Not Reading External Drive

I have been using this camera for years. When I plug it into the dock, then turn it on, it takes a few seconds to connect to the computer. The camera then says "Connected to Computer" and a few seconds later an external drive pops onto my machine. It shows up in the Devices section in Finder, and I just drag/drop the pictures as needed.
!!!!! Well, the camera says it's connected, but no drive shows up. !!!!!
I also tried using my card reader that has always worked, and suddenly is not working, either. I then thought, perhaps it was the USB hub that I'm using, so I plugged my iPod into it, and the iPod opened and ran iTunes perfectly.
Help.

I did. I unplugged the hub, and plugged the camera and docking station (which has always worked before, even through the hub) to my computer directly.
The camera said "Establishing Connection to Computer..." then "Connected to Computer", yet I still didn't get a drive to pop up on my computer.
And yes, as mentioned before, I plugged my iPod into the hub, and it ran perfectly.

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I have an imac 2009 the disk drive is damaged and I have lost the passwords I need to reset passwords I tried booting with a macosx disk from an external hard drive but did not read the drive how else can I reset password ?

I have an imac 2009 the disk drive is damaged and I have lost the passwords I need to reset passwords I tried booting with a macosx disk from an external hard drive but did not read the drive how else can I reset password ?
I have a 2012 mac book pro can I use that to connect with firewire and load osx that way? and how woudl I do that?
Thanks so much!

To what password are you referring? Do you mean your user account's admin password? Or do you mean the master password for File Vault or do you mean a Firmware Password?
For an admin password:
Forgot Your Account Password
For Snow Leopard and earlier
     Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password
For Lion/Mountain Lion
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
     Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow
     instructions in the dialog window that will appear.
     Or see Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password and
     OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
If you cannot do the above then try this:
1. Boot to Safe Mode by restarting and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-S keys until a black screen with white type appears.
2. At the prompt, type the following commands pressing return after each command line:
     /sbin/fsck -yf
     If you do not receive a "Filesystem OK" message then repeat this command until
     you do. If after seven tries you still do not receive a "Filesystem OK" message,
     then the system is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled.
     mount -uw /
     cd /private/var/db/netinfo
     mv local.nidb local.old
     rm ../.AppleSetupDone
     shutdown -r now
The second-to-last command above will cause OS X to think that the operating system is newly installed, and when the new owner starts up the computer it will send him/her to the startup wizard where he/she can start a new user without reinstalling.
This last method does not actually change a password. It simply removes the user accounts and lets you create an initial admin account as if the computer were new out of the box.
How to reset the OS X password without a startup CD:
Reboot into Single-user Mode. Enter the following and press RETURN after each command line
   1. Type fsck -fy
   2. Type mount -uw /
   3. Type passwd <username>
I have never tried this method myself.

Question Mark / not reading hard drives

I have a flashing question mark /apple icon on the attempts to startup my G4 . Not reading the drives . I have used the startup disk & checed the profile & it reads the drives in the extensions, however not on startup

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58042 Macintosh: Flashing Question Mark at Startup
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=31355 Mac OS: Flashing Globe When Computer Turns On or A folder that has an alternating flashing question mark
Cheers, Tom

Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5fter upgrde does not read external harddrive

Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 fter upgrde does not read external harddrive

Hello there ZamirasDAD,
I was looking through our aricles about what you may be experiencing and recommend resetting your SMC and your PRAM.
To reset your SMC on an iMac you would use this article Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964.
Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
To reset the PRAM use this article named About NVRAM and PRAM found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
Regards,
Sterling

DiskWarrior Preview Not Reading External Hard Drive -- Can't back up files

So I recently fell upon the grey screen with the folder problem. After some research I got disk warrior and ran it on my computer (which I got in September 2006). After it was finished, DiskWarrior told me that the disk was malfunctioning and therefore could not replace the old directory with the new directory. What I take this to mean is that I need to get a new hard drive or a new computer altogether.
Per the recommendation that I back up my files, I tried inserting my USB eternal hard drive, however it is not showing up on the DiskWarrior Preview screen (the one where you would be able to transfer files). I restarted the computer and redid the whole process, and the external drive did show up on the list of disks that I had the option of repairing. I chose to rebuild my internal drive, of course, but came back to the Preview window where I could not get the external drive to appear. How do I back up my files???
I will be able to stop by an Apple store this weekend, so I'd like to know if there is anything else I could do to save my computer, more specifically how I can back up my files in the case that something terrible happens to my data.
Thanks
- Liam

Hi,
I was wondering if you ever resolved this issue as i am having exactly the same problem with my powerbook G4 17" With Leopard (i cant remember the exact version and now i have no way to check).
It recently would not boot up past the gray screen and after a while of the apple logo with the spinning bar it shut it self down again.
After going through all try to book from system disk) and getting pretty dismal results i have come to use disk warrior 4.1.
Now i managed to boot the machine from the disk and have run the rebuild option and after a couple of hours i was faced with the message that
"disk warrior has successfully rebuilt a new directory from the disk named macintosh HD" but then "THE NEW DIRECTORY CANNOT REPLACE THE ORIGINAL DIRECTORY BECAUSE OF A DISK MALFUNCTION"
This report then goes on to tell me that it is highly recommended that i back up all the data from the preview disk.
So this is where the problem lies, i can not get any external drive to in the preview window so that i can copy the information. The drives work just fine, have ample space but i just can not access them through preview window.
I did what was said above as well in restart the disk warrior process agian with the external drive already plugged in (with even an option to rebuild that) yet after rebuilding the internal harddrive again i can not see the external. The weird thing is i know that the machine recognises that it is there as i can save a pdf report to it yet when it comes to access through the preview window there is no such option.
Does anyone know what to do? Do i look for another programme or i could hook it up to another mac and perhaps it would recognise that as a disk to send to . I just need a viable option of getting my data from the internal drive to an external source so that i can re format the thing.
I can see it, i know its there yet i just cant figure out how to do it. Very frustrating.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

New external hard drive froze while transferring info to new computer. Laptop does not read external hard drive. Went to Apple store and didn't work. Any suggestions?

Day 1. Went to Apple store because iMovie was not working. It kept shutting down. Prior to going to the store, I called Apple Support and deleted and reinstalled iMovie. Still did not work. Then I went to the Apple Store. After an hour it finally worked but when I got home, it didn't work AND my iPhoto application was missing. Tried to back up on external hard drive but it didnt work.
Day 2. Explained the situation again to Apple employee at Apple Store. I bought an external hard drive that employee recommended and picked out. I went home and backed up my computer on the external HD.
Day 3 (morning). Went back to Apple. Employee verified that my hard drive was backed up successfully. All my photos, music, and documents were successfully backed up. He was going to reinstall the operating system. He did that successfully. He showed me how to install the external HD info to the laptop. I went home and followed the directions. It was going to take about 2 hours. I kept monitoring the progress and everything looked good until....30 minutes remained. 30 minutes remained for a good 20 minutes. The ext hard drive stopped responding. I tried to canel but there were no buttons to push. I exited the program. I called apple support and they tried to walk me through it. My computer still was not recognizing that the exteranl HD was plugged in. I mad another trip to the Apple store and the emplyee confirmed that the extranal HD was not reading. He tried plugging it in to his computer and it still wasnt reading.
He did give me a data recovery number to call. I asked if Apple would cover the cost and he said no. I called then and was quoted $700-$2000 to recover the data.
Does anyone have any suggestions? When frustrates me more is that I followed every instruction and I did exactly what Apple told me to do. Now, ALL of my data is lost and Apple does not want to help.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do next? I need help. =*(

Hi rkaufmann--
Thanks for the response. I can say with confidence that that is not the issue. I have at least 8 of these same WD external portable drives that are powered through their USB 3.0 cables, and I have never had problems with any of them. Sometimes I connect them directly to my computer, and sometimes I use a powered hub. Either way they work fine. The drives with their own power source do not suit my needs.
My question is specifically whether anyone has seen an issue where sometimes they plug a drive in and it is not recognized but then it continues to work. In other words, the question I'm posing to other users is whether it sometimes happens that they connect a drive and it simply doesn't show up, but then they disconnect and reconnect and it goes on working fine as it should.

Need help with Mac & PC not recognizing external drive (disk not readable)

I am having trouble getting my computer(s) to recognize my Seagate External Drive.
Have tried on my MacBook, iMac, 2 Mini's & my roommate's PC and all reveal the same issue: The Disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.
MacBook/iMac both are working off of Leopard
Both Mini's are on Tiger
It won't show up in finder, rendering it unobtainable. I need to get the information if at all possible off of this hard drive (very important!!) so any help I can get would be greatly appreciated!
It allows me to go into disk utility where it shows up with this information:
Name : ST316002 3A Media
Type : Disk
Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record
Disk Identifier : disk4
Media Name : ST316002 3A Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : USB
USB Serial Number : 3LJ07T540000
Device Tree : /PCI0@0/USB7@1D,7/@4:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : No
Location : External
Total Capacity : 149.1 GB (160,041,885,696 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 4
Partition Number : 0
And it is in the "about this mac" section with this information:
Seagate Mass Storage:
Capacity: 149.05 GB
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk4
Version: 0.00
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Seagate
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: MBR (Master Boot Record)
Product ID: 0x0500
Serial Number: 3LJ07T540000
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Vendor ID: 0x0bc2

Additional info:
on the disk4s1 info in disk utility, this information is seen:
Name : disk4s1
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk4s1
Mount Point : Not mounted
Connection Bus : USB
Device Tree : /PCI0@0/USB7@1D,7/@4:1
Writable : Yes
Capacity : 149.0 GB (160,022,790,144 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : No
Can Turn Owners Off : No
Can Be Formatted : No
Bootable : No
Supports Journaling : No
Journaled : No
Disk Number : 4
Partition Number : 1
so it looks like a whole lot of no's that need to be turned around! I can't understand why it won't be read by either Mac or PC with all of this, or how I can fix it

Finder not browsing external drive

I'm having trouble with Finder.
When I connect my external drive, the icon shows up, and DiskUtility shows it mounted normally. However, when I try to open it through the Finder window, I get the error message:
"The alias “xyz” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found."
with the buttons:
"Delete Alias" "Fix Alias..." "Okay"
--Clicking "Fix..." brings up a select file/folder window, presumably to repoint the alias -- except the drive is grayed out and not selectable, so I have to cancel.
--Clicking the other two has no relevant effect
The drive is fine.
--I've repaired the drive in DiskUtility and in DiskWarrior -- all is okay with the drive
--I can browse the contents just fine in the terminal
--iTunes can play files located on the drive, no problem
--I can connect to it via my other mac just fine; perfectly normal, no alias problem
But I cannot browse to it in the Finder on this MacBook Pro.
This happens both when I'm connected directly and when I connect via an Airport extreme.
What is wrong with Finder?

Update: Additional Information
--When connected directly via USB, I experience the behavior described above
--When connected via Airport Extreme, and I try to browse by double-clicking on the disc icon, the same as above
--But, when using as a shared disk on an Airport Extreme, if I open the drive by 1. clicking on the "airport extreme " icon in the left panel of Finder, under "SHARED", then 2. double click on the xyz share drive icon that appears in finder -- then I can browse the drive normally, and open files and the like.
This is weird.
Thanks for any help!

T440s - Win 8.1 - not recognizing external drive

Hello!
I have this odd problem...
I recently bought Samsung's M3 Portable External Drive (1TB) and it worked fine up until I formatted the drive and unplugged it from my laptop. Now when I plug it back, the drive will not show up anywhere - tried DISKPART, Disk Management and some Samsung's disk management software, but it's not there.
I tried plugging it to other computers (Win 7 and Win 8.1) and it's working fine. Tried formatting it to exFAT, created 30GB partition and formatted it to FAT32 and currently it's formatted to NTFS - still not showing up in my T440s.
I have the latest windows updates installed, I uninstalled USB controllers. Nothing seems to help.
Hoping for your help,
Janek

Update: I tried creating a new user to see if it's Windows profile related issue, but it's not - the drive did not show up there either. What I did find out is that when I booted the Windows to advanced startup mode and used the Command Prompt there, then the Drive is shown in Diskpart. I formatted it from there and assigned new letter for the volume as well, but once I boot the Windows, the drive is still not showing up. So it is definitely Windows related issues not something specific to T440s.
Perhaps there's someone who could help, or has some suggestions?

IMovie 9 not recognizing external drive

Hi - has anyone experienced iMovie 9 not letting you save an event folder/project folder to an external drive?
It seems to see them but has a yellow bang symbol next to it. It is a MyBook drive. I've tried right clicking but there is no indication what the problem is.
I don't have enough room on my MacBook Pro to create my movie so I want to import my event files and same my project on he MyBook drive but the only place I have to save is my local drive. Any suggestions?
--Laureen

Check how your Mybook drive is formatted. iMovie will only recognize drives that are formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled). If your drive is formatted as FAT32, iMovie will not see it.
You can easily reformat a drive using Disk Utility, but be aware that reformatting will erase anything that is currently on that drive.
To reformat,
Open Disk Utility
Partition the drive with one partition using GUID.
Erase the drive using Mac OS Extended (journaled) as format.

Not recognizing external drive - WD in an Enclosure...

I hate to post this given all the other posts wrt external drive not working - wish I'd read those before making a purchase....
I bought an internal WD 1TB drive, put it in an enclosure (Vantec NexStar 3) with a firewire 800 conection. Connected and formatted beutifully. Copied files to and deleted from without a problem...
then started moving some iMovie files over - left the room for a while, came back (about 1/2 hour) and the WD drive was no longer recognized. Couldn't figure out how to get it back. I've managed to get it back a couple of times over the past 3 days, but hard to figure out the sequences that make it work.
I also have a WD Network drive and it looks like there may be a conflict between the two as it is hard to get both on at the same time - though that has been successful a couple of times.
2 questions:
1) is there a way to set WD drives to not sleep? or to sleep in accordance with the Mac? (from all the reading of similar issues, it sounds like that could be an issue.)
2) any idea how to check for drive conflicts on a Mac?
any other ideas about what it is would be great!!
I'm right now trying to get it connected so I can get the files off it, format it, and take it back - then purchase a Mac-specific drive from one of the known vendors I've been hearing about on this forum. (any recommendations about which would be better/best? 1TB or greater, firewire 800, for working on iMovie movies prediminently)
Thanks in advance!

WD drive mechanisms work very well. Most of my drives are currently WD, including the one that came installed inside my iMac. I like them because they seem to run quiet and cool. It's the Western Digital branded external drive enclosures that I've seen negative commentary about in various forums.
is there a way to set WD drives to not sleep? or to sleep in accordance with the Mac?
When the drive is in an external enclosure, I believe that is a function of the enclosure, not the drive mechanism. The enclosures I currently own are from Mac-oriented vendors (like OWC - www.macsales.com) and they can sense and follow the wake/sleep/off status of the Mac it is connected to automatically. I tend to buy such products from companies that specialize in supporting Mac users, because they have fully tested their products with Macs. In addition to OWC, others include LaCie, Macally, and G-Drive.
any idea how to check for drive conflicts on a Mac?
So the new drive (Vantec) is FireWire 800. Is the "WD network drive" connect via USB? I don't think there would be any conflict if it was connected over a network.
Mac OS X does not have things like Windows drive letters, so the usual conflict is a hardware conflict, or a case of exceeding the power available on the bus (whether it's USB or FireWire). Disconnect all other peripherals except a standard keyboard/mouse. Make sure each drive works by itself. Then connect the two at the same time. Then add any other peripherals one at a time. And make note of when, and if, there is a failure.
Also, it is easy to not consider how many devices you have connected to one power strip that is connected to one power outlet. There is a limit to how much power can go through a single power outlet, so if it looks even remotely crowded, be sure to spread the power cords for the iMac, external drives, second display, cell phone charger, USB hub, printer, your desk lamp, etc. to two or even three power strips connected to separate power outlets.

Bridge CS4 Does Not See External Drive

Very suddenly, Bridge is not seeing the external USB connected driver I use to store recent photos. I read a similar message here and the writer was told to add the drive to favorites. That appeared to work for him, but I could not do that since the folder doesn't appear under Computer in the favorites section either. The drive appears in Windows Explorer. I am using Vista 32. Any suggestions?
Fran

Did you power up or connect the external drive after Bridge had been started? I've observed that Bridge only includes drives that were attached and active when Bridge was launched; it does not add a drive to its folders list if that drive is started after Bridge is active. With your external drive on (and appearing in explorer) try exiting and relauching Bridge.

IMac not recognising external drives or memory cards

Hi,
I've been using both a Lacie external drive and a standard SD card from transferring files and images on my computer for ages, with no problems. I have two issues, possibly related, possibly not.
1) I accidentally removed my Lacie drive before it had properly ejected the other day. The message that I had done so popped up on the screen so I plugged it back in, (as the Mac will usually fix this when it happens) and it never opened up in my finder. Tried restarting machine, but it still cannot even see the drive. It's an old external drive, and was backed up, so I put the problem down to that and almost forgot about it.
2) Today I plugged in the SD card from my camera to transfer some images. After the transfer, I ejected the card correctly, then reinserted it to do a last job. Again, nothing in the finder. It's like neither of the devices are even there.
I've checked finder preferences to make sure that I can see external hard drives - this is on.
I've done the old fashioned restart too. No luck either way.
An additional point is that my BACKUP drive IS visible in finder.
Any ideas?
I'm worried now that I shouldn't plug in any external drives, especially my work ones, just in case there is something seriously wrong.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
Note: If FileVault is enabled under Mac OS X 10.7 or later, you can’t boot in safe mode.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Update does NOT fix External drive slowness

I ran the update hoping it would solve the slowness issue when keeping your iPhoto Library on an external drive (mine being a Time Capsule).
Well, it did not - and I may resort back to 08, that worked perfectly.

I may have misstated this. The trial of Aperture was set, I believe, to use and save the photos in their original iPhoto locations (folders) on the same drive. I also was using 'show iPhoto browser' when trying this out.
So while not using the actual library file it was still a good test of using the same amount of photos on the same drive....

Mac is really slow to read external drive

hello, i have a late 2012 mac book pro and a seagate 1tb paasport external drive.when i connect my drive to my computer sometimes it takes very long to read the drive right now its going on 5+ minutes and i still cant access my info.i have tested the harddrive on other computers and it boots up instantly or almost instantly.i have also noticced the slowness from time to time when i connect any type of flashdrive or cd wich again seem to work fine on any other device but tend to sometimes not boot up on my computer.is there any fix or possible way to speed up this process ? any recommendations? your help and or suggestions would be highly apprecciated since i do rely on this equipment for work.

Hey chezron,
If you are having slow down issues frequently, then check out the articles below to start with isolating what could be causing the issue. Sometime it could be an application or a process that is constantly running and causing slow down. Another thing could be the memory usage as well, for example if you are multitasking, then the memory may be full.
OS X Mountain Lion: If your Mac runs slowly
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10798
Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime, affect performance, and increase heat and fan activity
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203184
Take care,
-Norm G.

Not Reading External Drive

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