My external hard-drive isn't appearing on my laptop?

Both the laptop and hard-drive are new and had worked previously. I was using it as my external back-up and was working fine as my time machine. But now it isn't appearing at all on the computer anywhere. The hard-drive is still working, that is the light is on, it is making noise like it normally would, and when plugged into another mac it shows up fine, it's just my laptop? Can anyone help? Thanks!!

swryker
The point is that the HD is working with another computer,
That doesnt mean anything actually, seen that often, read the link above, ....
Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD
People logically often think thats the case, but when a SATA card fails, it often, due to power faults will work on another notebook USB port and not on another.
last test, verify that another HD wont connect to your USB ports on your Air.
.......if it does, its a bad SATA card on the HD.

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I have a MacBook Pro, 10.10.2 Yosemite. My external hard drive no longer appears on my screen or in Time Machine

I have a MacBook Pro, 10.10.2 Yosemite. My external hard drive no longer appears on my screen or in Time Machine. I have gone into Disc Utility to repair disc, and get the message: Error: Partition map check failed because no slices were found. I was trying to follow Melophage's instructions by going into "Terminal" and entering "diskutil list; diskutil cs list; mount" and "diskutil info disk2." Then I entered the command "sudo got show disk1."   I am sure I have made the problem worse. Can you give me some help? Thank you. blelambert
Last login: Wed Mar 11 19:23:03 on ttys000
~ belambert$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         250.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *249.8 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk2s1
~ belambert$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 883A56F4-5559-4872-A8DA-960F99655B63
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
Status:       Online
    Size:         250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
    Free Space:   8921088 B (8.9 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 7EDAFA20-FF9A-45FB-BA44-6526BB46C381
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family B47B0B40-CBF2-4D02-BFEF-182061AC6F8E
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
        Conversion Status:       Complete
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   Yes
        Fully Secure:            Yes
        Passphrase Required:     Yes
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          249779191808 B (249.8 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
~ belambert$ mount
/dev/disk1 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
localhost:/vB3z604U-dvSpES6320fHq on /Volumes/MobileBackups (mtmfs, nosuid, read-only, nobrowse)
~ belambert$ diskutil info disk2
   Device Identifier:        disk2
   Device Node:              /dev/disk2
   Part of Whole:            disk2
   Device / Media Name:      WD My Book 111A Media
File System:              None
   Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Total Size:               2.0 TB (2000365289472 Bytes) (exactly 3906963456 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                Yes
File System:              None
   Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Total Size:               2.0 TB (2000365289472 Bytes) (exactly 3906963456 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                Yes
belambert ttys000                   Wed Mar 11 17:34 - 17:39 (00:05)
belambert ttys000                   Wed Mar 11 17:33 - 17:34 (00:00)
wtmp begins Sun Mar 8 14:40
~ belambert$ ~ belambert$ diskutil list
-bash: :~: command not found
~ belambert$ /dev/disk0
-bash: /dev/disk0: Permission denied
:~ belambert$    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
~ belambert$    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
-bash: 0:: command not found
:~ belambert$    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
-bash: 1:: command not found
~ belambert$    2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         250.1 GB   disk0s2
-bash: 2:: command not found
~ belambert$    3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
-bash: /dev/disk1: Permission denied
~ belambert$    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
~ belambert$    0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *249.8 GB   disk1
-bash: 0:: command not found
~ belambert$                                  Logical Volume on disk0s2
-bash: Logical: command not found
~ belambert$                                  7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C
-bash: 7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C: command not found
~ belambert$                                  Unlocked Encrypted
-bash: Unlocked: command not found
:~ belambert$ /dev/disk2
-bash: /dev/disk2: Permission denied
~ belambert$    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
:~ belambert$    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
-bash: 0:: command not found
~ belambert$    1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk2s1
-bash: 1:: command not found
~ belambert$ ~ belambert$ diskutil cs list
-bash: ~: command not found
~ belambert$ CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
~ belambert$ |
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `|'
~ belambert$ +-- Logical Volume Group 883A56F4-5559-4872-A8DA-960F99655B63
-bash: +--: command not found
~ belambert$     =========================================================
-bash: =========================================================: command not found
~ belambert$     Name:         Macintosh HD
-bash: Name:: command not found
~ belambert$
-bash: 3:: command not found
~ belambert$ /dev/disk1
   Whole:                    Yes
   Internal:                 No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported
:~ belambert$ Last login: Wed Mar 11 19:23:03 on ttys000
~ belambert$ diskutil list
   Whole:                    Yes
   Internal:                 No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported
~ belambert$ Last login: Wed Mar 11 19:23:03 on ttys000
~ belambert$ diskutil list
   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)
   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)

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Kevin - There might be a few reasons as to why your external drive won't appear have you tried any of these suggestions:-
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Click the Apple icon and select About This Mac.
Click More Info.
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Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I am not sure just which model drive this is. Does it get its power from the computer? If so, it might be trying to use a bit more power than the iBook can deliver through the USB port. Some USB ports are very marginal and can deliver only the barest minimum of power, which sometimes is not enough for an external device. A powered hub might help.
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I've been using a western digital my book (500gb) external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme for TIme Machine Backups. For no apparent reason, it stopped backing up a few days ago. I've plugged the drive directly into my MBP, and it doesn't appear in system profiler or disk utility. Any ideas how to get the MBP to mount the drive?

matthewfromlincoln wrote:
I've been using a western digital my book (500gb) external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme for TIme Machine Backups.
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is unreliable, and not supported by Apple. See Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.
But, as ds store says, the disk is likely dead.

My external hard-drive isn't appearing on my laptop?

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