I bought an external hard drive in June (this yr) and it suddenly stopped appearing on the desktop. Disk Utility could see it. It wasn't the cord - now that I've tried that, the ext won't even turn on. I need that data off the drive BADLY! Help!!??
The drive stopped showing up consistently at first, then stopped all together. Disk Utilities could see it, verify it but not repair. I need it backed up. I took it to a local computer shop who tried a different cord. Nothing. When I got home, I read through several support forums dealing with this issue. One said I needed to zap my PRAM on my MacBook. I did so. Now the external won't even turn on! Any hope of getting the data off that drive? It is still under warranty but undoubtedly the firm will NOT attempt to back up the drive before issuing a new one. I downloaded something called TestDisk 6 that another forum suggested but no one offered any clue how to use it. I cannot figure the first thing to do with it! It appears to may be a Windows formatted program, anyway as most of the instructions end in the suffix .exe. I'm at a total loss...both personally as well as having already lost a complete week of business. Any suggestions would be appreciated but please note - I am NOT that computer literate. Just telling me to download something won't help me if I can't figure out what to do once it is downloaded. Also, taking this hard drive apart will void my warranty. Not that that is the biggest of my worries at this point but I wouldn't have the first clue anyway! I live in an area where we have something called Mac Authority in the mall and a Best Buy. Those are the only 2 connections to Mac-related stuff I have access to. Help!!! Please?
If your external drive does not have an independent power supply, you may wish to consider a couple of lower-cost options before tossing the drive. Bus-powered drives have no external power source and must get all their power from the computer. They can exceed the computer's USB energy budget.
Cheapest option:
1 Meter USB 2.0 A to 5 Pin Mini B Cable - Auxiliary USB "Y" Power Design for external hard drives.
This gets power from two of the computers USB porst sna can provide enough power to wake up an under-performaing bus-powered drive.
If you don't have enough ports to use this, try the next cheapest option:
Newer Technology 7 Port Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Hub with Power Adapter for Mac & PC
Such a hub has a an independent power supply to make up for wahat the comptuer fails to provide.
Similar Messages
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I bought an external hard drive from the apple store. I didn't set up time machine I just plugged it in and it seemed good to go. When I go into time capsule should I be able to see my pictures? I would think i could but all I see is a spot for the pictures to be
Ok if disk utility was able to verify the drive I doubt there is any problem.. are you trying to open a TM backup??
You need to mount the sparsebundle then check the actual info inside the bundle.
Don't use disk warrior.. if the disk has verified then unless you deliberately deleted files there is nothing that is going to do.
Pondini has a lot of stuff about getting access to the sparsebundle.
http://pondini.org/TM/17.html
But if you have copied info to the TC that is now gone.. and the disk is ok.. I am not sure.. the TC will not have deleted the files itself. -
I have macbook pro 13" I want to know how to copy files from my mac to the external Toshiba Hard Drive. I can't even delete files from my external hard drive. please help me my macbook HD is almost full and I have to copy my images to the Toshiba HD
To delete files from your external HDD, attach it to your MBP and drag the unwanted files to trash and then empty trash.
Then you select the files that you want to transfer by 'drag and drop' to the external HDD and trash the files on your MBP.
Ciao. -
my Mac is telling me that my disk is full. I have bought an external hard drive and watched a youtube tutorial on moving iTunes library to external hard drive. Will I still be able to use iTunes on my Mac for new media or will this now only work through my external hard drive?
To do this you need to learn the details of how iTunes works. For example, you just said, "leave my iTunes on my computer". iTunes is the application itself so of course it has to be on your computer. That said, I therefore don't know what you mean when you say leave iTunes on your computer. The phrasing of your question suggests to me, if I may be frank, you don't understand how iTunes works fully and we can't just give you a "do this" answer and have it work out. It would be too easy to make a mess of things.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Yes, you can download media and delete it again (but if it is from the iTunes Store there is the possibility you can't always download it again). Of course if you want to keep a copy you can archive it. I have done that with some files for which I have no room on my computer. I transfer them to an external hard drive and delete the reference to the file (but not the file itself) from my library. If I want a quick listen I go to the file on the drive and use Quicktime player or something else non-iTunes so I don't have to have it added to iTunes and delete again. I don't know if that is the solution you are looking for. I could leave the reference in iTunes but if the file can't be located by iTunes it will tell me there is a broken link = ! I guess I could live with that except I periodically scan my library for broken links and don't want it getting confused with ones I have done deliberately and ones suggesting I am really missing a file somewhere.
Another possibility is to make a second iTunes library for material you are archiving and only use that library when the computer is using the external drive. There are tricky aspects to dong that but it is a possibility too.
The simple solution for most people with computers with tiny drives (as most seem to be these days) is to put their whole iTunes library on an external drive and use it from there. -
I bought an external hard drive for backups to use with Time Machine, but however when I try to connect it with the other windows laptop it doesn't work ? intact it doesn't work on any other device except my MAC ?
Do not worry about it.
Time Machine needs that your external drive is formatted in HFS+, or better known as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". This filesystem is used by Apple on Macs and Windows cannot read or write drives formatted with this filesystem, being this the reason why all your devices do not read the external drive except your Mac.
You can only use your external drive to make Time Machine drives. If you store anything different, you may damage the Time Machine structure, so it is better not to use it as a drive to store other data. Instead, get another external drive to do it or create a second partition on the external drive formatted in FAT32 by using Disk Utility > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html FAT32 can be read by Windows PCs -
My photo library is full. I bought an external hard drive and am using it as time machine. I copied my photo library to the external hard drive and burned all of my pictures onto DVD's. If I delete my photos from my computer, will the photos still be on the external hard drive and saved in time machine? I am parinoid about losing my photos (memories).
I think you mean Your Hard Disc is Full as opposed to iPhoto.
agrech21 wrote:
My photo library is full.
With regard to your iPhoto Library... you can Move it to another External Drive and use it from there and then you can use TM to Backup that Drive as well as as your Mac.
1) Move iPhoto Library to External Drive
See > iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD
First... Make sure the EHD is Formatted Mac OS Extended (journaled)...
Format, Erase, or Reformat a drive
Quit iPhoto if open.
Open your Pictures folder and select the iPhoto Library.
Drag the iPhoto Library to the External Hard Drive.
To Use iPhoto on an External Drive...
Hold down the Option key on the keyboard and open iPhoto. Keep the Option key held down until you are prompted to create or choose an iPhoto Library.
Click Choose Library.
Locate and select the iPhoto Library in its new location.
And also make sure that all is working to your Satisfaction before Deleting anything. -
Hi i've been using my macbook pro 13in since last 3 yrs,today i bought a external hard drive (WD my passport Ulra) it is not working on my mac any awnsers?
Have you opened Disk utility and formatted it? Most new HDDs come formatted for Windows, not Mac.
Ciao. -
Mac HD back-up to external hard drive Troubleshooting Help!
Last night my MBP was working fine. This morning it would not boot past the white screen + apple + turning wheel + a status bar that only got about 1/5 the way shaded, then disappeared.
What I have done so far:
Command+R: wow. This actually made something else appear! Into Mac OS X Utilities. I currently have no Time Machine backups so that's not an option. Cannot reinstall Mac OS X Lion because, #1) because the drives are locked and #2) I don't want to do that until I have the piece of mind of having everything backed up.
Which leads me to. . .
I just went and bought an external hard drive: WD My Passport Essential SE 1TB. And I am trying to follow apple's instructions to backup the hard drive:
+New Image> Macintosh HD Backup from 3/19> Save to Passport
Goes through about 30 seconds of starting to copy then a pop-up window that says >cannot create ". . .dmg" (error-61)
Please help!
And once I can back my system up, should I erase the hard drive or JUST reformat it?
First issue with my mac. It's like the first time your puppy gets sick...I know how important it is to backup your information, Barbaraholch. If you are using an external hard drive to back up your iPhone 5, you would need to use iTunes on a computer. You would first need to ensure that iTunes will be syncing your phone to the hard drive. For assistance with iTunes, you can contact Apple at 800-275-2273.
AndreaS_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport -
External Hard Drive setup help
I recently posted about my ipod having more memory than my desktop 20g vs 8g. I bought an external hard drive to correct this problem.
Since I couldn't transfer my library correctly - it told me it was synched with another library and I couldn't get by that - I just removed/erased everything (itunes from C drive, E drive, and library) and started over - I didn't have that much loaded on the ipod, so it's a pain but I thought it would be easier.
The problem is when I downloaded itunes again, I made sure the directory said E drive to keep it on the EHD, not the normal C drive, but everything is still showing up on the C drive in the My Music folder.
How do I make it so itunes and my library exist on the EHD and not the C drive? I only have one CD and one purchased song reloaded so if I have to start over again I won't put my head through the wall.
Thank you.
Dell Windows XPI appreciate your help. I'm going to start from the beginning because I'm still missing something and I'm just about to give up.
I have a 200+ cd collection. I thought it would be really cool to be able to carry the entire collection around with me so I bought a 4th gen ipod (20gig) off of ebay. I had no idea I had to synch it with a computer. I knew you could but I didn't know it required this. I thought I could burn the cds on the ipod, grab it, and go.
My computer is a couple years old and has 8 gigs of memory. I quickly realized that my entire desktop would be full of mp3 files and nothing else. I bought an external hard drive (80 gig) to hold all of the music, plus whatever else I wanted to store. Here the problems begin.
After much aggravation, I uninstalled itunes and started over. I've changed the directory to the E drive, per the article, and consolidated the library. I then deleted all itunes from the C drive - except it won't let me delete the itunes helper folder for some reason.
I imported a cd as a test run. The cd shows up in the library - on both the E drive and the C drive, which means I've done nothing about the memory issue and I now have two separate libraries - E drive is powered and plugged in. In other words, it won't consolidate to the E drive.
A separate issue, my ipod wouldn't synch with the test import cd. I decided to start over with that as well and restored to factory settings. I thought, okay, I'll restore and then synch with the test cd. I'll lose what I already have on there, but I'll just reload. It tells me I have to connect to the external power source to complete the restore, but I did not get a cable for the external power source when I bought it, so now I have to go and get that as well.
Sorry this is so long. This has been a bad idea from the very beginning, I can see that now. I'm out over $200 and I'm even further from my goal than when I started. Is there any way to fix all of this?
Thank you. -
my iPhone has a black background and the classic rotating wheel. I try it to put it in DFU but when I turn it on it goes back in this modality and my mac doesn't recognize the phone. HELP ME!
That is correct.
That is the price of a replacement iphone once your iphone is outside of the warranty period -
Well I believe I described the problem above. I want only to add that the external hard drive is a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Drive 1TB and the wireless modem router is a Belkin N Plus (model F5D8635-4 v1). Also, in the finder window under "shared" I see a "belkinserver" and when I click it, it says "connection failed". If I click "connect as" I get the "the server "belkinserver" is available on your computer..." which I mentioned above. I tried to connect macbook via ethernet to the modem router and then when I typed "smb://belkinserver" it immediately prompted me for a username and a password and when I typed them finally I got to enter the contents of the hard drive! So what's the problem wirelessly?
If your external drive does not have an independent power supply, you may wish to consider a couple of lower-cost options before tossing the drive. Bus-powered drives have no external power source and must get all their power from the computer. They can exceed the computer's USB energy budget.
Cheapest option:
1 Meter USB 2.0 A to 5 Pin Mini B Cable - Auxiliary USB "Y" Power Design for external hard drives.
This gets power from two of the computers USB porst sna can provide enough power to wake up an under-performaing bus-powered drive.
If you don't have enough ports to use this, try the next cheapest option:
Newer Technology 7 Port Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Hub with Power Adapter for Mac & PC
Such a hub has a an independent power supply to make up for wahat the comptuer fails to provide. -
I was backing up my MacBook with Time Machine and using my new (correctly formatted) external hard drive. All was going well when my 2 yo knocked the disk leading to a "failure" by time machine (Latest Backup: Failed). Now the MacBook will not even recognize the hard drive. I have rebooted, tried all I can think of, but no acknowledgement of the drive. The drive itself makes noise and vibrates as if working, but nothing from the Mac. Please help or $100 down the drain... Thank you.
You may have already done these resets in the "tried all I can think of " portion of your post.....if not then here they are.....
PRAM
support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
SMC
support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
.....hopefully that is all that is required..... -
I just bought an external hard drive. What files should I back up?
I just bought a 60gig external hard drive and I wanted to know what files should I back up?
The easiest is to drag /Users/<yourhomefoldername> to the backup drive.
Only the files you've created can't be replaced. The rest is on CDs, DVDs, or can be purchased again if need be.
I don't bother with clones because there's always the possibility of trouble down the line if you have to restore from one. (Something could be wrong with the clone, or it could be altered if you have to boot from it.) Why take the chance, when the OS and apps are expendable? And, if you don't test that the clone is good (by restoring to a blank drive), you're just fooling yourself as to its viability.
If the internal drive dies, you take the time to install a new one, load up OS and applications, then copy your home folder back. So your computer will be unusable for a half-day---big deal. This doesn't happen every day.
The main thing is that you've backed up your home folder. -
I have followed every article to the letter and can see the movies file sitting in my external hard drive, but when i click on a film SPOTIFY opens up! No film to be found anywhere!! What am i doing wrong? My mac air is full and wont run applications at the same time now!
ThanksWhat icon is present on the files? It sounds to me like you have your movies associated with Spotify as the opening application. Get info on a file in Finder, then change the open application to iTunes, click on the "open all of this kind" button to use iTunes to open all files of that type with iTunes.
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Time Machine seems to be dead, since I'm unable to reset it. As soon as I try anything, it goes to back to the "OFF" Position. Would appreciate any Help, to get my external Hard Drive to work. Adolffrom Peachland!
Product, 2012 IMac 21.5"There's an apple store in my city but it is about a 20 minute drive and I do not have apple care. Do you think they would still help me?
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