My hard drives wont show up

I can find the drive in my utilities but I cant move any films onto it. It doesn't show up on my desk top like it used to.

~~It's just strange that it reads fine on a different macbook.
Superficially its very strange, however Ive seen same countless times, minor power diff. between Macs on a dying SATA card. Thats why its called "haunted (external) hard drive syndrome", .. 2 symptoms are illogical diagnostically
The 50 cent part inside most external HD is a nightmare.
If you had a new external enclosure, diagnosing same would take less than 2 mins.
SATA card as found inside a typical USB external hard drive

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My external hard drive wont show up in the "Save to:" menu when I try to import videos

My old external broke so I found my old one and plugged it in and went to import some videos on imove from an sd card but my external hard drive wont show up on the "save to:" drop down menu. I've been on utility disk to try and repair disk permission but I can't because the button isn't lit up. I can only click on verify disk or repair disk. I tried both of these but it still wont come on the drop down menu. It is showing up on the left in the event library but it has a little yellow triangle with a black exclamation mark in it.
Hope that all makes sense!
Any help would be very much appreciated!

Ok in disk utility it says Format : MS-DOS (FAT32)
Sorry Im not sure what you mean by can it connect via firewire? Sorry I'm a bit useless with technology haha

''Hard Drive'' wont show up in Mac OS 6.0.8 (finder 6.1.8)

i'm a mac dummy.. ive used Windows all of my life but now i got my first ever mac.. Yay!... well i actually got it in may but i got it to work now.. its a ''Macintosh Portable..'' ya!, 1989...! ok, it had a hard drive..(Hard Disk 40 SC) and its supposed to run on the Hard Drive only no diskettes needed. but since i had to use a '' Boot Diskette''because when you started up the computer a questionmark was flashind.. and now the computer runs on the diskette only and not the hard drive.. so when you start up the computer the Hard Drive dosen't show up... i would like the Hard Drive to show up so i could run the installer and reinstal the OS onto the hard drive.. but the Hard drive showed up once in like 30 times i started the computer, so does anyone know what i should do to make the Hard Drive show up????
Thank you, xmartinx

The portable's hard disk is unique. It's a special low power Conner 40MB. If you're trying to run your portable without a battery, or with a dead battery, the original AC adapter won't furnish enough juice to start the HD. You can use an AC adapter from a later PowerBook, one that puts out 2 Amps at 7.5 Volts, or you can buy a rebuilt battery or rebuild your own. Here's a website with lots of Portable info:
http://members.aol.com/macportable/Portable.html/
These old machines are becoming flaky due to parts failures, particularly electrolytic capacitors in the power supply, so it's also possible yours just isn't going to work right without some repairs. It's a rare classic computer, though. First active matrix LCD, 8 hours battery power (new), fully functional Mac, and first personal computer to fly in space.

External Hard drive wont show up in Finder

Hi,
After Mountain Update, the external hard drive icon wont show up in Finder sidebar, Desktop and in Disk Utility.
Is there anything which needs to be set in System Preference ??
I have the External Hard Disk checkbox checked in Finder Preference, inspite of this I cannot see the Hard drive icon
Please help.

You can try looking in Finder Prefereneces.
Go to the Finder Menu > Prefeences
Look at the sidebar pane. Make sure the Devices box is checked.
Go back to your finder window and make sure that Devices are not hidden. To the right of the Devices work there is a dimly visible show/hide command that is visible only when you have your cursor next to the Devices word.
You can also try unpluggin the drive and unplugging its USB cord then plugging it all back in to try again.
Jay

My External Hard drive wont show up when plugged in

I have an external 500GB LaCie hard drive connected to my 13inch mac book 09. It is used to house all of my itunes library (11,000 songs+), a bunch of pictures and a few movies and random other things. It was working fine until I came home from work one day and an error message was on my computer saying that I had ejected a disk without properly disconnecting it (meaning my hard drive). My HD was still plugged into my computer and I never touched it. I tried everything from unplugging, rebooting, etc, and it still wont show up when I connect it to my computer. A day earlier I had my itunes playing for 8 hours while I was at work and I had been noticing over the past few days that my power supply was unusually loud but didn't think anything of it until this all happened! I would appreciate any advice as I would like to keep listening to all my music. Please help!

Ok in disk utility it says Format : MS-DOS (FAT32)
Sorry Im not sure what you mean by can it connect via firewire? Sorry I'm a bit useless with technology haha

MacBook Pro dock and hard drive wont show up

A couple days ago on my 17" 2011 MacBook Pro, the system dock and internal hard drive icon disappeared. I've restarted a few times with no luck. I unhooked all external drives and restarted but still no luck. The baffling part is that it appears to have started up just fine - my personal wallpaper is still there on both monitors, items on the desktop are still there and I can navigate the Finder menus at the top. BUT I cannot access the internal hard drive or any external hard drives. They dont even appear to be mounting. In addition to that, the dock never shows up either.
No idea how to fix this thing or even troubleshoot it. And I really really dont want to be forced into spending time and money at the local "genius" bar.
All help is much appreciated.
thanks

Hello NC_PV,
Thank you for contacting Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like you have a couple of preferences that got switched.
For your Dock, take a look at this article:
Mac OS X: Additional features of the Dock
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2307
Command-Option-D
Hide or Show the Dock. This is equivalent of choosing Dock from the Apple menu and then Turn Hiding
On or Turn Hiding Off from the submenu.
For the HD icon, look here:
Mac OS X: Blank disc may not appear in the Finder
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3105
To show the HD on the desktop, Click on the Desktop and then from the menu bar at the top, click on Finder>Preferences>General and then select "Hard disks" under "Show these items on the desktop:"
Regards,
Jeff D.

My internal hard drive wont show on the desktop and is greyed out in the finder

My Internal drive will not show up on the desktop, and appears greyed out in the finder.
it shows up fine in disk utility and i have tried to repair permissions. This runs normally, there does not seem to be any problems with the drive itself.
if i unhide the hidden system folders using terminal, it appears on my desktop again, but greyed out.
any ideas how i can fix this?

Try deleting the Finder .plists. You need to look in your user Library/Preferences for the .plist. Hold down the option key while using the Finder “Go To Folder” command. Enter ~/Library/Preferences. Move the .plist(s) to your desktop.
Relaunch Finder and test. If it works okay, delete the plist(s) from the desktop.
If the Finder is the same, return the .plist(s) to where you got them from, overwriting the newer ones.
If you prefer to make your user library permanently visible, use the Terminal command found below.
http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/04/show-library-directory-in-mac-os-x-lion/
You might want to bookmark the command. I had to use it again after I installed 10.8.2. I have also been informed that if you drag the user library to Finder it will remain visible.
If that doesn't work, try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode. Shut down the computer and then power it back up. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application unistaller. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
Safe Mode
Safe Mode - About
General information.
Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Troubleshooting Permission Issues
Step by Step to Fix Your Mac

My Portable Hard Drive wont show on my Macbook Pro

I have a WD My Passport. it used to show up on my mac but one day i couldnt get it to show up. it appears on every other computer and laptop i have tried, just not mine! how do i go about fixing this as it has a few important files...

There is/was a finder option for not placing an icon on the desktop. Check finder options.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities ->Disk Utility
Check in disk utility to see if the disk is there.

I know my back up exists I can see it on disk utility but migration and disc utility wont work to restore my back up on my new hard drive it shows up with the message "this disk is already in use" i am so done. someone pls help me

I know my back up exists I can see it on disk utility but migration and disc utility wont work to restore my back up on my new hard drive it shows up with the message "this disk is already in use" i am so done. someone pls help me

Otherwise software may be attempted to access the drive. The the computer up in Safe Mode by holding shift when you turn it on. Also be sure to power off and on the hard drive itself.

I have an external hard drive that shows up in disk utility but Verify and Restore are greyed out.

I have an external hard drive that shows up in disk utility but Verify and Restore are greyed out. I am trying to determine what is wrong with the drive.
I need the data on the drive and it won't show up in Disk Warrior. I have tried different Mac's and different USB cords only to find the same outcome. When selected in Disk Utility the information read as such...
Disk Description : WD Elements 1023 Media                      Total Capacity : 500.11 GB (500,105,740,288 Bytes)
Connection Bus : USB                                                               Write Status : Read/Write
Connection Type : External                                                     S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
USB Serial Number : 575837314135304D36373132        Partition Map Scheme : Unformatted
As the drive shows in Disk Utility there must be some life left in it surely. There is a possibilty that the physical connection between the USB cord and the external drive is damaged but since the drive shows up I believe it's unlikely... before I give it to the pro's is there anything else I can do to diagnose the issue?

Hello,
I have just experienced the same thing!
Although my external drive shows in Disk Utility, it does not show in Finder.
And the Verify/Repair buttons are also greyed out.
Also, although the drive is 2TB. DU shows it as having Total Capacity of only 4.14GB! (Which should be the Free Space).
I was wondering if you solved your problem, & if so, would you share your solution.
I´m afraid to Erase in case I lose all my Data on the drive.
Thanks in advance for your reply!

External Hard Drive/Not Showing Up on Desktop

I have a G4, running OS X 10.2.8 and recently my kids deleted some important data. So--we bought an external hard drive (WD MyBook 160 GB Essential Edition, which says on the box that it runs 10.2.8 and higher).
We took the external hard drive and the computer to a reputable repair place, the guy there took the hard drive out and using a G6 system, restored what he could to the external hard drive.
We bring it home, plug it in, and the computer is not reading the new external hard drive. I did check in disk utility, and it shows up as a greyed out item on the disk utility.
The external hard drive does show up when hooked up to my husband's office PC.
Any ideas as to why this is happening and how to correct it?
Thanks, Ruth

OK, I figured it out (in case anyone else needs to know) with this information from the Western Digital site:
Macintosh Operating System 10.3.x or earlier will only recognize FAT32 partitions that are smaller than 128-gigabytes. Multiple FAT32 partitions smaller than 128-gigabytes will need to be created in order for Macintosh Operating System 10.3.x or earlier to recognize the partitions. You will need to use a Windows based computer to create FAT32 partitions, as Macintosh does not have the ability to create them.
Macintosh Operating System 10.4.x or later can recognize FAT32 partitions over 128-gigabytes.

External Hard Drives not showing

I have 2 external hard drives connected using FW 800, a Western Digital 500TB & a Seagate 500TB. The Western Digital has a habit of freezing and the last time this happened I powered down the iMac. When I re started the iMac neither external hard drive is showing on the desk top what's happening and how do I cure this?

HI MIke,
To start with if your forum profile is correct you need to update your system softare to 10.5.8. Go here and install the v10.5.8 Combo Update
Also, in the Finder from the Menu Bar click Finder/Preferences and select the General tab.
Select the 2nd button and relaunch the Finder.
Carolyn

My external hard drive not showing up

Hello,
My external hard drive is not showing up on my desktop. I went to finder & preferences>general and made sure I checked "show these items" and checked hard drives. I even unchecked it because I have 2 other external hard drives. When I checked the hard drive box the other 2 hard drives appeared but the third hard drive did not. The hard drive not showing up on my desk top does show up when I double click my system hard drive & can be opened from there, but I want to see it on my desk top. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It makes no changes to your data.
Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
ls -@Oaen /V* | pbcopy
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered.
The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.
The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

I have iMovie 09. I just erased my external hard drive, but it is still formatted for the mac. However, iMovie will not recognize the hard drive. It shows the only hard drive available is the computers. How do I get the external hard drive to show up?

I have iMovie 09. I just erased my external hard drive, but it is still formatted for the mac. However, iMovie will not recognize the hard drive. It shows the only hard drive available is the computers. How do I get the external hard drive to show up?

In Finder's Menu, select Go menu>Go to Folder, and go to "/volumes". (no quotes)
Volumes is where an alias to your hard drive ("/" at boot) is placed at startup, and where all the "mount points" for auxiliary drives are created for you to access them. This folder is normally hidden from view.
Drives with an extra 1 on the end have a side-effect of mounting a drive with the same name as the system already think exists. Try trashing the duplicates with a 1 or 2 if there are no real files in them, and reboot.
If it does contain data...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

USB Hard Drive not showing up in AirPort Utility

I have been using this AirPort Extreme for over two years now and it's been working fine. I finally decided to buy a self-powered USB hard drive so I can share it over the network. However, after I unpacked the hard drive, connected it to my Mac and reformatted it to HFS+ Journaled and GUID. I plugged the hard drive into my AirPort Extreme's USB port and waited. I looked in my AirPort Utility and saw nothing in the disk list.
I spent hours searching online and discovered that I am not alone in this problem, although solutions are rare. I did try one solution where I hooked up the USB hard drive to a powered USB hub and the hub into AirPort Extreme. It actually worked once and after I rebooted everything, even though the hard drive still showed up in the disk list, no computers can connect to it. Although if I connect the hard drive directly to a Mac, it would still work perfectly.
Having a USB hub is not a long term solution not that it's working anymore anyway. I would appreciate any suggestions you may have, thanks!

Weilishu wrote:
Thanks for the response. However, I'm not sure what you mean.
So far my experience is far from "Just connect the external hard drive to the USB port on the back of your AirPort Extreme and — voilà".
did you read the support article Daddy linked ? it clearly says
JGG

My hard drives wont show up

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