My flash drive won't appear on my iMac; "Devices" doesn't appear on my Finder.

The Support information posted so far doesn't help; Finder does not bring up any external devices at all (Printer, Time Machine, flashdrive).

Have you set Finder preferences to show external disks?
FWIW, I've not seen printers showing on the desktop and know of no way to set it up to do so.

Similar Messages

External hard drive won't appear on my desktop

I'm trying to run a backup, but my hard drive won't appear on my desktop. I see it in Disk Utility, so I know it's there...
...any suggestions?
Thanks,
kevin

Kevin - There might be a few reasons as to why your external drive won't appear have you tried any of these suggestions:-
STEP ONE - Confirm that the drive is being seen by the system
Click the Apple icon and select About This Mac.
Click More Info.
Select the Drives and Volumes tab.
If the Iomega Hard Disk drive is not listed under the USB/FireWire arrow, proceed to STEP THREE.
If the Hard Disk drive is listed, continue with the next step.
STEP TWO - Format the Hard Disk drive to Mac HFS format
The Iomega Hard Disk drive is factory formatted to FAT32 for maximum compatibility. If you have not reformatted the disk or the disk is formatted to FAT32:
The disk may mount very slowly in OS X if the disk is FAT32 formatted.
Mac OS X will not mount any DOS (FAT32) partition larger than 128GB. For more information, please check the Apple® Web site at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107483
Warning: Erasing your Hard Disk drive will erase all of the information stored on the disk. If possible, back up your data before erasing the hard drive. Mac formatted disks are not cross compatible with other operating systems, such as Windows®, without the purchase of additional third-party software.
Double-click the Mac hard drive icon.
Double-click the Applications folder.
Double-click the Utilities folder.
Double-click the Disk Utilities icon.
Highlight the drive in the left window.
Click the Erase tab.
Select Mac OS Extended.
Click the Erase button and then click Erase from the confirmation window.
If the Hard Disk drive now mounts, you are ready to use the drive.
If the Hard Disk drive does not mount, continue with the next step.
STEP THREE - Are the Mac OS X drivers detecting the drive properly?
The Iomega Hard Drive may not mount if you are using Mac OS X versions under 10.1.3. If you are not using Mac OS X 10.1.3 or higher, please visit the Apple® Web site at http://www.apple.com/macosx/ for information on getting the latest version.

Thumb drive won't appear on desktop.

On my iBookG4 running 10.4.11, my thumb drive won't appear on the desktop when I insert it in the USB port. How do I make it appear? This just happened, as yesterday, it appeared. Help!

Those drives commonly come formatted for use with a PC. DU can't repair that format. Do you know what format yours has? You can try to erase/reformat it. If it Mac formatted right now and can't repair it then that may indicate the drive is truly history.

External Hard Drive won't appear on PC (want cross platform)

I have an external USB Hard Drive. I formatted it using the Disk Utility, OS Format and Journaling. Did a small partition in case I needed a system boot drive. Now my sis needed to backup her laptop (Dell laptop), but the drive won't appear in My Computer, it recognizes there is a USB device on the lower task bar, but no drive anywhere.
Do I have to reformat? what steps do I need to make this USB drive cross-platform friendly?
Paul

Hi, Paul.
You may not want to reformat the drive as FAT-32 since there is a limit on the size of the partition, the maximum file size, and other issues, especially if her Dell's drive is formatted as NTFS (FAT-32 does not support NTFS extended attributes). FAT-32 is unsuitable for backing-up Mac OS X volumes as it cannot preserve the extended attributes (permissions, etc.) employed by Mac OS X.
It's really best if you each have your own external hard drive for backup, as part of implementing a comprehensive Backup and Recovery solution, such as I use and detail in my "Backup and Recovery" FAQ. You also don't want one person inadvertently writing over another person's backups, which could happen if one is not careful. Furthermore, it is often easiest for recovery.
How one handles backup in cross-platform environments is tricky and depends on the native formats employed by the different computers involved, and whether backup will be performed over a network or by directly connecting backup drives to the computers one is backing up.
To enable her Dell to use the Mac-formatted drive, install Mediafour's MacDrive for Windows on the PC. MacDrive for Windows is probably the state-of-the-art application for enabling you to use Mac-formatted disks and hard drives on Windows-based PCs.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Flash drive won't mount on iMac but mounts on all other computers

I have two new PNY 8GB flash drives and both work on a Windows 7 laptop and two different Macbook Pro computers. One Macbook is running 10.6 and the other is running 10.7. Two other flash drives work just fine on the iMac but these PNY sticks do not.
I have restarted the iMac with and without the sticks plugged in.
I have tried all USB ports.
I have tried Disk Utility but I do not see anything on the left.
I have look in /Volumes and I don't see the USB stick.
What am I missing? Why won't it work on the iMac but works on the Macbooks?

My other USB memory sticks, an iPhone, and two iPods work normally plugged into the USB connectors on the iMac. It is just this one brand of USB sticks that don't work on the iMac BUT the same sticks work on two different MacBook Pro computers and even a Windows 7 computer.

Flash drive won't work

I have a new USB flash drive and when I plug it in it doesn't show up on the desk top. Any suggestions?

Which FlashDrive and how is it formatted?
Also have you been to Finder Preferences and made sure that the External disks box is checked?

Flash Drive Won't Eject as a Whole

My Computer (Windows 8) won't let me eject my flash drive in one piece. It works fine on the other computers (Windows 7 & XP) in my house. When I click "Safely Remove Hardware", three buttons appear:
Cruzer Micro [faded & not clickable]
> - Eject Removable Disk (F:)
> - Eject Removable Disk (G:)
When I eject both clickable links, the light on my flash drive doesn't turn off, but the "Safely Remove Hardware" link shows:
... [faded & not clickable]
Any way of fixing this? Thanks.
P.S.
I cant upload images of this without verification.

P.S.
I cant upload images of this without verification.
To expedite this you can add a post to this verification thread.
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/009b33a8-c6af-4525-b27d-cc9ded6c39d4/verify-your-account-27?forum=reportabug
Regards, Dave Patrick ....
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

USB flash drive won't mount

I have a strange problem with a USB flash drive which refuses to mount on the desktop of my MDD FW800. It registers in System Profiler but not in Disk Utility. I can't get it to mount using Terminal either. The Terminal screen says it has mounted but it doesn't appear on the desktop and I can't access it. However, if I do a restart with the the drive plugged in, it does mount. If I eject it and then try to plug it in again, it won't mount! Very frustrating.
It works fine on my Powerbook and my Digital Audio so it can't be the drive itself that's the problem. Not quite sure when this started but it may have been after I installed a PCI USB2.0 card (a Ratoc Rex-PCIU3). The card itself works fine with other USB products and I don't have any deep sleep problems with it either. I'm stumped.
Any suggestions anyone?
Alex
G4 1.25GHz Dual MDD FW800; G4 Digital Audio; Powerbook 800MHz DVI Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hello rickame
Click on the desktop then go up to the menu bar and select Finder / Finder Preferences / General and make sure the box's are checked for Hard disk, External disks, etc.. then reconnect the drive. If you still don't see it on the desktop it may have been improperly disconnected from the iMac while mounted, look to see if it show's up in Disk Utilities and the System Profiler on the USB bus. If you are plugging it into the keyboard, try one of the USB ports on the back of the iMac or a powered hub. There also could be a conflict with other USB devices, try ejecting and disconnect things like an iPod, a printer/scanner or camera, then restarting the iMac and connect only the Flash drive.
Dennis

Flash drive does not appear in Finder or on desktop

When I plug a flash drive into my iMac, it sometimes does not show up in Finder or on the desktop (or if it shows up when I plug it in, it disappears after awhile). As a result, I am unable to eject it properly, and when I physically disconnect it a message appears telling me I removed it improperly and may have corrupted my data. Another discussion thread said to go into Finder> Preferences and choose to show CDs, DVDs and iPods on the Desktop. I had already done this, so there must be another solution. Any help?

launch *disk utility* (in applications > utilities). if DU can see the drive, try repairing it.
perhaps reformatting the drive for Mac (make sure the partition map scheme of the USB drive is GUID or Apple Partition Map (APM) and the volume format is Mac OS extended (journaled)) will bring it back to its senses.
JGG

Flash Drive Won't Mount Except At Startup

Just bought a little 1Gb USB Flash drive which is USB 1.1 compatible. I want it for transferring files back and forth between my OS 10.4 G5 at home and the old blue and white G3 (OS 9.2.2) I have to use at work.
Trouble is, the G3 won't mount the drive unless it's inserted before startup. Apple System Profiler knows it's there when I put it in one of the USB slots on the back of the computer or in the spare slot on the Macally keyboard, but in neither case does it mount. I've looked at the USB events log in System Profiler and it registers the device being inserted and its call on the USB Mass Storage driver like this:
13436.785: [ 75579098]: Driver - Hub Driver - Device found, calling USBHubAddDevice. Port 3
13437.266: [ 75580125]: Expert - LoadClassDriver: USBCompositeDevice1.5.6 - calling driver initialize routine... 0
13437.267: [ 75580125]: Expert - LoadClassDriver: USBCompositeDevice1.5.6 - driver initialization completed 0
13437.578: [-1744497139]: Expert - LoadInterfaceDriver: USBMassStorageDriver - calling driver initialize routine... 0
13437.580: [-1744497139]: Expert - LoadInterfaceDriver: USBMassStorageDriver - driver initialization completed 0
So there's nothing there that says "fail" there unless that's what the zero at the end of each line means.
If I shut down the computer, insert the drive then start up, it shows up on the desktop no problem. It won't show up again if I trash and remove it though.
However, a graphite G4 in my office, which also runs OS 9.2.2 and seems to have an identical system install, will mount the drive with no problem on any of its USB ports.
Is this a case of the G3's USB ports being underpowered and there's no way round it, or is there a fix out there somewhere?
G3 Blue & White Mac OS 9.2.x

However, a graphite G4 in my office, which also runs OS 9.2.2 and seems to have an identical system install, will mount the drive with no problem on any of its USB ports.
Try this: Copy all of the extensions on the G4 that have USB in their names into the Extensions folder on the G3, replacing the USB extensions that are there; then restart and test again. Some of them may be older or newer versions than the ones on the G3 now, and that can make a difference. Note that in OS 9.x, it isn't always the newer versions of the USB extensions that work better.
Also see this user tip from Apple employee Joerg Weise. In it he lists 6 USB extensions (with version numbers) that can often resolve USB problems in OS 9, even under circumstances different from those described at the beginning of his comments.

Flash drive won't open

Help! My flashdrive had decied not to open and I'm getting a s.m.a.r.t. status not supported note when i'm trying to open it. What does this mean??? Is all my data lost???

SMART support does not extend to USB flash drives, at least not any I've tried. You can ignore any SMART status comments DU gives.
Does the drive not appear on your desktop at all, or does it appear there but does not respond to a double-click?

Usb flash drive won't mount in disc utility

running mountain lion on new imac .... usb flash drive was working, the next hour inserted it again and it doesn't show up in "devices". Opened disc utility - it shows up there but won't mount and all the "verify disc" and repair disc" functions are greyed.
Same result when I insert it into my macbook.

Did you put it in another computer and save data to it since it last worked? did you properly eject the disk?
sounds like you need to reformat the flash drive
If you need to save the data , plug it in to a pc and see if you can copy to hd.
Then take to your Mac and format it in disk utility. I recommend using windows format.
Then plug in to your PCM and get the files.
Then.. Eject the USB disk, don't just pull it out. Take to your Mac and it should mount

Help. My WD Time Machine Drive won't appear anymore on the desktop. It won't appear on my windows OS machine as well. Can anyone help me?

I made the darnest mistake when I tried cleaning up my time machine drive by deleting some of the "back-up" restore points.
Since then, the external drive does not appear anymore on my mac's desktop. Nor does it appear on my windows OS laptop.
I tried using DISK UTILITY on my Mac and the drive appears there. I was able to run Repair Disk, though No Errors appear. I "cannot eject" using the EJECT button at the top of the application as it prompts me with a message
"EJECT FAILED --
The disk “WD Ext HDD 1021 Media” could not be unmounted.
Make sure that all applications and files are closed on this disk."
Same goes when I try using a WINDOWS OS machine. It does not appear on Windows Explorer. Though when it does appear in the "eject list".
I assume that deleting some of the restore points (at random) was the cause of this.
How can I repair it? I have some sentimental and personal files (i.e. family pictures) that are also stored on the drive.
Thanks in advance.

Other than the Disk Repair from the Disk Utility, I would suggest resetting the PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11243.
Tha's kind of a last ditch effort though. Can you put it in another mac computer with the mac os? Does it show up there?

After Airport Extremem Updates - Multiple Hard Drives Won't Appear

After the most recent firmware updates (I'm currently at 7.2.3, but I noticed the symptoms with the one released a few weeks ago, too.) I'm noticing some serious problems with my external harddrives, connected to my airport extreme.
I hae a USB hub connected to my extreme, that connects a printer and two external haddrives. Before my connection to these harddrives on the extreme was seemless. After the next to last update, I had to recreate the connection all the time (everytime I walked away from the computer, I came back, and it wasn't connected and it often took 2 or 3 long attempts to make it see them again.)
With the latest update one of my drives no longer appears. The first appears under the disks section of airport utility and connects without issue. However, I cannot get the second to be recognized by the extreme. I have tested this HD directly to the computer and it appears to have no issues. It spins up, I'm testing with all the same calbes, everything is browsable, etc. I put it back to the USB hub off the extreme...nada.
Not that it should matter, but the external hard drive that's fallen out of grace suddenly is a Maxtor 500 gig external.
So, any suggestions? Did something change with the recent updates to disallow two external drives to appear with extreme?

since the drives are external, connect them to a Mac and run diskutility on them and check for errors using first aid....my guess is that you have volume problems preventing the disks from mounting in the extreme. the extreme does not do error checking and does not have a way of ejecting hard drives. I'm not sure about the TC.

USB Hard Drives Won't Appear in Win 7 (Boot Camp)

[2.7 Ghz Core i7 Macbook Pro 15" running 10.8.5]
I have a 512 GB SSD that I run with a Boot Camp partition. I recently had to reformat the drive because I used a third-party app to resize my Boot Camp partition and it ceased to appear in Finder (though it booted just fine by itself). After formatting the drive, recovering my OSX install via Time Machine, running the Boot Camp Assistant to create a new Boot Camp partition, installing Win 7, and running the Boot Camp setup.exe on the Windows side, I find that USB drives will not appear in Windows Explorer. I hear the "USB chime" when I plug/unplug drives, but drives never shows up. The same USB drives show up just fine in the OSX Finder.
I suspect it's a driver issue because when I first plugged the drive in under Windows I got a message about "Intel USB 3.0 Root Hub" and it was searching for a driver that it never found. However, I ran the Boot Camp setup.exe again, and tried updating the driver in Windows Device Manager. No dice.
This puts me in a spot, because my backup of my previous Boot Camp partition is on an external USB drive (via EaseUS), and when I boot from the EaseUS Recovery CD the USB drive doesn't show up in order to allow me to select the backup file I want to restore. (I would have used Winclone, but my partition was not mountable in OSX at the time due to the corruption. *sigh*)
I could probably live without backing up my previous Windows install since nothing on it is irreplaceable, but I definitely cannot live without being able to plug in a USB drive. What am I missing here?
Thanks!

if your question is how to get windows to work with apple filesystem
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1088460

My flash drive won't appear on my iMac; "Devices" doesn't appear on my Finder.

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