Mac can't find my partitioned external HDD

My previous setup was:
1 WD 2TB external HDD with own power supply, formatted as MacOS Extended (Journaled).
But I wanted to split this HDD up into two partitions, Archive and Library. I also wanted to have a Time Machine backup of this disk. So I bought another WD 2TB external HDD with own power supply. On this one, I made two partitions, Archive and Library, both as MacOS Extended (Journaled). Then I copied all the files of my first HDD to their specific location.
So my new setup was:
My new WD 2TB external HDD with own power supply, with two partitions, both formatted as MacOs Extended (Journaled).
My old WD 2TB external HDD was still holding a copy of the files on the new one, but I wanted to use this one for backup.
Now I just had to format the old WD 2TB, so I could use it as Time Machine backup. I knew this was a critical point. Because if something would go wrong I didn't have any backup. But what are the chances that things would have gone bad just right now???
As you can guess it did go wrong. My new HDD (the one with the partitions) could no longer be recognized by my Mac. My Time Machine backup was still indexing all the files, so didn't get an actual backup of them yet. A disaster!!!
When connected the new HDD I had a prompt window telling me that my computer couldn't find the disk, with the options 'Initialise...', 'Ignore' and 'Remove'. Choosing 'Intialise' I got into Disk Utility, it does detect the 'mother' HDD, but not the 'children' (= the partitions).
Is there a way to get my data back? I have everything on it: my files for work (important files for my business), but also my personal files (pictures, complete iTunes library with music and movies...).
I must say that I had this problem before. Same situation: I partitioned a disk and after a bit, my Mac couldn't find it anymore. Back then I thought it was the HDD, and as the files were not that important, I just forgot about it... until I found it back one day and discovered that I could restore the HDD, but I had to re-format it, meaning that all the files were lost.
This situation is different as lost files would mean a disaster. :-(
I hope there's someone out here that can help me.
Thanks in advance!
I use a MacBook Pro mid 2007. I currently use Mac OS Mountain Lion (up to date).

Thank you! That information was definitely helpful.
I haven't tried since my post to get our printer to work (ended up sending my doc to Staples, in the interest of time, and haven't had to print anything since).
Anyway, this morning I replaced our ink and tried printing something. It still wasn't working (but this time, all it said was the printer wasn't connected). I reconnected the printer to the network, then turned it off, restarted our computer, and once the computer was back up, I turned the printer back on.
The printer appeared in our network, again, and my printing job was successful. Yay! I LOVE when technology works. =)

Similar Messages

  • I partitioned my MacBook Pro and installed Windows 8 in it.....now I can't find my partition when I pressed option key when booting up.....so how can I do to find the partition to boot...I can see it in the disk manager in Mac....any ideas? thanks..!..

    I partitioned my MacBook Pro and installed Windows 8 in it.....now I can't find my partition when I pressed option key when booting up.....so how can I do to find the partition to boot...I can see it in the disk manager in Mac....any ideas? thanks..!..

    Hi LamboMong,
    just try this:
    http://refit.sourceforge.net
    install, reboot twice and choose the Windows-Partition on next startup.
    (The apple-bootloader doesn't display all bootable harddisks.
    With rEFIt you can boot from all partitions/harddisks on your computer.)
    I hope that will solve your problem.
    Daniel Fernau

  • Just bought a mac air with OS X v.10.7 Lion, for work I need to read and write NTFS drives, I install MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but it can not mount (recognize?) External HDD, in my MBP with Snow Lepard it work just perfectly... help please.

    Just bought a mac air with OS X v.10.7 Lion, for work I need to read and write NTFS drives, I install MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but it can not mount (recognize?) External HDD, in my MBP with Snow lepard it work just perfectly... help please.

    Reinstall MacFuse with the one from http://www.tuxera.com/mac/macfuse-core-10.5-2.1.9.dmg. If that doesn't work, you can use Paragon NTFS for Mac 9.0 which has been designed to work with Lion.

  • Just bought a mac air with OS X v.10.7 Lion, for work I need to read and write NTFS drives, I install MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but it can not mount (recognize?) External HDD, in my MBP with Lion it work just perfectly... help please.

    Just bought a mac air with OS X v.10.7 Lion, for work I need to read and write NTFS drives, I install MacFuse and NTFS-3G, but it can not mount (recognize?) External HDD, in my MBP with Lion it work just perfectly... help please.

    Sorry in my MBP Snow lepard it work.. don't have Lion In MBP

  • Can't boot Arch from external HDD

    Hi, well first off this is not my first Arch Linux installation, I'm using Arch for a little over a year now (coming from slack). But this is my first attempt to have Arch on an external HDD.
    Alrighty, the situation is as follows: A rather new computer (supports booting from USB devices and the bios is set to boot from removable devices first) with a built in HDD and an external HDD that's connected to that computer via USB.
    What I did: I connected the external HDD to the computer and booted off a 2008.6 Overlord core-CD.
    Arch-Live recognized the internal HDD as sda and the external HDD as sdb.
    I partitioned the external HDD using cfdisk and ran mkfs.ext3 on it (I didn't use any switches with that).
    I started the installer, set my mount points (I should mention I'm not gonna use a swap partition here), installed the packages, well just went through the installation routine and installed grub in the MBR of sdb (the external HDD).
    Then I rebooted. And this is what doesn't work: When I boot that computer with the external HDD connected the computer completely hangs right before grub would come up. It freezes completely, ctrl+alt+del doesn't work, I need to use the powerswitch to reboot the computer.
    So I put the Arch-CD back in the CD drive trying to boot into my Arch System on the external HDD. So I started typing:
    root (hd1,0)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb1 ro vga=773
    initrd /boot/kernel26.img
    When I try to boot off that grub tells me that there is no such device as hd1,0. The funny thing is, that the auto copmletion in grub works for the kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 but it doesn't for the device /dev/sdb1, in fact even root=/de<tab> returns a "unrecognized string" message.
    So this is what I did and I can't boot off my external HDD, neither can I boot into my system on the external hdd from the cdrom.
    What am I missing here?

    The harddrive you boot from is in my experience always hd0. Could this mean your external disc is hd2?
    Have you tried chainloading from the installer cd to your external disc?

  • Can a use a partitioned external hard drive to create a disk image? I tried, doesn't seem to work using disk manager.

    Can a use a partitioned external hard drive to create a disk image? I tried, doesn't seem to work using disk manager.

    OK, it's very bad computing to use a backup disk for anything but a backup. The reason being is if/when the HD crashes you will have lost not only all your backup but the data files. While I commend you for wanting redundant backup, you really need separate EHDs for doing so. Format each EHD using Disk Utility to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using the GUID parttition. When you connect, OS X will ask if you want to use that drive as a Time Machine backup drive, select yes and then let it backup. On the second EHD format the same way however do not use TM as a backup, this time I'd suggest an app such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a clone of the internal HD. Leave both EHDs connected and TM will backup new or changed files automatically on a hourly basis. The clone you will need to set to backup on the schedule you want. For example I have my SuperDuper EHD set to backup only changed or updated files at 2AM every day.
    The advantage of a clone is that if the computers internal HD crashes you can boot from a clone and continue working, TM will not do that but it's great for keeping an archive of all files. So if you want a version of a file from many months ago, TM will help you locate and restore it.

  • My MAC can't find the airport express...

    I'm having problems hooking up Airport Express to airplay. My MAC can't find it...wireless network is working fine, I have Klipsch speakers working fine over Airplay...but Airport express will not connect to my network. Help!

    Apple's "extend a wireless network" setting is proprietary feature that is designed to work with other Apple routers on a network.  Unfortunately, it is extremely unlikely that this feature would be compatible with a 3rd party router.
    The solution is to connect the AirPort Express to your main router using a permanent wired Ethernet connection and configure the Express to "create a wireless network" using the same wireless network name, same wireless security and same password as the main network. 
    Another possible solution would be to to ask your Internet Service Provider (ISP) if they offer a compatible device that will "extend" the main router using wireless only.

  • Where on the Mac can I find the math symbol for Pi. Ie. what is the Unicode number for Pi.?

    Where on the Mac can I find the math symbol for Pi?
    Ie. what is the Unicode number for Pi.?
    I am using system 10.6.8
    Jubbjubb.

    Jubbjubb wrote:
    Where on the Mac can I find the math symbol for Pi?
    On the US keyboard layout, alt/option + p = π

  • My mac can't find the volume" Data" on Time Capsule. Also Ican't find with the disk utility program the hard disk in the Time Capule; so I can't format the disk again. What can I do?

    My Mac can't find the volume " Data" on Time Capsule, Also I can't find with the disk-utility program the hard disk in the Time Capusule.
    So I can't format the disk in the Time Capsule
    Deconnevt and then connecting the power tp the Time Capsule gives also no solution.
    What can I do?
    Joe

    I listed the commands.. that is how you manually mount the disk.. follow exactly the commands I gave you.
    In finder use top menu, go, connect to server.
    Type in the following.
    AFP://TCname or AFP://TCIpaddress (obviously you replace with the actual name or the actual IP address).
    If that fails..
    try
    SMB://TCname
    Here is the screenshot.
    tardis4 being the name of my TC.
    It should then ask you for your credentials.
    And it should remember them in the keychain and be able to then get TM to connect.

  • My mac can't find time capsule, my mac can't find time capsule

    my mac can't find time capsule, my mac can't find time capsule

    I listed the commands.. that is how you manually mount the disk.. follow exactly the commands I gave you.
    In finder use top menu, go, connect to server.
    Type in the following.
    AFP://TCname or AFP://TCIpaddress (obviously you replace with the actual name or the actual IP address).
    If that fails..
    try
    SMB://TCname
    Here is the screenshot.
    tardis4 being the name of my TC.
    It should then ask you for your credentials.
    And it should remember them in the keychain and be able to then get TM to connect.

  • My Mac can't find the server when I connect to cable internet.

    My Mac can't find the server when I connect to cable internet. Ethernet is fine, the problem is that Safari doesn't open the login/password window. Can anybody help?

    The system administrator of my network has had the following solution - to help open the window for the login/password I tick "web proxy" (and enter the information for web proxy server) in "network preferences - advanced - proxies", enter the login/password and then untick it to open webpages. A little complicated, but it works, and that's the only solution so far.

  • Mac can't find my EPSON Workforce 610

    I tried to print something today.
    In addition to being out of cyan, my computer gave me a "filter failed" error.
    I removed the printer to try to re-add it and now my mac can't find the printer. I've disconnected the printer and reconnected to our wifi mulitple times. I've restarted the computer AND the printer multiple times. I've renamed my computer in the "System Preferences" > "Sharing" folder and THEN restarted it...again. Nothing.
    I'm running out of patience and time. HELP!
    I have Macbook Pro 10.8.5. I'm NOT computer literate, so please spell out the fix for me, if possible.
    Thanks in advance!

    Thank you! That information was definitely helpful.
    I haven't tried since my post to get our printer to work (ended up sending my doc to Staples, in the interest of time, and haven't had to print anything since).
    Anyway, this morning I replaced our ink and tried printing something. It still wasn't working (but this time, all it said was the printer wasn't connected). I reconnected the printer to the network, then turned it off, restarted our computer, and once the computer was back up, I turned the printer back on.
    The printer appeared in our network, again, and my printing job was successful. Yay! I LOVE when technology works. =)

  • Mac OS can't find my partition

    Having a little boot camp issues.
    I had an existing 32g partition that I was using to run Windows XP. I figured I'd wipe it when I upgraded to Win 7, so I removed the partition, via boot camp assistant. No problem.
    Then I wanted to make a new one. I made another 32g partition, and found out Windows 7 needs to be NTFS. While there aren't any direct settings in Boot Camp assistant to specify, I figured I should try one more time and make one over 32g. But now, assistant can't delete the partition and sends me to try it in Disk Utility to reformat in the Mac OS (Journaled?). I tried in there, but it's telling me I need to reformat too.
    Now, I have to hold down option to stop from booting in my non-existant boot camp (I get dos prompt looking for the boot disk) and Mac acts like I don't even have a partition. But when I try to extend my mac's side to overlap the partition in disk utility, I get this:
    Partition failed with the error:
    Could not modify partition map because filesystem verification failed
    Whew, any ideas?

    Still no luck. According to the windows installer, I have a few disks:
    Partition 1":EFI" 200 MB, 181 free (a system? drive)
    Partition 2 563.9 GB, 0.0 free (primary)
    unallocated space 32.1 G
    When I tried to install in unallocated, I got the warning:
    "Selected disk is of the GPT partition style"

  • I can't see my shared external HDD from my Macbook

    I have a Mac Pro on 10.5.8 that has an External HDD connected to it. It mounts and works properly.
    I went to 'System Preferences/Sharing/File Sharing' and shared many internal drives as well as the external HDD. Users for the shares are: My local user name, and also everyone with R&R access granted, and in options I tried with AFP and SMB selected.
    Now from my Macbook Pro on 10.6.6 I can see my MacPro. When I click on it I can see all the local drives shared on my MacPro, but not the external HDD.
    I also tried 'connect to server' with afp://localipaddress/ExternalHDD but I am asked for the user/passw. There I enter the local user/passw for the MacPro where I have the shares and I get "There was an error connecting to the server 192.168.1.8. Check the server name or IP address and then try again"
    Can anyone help me with this?
    Thank you!

    Me too. I have a Mac mini running 10.6.7 with an external USB drive. I have set it up to share the drive, but in System Preferences, the access column is grayed out for all users. In Finder, if I click on the drive, it shows up with the Shared Folder designation. But the drive does not show up when I connect to the Mac mini from my MacBook (also 10.6.7). Other shared folders do show up.

  • I tried to partition my Harddisk and now i can't find the partition and the space is lost.

    The 100GB that I intended to create my partition on are lost and I can't find them anywhere. The option to merge two partitions doesn't even appear and I don't tend to restore my device.
    Greetings

    I'm guessing you mean Backup and not Restore so I guess you'll start backing up your files now, eh?
    From what i've read, unfortunetely, if you bugger your partition then about the only thing you can do is reinstall the Mac OS again and start over. So now is a good time to buy a cheap external drive and start backing up for things like this.
    If you down load the Boot Camp Installation Guide and look at page #12 I believe, how to delete the Windows partition or something similar, it will walk you through it step by step or if you can watch one of the video's on YouTube on how to Restore the partitions back to one for further information.
    Good luck..........

Maybe you are looking for