My imac doesn't recognize my backup drive anymore,what can i do?

My Imac doesn't recognize my backup drive anymore,what can i do?

Unfortunately, that usually means the drive has died although it doesn't mean some other hardware failure or even software failure (in some cases.)
I think the wise thing to do is take it in for service.

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IMac won't recognize DVD/CD drive anymore

As the title suggests, my iMac won't recognize my dvd drive anymore.
I don't know what the reason is for it.
I've never had this problem before, it happened a couple weeks ago.
I first noticed this when I tried burning a CD in iTunes.
It said at the top of the screen "Disc burner or software not found..."
I then went to System Profiler and checked "Disc Burning" and it
read, "No burning device was found. If you are using an external device please make sure that it is connected and powered properly." I'm not using an external device. I'm using the DVD drive that originally came with my iMac.
If anyone could please help me out with this I'd be very grateful.

Lately, I left my iMac on while I was sleeping. Couple nights ago, the optical drive made a funny noise and woke me up. It sounds very similar to opening up Disk Utility on my MacBook Pro, it looked for the internal optical drive. First, I didn't do further investigation on my iMac.
Yesterday, I happened to do some 'housecleaning' and attempted to slide in a data CD. The drive didn't response, so the CD was stuck. In the past, I had opened up numerous iMacs and they were getting more complicated model by model. I am certified to perform the repair, but since this iMac is covered under AppleCare, I decided to make an appointment with the MacGenius.
I did perform a PRAM reset earlier.
Do you have 'put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible' checked under Energy Saver?
Out of all the Macs with slot-load optical drives built-in I have owned, this is the first malfunctioning I have ever had.

My computer doesn't recognize my SD card! what can I do?

When I insert my SD card from my camera, the computer doesn't recognizes it. What can I do?
thnx

try a diff. SD card. What then? Tried an SD card to USB reader to verify if the SD card slot is bad?

I changed my Apple ID and now my iCloud doesn't recognize my new id. What can I do to fix the problem?

I changed my Apple ID and now my iCloud doesn't recognize my new id. Can anyone help me with my problem? Please break it down for me, I'm an old lady. Lol

To change the iCloud ID on your iPad you have to go to Settings>iCloud, tap Delete Account, provide the password for the old ID when prompted to turn off Find My iPhone, then sign back in with the ID you wish to use.
If you don't know the password for your old ID, or if it isn't accepted, go to https://appleid.apple.com, click Manage my Apple ID and sign in with your current iCloud ID. Click edit next to the primary email account, change it back to your old email address and save the change. Then edit the name of the account to change it back to your old email address. You can now use your current password to turn off Find My iPad, even though it prompts you for the password for your old account ID.
Then save any photo stream photos that you wish to keep to your camera roll (open the my photo stream album, tap Select, tap the photos, tap the share icon -- box with upward pointing arrow, then tap Save to Camera Roll. When finished go to Settings>iCloud, tap Delete Account and choose Delete from My iDevice when prompted (your iCloud data will still be in iCloud). Next, go back to https://appleid.apple.com and change your primary email address and iCloud ID name back to the way it was. Now you can go to Settings>iCloud and sign in with your current iCloud ID and password.

My iMac doesn't recognize the hard drive

Hi all. I have a question. I have a iMac G5 20" 2Ghz and I'm trying to instal a replacement hard drive. It's a WD 320GB HD with wite and blue stiker (It's a WD Caviar Blue). I'm trying to instal MAC OSX 10.5 it a retail full version DVD and when I get to the screen to select drive it doesn't see it. I went to Disc Utility and looks like it show the disc but there is no information. All I could get it is:
S.M.A.R.T status - not suported
Partition Map Sheme - Unformated
Total capacity _ 0 bytes
Please help. Thanks

Try reformatting the drive as Mac OS extended (journaled) and see if that works.
What do you mean by "foreclosure"?

IMAC won't recognize external hard drive anymore

I am running snow leopard on my IMAC with all the latest software updates. I've been using a LaCie Quadra external hard drive with time machine for backups for awhile with no problems. From the beginning is was plug in the hard drive and go, the mac recognized it. Now, suddenly, it won't. When I turn on the LaCie to back up, the icon no longer pops on the desktop. It is also not listed in the Time Machine preferences anymore. I tried to open the LaCie from Mac systems preferences and get a message with something like "64 bit cannot recognize 32 bit" I am asked to close and reopen system preferences, which would change to 32 bit. I tried that and it did not work,and a report was sent to Apple. Has anyone else been experiencing this? Thanks

jraguseo wrote:
Thanks. I don't disconnect the drive, only turn it off with it's own power switch. According to LaCie, this should not be a problem.
No, it's not a problem for the drive, but neither is leaving it (and Time Machine) on. Most externals will "spin down" after a few minutes of activity, but even if they don't, modern drives are built to run 24/7.
Time Machine was designed to do quick hourly backups of changes, and will protect you best that way. Just leave both Time Machine and the drive on; they'll be fine.

Mac mini hard drive crashed. The ecovery drive only offers to reinstall mavericks on the recovery drive. Doesn't see the hard drive. What can I do?

Hi, I have a mid-2011 with Mavericks installed. It crashed. I can boot into recovery mode. And it shows me the name of the hard drive and the recovery partition. When I boot back to the hard drive, it gives the grey screen and a long progress bar. WHen the progress bar eventually fills up, the computer just shuts down. In recovery mode, Disk Utility says the hard disk cannot be repaired.
But when I try to re-install Mavericks from the Recovery Partition, it only shows the recovery partition as the destination, not the rest of the computer.
Not sure what to do.
Thanks if anyone has any advice.
J

Thank you very much for the reply.
Indeed, Disk Utility can't even erase and reformat the drive. It's toast.
This is very disappointing. Second Mac Mini I've had go out this year. First seems to be a logic board issue. Now the hard drive on the newer machine.
At least I was able to use Disk Drill to get photos and other important files off the Mini. I had a Time Capsule, but last year, it too died (just a few months out of warranty).
One further question, if you don't mind. If I'm just going to replace the HD on the mini, I'm not sure why one would do this step that you suggested: "get a new HD, put it in an enclosure or use another method that allows the HD to be connect to the Min. Then boot to the recovery partition and install Mavericks on the new HD."
Also, maybe I can replace the drive on the mini myself. Maybe get an SSD for it? They seem more reliable.
Thanks again for taking the time to answer me.

Emac won't start up and tech tool doesn't recognize my hard drive.

My emac's been running slow and crashing. Today it got to the point where I couldn't even use the finder when I started up. I tried to start up from tech tool and did so successfully. It recognized my hard drive and I ran the tests and repairs, but during one of the tests it got hung up. I restarted the computer and now all I get when I start up is a little folder in the middle of the screen with a question mark. I started back up from the tech tool cd, but it doesn't recognize my hard drive anymore. I'm really scared I've lost everything. I could sure use some help! The emac is running Tiger.
Jane

jamech,
Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
What version of Tech Tool where you using? If it was an older version, incompatible with OS X 10.4 Tiger, that could actualy make things worse --- see Only use Mac OS X 10.4-compatible disk utilities with Mac OS X 10.4 volumes.
The version of Disk Utility that ships with OS X 10.4.2 and higher is more capable than earlier versions. Try booting from the Tiger install disc, then open Disk Utility from the Installer menu and see if you can run Repair Disk on the hard drive. Refer to Using Disk Utility and fsck. Take note of any errors reported and post back with the results. If errors are reported repaired, re-run Repair Disk until you either get a clean bill of health or a report of unrepairable errors.
When you get the Mac running from the hard drive again, you'll need to determine why it was running slowly in the first place. Anything reported by Repair Disk is of interest here. You could try using a third-party utility such as OnyX to clear caches and logs, and to make sure the maintenance scripts are current (there's a timer in Tiger than will force the scripts to run if you normally have the Mac shut down or in system sleep overnight; the timer is based on elasped time and isn't exact).

My new hard drive does not allow me to load programs on my IMac. It doesn't recognize my administrator password. How can I correct it?

my new hard drive does not allow me to load programs on my IMac. It doesn't recognize my administrator password. How can I correct it?

Wrong forums. Try http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac

My internal hard drive isn't being recognized on my macbook pro but when I put the HD in my Mac Pro (desktop), the desktop computer recognizes the HD. When I insert the installer CD on my laptop, it also doesn't recognize my hard drive. Please help!

My internal hard drive isn't being recognized on my macbook pro but when I put the HD in my Mac Pro (desktop), the desktop computer recognizes the HD. When I insert the installer CD on my laptop, it also doesn't recognize my hard drive. Please help! Thank you!
I've also been getting an image with the folder and question mark. I've tried everything on the apple support page but it doesn't seem to work either.

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.

The iMac doesn't recognize my external hard disk

My iMac doesn't recognize my external hard disk. The iMac also keeps a DVD inside. It doen't throw it out despite "eject".

Sounds like you might need to make that call. In the meantime here are a few of things you could try that may help:
To eject the disk try a restart holding down the mouse button - hopefully it'll eject.
If you are running either Mountain Lion (10.8) or Lion (10.7) try booting into the Recovery HD:
Restart holding down Command+r. At the screen with 4 choices choose Disk Utility and then select Macintosh HD and click on repair disk. If it fixes anything click on repair disk again until you get a clean pass. Restart as normal from the Apple menu.
If you are running an earlier OS you would normally carry out this process by putting the grey restore disk that came with your Mac in the Disk drive and restarting holding down the C key. Choose your language and at the next screen from the menu bar select Utilities>Disk Utility and then follow the above instructions (I realise you won't be able to do this if you have a disk stuck in the optical disk drive).
Try an SMC and PRAM reset: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3603
Try a Safe Boot: Restart holding down the shift key until you see a grey progress bar. Once it's booted restart as normal from the Apple menu.
If none of this helps, I guess you need to make that call. Good luck.

New imac doesn't recognize firewire 400

Just got the new imac and transferred all data from my old (non-intel) imac using a firewire 400-to-800 adapter.
Now, my new imac doesn't recognize my external (400 firewire) drives anymore. One of the drives has an USB which works with the new mac but transfers are very vey slow. The other drive has only firewire 400 and doesn't get recognized at all.
Any solutions?
Thanks.

Adapters can be troublesome, I'd recommend replacing with a Firewire 400 to 800 cable like this one. You can normally find these at your local computer store, Radio Shack or of course Amazon.
Roger

Can't burn data to a CD because iMac doesn't recognize CD has been inserted. Also, can't eject. What to do?

Can't burn data to a CD because iMac doesn't recognize that a CD has been inserted. Also, it won't let me eject the disk. How do I get my iMac to let me burn the data to the CD and eject the disk?
Finder currently has 2 "Untitled CD"s listed in it. One has been in there for months (without a CD inserted into the machine). I have tried several times unsuccessfully to remove the item from finder.

Please reset the SMC and PRAM 2-3 times each using the instructions in https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3603. Then attempt to eject. If that fails please use one of Kappy's ideas:
Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive
Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the left mouse button until the disc ejects.
2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.
3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.
4. Press COMMAND-E.
5. If none of the above work try this: Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:
/usr/bin/drutil eject
If this fails then try this:
Boot the computer into Single-user Mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.

I purchased Elements 13 for my Imac that doesn't have a DVD drive. How can I install it without buying a DVD drive? I would like to also install it on my MacBook Pro. Do I have to buy a second version.

I purchased Elements 13 for my Imac that doesn’t have a DVD drive. How can I install it without buying a DVD drive? I would like to also install it on my MacBook Pro. Do I have to buy a second version?

Download from Download Photoshop Elements products | 13, 12, 11, 10
Install then enter your serial number.

I have a MacBook Pro 2007 and I installed Mac OS 10.6 but I lost power in the process and now the mac doesn't recognize my hard drive

I have a MacBook Pro 2007 and I installed Mac OS 10.6 but I lost power in the process and now the mac doesn't recognize my hard drive, how can I fix this

I've tried it but since I'm using a USB disk drive it keeps freezing up or showing you a folder blinking folder with a question mark. (?). When I start the mac up I hold the control button until the Mac OS install disk shows up. My hard drive doesn't show up anymore. Is there any other button I have to hold down to bring a different menu up. I have also tried to boot up holding control and C and nothing happens. Thanks for the help so far

My imac doesn't recognize my backup drive anymore,what can i do?

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