Hard Drive Wouldn't Mount on iMac (late 2013)

Just wanted to drop a line here in case anyone else was having the same problem and perhaps to get an explanation from someone as to specifically why this is the case as it is disappointing/strange.
In short: I got a Seagate Expansion desktop external hard drive (2 TB). Unpacked it, plugged it into my early 2014 iMac (3.5 GHz i7/Build 13E28 running 10.9.4) and.....nothing. Switched out cables. Nothing. Switched ports. Nothing. The drive was initializing, steady light, and you could hear it and feel it running but it not only didn't mount you could see nothing at all in Disk Utility.
Assuming something was wrong with the drive, I went and plugged it into my old trust 2009 Macbook Pro (still running strong!) and the drive this time flashed a few times and then instantly mounted. The 2009 MBP is also running 10.9.4 so Mavericks is not to blame here. Perplexed, I formatted it (Mac OS Extended), went back to the iMac and still.....nothing. Steady light (but not the blink), can hear the drive going but not showing up.
Went to this forum, found a bunch of posts blaming Seagate USB 3 connections, enclosures, and everything under the sun. Tried a few things but nothing. Seemed to me that because of the initial blinking that happened when I plugged it into the MBP that it was a power issue, the iMac is not giving its ports enough juice. Found a USB repeater extension, plugged it in with that- voila. It shows up.
So it appears the iMac is not giving enough power to its USB ports. Strangely I never noticed this before because its never been a problem- I have other Seagate drives (also USB 3 and also plug in powered as this trouble device is) that have always worked fine.
Does anyone have an explanation? Just curious and if there are specs that I have to look out for on drives to avoid it would be good to know. Many thanks,
E

Thank you for the reply, Eric. Here's screen shots from within Disk Utility and "info" on the Internal Drive (that is not mounting)
Message was edited by: TwoFishKahuna

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External Hard Drive Wouldn't Mount (iMac Late 2013)

Just wanted to drop a line here in case anyone else was having the same problem and perhaps to get an explanation from someone as to specifically why this is the case as it is disappointing/strange.
In short: I got a Seagate Expansion desktop external hard drive (2 TB). Unpacked it, plugged it into my early 2014 iMac (3.5 GHz i7/Build 13E28 running 10.9.4) and.....nothing. Switched out cables. Nothing. Switched ports. Nothing. The drive was initializing, steady light, and you could hear it and feel it running but it not only didn't mount you could see nothing at all in Disk Utility.
Assuming something was wrong with the drive, I went and plugged it into my old trust 2009 Macbook Pro (still running strong!) and the drive this time flashed a few times and then instantly mounted. The 2009 MBP is also running 10.9.4 so Mavericks is not to blame here. Perplexed, I formatted it (Mac OS Extended), went back to the iMac and still.....nothing. Steady light (but not the blink), can hear the drive going but not showing up.
Went to this forum, found a bunch of posts blaming Seagate USB 3 connections, enclosures, and everything under the sun. Tried a few things but nothing. Seemed to me that because of the initial blinking that happened when I plugged it into the MBP that it was a power issue, the iMac is not giving its ports enough juice. Found a USB repeater extension, plugged it in with that- voila. It shows up.
So it appears the iMac is not giving enough power to its USB ports. Strangely I never noticed this before because its never been a problem- I have other Seagate drives (also USB 3 and also plug in powered as this trouble device is) that have always worked fine.
Does anyone have an explanation? Just curious and if there are specs that I have to look out for on drives to avoid it would be good to know. Many thanks,
E

I'm sorry but this not a very good answer. There are hundreds upon hundreds of external hard drives that do not require a power supply. The one I bought is one of them. It is able to mount WITHOUT A POWER SUPPLY ON A 2009 MBP and VARIOUS OTHER MACHINES. Sorry but I seem to need to emphasize this as I'm not sure you're understanding. HOWEVER it will not mount on the late 2013 iMac. Obviously there is a power issue with these ports. I just wanted an explanation as to why a new desktop ISN'T able to do something that a 5 year old laptop CAN do.

Which hard drive is the best for iMac (late 2012)?

Wich hard drive is the best for the new iMac. I thought one of LaCie, do you guys know better hard drives. Please comment. It would be nice if it has Thunderbolt or/and USB 3.0. Not too expenive.

aigoosung:
Here is a list of available drives for your computer at OWC.
cornelius

Update graphic driver on Bootcamp (Windows 7), iMac late 2013

Hi guys,
I googled a lot but there are way to many possible solutions...
I bought a late iMac 27" with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2GB. I installed Windows 7 (64Bit) for gaming purposes. Now I'd like to update the graphics driver but am not sure how to do it.
--> is it possible to update them directly via the official NVIDIA drivers or do I need some "special" drivers from Apple?
I don't want to mess up the boot camp installation since installing windows and especially doing all the windows-updates takes forever and a day...
thanks a lot for your help!

itsVashi wrote:
--> is it possible to update them directly via the official NVIDIA drivers or do I need some "special" drivers from Apple?
Install the driver provided by NVIDIA. In fact Apple uses NVIDIA drivers in Boot Camp, but they are very outdated, so they will not give you the best performance. To fix that, go to the NVIDIA website and install the most recent NVIDIA driver.

Hard Drive Won't Mount After Repair by Second Computer

I have an G4 Cube with OS 10.2 on the internal hard drive (which is full) and OS 10.4 on an external La CIe hard drive (that I use as my main OS). The external hard drive accumulated serious damage that couldn't be repaired by Disk Utility on the internal drive. My copy of DiskWarrior X would not run under OS 10.2 (10.4 was required) and it wouldn't boot from the CD either So I connected the external hard drive to my second computer, an iMAC running OS 10.5. (Unfortunately, I disconnected the external hard drive when the computer was off instead of ejecting the drive by dragging it to the Wastebasket.) The external drive mounted and DiskWarrior easily constructed a new directory, defragmented the files, and eliminated all of the damage on the external hard drive visible to Disk Utility. However, when I reconnected the repaired external hard drive to the G4 Cube, the drive wouldn't mount. Privileges were repaired on both computers with the external drive connected without helping. Being repaired while connected to a higher OS or perhaps simply being connected to a higher OS seems to have left the LaCie external hard drive in a state which couldn't be mounted by an earlier OS.
Following this hypothesis, it booted the G4 Cube from the OS 10.4 Installation CD while the LaCie external hard drive was connected. When I cancelled installation of OS 10.4, I was asked to choose a start-up disk AND OS 10.4 WAS NOW MAGICALLY AVAILABLE ON THE EXTERNAL DRIVE. Simply starting up from a more advanced OS allowed the hard drive to mount.
Shockingly, when I restarted from OS 10.2, the external hard drive was still mounted. Whatever was preventing the drive from mounting was a TRANSIENT STATE, not backwards incompatability.
POSSIBLE LESSON: If a hard drive won't mount on computer A after being connected to computer B, consider booting computer A using the OS on the installation disk from computer B.

If you need to repair a hard drive with OS X installed on it, you must use that same version of OS X to perform the repair. Using another--in this case, newer--OS can cause quite a bit of trouble, as the directories/permissions may be dealt with differently between the OS's.
Seems you've learned this lesson--and luckily you didn't lose anything!
~Lyssa

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.

Internal hard drive does not mount in disk utility

My internal hard drive no longer mounts in Disk Utility. It is grayed out. I have extraordinarily frequent spinning beach ball/freezes, in Safari or Apple Mail. The most recent symptom: upon rebooting or just starting up, I see flashing black on the display. This has been occuring for more than six months. Of course, I have made total and frequent backup's. I bought new RAM, but have not yet installed it, and I susect this might help. I have done repeted troubleshooting many times each: Apple's Disk Doctor, Repaired Permissions, Reinstalled the Mac OS, safe boot, Alsoft's Disk Warrior, Apple's longer Harware Test, etc. I have worked as a new user, too. All tests done report that all is well. What od you thnk the problem is? Must I drive 1.5 hrs. each way to the Genius Bar at my nearest Apple Store? Might I try to erase the hard drive as a fix? I hate to do this, only as a last resort, as it is so time-consuming. Should I just update my Mac OS? Please advise, out there, if anyone can offer any advice, I would be greatly appreciative.

The list of issues you posted probably would not get shorter if you attempt to 'upgrade them' away, as usually that kind of effort is not effective yet may expose more of the same problems while not necessarily revealing the original weakness. Another OS X installed over a set of problems seldom helps.
How full is the hard disk drive? If it is too full, or has been very busy in use several years, it may be time to replace the HDD and perhaps put a larger capacity one in the computer. And if the main computer hardware checks out OK (tested under a variety of duration and stress tests) then also consider a RAM upgrade if the device is not already at the maximum capacity.
When was the last time the hard disk drive was devoid of content, maybe wiped -- erased and reformatted by a third party disk utility or have a utility overwrite the entire HDD with zeros? This used to be a common tech service in the course of a major effort to restore a Mac. Or Defragment?
If you can do the latter, this could help resolve bad sectors and remove old data or corruption on the hard drive. Or get a new HDD and before committing a new OS X install & apps to it (or a re-clone of a complete backup) test the drive and be sure it is ready for use. Not all new drives are perfectly ready; some need to get exercise first.
I'd bet on a new hard disk drive of larger capacity (also note spin RPM rate and data speeds) and a full RAM upgrade.
If you have a backup clone on an external hard disk drive (in a boot-capable enclosure) you could really go to town and before you erase the main/only hard drive, make a backup clone and test its ability to boot the Mac. Or put the old drive and content in a suitable boot capable enclosure of the kind with its own power supply, and deal with it later.
Then consider a later version OS X -- whatever most recent version that model can support... {edited}
Good luck & happy computing!

HT203177 I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process ove

I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process over again.

Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then repair the backup/TM drive.

Lacie Hard Drives won't mount

My two Lacie hard drives won't mount on my G5 running Tiger. They were fine on my G4 iMac running Panther. I've tried using the Lacie Update Tool but the drives aren't recognised. I've tested the firewire cables on another drive that works and they're fine, so it's not cables.
Both drives power up okay and whir into action, but just aren't talking to the G5.
Lacie d2 HD 80GB FW DV
Lacie 40GB (no model number, "DESIGN BY F.A.PORSCHE", no model number).
Any ideas much appreciated.

Reply
This happened to me with a LaCie external drive as well.
The problem is that LaCie formats the drives as PC-based
and not Mac Extended, so unless you reformatted the
drives to Mac when you started using them, your access
to them on any Mac may result in a failure to mount.
Once that happens retrieval of data is made more difficult
because of this formatting incongruity.
There is no way you can get the data once your G4 quits
mounting them. If you can get the data off of the drives,
back it up and then reformat the drives using Mac's Disc
Utility. Then you can reload the data and I suspect all of
your Macs will then mount the drives via Firewire.
Good Luck!
My two Lacie hard drives won't mount on my G5 running
Tiger. They were fine on my G4 iMac running Panther.
I've tried using the Lacie Update Tool but the drives
aren't recognized. I've tested the firewire cables on
another drive that works and they're fine, so it's
not cables.
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Installed a new Deskstar 7k1000 on a Mac Pro but the drive wouldn't mount

Hi Everybody
I have recently purchased a new Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz computer from Apple UK, then I also purchased a Deskstar 7K1000 1TB SATAII hard drive from the internet. I tried to install the drive into the computer on Friday nite, soon I switched on the power the drive has started making some 'ticking' noise. Anyway, this is not the main reason why I decided to post a thread.
I have noticed the Deskstar didn't mount or appear on the desktop. I thought I might need to reformat the drive first, so I went to Disk Utility and again the drive did not show on the left navi panel. I had a search on the internet and knew that this drive is compatible with Mac Pro, so why my deskstar drive wouldn't appear/mount on the desktop? Is it something I have missed or done wrong here? Or the drive itself is faulty?
I have already tried to contact the manufacturer (Hitachi) but they only answer half of my question (the noise issue), they never explain or tell me why the drive wouldn't mount, and how to make it appear on the desktop. I seriously need some help here!!!
Cheers, Everyone!

Just received a replacement hard drive, same model and spec as the previous one, but it works perfectly, so yes the other drive was DOA.

Hard Drive Won't Mount--URGENT

I swapped out hard drive on my iMac and put in a hard drive with no OS. I'm trying to install a legal retail version of OS X Panther but when I get to the Select a Destination step no destination, i.e. my hard drive, appears. I know the hard drive is hooked up because through disk utility I erased and zeroed the disk. However, the hard drive will not mount in disk utility which I believe it must do to install. This hard drive is compatible with the iMac so I don't know the problem. Firmware is update. I need help ASAP.

Ok, now I tried formatting it as extended and extended (journaled) and the disk shows up in select destination volume but with a red ! saying "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. You cannot start up your computer using this volume." I tried repairing disk permissions, didn't work. Any ideas? Thanks

My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya!

External Hard drive will not mount on desktop

I have a 17" Powerbook G4 that has replaced a broken iBook G4. I've been using a Western Digital MyBook Pro Edition as a secondary drive for my multimedia as well as my iTunes Library. It worked fine on the old iBook.
When I plug it into the Powerbook, using either USB2 or Firewire 800, it will not mount to the desktop. It DOES however appear in the System Profiler as "External HD Button and Lights". The drive is formatted for FAT32 and works fine on my Windows XP desktop machine, so I know the drive functions mechanically. A different hard drive, a Maxtor mounts to the desktop fine using USB2, so it isn't a bus issue.
This is driving me nuts. I LOVE this computer, but I have WAY more invested in music than the cost of the computer.
Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: hempomatic

It took a while to figure it out but apparently there was a conflict with bluetooth. I disabled it and all is well.

LaCie Hard Drive No Longer Mounts on iBook G4

Hello,
My LaCie 600 GB Hard drive will no longer mount onto my iBook G4. I had this problem about 6 months ago. It was solved by reformatting my whole computer through the installation disks that came with my computer. After I reformatted it, the hard drive was immediately recognized. I don't want to go that route again because I have a lot of programs on there that would take forever to reinstall. I have all of my important info backed up, just not the programs itself.
I've tried running:
Macaroni
Utility Disk
Data Rescue II
And neither of these came up with any "diagnosis" on why my hard drive won't mount. I check my cables through plugging my hard drive in other computers, and it works fine. I think it has to do with my hardware on my iBook G4.
When I plug it into my usb port, the blue light on my hard drive turns on, and I can hear the inside spinning. It just doesn't pop up onto my desktop. It doesn't show up in disk utility either.
Any ideas on what I can do?
-Kristen

I would contact the folks at LaCie for their feedback.

WD external hard drive won't mount

Hello,
I have a WD my passport 1TB external hard drive that will not mount. It has two partitions, one is a time machine backup, the other contains critical files. I thought I was backing up this second partition via SuperDuper, but for other reasons it stopped doing it's backup two years ago, so I now have two years worth of critical files that are seemingly inaccessible (my bad). I have done all the easy stuff like try it on other computers, changed cables, changed ports, tried it on PCs and Macs (I have a 2008 MBP). I have also taken it out of it's case, and even switched out the PCB with an exact copy (through PCB Solutions in Canada). Not long after I replaced the board, I got access again to the hard drive (though not right away), I began copying files as fast as possible (which was slow) and got about 25% (51GB) of the drive copied (less corrupt files). This took a couple days.
Then I stupidly shut down the computer as the drive seemed to be getting hot and I thought it worth the risk not to fry the board/drive. Alas, the hard drive would not mount again. I have tried to access it through the Terminal, as it does show up there (after a couple minutes) if I do a diskutil list like this:
Melissa-McManuss-MacBook-Pro:~ melissa$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *512.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Melissa's SSD           511.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                                                   *1.0 TB     disk1
It does not show up in Disk Utility or Finder however.
It will show up in Disk Utility after the Finder gives up on trying to mount it. It shows up as "1TB WD My Passport 0171D Media", but does not show the partitions.
I have read other similar cases, I can tell you that the fsck. program does not show up in the Activity Monitor. So this is not my problem.
I am out of potential remedies, but am loathe to send it to the Data Recovery people if not absolutely necessary (for obvious reasons).
Thank you in advance for any potential help!

Your best bet is DiskWarrior,...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
Hold option key or alt key when selecting when choosing Rebuild, then use Scavenge, that may make a temporary directory that can then be used for copying the files.
If DW doesn't even see it or work, then...
Data Rescue...
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
rccharles on file recovery...
"Stellar Phoenix Macintosh - Mac data recovery software, recovers data from damaged, deleted, or corrupted volumes and even from initialized disks."
They have a trial version, so I guess you can see if your data can be recovered...
http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-data-recovery.htm
FileSalvage is an extremely powerful Macintosh application for exploring and recovering deleted files from a drive or volume. FileSalvage is designed to restore files that have:
    * been accidentally deleted.
    * become unreadable due to media faults.
    * been stored on a drive before it was re-initialized/formatted.
http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id= 1
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11073082#11073082

Hard Drive Wouldn't Mount on iMac (late 2013)

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