New hard drive not showing up in disk utility

I just purchased a WD 320 GB SATA hard drive to replace a defective drive in the Macbook Pro. Western Digital says I got a defective hard drive. Is there any other possible answer?

Yes, you could have a damaged hard drive cable or a faulty hard drive controller on your MBP's logic board. But if WD is willing to exchange your drive, take them up on the offer and see whether the new one works better, before you do anything else.

Similar Messages

Windows based WD external hard drive not showing up in Disk Utility to reformat to Mac... how can I erase the drive

We have a WD external harddrive previously used with a PC that we want to completely erase and reformat for use with our iMac desktop for use with Time Machine. The drive shows up on the desktop of the Mac, but it does not show up in Disk Utlity, assuming because it's Windows format. Outside of the standard "erase" feature in Disk Utility, is there any way to reformat this drive for Mac OS X? Or how can I get this drive to show up in Disk Utility? Note: The drive functions properly, has power, and we are able to view its current contents through the desktop icon, so it is a working drive. And we are ok with losing all the current data on the drive.

Hmm strange, I had just moved my external Lacie drive from my windows machine to my iMac and it was showing up in disk utility still formatted fat32 or whatever. I would disconnect the drive and restart the machine then replug the drive and try again.
Also not that it will make a difference ( I dont think it will but hey why not ) try accessing disk utility from the install disk?

New Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Disk Utilities

Hi all,
So a few days ago my hard drive failed on me completely. And I didn't back up before that.
Yeah.
I bought a WD Scorpio Blue SATA 320 GB / 8 MB Cache / 5400 RPM internal hard drive and installed it myself in my 13" MacBook Pro (2009 I think). Model number of the HD is WDBABC3200ANC-NRSN.
After installing the hard drive, I turned on the laptop and put my Snow Leopard install disc into the computer. It took me to the Mac OS X installer and I went into Utilities / Disk Utilities. Here, however, my new hard drive isn't showing up.
What do I need to do to make this laptop recognize it has a new hard drive? I'm pretty sure I installed the hard drive correctly. Any thoughts?
Thanks a ton! ^_^

make sure it is selected as the startup disc. system preferences>startup disc> make sure new hdd is the default startup disc.

Hard drive not showing up in disk utility

We had a couple power outages a few days ago.
But everything worked fine last night when I shut down.
Started up--no chime--and got question mark in folder flashing icon.
Started up with G5 OSX install disk 1. Ran Disk Utility and hard drive DOES NOT show up. Checked again and again. Same thing. Zapped PRAM and did the "X" key thing (according to Apple documents). Now it starts up with chime. Still no hard drive.
I read other older posts with similar problems. Sentiment was that the hard drive was fried.
I have most clients work backed up. But if I can retrieve their data, I'd give up the whole computer. I really need that data. What are my chances that the hard drive is gone? I don't want to spend alot of money with an apple tech out here if its probably dead. I'll just buy a new hard drive and start all over.
Took the Tech Tool disk that came with Apple Care (on another computer; I don't have Apple care on this G5) and ran diagnostics. It just hangs up at "Scanning Volumes" with nothing labeled in the Volume drop-down menu.
Please advise!

Yeah, dadof3, you were right. I dropped it off at a authorized repair shop in Evanston, IL (lapin systems) and they told me the bad news. So they're putting in a 250 GB startup drive w/a new Tiger system AND putting aside a new Lacie 250 GB external firewire drive for me.
Instead of archiving jobs once a month and never doing back-ups, I'll be backing up my production folders DAILY with that external drive. I'll unplug it from the power supply upon completion of the backup.
Thanks for the last-ditch suggestion. I'll do the freezer thing and then connect to bay 2. Meanwhile, I'll be calling clients and dreading revision or re-order requests from jobs started between September and now (gulp). At least I have backups on another computer for my latest jobs.
This was a terrible lesson. Bitter, yet humbling. To all those who use their computers to put food on the table, don't be a fool like me! NEVER go without daily backups for jobs in progress or jobs not archived.

External hard drive not showing up in Disk Utility

I'm attempting to transfer something from my Mac to my Windows with a Toshiba 1 TB USB external drive. When I plug it in, however, it doesn't show up in Disk Utility, Finder, or the Desktop

No I don't, I was using it less than a half an hour before then I plugged it in, and it wasn't popping up again.

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!

Western Digital drive not showing up in disk utility--Help please.

Hello all. This is my first post. I am having trouble with my WD 500GB external hard drive. It is not showing up in disk utility when connected either via the firewire or USB ports. I purchased the drive about 8months ago, brought it home and set it up as my Time Machine backup drive. It worked great for several months, until it got full. Then it stopped showing up on the desktop for no apparent reason. I discovered through reading support documents on the Apple web site that when I set the drive up initially I should have changed the partitioning protocol from master boot record to GUID, but I did not. I followed the apple web site instructions for making the change expos facto, but was instructed to press buttons that were "grayed out". As such, I couldn't do it. Perhaps foolishly, I thought that I would just start all over by reinitializing it, formatting it correctly (with my new found knowledge) and then do the time machine backup fresh. However, the drive no longer shows up in disk utility no matter how or in what order I connect it. When the drive is connected by firewire there is evidence of some recognition of the drive in system profiler, but it is listed as "External HDD Buttons and Lights". There is also evidence of the My Book showing up at a minimal level (eg. the firmware revision and a few other details are listed). On the front of the drive is a ring of blue lights that progress in a clockwise direction as soon as a connection is made via either firewire or USB. Before that it is solid blue. I have read through all the info that I can find on this site, and all the suggestions require the drive being recognized in disk utility. Without that, I am stuck. I know this must be a solvable problem, because the drive just a bucket of parts before it was manufactured. I just don't know enough to solve the problem or even know what qeustion to ask. I would really appreciate some help. Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post.

If you can't boot from an OSX DVD, it sounds bad. Yet I think you said you were running Disk Utility from the DVD?
I got an external Firewire drive enclosure for 2.5 inch IDE drives from Other World Computing (OWC)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MOTGFW400/ but similar items are available from many vendors like Newegg. About $60 for the basic model. More money can buy additional interfaces on the enclosure like FW800 and USB2; an AC adapter instead of letting the firewire bus power the drive (usually OK).

New hard drive not showing up in select a destination window of install

I just installed a 500G hard drive and went to install OS X leopard and the new drive isn't showing up in the destination pane. Do I have to format it first? It shows up under disc utilities. If I have to format it what format should I use there are a few listed (journaled, etc)

I have had a new hard drive installed. When I go to Disk Utilities and click on Info it shows that it the following:
Connection Bus: Serial ATA
Connection ID: Device 0
Partion Type: ApplePartionScheme
Total Capcity: 298.1 GB
Format: Mac OS Extended (journaled)
However, the drive does not show up to install the OS to. Where do I go from here?
Sunny

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

New hard drive not showing on MacBook Start Up or Disk Utilities

Hi there,
I have read a lot of forum information in the last hour and I am not sure what direction to take.
I have a 2007 MacBook and my hardrive died so I have had a brand new Hitachi 5400rpm 1TB installed.
i am unable to format it as it is not appearing in Disc Utilities,
I am unable to select it as a start up disc as it is not showing (needs to be formated first?)
My external is not working when I try to backup from it.
Will I need another MAC as some forums suggest to format the new HD?
Thanks
K

An external disk drive enclosure can be had for just a few bucks, you can install the disk drive into it and connect it to your MacBooks USB port, like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2C50T39109
Or just a cable to do the same thing like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1PU0M68574
You mentioned "the company said it appeared on their external" again, what company? Did you install the drive yourself of have someone do it for you?

How do I access an external hard drive that shows up in Disk Utility but will not show up in finder or on my desktop?

I have an external hard drive that just stopped showing up one day. Is there a solution to this problem that allows me to secure the data on the drive before reformatting?

I'm having the same problem bpay14, but with a CalDigit VR2 6TB RAID0 external hard drive.
One day it was showing on my desktop, the other it wasn't. And I still didn't update my Mavericks to 10.9.3 (still with the 10.9.2).
It shows up in the disk utility, and I can even Verify the disk and Repair it (but I don't wanna start repairing
something that probably doesn't need to be repaired, so I haven't clicked the Repaid button, only the Verify button) and it says its working just fine.
But it doesn't show in the Finder or the desktop for that matter.
And even if I force disconnect the cable, I get the usual "this disk was not ejected properly" notification
presumingly the disk was mounted on the desktop and I forced eject by unppluging it...
I found a way to force open the disk, through Disk Utility that's by clicking with the right mouse button
on the disk icon, and chosing OPEN "CalDigit AFRICA 6TB"... (see picture 1)
But... after that, it open a Finder window showing all my internal and external drives, but that drive's
name is in washed grey, like if it was unmounted (see picture 2).
When selected, I can see everything and work normally on the harddrive, even opening FCPROX projects or Libraries, copying from it and writing documents into it... just normal... (see picture 3)
BUT IT DOES NOT SHOW IN THE DESKTOP...
that's my problem...
I even did a Command+i for Info on the hard drive. (see picture 4)
Can anyone shed some light on this issue?
I would be eternally grateful!
Thanks in advance!!!
Cheers!

External hard drive not recognised after using disk utility to format

i formatted two external hard drives using disk utility on my mac mini, now they do not show in finder. they can be seen in disk utility but the repair options etc are greyed out?

Try http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html
Allan

My new USBs are not showing up in Disk Utility

HI ! I just purchased 25 new USBs to upload biz marketing content to. The USBs are not showing up in the FInder (I've checked all the options in the Preferences Pane) nor are they showing in Disk Utility. What am I missing? Or should I just return them?

Let's clarify what you have written:
1. My usb drives seem to work with other usbs (that have been used on both mac and windows machines before - still works).
What specific USB drives are you refering to?
Are they the 25 in question?
Have you tested the USP ports on your MBP with other USB drives (not the 25) or other peripheral devices to make certain that the ports are functional?
2. I've had the usb's reformatted on a windows machine and we were able to plug it in to an old mac to see it there.
Are these the 25 USB drives in question? If so, what was the format?
3. It is only when I have returned to my office that ONLY these usbs do not work.
These are the 25 USB drives that have been formatted and are seen on the 'old mac' but do not appear on your MBP? They still do not appear in Disk Utility?
Is this a Mavericks issue? How else would it be visible on older Mac's and not my new Power PC?
It should not be a Mavericks issue
What do you mean by 'new Power PC'? Are you using a MBP or a Windows machine or is this a typo? Exactly what MBP model are you using?
Ciao.

Why is my usb hard drive not showing up in airport utillity 6 ?

Hey!
So I have just thought about filling the last plug in my airport express. I formated my HD to fat32 (I thought it'd work) and plugged it into my airport. Then I opened the utillity and...no "Disk" option. ....err, what?
What do I REALLY need to do, to share a HD with my Airport express?
Regards, Ingwie.

Unfortunately, there is nothing that you can do, since the AirPort Express will not support a hard drive at the USB port.....It will only support printing at the USB port.

External Hard Drive not working thanks to disk utility format MS Dos?

hello everyone, i have a problem and i have no idea what to do, heres the deal.
a friend of mine bought a toshiba external 320gb hard drive, i have 100gb of video footage he needed, i opened the hard drive, used it without a problem, he took it home and he couldnt use it on his PC so i did some research and found out that to use it on a PC and MAC i had to format it using disk utility to MS dos, so i did that, after that both my macs dont recognize the HD and if i try a PC, it appears but you cant do anything with it, if i try to format it it says to insert a disk in that drive....
is there anyway i can fix this? or do i owe my friend a 320gb external HD?
thanks

Mac format is different than windows format. Fat32 is recognized by both systems, but has its limitations. You just need to reformat the drive to NTFS on a PC. I believe HFS+ was probably what your original drive was. If it was Fat32, it would have been recognized on the PC.
For future reference, just install the NTFS driver on your mac. You can find it here http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g. Reformat the drive on a PC, install the driver and you can read and write to Windows NTFS drives and never have to worry about it again. Just right click on it in Windows and format it to NTFS.
Hope that helps.

New hard drive not showing up in disk utility

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for