Macbook Air not seeing external harddrive

I have a Seagate external drive I use to back up both my Mac desktop and Macbook air laptop. It's usually plugged into the desktop since that's non-mobile, but I unplug it and plug it into the laptop about once a month. It still works on the desktop just fine, the desktop recognizes it and is backing up to it as normal. But this most recent time I plugged the harddrive into my laptop, the laptop doesn't see it at all. Time Machine says it'll backup "when disk is plugged in", it's not showing up in the side of Finder, and it's not showing up in Disk Utility. I tried rebooting the laptop, nothing. I haven't updated the OS to Mavericks yet, though I just did on the desktop and it continues to read the external drive no problem.

Hi vberardo,
If you are having an issue with your external hard drive now connecting to your MacBook Air, I would suggest that you troubleshoot using the steps in this article -
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

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Problem - new MacBook Air cannot see external HD

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help, as I have seen similar questions in the forums, but not with an answer that helps me solve my problem.
Ok, I have a new MacBook Air running Lion (bought last year), a MacBook Pro running Leopard which is approx 4 years old and a Windows Laptop. I use the MacBook Air for Work and when travelling (weekly with work), the MacBook Pro for home and managing my other apple devices (iPad/iPhone etc..). I no longer use the PC, but there are loads of files both work and home, I wish to keep on an external HD for use with both Apple Laptops.
So, the external HD used to work with the MacBook Air when I first bought it (a couple of weeks ago) and formatted it with the MacBook Air, but it couldn't be seen or used with the Windows PC. When I formatted it with the Windows PC, I could use it with the MacBook Air but could not write to the disk.
So I have now partitioned and formatted it with the MacBook Pro running Lion, but now the MacBook Air cannot even see the disk in Disk Utility.
My MacBook Air otherwise runs absolutely fine with no problems, and the MacBook Air is a critical piece of kit that I use on a daily basis to do my job. As such, I have no appetite for deleting any drivers etc... from the MacBook Air as it could originally see the disk and I do not want to make a mistake and cause myself problems.
So the question is, how on earth do I get the MacBook Air to see the drive again in Disk Utility? So I can do the partitioning and formatting there, this drive is of no use if can only be seen by the MacBook Pro. The drive is a portable USB powered Toshiba 1TB disk Part Number: HDTB110EK3BA.
Am going to wait for some suggestions, my next thought is to erase everything using the windows PC assuming it can see it, and then see if the Mac Book Air laptop can see it in Disk Utility... no other options left really.
I hope someone can help, otherwise I may be off to buy a new disk and could hit the same problems again!
Thanks
Alex.

http://www.phonenews.com/toshiba-acknowledges-macbook-woes-canvio-usb-3-0-hard-d rives-18699/
Toshiba Acknowledges MacBook Woes in Canvio USB 3.0 Hard Drives
By Christopher Price on December 27, 2011
Following tests conducted by PhoneNews.com, Toshiba has acknowledged an issue affecting their Canvio USB 3.0 hard drives. The issue prevents current-generation MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models from properly connecting and powering up the drives.
Read more to see our findings, and the resulting (ongoing) investigation by Toshiba.
We began our tests based on tips from readers like you, and went out and purchased five (yes, five) Canvio USB 3.0 drives, along with a brand new 2011 MacBook Air.
Drive problems happened immediately, and were relatively isolated to the MacBook Air. Of all the systems we tested on, we were only able to reproduce issues on a Sony VAIO laptop late in our testing, as well as a current-gen MacBook Pro.
Essentially, the drives failed to mount, and in most tests never even spun up on these systems.
The Canvio USB 3.0 hard drives have sat under many people’s Christmas trees, as they were hot sellers during Black Friday. Retailers like Office Depot slashed prices on the slim, 2.5-inch drives down to $79 for a 1TB hard drive. With coupons, Radio Shack was selling the 500GB model for a mere $39.
Canvio USB 3.0 drives tout on the box compatibility with USB 2.0 systems, including both Mac and PC. The advantage of a Canvio USB 3.0 hard drive for a MacBook owner lies in Thunderbolt. Purchasing such a drive today can achieve USB 3.0 speeds with upcoming Thunderbolt-to-USB 3.0 adapters. USB 3.0 mass storage was designed to be fully backwards compatible with USB 2.0.
To get to the bottom of the problem, we probed the five Canvio drives purchased, in an effort to better understand the issue. And, we were able to isolate the problem; the Canvio USB 3.0 drives draw more power than the USB standard permits. The drives were drawing, upon connection, slightly more than the five watts that the spec allows. And, the new MacBooks appear to promptly shut the device down because of this.
Why? Well, Apple can assert that this is to protect the MacBook Air/Pro from a malfunctioning USB device. However, the answer really lies in tablets. Apple allows iPad and MacBook to perform a hardware handshake, which then allows Apple devices to draw 10 watts from the USB port. This is why you can charge an iPad directly on a Mac, but not on a PC.
Apple does not want to allow rival tablet manufacturers (Android) to have the same access to Apple’s USB port. Hence, any device (like a tablet) that wants to draw even slightly more than five watts, is shut off from communicating with the Mac. We affirmed this by testing a powered USB hub. With a powered hub connected to the hard drive, and the hub connected to the MacBook, the drive instantly came to life, and worked without issue.
This creates a bit of an odd situation; Toshiba is technically in the wrong for making drives that technically breach USB specifications… but Apple seems to be the only manufacturer to enforce this aspect (as well as breach it with their own devices).
Toshiba, to its credit, has owned up to our issue, right down to our suggestion to them that a powered hub works around the issue. Quoting an official statement in response to our research:
Toshiba DPD has identified an isolated USB connectivity issue between the Canvio USB 3.0 drive and currently shipping MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. The issue involves the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air being unable to recognize the Canvio USB 3.0 drive when connected directly to the laptop USB 2.0 port. Toshiba is actively working to remedy this USB connectivity issue. In the interim, Toshiba recommends MacBook Pro and MacBook Air users employ a powered USB hub to connect their Canvio USB 3.0 drives.
We have asked Toshiba if they intend to inform retailers to accept returns for affected drives, or if they will offer some form of refund program in the interim. Retailers such as Office Depot do not permit refunds on opened technology items, including Canvio drives. Toshiba has said are looking into that aspect of this problem, and will get back to us shortly.
In all, we spent a few hundred on hard drives, and confirmed the issue. Unfortunately, because it is a power drain concern, Toshiba will likely have to offer an exchange program to fix it. We seriously doubt that this can be fixed at the firmware level. Theoretically, it’s possible a USB cable replacement might be able to mitigate this issue however, so there is hope that Toshiba won’t have to recall a bazillion hard drives.
Update: As a follow-up, Toshiba has informed us that they have completed their investigation, and will replace affected drives.

Maverick does not see External Harddrive

I had a Seagate external usb3 harddrive connected. I was working on a video file when suddenly I got a message in the upper right hand corner saying that the external harddrive was incorrectly disconnected or dismounted. OK. So, I unplug and then plug the ext. HD back into the usb3 port. To make the story short, the hd light comes on, I can hear the disk spinning. But it does not appear in the Finder or desktop. The only sign on the Mac is by going to the "About This Mac" and to the System Report which lists hardware and software. Clicking on the USB line, it shows the external HD plugged into one of the usb 3 ports. The disk info indicates its ID and other data and how much energy it is consuming (it appears it is only using 96 mA from an available 500 mA). So, it appears that the Mac sees it and can read it and has power enough to run it.
I then removed the first ext. HD and inserted another Seagate external usb3 harddrive - the Mac doesn't see it either except in the System report. The external HDs do not show up in the Disk Utility app. The only conclusion is that the harddrives are probably OK but the Mac won't mount them anymore. Most people with unmountable ext. HDs usually see them in the disk utility (greyed out).
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Update - I have three Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex external harddrives. The two that I have connected to my Macbook Pro no longer can be read. I took the two and connected to another MacBook Pro but it would not read the drivers either. I took my third drive which I have not connected to my Macbook Pro for several weeks and connected to the other Macbook Pro and it reads it fine.
I downloaded drivers from Seagate but it didn't help. I started my computer in safe mode, HD didn't work. I have another drive containing a duplicate of my internal HD (using Superduper) and booted with the backup drive. It would not open the two drives. I'm taking the HD to a friend who has a G5 using an early Mac OS, 6.0. These two drives contain my video files and I need to retrieve the files.
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Try a System Management Control reset (SMC)
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KarryGee
tried to access my recovered HD on my old machine.........- and that data was transferred from a PC
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Ciao.

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https://discussions.apple.com/message/15247487#15247487

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Macbook Air not seeing external harddrive

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