Hard drive won't show up on desktop even though preferences are correct

I just bought a Toshiba external 1TB USB drive for my wife's macbook air (newest July 2011 version macbook), the drive is powered by the UBS port. The drive paperwork said that it would have to be formatted for mac so I plugged it in and it did not show up on the desktop. I checked the preferences and all of the items were clicked under "General" so it should, I even tried rebooting the mac without success. I then plugged the hard drive into my macbook air (Dec 2010 version) and it showed up on the desktop. I formatted it successfully. I plugged it into my wife's macbook air and it still does not show up on the desktop. I tried multiple USB ports, I know they work and each port powered the drive on. I just tried a second external USB drive I have and it shows up. We macs are both running 10.7.3. Any suggestions?

You can find numerous threads here via a search on the issues/problems with the Toshiba Canvio portable drives with a USB 3.0 connection.
A popular workaround that some have found working is to connect the drive using a USB 2.0 -> USB micro adapter cable. If you examine the slot of the drive itself, it is sectioned into two zones on the cable end. The wider portion is identical to a microUSB connector.
It seems that there is a incompatibility with Toshiba's implementation of the USB 3.0 connection and some Macs.

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Is the drive connected via USB or Firewire?
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151?viewlocale=en_US
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http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
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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 no longer shows up on Desktop

Hi everyone,
I did what a good person should do with a tech issue and did a long search through forums before I resigned to bothering you all with it.
I've had a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Media external hard drive for 6 months which up until this week, was showing up as an icon on my Desktop. I had named it Eid HD.
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I tried changing USB cables.
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The disk “Eid HD” could not be mounted.
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I verified and repaired (First Aid) the disk. Results:
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I verified and repaired (First Aid) the disk. Results:
That quote is from your first post. But I have some questions about that (maybe just to satisfy my own curiosity).
1. When you ran Disk Utility First Aid did you do it on the disk itself (the one that is enabled with the Seagate title)?
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3. You display shows lines like "Verifying folders", "Folders verification completed", and "Verifying $...". Again I have never seen DU display that kind of info. Another 10.6.8 change?
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Hard drive won't show up on desktop even though preferences are correct

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