Hard drive not visible in finder or desktop, ghosted in disk utility

I just reinstalled Snow Leopard to my MacBook Pro 13 inch from mavericks, and now when I try to access my time machine backup on my hard drive, it isn't showing up. It is ghosted in disk utility. I have tried restarting my computer, and have scoured the online forums to no avail. Please help!

I strongly doubt that SL's TM can recognize a Mavericks TM volume. Your best bet if you want to migrate your stuff from the latter is to install Mavericks, restore that TM backup, then boot into the SL volume and migrate from the restored Mavericks volume.
iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.3), SL & ML, G4 450 MP w/Leopard, 9.2.2

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External Hard-Drive not showing in Finder despite no errors in Disk Utility.

I have tried to follow certain steps as described in this community but I am at a loss on next steps here. I have a wester digital that I have used for Time MAchne which all of a sudden does not appear on Finder. I have run Disk Utility and I can see it there and run the verify and repart and it reports no problems...

Here is the results of Terminal Query:
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            120.5 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS My Passport             999.8 GB   disk1s2

External hard drive not visible in Finder, but is operating

iMac, 2 Gb RAM, Snow Leopard 10.6.4.
It has 4 external USB drives attached through a powered hub. All of a sudden, after about a year, one of them no longer shows up in ‘Finder’. However, all four drives have an icon on the desktop. The drive is visible and verifiable in ‘Disk Utility’. Double clicking the desktop icon opens the drive and I can copy a file from it. iTunes can see it. From a Macbook’s ‘Finder’, over WiFi, I can see and copy files to and from the drive. Finder Preferences shows nothing amiss. I’ve shut down and restarted the iMac several times with no change. The drive just does not show up in Finder on the host iMac.
Searching this forum has not helped. Any suggestions?
Max

Well, this is embarrassing. A suggestion from an older thread on Macrumors.com called "Hard Drive does not appear in Finder / Desktop", solved this problem. Simply drag the missing drive icon from the desktop to Finder! Perseverance and different search wording AND reading a lot of stuff pays off.
If other's problem is not solved with this fix, you might benefit from this 10.5-based thread. They also mention an Apple 10.5 fix. Both URL's below.
The op's problem was that the drive did not appear in Finder OR the desktop but was operational. There was a lot of in-depth information with this fix embedded.
Thanks for the interest and suggestions.
Max
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-209905.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25203?viewlocale=en_US

External hard drive not visible in Finder or Disk Utility

Hi everyone,
My Wester Digital 2TB external hard drive has disappeared, so to speak, with all my photos. I work as a freelance photographer. Mostly on Lightroom 5.6
When I plug it in, with firewire, I can feel the disk rotating normally however it does not appear in finder or disk utility.
I've tried using a USB cable, restarting my mac, forced restart, changing firewire ports (HD has 2 ports), plugging the HD into a different laptop and nothing.
Ive also searched Finder prefrences and visibility is enabled.
I have no idea what could have caused this as I was using the HD the night before. I didnt pullout without properly ejecting. Maybe the HD is full or almost, but I dont think that would the cause of these troubles.
I'm using a late 2011 Macbook Pro OS X 10.9.4
Any suggestions??
Thanx

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

External Hard drive not showing on finder or desktop

My hard drive is only a week old and was working fine until i plugged it in today. The hard drive light still lights up when plugged in and it works when i plug it into a tv and my roommates pc.
However on my macbook the hard drive won't show up in finder or the desktop... it shows in disk utility but options to verify disk etc are 'greyed out' so i can't click on them. THere isn't anything wrong with the hard drive because as stated above it worked on other devices.
Other usb and external hard drives are being recognosed fine and show up in finder.
Can anyone please help?

Same problem here. Sometimes drives disappear completely from the Finder sidebar. Sometimes they just gray out. Quick 'n' easy fix: In Terminal, type:
chflags nohidden /Volumes/MY_PARTITION
(where MY_PARTITION is the name of the drive you can't find).
For the UNIX impaired, if there's a space in your drive name, you can use "\ " to represent the space (no quotes, just the backslash and the space). So for example, Macintosh HD would be typed:
Macintosh\ HD

External hard drive not visible on Mac Mini

I just purchased a Mini with Lion. The Seagate Freeagent external hard drive is visible from finder on the Mini but it is "read only" and it is not visible on the wireless network to my macbook. How can I make the external hard drive read write and make it visible on the network?

OS X can read an NTFS formatted drive, but not write to it.
Sharing drives | Utilities - Page 1 | Macworld
If you want to use the drive for sharing files between Window's and Mac's, then MS-DOS / FAT-32 works fine, except that it has a 4GB single file size limit.
If you are going to use the drive exclusively with your Intel Mac's for sharing, backup and booting, then use GUID Partition Table / Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the Partition Scheme and Format.
Format a Drive to Boot Intel Macs | Tips | The Mac Observer

Internal Hard Drive is not visible in Finder or Desktop or anywhere

The problem first and then the details.
I cannot see my systems hard drive, No icon shows up on the desktop, and it is not visible in the Finder.
It does however show up in Disk Utility.
I have repaired permissions and repaired the disk, both from within the OS and also from the install disc during a reboot.
Not here are some details. This is both a fresh install of the OS AND a brand new drive. I just had it installed today and then reinstalled the OS.
While going thru the process of reinstalling all my software, something froze for no good reason, and I eventually had to force quit the finder and when the system wouldn't shut down, I had to physically power it off.
Upon rebooting, my systems HD is no longer visible.
I suppose I can try and reinstall again, but I feel like there has to be a smarter way to deal with this.
Any suggestions?

Have you confirmed that in Finder > Finder menu > Preferences > General and Sidebar tabs that the boxes to show hard disks are checked?
Assuming they are checked, you may a victim of the 'invisible drive' problem. See Francine's helpful tutorial for the fix:
http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/invisible.html

External hard drive not visible in disk utility or finder

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

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

External Hard-drive - not found in Finder/Desktop

I've got a 1TB Toshiba hard-drive. When I connect it to my laptop, I can't find it in Finder or on the Desktop. I can find it in Disk Utility though, and it lights up and sounds like normal (that really really soft whirrring sound)
Any ideas what is happening? And how I can fix it?
I've got a lot on it that I don't want to lose...
Cheers!

Your Finder Preferences may need to be modified.
Was this HDD used with your Mac previously or with a PC? If the latter, then the format needs to be addressed. If you reformat it for Mac or a common format for both Mac and PC, all user data will be erased. You may have to copy the data to another HDD or use an application such as Paragon:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
Ciao.

Hard drive not visible

Hello,
My Hard Drive I use for Time Machine does not show up anymore on my Desktop suddenly.
It is visible under disk utility but does not show up in finder , nor in /Volumes.
In disk utility it stays greyed out as being not activated
When tryin to activate it, it indicates I should repair the harddrive.
Checking and repairing the hard drive indicates the drive is ok.
I am somehwat stuck now. Anybody can help?

I had recently "lost" my drive owing to a corrupted catalogue tree caused by a failing RAM chip. Had to boot up from an external drive, run diskwarrior to see the hd again, back up everything, then re-install the operating system.
Since you do not have backups, it is time for you to purchase an external firewire hard drive, install the operating system and boot from there. I purchased enclosure and drive separately...was cheaper.
I recommend to test your RAM...purchase the software memtest...for $1.39 US. Keneral panics frequently indicate failing RAM.
Jurgen

Hard Drive not visible during install.

I recently tried to turn on my G4 and got just a white screen. So I assumed it was the hard drive. I installed a new Hard drive. Put in my Leopard disk and the drive is not visible. I went into Disk Utility to format it, if needed. It was not visible there either.
Out of suspicion, I plugged in the old HD into a different mac via USB and my data is there and visible.
What could the problem be? I went back and double checked all of the cables.

I know it's a pain to take out just to test, however, did you plug the new drive into the other system via USB to see if it's recognized also?
Usually in this situation, it's a cable problem. Either a cable is not seated completely, or in rarer cases, there's a problem with a cable itself. Since the old drive is visible to the other system, you may have another issue going on, like a logic board problem. I'd want to run the Apple hardware test. On the gray OS X system CDs that came with your system, find the one that says 'AHT Version x.x', insert it, reboot, and choose the extended test when prompted. Either of the TechTool programs can do similar testing.
By the way, your sig says you have Snow Leopard 10.6.3 installed, which is impossible on a Powerbook. Leopard 10.5.8 is the last operating system release available today for Powerbooks.

Time Machine External Hard Drive not visible

I use a hard disc attached to a new mac mini (2014) for my time machine backups. I have an apple airport extreme base station. I have two macbook pros on the network. One of the machines accesses the hard drive attached to the mini with no problems when doing a time machine back up.
The other does not see or recognize the hard disc. The only icon available in the time machine preferences is a generic "Other Time Capsule."
I have tried all the suggestions found here, OS X Mountain Lion: If Time Machine can’t find your backup disk, with no luck.
I have also gone to the library preferences and deleted the preference file for time machine. Again no luck.
The macbook pro that cannot access the hard disc used for time machine back ups is running the latest Mac OS (10.9.4).
I'm stumped. Any ideas? Thank you.

See Pondini's TM FAQs.
iMac refurb (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), SL & ML, G4 450 MP w/Leopard, 9.2.2

External hard drive not recognized in Finder or Disk Utility

Two weeks ago, my 2007 black Macbook stopped recognizing the hard drive. I was told by some IT friends that the controller had likely failed and I needed to purchase a new laptop. I removed the hard drive and placed it into an enclosure (turning it into an external hard drive) and hooked it up to a new Macbook Pro which I purchased a couple days ago. The external hard drive did not show up in Finder or Disk Utility but the light on the enclosure was on and it was making a very soft whirring noise and got warm after a few minutes. I usually backed up the hard drive but, of course, hadn't done it in a couple of weeks before it died so everything I worked on in that time is lost to me at the moment. I'm trying to avoid paying tons of money for a data recovery service so any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

That whirring noise might be due to physical damage on the disk. I know data recovery services are costly but that remains only the solution for damaged HDD. You can get latest quotes on services from different dealers. Proceed only when your data is very important to be recovered.

External hard drive not visible, following Mavericks install

I mac user for 2 years, have a Lacie 2big Thunderbolt external hard drive for my photo catalogue.
Always connected but with the old operating system had to manually switch on and off with blue light button. fine.
Upgraded to Maverick over the weekend, not the lacie drive switches on as soon as the mac powers up, blue light and noise from the drive.
If I have shutdown the mac then when the start up occurs the lacie drive is seen and present in finder, fully functional.
If the mac is switched on from sleep mode the lacie starts up noise and blue light showing, but it is not seen in finder or the disc utility programme.
I then have to switch the drive off, (which it does not like, forced shutdown) and restart manually, then it is seen and works fully,
Have switched off, unplugged, switched thunderbolt ports but no success.
Is there a simple cure for this, setting in sleep mode etc...
Regards Neil

I would start by doing a SMC reset, could take 2-3 attempts. If those do not work then restart in Safe Mode and check and if that does not work try different cables.
SMC reset: Shut down computer remove power cord from computer and wall for 15-20 seconds and restart normally.
Safe Mode: Shut down computer and restart, when you hear the startup tone hold down the Shift key until a progress bar appears. Then restart normally

External hard drive not visible.

When I plug in my external hard drive through a USB it doesn't show. I thought it was bad so bought a new one and it doesn't show up. Where can I find it?

Hi Jonhnie on the spot
*1. Check the System Profiler and Disk Utility to see if the External HD(s) are seen by the iMac*
For System Profiler Go to: Apple > About This Mac > More Info... in Hardware select USB.
For Disk Utility Go to: Applications > Utilities and open Disk Utility.
*2. Check Finder Preference settings*
With Finder on the Menu bar select Finder Preferences select the General tab and make sure that all the boxes are checked for Hard disk, External disk, etc. Then before you leave the Finder Preference panel select the Sidebar tab and make sure that all the boxes for Hard Disks, External Disks, etc. as well.
*3. Then if your iMac still does not see the Drive(s)*
Reset the iMac's System Management Controller > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543
and then restart resetting the PRAM and NVRAM > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
*4. Test some other USB Device(s) on the same port(s) to see if they are working properly.*
Example: Mouse, iPod, Flashdrive, Camera, etc..
*5. Sorry, but I have to ask*
You are connecting the External HD(s) up to a port on the back of the iMac, not the keyboard right!
Let us know how it's going so far and will go from there.
Dennis

Hard drive not visible in finder or desktop, ghosted in disk utility

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