New external hard drive not readable, don't want to erase data

Recently, my old external hard drive's USB port had broken, so I'd taken it to a tech shop where he replaced the motherboard in my old hard drive and slotted it into a new one.
However, my Mac does not recognise it, giving me this message:
If I click on 'initialize', I'm taken to disk utility, which I thought I'd be able to rescue this problem. This is what I'm greeted with:
Trouble is, every question I've seen so far on here that gets it recognised results in erasing the data on the drive first. All of my information is on the hard drive, so I don't want to erase anything at all on there. Is there any way I can get my Mac to recognise the drive without me having to erase all the data? I'll be eternally grateful to anyone who can save this for me.

The second screen shot suggests that the disk has already been reformatted (and not even in a Mac format). Did you make it clear to the tech shop folks that you needed to retain the data on the disk?

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I have just bought a new pc with windows 7 my old one can not be started so I can not deauthorise etc, how do I now put my iphone 4 on my new computer, I don't care about the songs I have those on external hard drive, but I don't want to loose my contact

I have just bought a new pc with windows 7 my old computer cannot be started so I cannot deauthorise it etc, how do I now put my iphone 4 on my new computer, I don't care about the songs I have those on external hard drive, but I don't want to loose my contacts, calenders etc

Terry,
Plug your iPhone 5 into your Leopard Machine.
Fire up iPhoto.
The phone should become available in iPhoto, and then you can import the camera roll.
-Alan.

I would like to freeze saving to icloud and perhaps transfer some of that data to my own external hard drive. I don't want to lose anything already stored there, but don't want to purchase anymore cloud space. How do i accomplish this?

I would like to freeze saving to icloud and perhaps transfer some of that data to my own external hard drive. I don't want to lose anything already stored there, but don't want to purchase anymore cloud space. How do i accomplish this?

It seems that saving to iCloud is a default. My Pages documents automatically save there unless I change to save to destination. I probably just need help in setting up the cloud. When I tried to change the setting, though, it told me that if I made the change, all data on icloud would be eliminated and i don't want that. I would ideally like to save everything on my external HD and not bother with iCloud. Certainly don't want to buy more storage space. Thanks for replying so promptly.

External hard drive that had my itunes on it crashed; had to recover data on new external hard drive; not can't access iTunes from my iMac - how do I name it correctly in order to make iTunes work again

how do I set up a new external hard drive with my recovered iTunes (from a hard drive that crashed & had to be replaced) so that I can access iTunes on my iMac again?

Take a look at this link, http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519

External Hard Drive not Readable & Input/Output Error?

I was using my OWC 300gb external hard drive for a while and it's worked great. I had a bunch of files on it, but I recently transferred everything to another external HD I have, which worked fine, so I could erase this 300gb one. I can't remember what happened, but somehow my Macbook doesn't recognize this hard drive. I think erased everything and then unplugged it without ejecting it first. Anyways, nothing is on the the drive anymore and I get this error message:
"The disk you inserted was not readable by your computer"
This pops up when I restart my Macbook. When I try to use Disk Utility, it greys everything out on the partition and Disk Repair tabs. On the 'Erase' tab, it will allow me to select Erase, but then gives me the error:
"Input/Output error"
Does anyone know how to get my Macbook to see my drive (so I can start to partition it)? For some reason only Disk Utility acknowledges it's there, Finder won't.
Anyone have any tips of what it is or what I can try? I did try to use my OS discs booting up holding C, but that doesn't work either.

Hi there. Everyone is saying on these forums that the hard drive is failing...suck. I went and bought a new when I got input/output error and found that the new one showed the same input output error, making it impossible to partition the disk. Then the guy in the apple service center told me the new one was bad too, after having seen the code that came up related to my new scorpio 250 GB drive. Instead of sending it back, I took it out and installed the old one..however this time with a slihtly more of pressure on the tape holding down the hard drive cable between the hard drive and the circuit board. Amazingly, this time it didn't even show any hard drive at all! Then I understood what was wrong. It was exactly what was indicated an "input/output errror"! ..the cable was broken. I bought a new cable, well the Powerbookmedic sold it as new but it was an old working one that arrived. Immediately, after change of cable the old hard drive and now also the new 250 GB works perfectly! I remember that some interesting symptoms prior to all hard drive problems appeared, such as not being able to start up properly, strange blue screens, flipping question marks etc. I remember that shaking the comp occasionally worked to get it going. No wonder, shaking occasionally made it work and i believe the damaged cable maybe changed position and started conducting. The cable is very sensitive and probably should not be taped down so hard as the first service center guy at apple had done with mine when he fixed it the comp a few years ago. Polymers/plastics bent heavily become fragile/brittle with time and are specially sensitive under pressure/bent. Note that my old damaged cable still conducted and showed the hard drives but didn't work fully. I hope this will help someone, it took me 2 month to figure out..

External hard drive not readable anymore after a blackout.

We had a blackout yesterday and now my external drive comes up as not readable, it has all my iTunes as well as photo's that are not replaceable. When I attempted to repair permissions, it would only allow me to delete and re-format the hard drive, which I haven't done as I don't want to loose all my stuff. I can't even access my time machine to go back to before the black out. Please help.

Do not attempt to perform a permissions repair. That is not related to the problem you are experiencing.
Do you have that external hard drive set up as a single partition or multiple partitions? If multiple partitions, are all the partitions failing to mount?
Regardless, you are going to have to move to a more robust (and expensive) method of recovering your data than is available with the tools provided by Mac OS X. Your best chance of recovering your data without spending an inordinate amount of money is DiskWarrior:
http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
If the data is very valuable to you and you really really can't lose it, then you might care to try a profesional data recovery laboratory. It is extremely expensive – thousands of dollars whether they are successful or not. There are many good labs; here's one:
http://www.datarecoverylabs.com/
In the future, you simply have to learn to keep redundant backups. Keeping active files on the same device as your backups makes no sense at all; you might as well not bother creating the backups if you're going to do that. Read here for good advice on backups:
http://www.mac-essentials.info/?page_id=213

External Hard Drive not readability

I'm very very disappointed and frustrated to see that my iMac doesn't recognize my external hd anymore. I tested it on PC, it could recognize but some files are not readbility. I took all files out of the hard drive and see if I can read the files on my iMac, it turned out that some files are corrupted, it said "UNIX exectuable file". I don't know what it means or what really happened.
I tried to use disk utility on my hard drive; tried to mount it, it won't work. I tried to repair it, it said "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit." What does it mean? I really don't want to lose all my data information especially my PHOTOS and my SCHOOL WEB/GRAPHICS PROJECTS that means so much to me.
PowerBook G4 laptop & iMac 2GHZ Intel Duo Mac OS X (10.4.5)

First have a backup hard drive available. you may need Disk Warrior and Data Rescue to help. If you click on Support and search, you will find Apple has an article on what "underlying task" error is about.
Some files on Mac won't be readable. All the system files and application packages. 'Took all files out' - you mean copied to PC? I assume it can read mac files and knows about data and resource forks?
Core Duo systems format FW drives with a different scheme. I assume you had it partitioned so you could share a partition between your PB and iMac?

External hard drive not readable

I have a Seagate 60 GB and a WD 120 external hard drives that have been using on my macbook for about a year and it's formated to work on a mac. Recently, whenever I plug it in, it says that the disk is not readable. It shows up on disk utility, but nowhere else. It says not supported after SMART status. verify disk is not available. nor are repair disk, verify disk permissions, or repair disk permissions.
I've never traveled with them before, I dont know if maby something happened in the airports or something.
Please help.

So I guess this means I've lost this information??
There's a good chance that that's true, but there is still hope of recovering it. Assuming you have your Mac working, download one or both of these data recovery utilities and see whether they tell you that some or all of your data is recoverable. Both utilities are offered in free demo versions that will show you exactly what you'd be able to recover with the full, purchased version. Note that everything you recover must be saved to a different disk from the one it's being recovered from. If your Mac's internal drive is large enough to accommodate everything you may want to recover, that will be OK.
Data Rescue 3: http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
FileSalvage 7: http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id= 1

New external hard drive not seen by LR

Just purchased a 5tb external hard drive. The drive appears on my imac desktop, but dose not show in LR. How do I get it to show up in LR?

Click on the + that appears to the right of the heading "Folders" and select Add Folder. Navigate to the new drive and create there the folder to which you want to move the photos (or simply select it if it's already there).

URGENT!!! external hard drive not readable in Finder

I have a G-Raid external hard drive. Yesterday I accidentally plugged out the cable while it was connected to the iMac. there was usual notice that "the disk was not ejected properly". What happens now is that whenever I plug it back via Firewire 800 it doesnt appear neither in Finder nor disk utility. But when I plug it vby USB 2.0 it works... help me what to do, I appreciate it
Message was edited by: vladog

Hi vladog
Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You may have tripped the FireWire overload protection when you disconnect or reconnected the Drive.
Eject and disconnect all peripheral devices FireWire and USB, then reset the iMac's SMC.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
+1. Shut down the computer.+
+2. Unplug the computer's power cord.+
+3. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.+
+4. Release the power button.+
+5. Attach the computers power cable.+
+6. Press the power button to turn on the computer.+
Then test the G-Raid by reconnecting it to the FireWire port.
Dennis

External Hard drive "not readable", does not show up in Disk Warrior either. Help me, please!

I have a 500gb G Drive Slim that is almost brand new. I accidentally pulled the cord out when it was connected, and now when I try to open it, it says "not readable by this computer." This is what I see when I go into disc utility:
I called G Drive, and they told me to download Disk Warrior 4. I did, and this is what I see when I open it:
My hard drive doesn't show up...i'm not sure if i'm doing something wrong but I just paid $100 dollars for this and I'd really like some help. I read the manual and it wasn't helpful at all.
Please help me!

Make sure it's format is Mac OS Extended (Journeled).
To check it's format, plug in the External HDD and search Disk Utility in the spotlight. Click the External HDD and go to the Partition tab. If it isn't Mac OS Extended change it and format it.
You shouldn't need any of these external applications to use it. I have one and use it like a flash drive.

External Hard Drive not readable - please help!

Dear All
I use an intel imac, running snow leopard, backed up to a 2TB Time Capsule.
In order to create more space on my imac, I decided to use a seagate hard drive (that has faithfully served me for backups over a couple of years, pre time capsule) for storing my ever expanding home movie selection.
To avoid problems (and to make a clean start with this disk), I deleted everything on the drive via disk utility. I then ran a single partition on the drive using the settings of GUID partition with Mac OS Extended Journaled (i.e. so I selected partition so there is only 1 volume) . Everything went smoothly. I then copied my film collection to my hard drive. I then tested it - the films were on there and I could play them.
Now when I reboot, I get the message "the disk you inserted was not readable by the computer. Initialize / ignore / eject"?
What have I done wrong? Have I erased / formatted my backup drive incorrectly? How can I fix this?
I have another backup drive (that I keep offsite) that still is readable by the computer, so I do not think it is a hard ware problem.
I'm not in diaster zone yet. My movies are still on the imac, on time machine and backed up on the offiste external drive. However, in the need to create more space, I just need to be able to store files on external drives and then use them!!
Any help much appreciated
cheers
Paul

Most likely the drive is partitioned in NTFS format. Macs can read that format, but not if the disk is corrupt. You should do two things. First, immediately make a backup of the data on that disk. Obviously you'll need a PC to do this. Then, also using the PC, run the Windows chkdsk program to repair the disk. If it can be repaired, it should then be readable on your Mac.

New External Hard Drive not working

Ok so Logic Pro 9 has been giving my **** for some time now with this system overload message. I get it. I only have so much RAM on my iMac (I'll post tech specs below) so I thought I'd get something to help with the workload. Just got a WD My Book VelociRaptor Duo 2TB External Dual Hard Drive Storage RAID Thunderbolt to put my logic project files and sample libraries in kontakt on to take some of the weight off of my internal hard drive's CPU. Well all that is said and done and Logic is still overloading. Did I do something wrong or not do something I was supposed to? This thing is supposed to have 10000rpm. If anyone can help that'd be great.
Here's my computer's tech specs:
iMac
21.5-inch, Late 2013
Processor 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Software OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)

EtreCheck version: 2.1.1 (104)
Report generated December 9, 2014 at 1:51:57 PM CST
Hardware Information: ℹ️
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013) (Verified)
iMac - model: iMac14,3
1 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core
8 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Video Information: ℹ️
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - VRAM: 1024 MB
iMac 1920 x 1080
2060W 1600 x 900 @ 60 Hz
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.9.4 (13E28) - Uptime: 7 days 20:2:4
Disk Information: ℹ️
APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E662 disk0 : (1 TB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 999.35 GB (801.70 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
WDC WD1000DHTZ-11N21V0 disk3 : (1 TB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
disk3s2 (disk3s2) <not mounted> : 999.86 GB
Boot OS X (disk3s3) <not mounted> : 134 MB
WDC WD1000DHTZ-11N21V0 disk4 : (1 TB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk4s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
disk4s2 (disk4s2) <not mounted> : 999.86 GB
Boot OS X (disk4s3) <not mounted> : 134 MB
USB Information: ℹ️
Line 6, Inc. Mobile Keys 49
PNY Technologies USB 2.0 FD 16.08 GB
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
USB20FD (disk5s1) /Volumes/USB20FD : 16.08 GB (15.12 GB free)
Apple Inc. MacBook Air SuperDrive 8.39 GB
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo
Configuration files: ℹ️
/etc/sysctl.conf - Exists
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Anywhere
Adware: ℹ️
Geneio [Remove]
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/System/Library/Extensions
[loaded] com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.6.6 - SDK 10.6) [Support]
Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[failed] com.apple.AOSNotificationOSX.plist
[failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]
[running] com.genieoinnovation.macextension.plist Adware! [Remove]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.avid.sari.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.avid.sibelius75.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client.plist Adware! [Remove]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist [Support]
[running] com.rockysandstudio.WUHelper.plist [Support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Support]
[loaded] com.genieo.completer.download.plist Adware! [Remove]
[loaded] com.genieo.completer.ltvbit.plist [Support]
[running] com.genieo.completer.update.plist Adware! [Remove]
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
TuneupMyMac UNKNOWN (missing value)
Google Drive Application (/Applications/Google Drive.app)
Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)
EOS Utility ApplicationHidden (/Applications/Canon Utilities/EOS Utility/EOS Utility.app)
WDDriveUtilityHelper UNKNOWN (missing value)
WDDriveUtilityHelper Application (/Applications/WD Drive Utilities.app/Contents/WDDriveUtilityHelper.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.223 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.223 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 16.0.0.235
o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 [Support]
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
Scorch: Version: Unknown - SDK 10.2 [Support]
googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 [Support]
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version
User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
WebEx64: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
Omnibar Adware! [Remove]
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player [Support]
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      28% PluginProcess
      18% Logic Pro
      5% WindowServer
      2% coreaudiod
      2% Finder
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
3.76 GB Logic Pro
241 MB PluginProcess
155 MB Finder
69 MB WindowServer
43 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
72 MB Free RAM
2.28 GB Active RAM
2.21 GB Inactive RAM
3.46 GB Wired RAM
30.56 GB Page-ins
4.67 GB Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up. I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up.
I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?
When I bought the new (used) iMac, I also bought an external hard drive for backups. It worked fine, but my husband stole it.
Then I bought a new external hard drive (Seagate) and it worked fine for three weeks, then died.
So I just got a new external hard drive, which was put together from an internal hard drive and a hard drive enclosure.
Time machine did the first backup today, and it should have taken 9 hours like it did on the previous first time full back up. Instead, it took 30 minutes. That can't be right. I want to start over and do a full backup to make sure everything gets onto my new external hard drive, but I can't figure out how to do that. Please help.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the 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 (command-V).
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

I have moved all my songs onto a new external hard drive but it has wiped my iPod clean. Although when I connect my iPod it's starts teh process of sync'ing - so many songs in I get a pop up advising the siong could not be read or written to?

I have moved all my itunes onto a new external hard drive to free up space. It has wiped my ipod clean! I can still see the itunes on the new hard drive so I restored my iPod and tried to sync. Although when I connect my iPod it's in the process of syncing, so many songs in I get a pop up saying could not copy to my iPod as xyz song title could not be read or written. I click ok for this pop up to dissapear and then another pop up appears saying could not coyp to iPod because of unknown error.!!! Help I'm going crazy.

Did you go into iTunes to change the location of your media files? if not you will need to go into iTunes and click on preference and select the advance tab then click the iTunes Media folder location. Select the location of your on external hard drive.

New external hard drive not readable, don't want to erase data

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