My external hard drive is no longer recognized by my Mac

I have used Time Machine and a WD external hard drive to back up my computer for several years. Now, when I connect the hard drive, the drive lights up as though it's working, but the connection does not appear on my Mac -- the external hard drive is not listed in Device (in Finder). Any suggestions?

power feed issues and data appearance/disappearance are both symptoms of the SATA bridge card,..arguably the most failing modern computer component made.
throwing more power to the drive wont fix that.
SATA bridge card as found inside all USB HD devices which has an extremely high failure rate.
Inside a USB hard drive, containing the HD and SATA card
Countless 1000s of good external hard drives are thrown away each year because the owner thought the HD was bad when it fact it was the SATA bridge card which had failed. This card is removed in a matter of mere second once an external USB HD is cracked open from its plastic casing to reveal the bare HD and the attached SATA card which attaches between the HD and the USB cable.
quick and easy option is to crack open the WD USB drive, and remove the SATA card, and put the WD drive into a new enclosure ($20)
HOWEVER, if its an OLD WD drive, the SATA interface is permanently attached to the HD and the OP is "out of luck".

Similar Messages

My external hard drive is not being recognized by my MAC Pro. The icon does not appear on my desktop when I connect it to the MAC.

My external hard drive that I use as a backup is not being recognizedc by my MAC PRO. Usually I get the icon for the backup, when I attach it to my computer, but that isn't happening. What can I do?

Well, I tried all of your suggestions and they didn't work -- no surprise because I was trying to backup to my external c.d. disk. Duh! The application for the home is in the mail.

Firewire external mobil disk hard drive is no longer recognized

After last system update, my firewire external mobil disk hard drive is no longer recognized. Any solutions?
Why does MacOS go backwards... gets worse over time?

Thought you could use this info about getting FireWire to work! I have had no trouble with any update Apple puts out (the Combo update is what I normally choose). Are you running 9.2 like your specs. say? You are in the Tiger forum, so I'll assume you haven't updated your Macs specs.
First, you should always Repair Permissions in Disk Utility before and after any update; I would do that now. If you installed your update with FireWire plugged in, your Mac may not recognize it anymore.
Try resetting your FireWire ports by disconnecting all FW devices, shut down your Mac and unplug it from AC power (wall socket) for 30 minutes. plug it back in and try FW.
If that did'nt work, download the combo update from this site (yours may be corrupt), not Software Update, disconnect all firewire + USB devices except keyboard + mouse, Repair Permissions, re-install update, Repair Permissions again + try. Yours may be the 10.4.5 Combo update. Others reading, download the Combo that applies to your system.
If that still did'nt get it Zap the PRAM. While restarting Mac hold down the following key combo Command-Option-P-R. Keep holding those keys down till you hear the second start-up chime, then release.
For those of you with Macs that are not PowerBooks or iBooks, a bad internal battery can cause FireWire to not be recognized, so make sure it's good!
Good Luck!
Cheers!
DALE

My WD external hard drive will no longer show up on my Macbook pro.

My WD external hard drive will not longer show up on my macbook pro. The light turns on and you can hear it running but it won't show up either in finder or in the disk utility. This happened a while ago but I really want to get all my photos off the hard drive. Is there anything I can do to get my computer to read it again or get my data off of it?
I don't have access to another Mac to test it.
Thank you

dead sata bridge card. very common problem.
see all about it here:
Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD
verify HD on another Mac however, if same, dead SATA card most likely

My external hard drive will no longer connect to my macpro......any ideas on how to solve this problem??

My external hard drive will no longer connect to my macbook pro via FW800........Any ideas on how to solve this??

Reset the SMC, see this Apple note: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Also reset the PRAM:
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
In most cases, those two actions will fix the port issue. If it's still an issue, you may need to see if the external hard drive can connect to another system, to ensure it's not having problems.

My Toshiba external hard drive is no longer being recognised by my Macbook Air - solution?

My Toshiba external hard drive is no longer being recognised by my Macbook Air. The light on the hard drive is on, but it won't appear on my computer's desktop or anywhere else. How can I fix this?

Hi rivraff,
If you are having issues mounting an external hard drive volume, you may want to see if it shows up and/or can be repaired in Disk Utility; you may find the following article helpful:
Apple Support: Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1782
Regards,
- Brenden

My external hard drive is no longer showing up on my computer display

My external hard drive is no longer indicated on my computer desktop display. I have checked connections. What do I do next?

Finder->Preferences->General->set show according to your wants.

Once I upgraded to ML, I'm now finding that my Seagate Free Agent external hard drive is no longer being backed up by Time machine. Do I have to wait for Seagate to update their drivers for this hard drive?

Once I upgraded to ML, I'm now finding that my Seagate Free Agent external hard drive is no longer being backed up by Time machine. Do I have to wait for Seagate to update their drivers for this hard drive?

I tried your suggestion, and it's been giving me the message "Preparing for Backup" for the past 8 hours. Does this mean TM is backing up my hard drive? I'll give it a few more hours, but if nothing else happens, I'm not sure what else to do. I'm not sure if there are any new external hard drives that are compatible with ML yet.

Since I upgraded to 10.9.5, my macbook no longer recognizes my external hard drive. How do I fix this? External hard drive is a 1TB Toshiba formatted for mac. Worked fine until latest upgrade.

Since I upgraded to 10.9.5, my macbook no longer recognizes my external hard drive. How do I fix this? External hard drive is a 1TB Toshiba formatted for mac. Worked fine until latest upgrade.

Solved the problem by dumping my external HD onto another computer. Re-formatting and re-installing the data. Not what I wanted to do but it solved the problem.

My external hard drive is no longer showing up on the desk top, it wont even work when I plug it into my media player anymore, help?

My external hard drive is no longer showing up on the desk top, it wont even work when I plug it into my media player anymore, help?

Go to Finder > Preferences > General > and in the top section where it says external disks check that the box is ticked. If it is check the connections.

Owc mercury elite external hard drive will no longer come up on my desktop

owc mercury elite external hard drive will no longer come up on my desktop?

Can Disk Utility see it?

My toshiba external hard drive is not being recognized, except when I eject it. I have the preferences checked to show icon and have checked utilities folder. nothing. Help!

I have a iMac, Yosemite 10.10 and my toshiba external hard drive is not being recognized, except when I eject it!. I have the preferences checked to show icons and have looked in the utilities folder..nothing. I have also changed ports. ??

A few things to try:
1-Repair permissions and restart your computer.
2-Zap the PRAM
3-Use Software Update/App Store to update your OS to OS 10.10.3. Also, update everything SU/AS has to offer for your computer. When done, repair permissions and restart your computer.

LR 5 does not recognize my external hard drive. It has recognized this drive in the past. No help at any Adobe site.

LR 5 does not recognize my external hard drive. It has recognized this drive in the past. No help at any Adobe site.

My external HD contains photos I have worked on in the past.
Additionally, I have added photos to LR5 directly onto my Mac HD. (38
photos added when working in the absence of my external HD)
Presently, in the Library mode, the Le Cie external HD is not seen in the
upper left hand corner "Source" location.
The only way to "see" the La Cie HD and its photos is in the "Import" mode.
These photos have previously been imported.
I wish to use the La Cie HD as my source in the Library mode and proceed to
the Develop mode.
In other words, work on my previously imported, previously worked on
photos, now on the La Cie.

How can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory?

i don't know if this question has been asked before: how can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory? just like itunes all my song are save on my external hard drive. make sense?

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
LN

Using an external hard drive to connect the camera to the Mac Book Pro

I am about three weeks away from a 9 to 4 pin firewire cable. In the meantime, I am logging and capturing from my Canon AX HI through my external hard drive. I am not super amazed at the quality of the image, it's noisy.
I am using HDV tapes, and I don't beleive the lighting should be causing the issue.
Does anyone know if using the external hard drive to connect the camera to my Mac Book Pro is compromising the quality of the image? Can I expect a beautiful strong image on a lap top?
Thanks for any help.

There is ZERO quality loss when you capture via firewire. It is a digital transfer of files...that's it. The issue you have is that you are trying to judge the quality of your image based on what you see with your computer monitors, and that is simply the LAST thing you should be doing.
And since this is HDV, the only way to monitor that is with an HD card or I/O device, and an HD monitor or TV. Like the Matrox MXO2 mini or AJA I/O Express mini and HDTV.
Shane

My external hard drive is no longer recognized by my Mac

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for