HDD work standalone in the IDE Channel, then add in the CDROM and CDRW one by one. If problem reappear, then the most suspect is the power supply unit. If from everything you have tried and the HDD can't work, oh well.....

Logic Board Does Not Detect Hard Drive???

Problem on startup shows "Folder with (?) Mark on it". Tried to use Disk Utility but it does not detect. Replaced drive and still nothing. Use the drive as external and it boots normal. It looks like it's something else. I have order a new cable connection that goes from the logic board to the hard drive, as it's cheaper to obtain than a logic board, but lets just say that it wasnt that and there is a problem with the logic board, can I buy a "9.5 mm SATA Optical Bay SATA Hard Drive Enclosure" to place the hard drive and boot from it? When I went into Disk Utility it did detected the DVD drive, so I know that portion of the logic board works fine. I don't use or need the DVD drive, and wondering if I can do this, it cost less than buying a logic board.
Please let me know if this is possible, Thanks in advance.

Well logic board seems faulty from the connecting point of the hard drive but not from the optical drive. Optical drive is detected by the Disk Utility, but not the hard drive, and thats why I was thinking of using the optical bay to run the machine.

Msi nf980-g65 Not detecting hard drives

I hope someone can help me while tech support is closed. I'm doing a new build. When I fired it up the MB detects the CdRom but not the Hard Drive. I tried switching the hard drive to an old PC and it detects it fine there.
Thanks!

Thanks Jack, I'm sure you love the noobs...here's the info:
■CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz
■MSI: NF980-G65, MS-7612 v1.0
■Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
■Video card: XFX GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB PCIe
■Hard Drive, Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
■Hauppage 2250 Tuner Card
■Operating system: Will install once hard drive is recognized
■Power Supply Unit: Rocketfish 700W, 30A

Portable Hard Drive will not show up in Disk Utility

I purchased a Toshiba Canvio Slim 500 GB hard drive a few months ago before I updated my computer to Mac OSX Version 10.6.8. I was running out of Hard Drive Space since I bought my computer in 2009 and decided to use a portable hard drive to store some of my personal information. I was able to read and successfully transfer data to the hard drive, but then I updated my computer to 10.6.8 and now I can't access it at all. It won't even show up in Disk Utility. I read on a few forums that some people were having the same problem as I was and they bought a y-cable adapter to power the hard drive through two usb cables. I bought one and tried it out and I'm still not having any luck. I tried using my girlfriend's computer to see if I can access it from her computer and it shows up in disk utility, but I can't access it. The lights turn on and I can hear it working like it worked the first day I used it, but nothing is happening. Please help me fix the problem.

Evidence, as scant as it is from Disk Utility, suggests the Toshiba external
HDD is indeed without Partion Map Scheme, has no files on it, unformatted.
So I wonder if there isn't a wire or defective circuit inside the box (enclosure)
that may be hiding access to the actual HDD unit inside there. Those kinds
of enclosures generally use a laptop 2.5" HDD since they can run on USB
power from the port. Matching up the internal HDD from that case, with an
other one with correct life support (connections) is a way to test it.
However if the Toshiba HD is a 3.5" standard drive, a larger enclosure, or
an adapter that simply plugs into the connections of the bare hard drive,
would be a way to access that external drive. These 'drive adapters' can
work with both SATA and IDE hard drives; or just one of the two. They
run in the range of $40 or so, and essentially are a wire kit with a power
adapter to spin the drive, but some do not even have the adapter, so as
to still use USB power for smaller drives of slower disc RPM speed.
Most competent computer stores with a skilled staff would know of these.
However some of the smaller HDD enclosures may be hard to open up.
And if there were a Toshiba warranty, this action could void the same.
Adapters would be to 'test the idea of recovering any data,' if enclosure
the drive shipped in has somehow developed a defect. Though it may
be if there is a defect, it may have existed at a point in time to affect
the actual save-to-disk process. Or later. A wire could be not allowing
information to be received, if broken or circuit damages, by the Mac.
But by the look of the Disk Utility's partition map, along with the other
earlier image that shows the same info in the bottom of the image of
the status, in Disk Description, this does not bode well for recovery.
I'm not sure what else to suggest. When the dust settles, Toshiba may
have a residual warranty that could only replace that one with another.
Some older mailorder catalogs show these kinds of adapters, some use
USB port power, others also include an AC adapter so standard faster
HDDs can be used without an enclosure. This also helps if one wants
temporary access to a hard disk drive, but does not want to install it.
•USB drive cable adapter kit SATA and IDE HDD - google results:
https://www.google.com/#q=USB+drive+cable+adapter+kit+SATA+and+IDE+HDD
Companies also make hot-swap docks to allow fast swapping of HDDs
of either or both 2.5" and 3.5" size, these have their own adapter and
one simply puts drives inside from the top, like a bread toaster.
Hopefully you can take the Toshiba along to a computer store and ask
a somewhat skilled person there about getting the cable adapter kit or
another enclosure. The cable adapter would cost less & be quicker, yet
that would still involve opening up the failed HDD's enclosure for access.
Good luck & happy computing!

Unable to write to External Hard Drive, Disk Utility options don't work.

I am a recent new user of Apple Mac from when I bought this Macbook Air 3 months ago.
Nice machine, but difficult to get the hang of.
Specific problem I'd like help with please is to enable me to write to my Samsung S2 Portable Hard Drive (500GB)
I can see it and read files, but can't save to the EHD.
In Disk Utility, all options to verify and repair the EHD are greyed out. So, most of the friendly suggestions on other threads don't help me.
I don't know how big the hard drive is on my Macbook (nor how to find out), or how much remaining space there is, but there is over 400GB of data on the EHD.
The EHD is in NTFS format, all data on it was from Windows computers. There isn't space on my Windows laptop for all this data.
I don't have another EHD, so have nowhere to move the data to if I have to reformat the EHD.
On another thread I saw a suggestion to uninstall something or other before reformatting the EHD, but I don't even know how to uninstall programs on a Macbook.
I don't know why Apple have to spoil such a great machine by making it so difficult for non-afficionados to use (sorry, frustrated).
I say "great" because it's so light it makes work much easier. I can carry it around all day with little effort and don't have to take the charger to work.
Any help anyone could offer with the EHD will be appreciated.
Thanks...........

Hi Limnos,
Yes, I'm new to Mac, having bought this Macbook 3 months ago after years of Windows (as stated in my original post).
I still have a Windows laptop and all my work colleagues currently use Windows, so I need compatibility with both.
Paragon sounds like a good option, and I don't mind a bit of cost if it sorts the problem.
Hopefully I'll get feedback from someone who has used Paragon and can report how effective it is and whether or not there are any problems asociated with it.
Good tip thanks about the Disk Utility, I'll look into that.
Thanks........

External Hard Drive Disk Utility Can't Repair the Disk

Hi,
I have a Seagate 1 TB Backup Plus Drive which was working perfectly fine until I plugged it into a USB hub. It detected it while in the hub and I was able to get files off of it, but when I ejected it from the hub and put it back into the USB slot on the computer it was not detected by finder. It shows up in the disk utility and I clicked verify and repair and it says:
Verify and Repair volume “Seagate Backup Plus Drive”
Checking file system
Volume repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
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.
Is there any way to get this to work properly again? Or if not is there a way for me to recover my files on the external hard drive?
Thanks
I have a Macbook PRO late 2011 running OS X Mavericks.

Use a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior, or a product such as those listed here.
(108710)

Machine will not boot; hard drive makes clicking noise

My G4 will not boot up.
Here are the symptoms:
It passed the hardware test;
Will not perform a safe start - so cannot run disk utility;
Hard drive makes a clicking noise.
I'd appreciate any advice about how to proceed.
pdh

Yes, as mentioned backup now. best not to use your Mac till you do. The drive may fail for good. Here's some tips on replacing your drive (they are pretty inexpensive now);
This is by SDMacuser,
Even if you have never installed nor pulled a HD from a Powermac...... trust me....it is not all that difficult.
I can actually switch internal HD's among 3 separate G4 Towers I own in a matter of minutes (often less than 10 minutes).
Simply power the system down and ground yourself (a grounding strap is recommended or at the very least touching the metal frame to discharge any potential static electricity prior to actually touching the HD or any internal components on your system).
Disconnect the power cable to the back of the HD, then the long ide connector on the back of the HD / cable (pull straight back while grasping the black connector with 2 fingers ... do not yank the actual ribbon cable).
All of my HD's are mounted or bolted to their own metal sleds (either single sled or a dual sled) with 4 screws.
Unscrew the small screw (philips) holding the sled in place on position one below the ide connector or cable. And gently remove the sled & HD from the Powermac without bumping / damaging other internal components.
Remove the 4 screws from the sled itself holding the HD in place. Be careful not to allow the drive to fall once all screws have been removed.
Install the new HD (and make sure to address proper jumpers on the back of the HD itself.)
Now reverse this process with new HD for proper installation into the G4 Powermac.
Any questions just post back.
btw ... there are a few QT demos on apples web sites showing how to do this.
 Cheers! DALE

Fix my hard drive - Disk Utility won't repair

I have a powerbook g4 1.5 17" 1.5 gig ram
it has annnn 80gig hard drive
it's only about a year or 2 old
now recently i've been having hard drive trouble
when i play movies off the hard drive they kinda freeze up and stuff, not cos of the file but the hard drive it's like they're copied onto a bad sector or something.
i have files such as pictures and movies that i try to move or copy but they wont let me, or they get half way and cant copy the rest....
oh i was using bit-torrent to download some big files and it kept stuffing up with a hard drive read/write error
now the 1.7 gig i just downloaded wont open or copy to somewhere else to open it
and thats not good
so i've tried Disk Utility and got it to Verify the hard drive and it recognises some errors and stops scanning and says you need to fix it
i think one of them is a checksum/table error or something or.... i will have to get the exact error message off it later. but it tells me to fix it but i can't press the 'repair' button cos it's not available to be clicked! so that's a bugger
is there another program i can get off version tracker to help fix this or something else i can do? any way to try and recover that huge file too?
let me know what you think and i'll give u any more info that you need cos i definately dont wanna replace the hard drive!

is that just the 2 dvd set that came with the computer?
it's like a system restore disc or something
i dont have an actual OSX disc cos it came with OSX 10.4 loaded
i'm worried that my dvd restore discs will have 10.3 on them and it wont be compatible.. although i'm not sure, does anyone know what it originally shipped with?
apple-history doesn't seem to know
and the other thing
IF i do need a new hard drive what size can i upgrade to? it's 80gig now, i know they went up to 100gig at the time but can i put anything bigger in it or will it crack it?
and what kind of hard drive do i need, i'll probly buy one off ebay - so some kind of bits that help me identify it would help heaps
THEN should i pay for someone to repair it and put it in or open her up and do it myself? i'm not worried about the changing it over part it's more how do i then format it and get it ready to go into the computer
any help will be deemed HELPFUL
thanks heaps

HP dv4t not detecting hard drive, please help!

Hello, its been just a little over a year since I've bought my HP dvt, and of course the problems start as soon as my warranty has ended.. It's been working fairly fine most of the year, and then just all of a sudden while not even doing anything of importance on computer last week I got a blue screen error..
Ever since then I have had so much problems. At first it just started out with closing the screen and reopening it crashed the laptop in a couple minutes..
The main problem now is, it just does not detect the hard drive when booting up! Sometimes (rarely) it does though.. I thought it was a windows problem, so I did fresh clean install of Windows 7 and reformatted the hard drive. Then I ran CHKDSK and it did it stuff and said volume clean at the end.. It worked perfectly for a couple of hours, was able to close screen and open with no problems. I downloaded "Hard drive sentinel" to monitor my hdd health, and it said 90% which is apparently excellent. Yet as I was installing adobe reader, it crashed, got the blue screen of death and has not been able to boot up since
Can anyone tell what is the problem with it? Anyone else have similar problem? I've tried to reformat again with CD but it doesnt even recognize any drive to install on..
Important thing to note is that, in the BIOS screen when i run the HARD DISK TEST, it does recognize it! So i dont understand why it doesn't load the operating system or cant see the hard drive anywhere else!!
What is at fault even? Is the motherboard dead? Althought the bios screen loads fine so does that mean its OK? Is it the hard drive? CHKDSK and the hdd health monitor thing said it was ok right before the crashes..
Please help, I have my first computer science lab in like 2 days with my laptop breaking just a couple days before it with barely any money left to buy a new laptop

"computer always freezes at 56%"
Time to replace your Hard Drive. BACK UP NOW!!!
This will be the 3rd HD in a new HP HDX 18 for me (6 months old).
Open up the HD bay and take a look at the model of the HD.
If it is a SEAGATE MOMENTUS 7200.4 they are known to fail in as little as 1 month from install, and do not last more than 6 months.
Google the brand and you will see that most people are reccomending that you remove the SEAGATE product ASAP (data recovery is next to impossible) and replace it with something else.
I had just finished setting up the PC as I wanted it, OS, programs / Bios, software upgrades, then without warning the 2nd HD went.
I lost EVERYTHING in my C drive, was just preparing to do a full BU and Mirror Image after deleting both from my D and External Drive.
HP is replacing one piece of crap with another, I will be shopping for a different brand for the C drive after the laptop comes back from repair.
There seems to be no end to this BS with SEAGATE drives.
DO A FULL BU NOW!!!
> Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution!
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Internal Hard Drive Disk Utility Repair Problem

Hello all! I'm really hoping someone can help me out because I'm in a bit of a panic right now about all of this.
For starters, I have a Mid-2007 20" Intel based iMac.
The other day, I turned on my computer and got a flashing question mark and the computer would not boot. Luckily, I have an external hard drive, so I went through the process of using the Install Discs to use the Hard Drive to start up my computer. Everything worked out and once the computer turned on, I was able to access my Hard Drive and had full access to my files. I powered down my computer as I had to run out the door for school and was planning on backing all of my files up on my external hard drive tonight.
Unfortunately, when I turned on my computer, my internal hard drive had disappeared. I can only start the computer with my external drive plugged in.
I accessed the Disk Utility, and it was the first place I was able to locate my Hard Drive. On the left hand side, underneath the external drive, it simply says "Media". I cannot click on ANY of the options under First Aid and the only thing it seems I can do is Erase the drive.
I would REALLY like to avoid this option, as there are nearly 5 years worth of documents on this computer.
My S.M.A.R.T. Status says Not Supported, and it's saying that the Total Capacity is 0 Bytes.
I suppose I should also mention that with the disc I used I am now running OS X 10.4.11, but previously, I was running 10.5. I can't remember the last decimal place. I don't know why there was a difference, as I used the same disk...
I have NO IDEA where to go from this point besides taking it somewhere to see if my files can be recovered.
Can anyone help me out here?
If you need any more details about my computer/the actions I took, just let me know.
Thanks so much!!

If you cannot access the internal HD then it may have crashed, I am getting you may not have been backing up either so if it has crashed and you don't have a backup then your data is probably gone. If you can get the internal HD to show up again before you do ANYTHING else back it up using Time Machine (assuming you use 10.5.x or above) or create a clone on an external HD using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
My recommendation at this point is to take the machine into and an Apple Store or AASP to have it looked at.

IMac will not boot, hard drive file problem? Can't install OS in 2nd part.

The iMac will not boot. The Apple displays on the screen, the cursor spins for awhile, and then it loops into a reboot effort.
Last night, I was doing a lot of custom file sharing settings using the include enclosed folders option at the bottom of the Get Info window.
Question 1: Could that file sharing process have messed things up?
In an effort to get things going........ A few weeks back, I used Disk Utility to create a 2nd partition, with the intent of installing Ubuntu Linux there. I never attempted the install, as far as I can remember, while playing with the Ubuntu Live CD. So, I thought I would install 10.5.6 from the CD in the 2nd partition. But I get an error message that says "The installer could not create the folder "/Volumes/Ubuntu 9.10/BaseSystem.pkg.161nDNDdQ.""
Question 2: I also shared that partition, could that have caused the OS install failure?
Question 3: If I understand the book correctly, I can try to install the OS from the CD on the 1st partition, and not lose my data, correct? Unfortunately, I don't have any backup for the data, as I don't own any drives large enough yet to accommodate the data on the drive.
Question 4: Anyone have any other thoughts as to what ent wrong?

Hi, Grant.
Sometimes, it just pays to think on a problem. I awoke thinking, if it will boot the OS X install CD, it ought to boot my Ubuntu Live CD. And then, maybe I can change permissions on the first partition. As soon as I thought that, it occurred to me, if the problems are with the permissions, what if I used the OS X disk, and erased (formatted) the Ubuntu partition. That should set all the permissions on that partition back to default. Would OS X install then to the Ubuntu partition?
You better believe it did!! I'm typing this from the Mac after updating my 10.5.6 to 10.5.8 in the 2nd partition, and I'm booting from the 2nd partition.
I then did as you suggested, and from the Mac, I repaired the permissions to the first partition. But, the result was the same, there are a few permissions that do not match, and Disk Utility cannot, does not, or will not correct them.
I'm currently downloading the 10.5.8 combo update .dmg file. My thought is to burn that to a disk, and then install it over the version in partition 1. And trust that the current installation on partition 1 does not have any cross linked files that will destroy some data.
I do have some old ATA IDE drives I can hook externally to the Mac, and copy some of the information I have from the Mac to those drives before doing the 10.5.8 install.
Can you think of a better solution?

Hard Drives - Disk Utility

Hi, I have 2 internal hard drives installed in my G5.
In Disk Utility, under S.M.A.R.T. status, they both say Verified. However, when I go to my System Profiler, click on Serial-ATA, and then click on one of the drives, my second one says "Not Supported" under S.M.A.R.T. status. The other one says Verified, just like it does in Disk Utility. I verified the disk in disk utility and it said everything was fine. I'm almost positive that yesterday it was vice versa (In Disk Utility, the one drive said "Not Supported" but they both said "Verified" in System Profiler). I've never had a problem with either drive, but I just happened to be checking the S.M.A.R.T. status. Is this something to be concerned about? Thanks

Update: That one drive is constantly changing from Not Supported to Verified. Depending on when I check it, it says something different. Do you think it could be that it says "Not supported" when the disk is being put to sleep? I have the option to sleep hard disks when possible. I turned off that option and am going to see if that changes anything. Anyone have any idea what's going on? Do I need to be concerned? Thanks

Reformatting External Hard drive: Disk Utility crashes near the end

I recently updated to Leopard and emptied off my external hard drive and then wanted to (zero out data &) reformat it and start fresh so as to use it with the new Time Machine feature.
However, near the end of reformatting it with Disk Utility the progress just stopped and after giving it some time I did a force quit and sure enough it came to light that it had crashed. Since then I've tried again several times to the same result. I even tried doing it of the Disk Utility on the install CD and it crashed with one minute left!!
Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated!

Use a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior, or a product such as those listed here.
(108710)

Time Machine will not recognize hard drive

Time Machine tells me "You cannot open “Time Machine” preferences pane because it is not available to you at this time." My Lacie HD is on and mounted. I have erased it and repartitioned it and still get nothing. I get the would you like to set up TM prompt but then get the message above.

If you ever hear back from Lacie please post the result. I've given up on Time Machine for the time being. I've mostly given up on Leopard for the time being. I've partitioned my internal hard drive so I can boot in either Tiger or Leopard, and I figure I'll continue to work mostly in Tiger for the time being and apply updates to Leopard and maybe eventually it will work out. The other big problem I'm having with Leopard is the ability to repair permissions. Other than that, most programs seem to work well, although no big improvement over Tiger.
I am hugely disappointed and disillusioned. In June I became a convert from 20 years of Microsoft, and have been a huge Mac fanatic. My iMac was a gateway device to iPods and all things Mac. This experience brought me back to reality. I'll likely never go back MS, but the computer is just an appliance, and all things Apple are difinitely not "plug it in and it works". This is my worst experience with an upgrade ever.

Finder will not detect hard drive; disk utility will

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