How do I access an external hard drive that shows up in Disk Utility but will not show up in finder or on my desktop?

I have an external hard drive that just stopped showing up one day. Is there a solution to this problem that allows me to secure the data on the drive before reformatting?

I'm having the same problem bpay14, but with a CalDigit VR2 6TB RAID0 external hard drive.
One day it was showing on my desktop, the other it wasn't. And I still didn't update my Mavericks to 10.9.3 (still with the 10.9.2).
It shows up in the disk utility, and I can even Verify the disk and Repair it (but I don't wanna start repairing
something that probably doesn't need to be repaired, so I haven't clicked the Repaid button, only the Verify button) and it says its working just fine.
But it doesn't show in the Finder or the desktop for that matter.
And even if I force disconnect the cable, I get the usual "this disk was not ejected properly" notification
presumingly the disk was mounted on the desktop and I forced eject by unppluging it...
I found a way to force open the disk, through Disk Utility that's by clicking with the right mouse button
on the disk icon, and chosing OPEN "CalDigit AFRICA 6TB"... (see picture 1)
But... after that, it open a Finder window showing all my internal and external drives, but that drive's
name is in washed grey, like if it was unmounted (see picture 2).
When selected, I can see everything and work normally on the harddrive, even opening FCPROX projects or Libraries, copying from it and writing documents into it... just normal... (see picture 3)
BUT IT DOES NOT SHOW IN THE DESKTOP...
that's my problem...
I even did a Command+i for Info on the hard drive. (see picture 4)
Can anyone shed some light on this issue?
I would be eternally grateful!
Thanks in advance!!!
Cheers!

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(37765)

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How do I access an external hard drive that shows up in Disk Utility but will not show up in finder or on my desktop?

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