Prob w/external hard drive

When I connect my external hard drive, it says that it's "preparing for backup" but never actually backs up. This is a new problem, it's worked fine in the past. Plenty of room on the external hard drive.

Thank you SO much Curt. I can't believe you responded that fast...
especially the day before Thanksgiving!
1. I don't need to search across "different" drives, just my external hard
drive. I don't keep any pictures on any other drives (including my internal
hard drive).
2. I did try this but unfortunately it didn't solve my problem.
Basically I can't create a collection from my external hard drive that
works. I actually can't even do a "find". If I navigate to a folder on my
external hard drive from within Organizer, and filter on a keyword ("bird"),
I can then see all of pictures with "birds" as the keyword. But if I go up
to find and select that particular folder to search for that keyword, there
are no results (I've tried it every way I could think of).

Similar Messages

Iomega external hard drive

I recently purchased a 1 terabyte iomega Prestige USB external hard drive for use with my 2.16 GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro 15" running Mac OS X 10.4.11. I have entrusted this drive with several hundred gigabytes of data, and it has ceased to be recognized in any form by my laptop. This is not the first hard drive to stop being recognized by my computer. It is not recognized on another Macbook Pro, but that may be for unrelated reasons.
It does not appear in Finder, in Disk Utility, or in USB probe. A Western Digital Mybook works fine, if a little slowly. I have tried both USB ports, restarted my computer, and it has been plugged in for about 15 minutes. The drive is spinning and the light is on, but it is totally inaccessible. It is formatted as Mac OS X Extended (journaled), and it is less than a month old.
I have accidentally improperly disconnected it in the past, but the last time I used it, it was working and was disconnected properly.
How can I get this drive working with my computer again?

If the drive fails to appear in Disk Utility or System Profiler yet other external drives work, then the drive may have suffered mechanical failure. Either the drive itself, the enclosure's power supply, or the enclosure's bridge board may have failed. Contact Iomega tech support for assistance.

What brand portable external hard drive should I buy?

Can anyone suggest what brand of portable external hard drive would be a good one to buy for storing my iTunes music and maybe photos on. My Macbook is now getting stuffed full of music and as I have an 80gig iPod I will need to move my iTunes on to a larger drive to make the most use of it and I probably need at least 100gig. I can get hold of the Lacie Porshe design ones from a local apple retailer, or order something else from the Apple store...Crossfire maybe? I want it to be really plug and go, be ready formatted for Mac, and be bus powered and fully portable.
I would be grateful for any advice.

I like my Acomdata too. It's 320GB and in this aluminum case...I call it "the ingot" because it's big and heavy and metal. However, it's not a treat to take places because it's so big and heavy. I'm thinking about getting an OWC Firewire drive based on a 2.5" drive because of the need for an external drive that's highly portable.
However, don't go the USB2 route unless you have Firewire on the external drive too. USB2 requires a lot of intervention from the CPU that Firewire doesn't. You will NOT be able to vidcap to a USB2 drive. However, no probs vidcapping to a Firewire drive. I don't know why Apple is moving away from Firewire...it's a superior system. If they moved to eSATA I would understand, but that's not where they are going. It's probably a cost thing, darn it.
Message was edited by: S. Michelle Klein-Hass

Can I reboot my new iMac running OS 10.7 into Snow Leopard 10.6.8 from an external hard drive

I have installed my hard drive from a previous but terminally I'll iMac that was running Snow Leopard into a Sata to USB enclosure. This is displaying on the desktop of my new iMac running Lion as an external Hard drive,also system preferences sees it as a start up source.My question is , is it safe to restart into Snow leopard without causing a kernel panic and if it does boot will it be fast enough to use as it as a USB drive.I know I could try it and see, but I would rather some advice.
Regards
John Lewis

Yes you should be able to (as long as your computer didn't ship with lion, if so idk it would prob work though) although be aware it will be MUCH slower than the normal OS. Hope this helps!

External hard drive is not recognized anymore

For a couple of months i have been backing up my stuff on an external hard drive (Verbatim) no probs.
Last time I didn't close the external hard drive down properly. Now my Macbook does not recognize the external HD any more.
I have tested the external HD on other PC and it still works fine.
How can I change my settings or do something else to have my Macbook recognize is it again.
Thanks!

Whenever an external drive is disconnected without first being ejected or dismounted, file system corruption is a very real, perhaps even likely, possibility. If that has happened you might try repairing it with Disk Warrior:http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
Message was edited by: macbig

Entire iPhoto pictures missing from external hard drive.

Hello, I have already posted this problem but I'm not sure it was clear enough and not getting the response I needed. I had a Jan 2011 white laptop came with snow leopard, and I upgraded to Lion. A good few months ago, my daughter splashed a small amount of water on it, whilst it was turned on and open. I dried off the water I could see, and the mac was still working so I assumed it was ok. (At this time it had a very low battery and was not connected to a power source) Later on in the afternoon, forgetting about the incident, I did the unthinkable and plugged in the power lead. Result: nothing, the laptop would not boot up, I tried a few times, even holding down the power key for extended time but nothing. I eventually gave up and got myself a new macbook 10.9.2 then two days ago, took the old burnt out laptop to a place to get them to remove the hard drive and fit it in a case for me with a usb connection. They done this, I got home and connected the external hard drive off my old mac into my new mac, success I could see it but when I tried launching I photo from the external HD (old lap top) on my new mac. (I didn't realise there would be a software issue which is obvious now)The new mac with mavericks said it could not open iphoto. So I tried searching for the photo files manually on my external hard drive (but there was nothing) The user files were completely empty. It showed hardly any bytes (indicating I had nothing) My itunes files where gone too, and I could find no files I needed that were originally on my old (mac/ now external harddrive) The only items that were intact were the documents in the documents folder and the applications. I took the external hd back to the repair shop and they said they could not find them. They said they would charge me £100 for an attempted recovery of data which I 'm now not sure what to do, as I'm unsure what has happened. I desperately would like to get some of the data back, i;e (some files from desktop and photos) as frustratingly it was not backed up....
My questions are:
1.Would trying to open iphoto, and itunes from my external HD with earlier software in 10.9.2 Mavericks cause me to lose data (including desktop files) ?
2. Could the water damage be the issue for destroying the data? (although other data is still there)
3. Is it likely the files are still on my external hd and I just can't see them (although the low bytes seems to indicate perhaps not)
4. Is there a reliable data recovery program out there someone can recommend I can get and use that may recover the files, and do I download it on my new mac, and direct it to the external hd?
5. Would apeture locate the missing iphoto picture files from the external HD and integrate it into the library on my mavericks?
6. Could the problem be caused by leaving the HD in my old(water damaged) laptop for so long before I tried rescuing it?
Any light on situation much appreciated. Apologies if this issue already been aswered, I did scour but did not see help I needed.
Thanks in advance

Hi T,
Thanks again for reply. Just checked my mac for the first time without the external HD attached. I had a hard time trying to get back into this site on my new mac. Now I keep getting a pop up that says (https:// discussions.apple.com bad gateway) with ok button every every 30 secs or or something after that I can't type except if I click ok. Prior to that I had some message telling me something about proxy server gateway no access or something. Not happenign on other sites so perhaps just a random error, (hope I have now not picked up a bug or another insidious thing from some site whilst trying to resolve my old HD probs....)
Extremely annoying!!
Well I checked as you asked. This is the process.(if you can tell me how to take a screen shot I will do it, but at moment I don't know how to do that exactly)
At the moment I have got my HD showing on my desk top Top RH corner, like they used to in the good old days before it all changed. I do this, because everything is conveniently placed in one place. Call me old fashioned I guess..
(Not to change the thread but this pop up thing is driving me mad...)
If I doubleclick on that by default it opens with five folders in it, I;E applications, library, system, user information, users.
When I click on Users.
It is here I find the user file with a user name that I have NEVER entered into this new mac, (especially with old MAC HD attached as I did not want any confusion) I even re-named my old HD (OLD mac HD)
This new user file even has the icon of a HOUSE instead of a folder, which is something off older OS as far as I know, I never saw it in mavericks before attaching this encased contraption which is just a metal box as far as I see that holds my old HD, but annoyingly done by someone that may not have known what they were doing..
Why the heck is it there? It should not be there!
When I click on this old (home folder) as that is what it used to be, and that was the name of my OLD HD before it got the name (old mac HD) which now I think of it, was not changed by me by default... which is a thought.. I only added the word OLD to it..
Well it has all my default folders such as desk top, docs, movies, pictures ect.. When I click on pictures I have my new iphoto library and another folder called root which has the salvaged files I saved there from the recovery software Stellar Pheonix which I downloaded a couple of days ago but can't actually open with preview anyway. I tried to do it with an old version of CS 5 photoshop to see if that would work, but I could not get photoshop to open in mavericks even after java update)
The interesting thing is is: if I go to system preferences in my dock I click on users it only has the user folders I specified that should be there on my new mac.
now peeved. and this annoying pop up.....Situ does not seem to be getting any better!
Instructions please how to post screenshot..
PS sorry about LONG POST

Why wont my macbook pro boot with external hard drives connected?

After two years of uninterrupted success running my MBP with five external hard drives attached (two USB, two eSATA with LaCie Expresscard 34, one FireWire 800), my MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion 10.8.2 installed will not boot with the drives attached. Starting up with the option key depressed does not work. Anyone have insight? This didn't happen until I upgraded to 10.8.2, so is there a bug fix needed in that update?

Update, I reset the PRAM (i think) and now the chime is back as I start up... small win but thats all it does.
So I decided to dload a copy of Lion and burn to a disc, then try and boot from there. When i boot holding option and select the dvd it sounds like something is happening, contstant turning or reading of the disk, but nothing is happening on screen, just my old friend the apple logo and his mate the spinning wheel. Starting to concede now, just hoping to get my data back, its mostly photos and some files i cant duplicate.
I am going to purchase Mountain lion on my current apple ID using a friends macbook and try and reinstall from there. Although i never had Mountain Lion installed in the first place (just lion) there isnt an option to buy lion on the app store (i dont think) This is prob my last spin of the dice i think before handing it in, unless anyone on here has some ideas....

Delay on save as external hard drive spins up

I have an issue with Snow Leopard that seems new.
Often when I go to save a document there is a significant delay while the external hard drive spins up. This happens also sometimes when I go to open a file from within an application.
I have spotlight set to not index that drive. How can I stop my computer from thinking that something I may want to save to the external hard drive? I would like to ignore it all together except for when I use Time Machine.

You can try the energy saver settings, telling OS X to not spin down drives. However, for external drives, often they do their own thing.
There's no way to do what you want, unfortunately. The standard file dialog will probe all attached drives, so when you try to save, and the drive is spun down, it will wake and respond. As you've noted, this can take a few seconds.

Iomega external hard drive either 'not found' by Time Machine or is now in 'read only' format

I don't know what's going on with my iomega external hard drive. Sometimes the HD is recognised by the computer; other times it isn't; if it isn't I can restore to an earlier back up via Time Machine app; but it's like the disk isn't writable.
Ten days ago, I had trouble backing up my iMac using Time Machine. After turning it off and restarting my external hard drive, it backed up successfully.
However, today I am trying to back up my files, and TM tells me it can't find the external hard drive. Nothing has changed -- I have been out of town this past week -- but somehow my HD now seems to be in 'read only' format. It does turn on, and I could restore my computer to an earlier back up.
"Mac OS X can't repair the disk. You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can't save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can."
Annoyingly, despite my HD not showing in Finder or on my Desktop (as it usually does), when I simply turn it off I get that warning message "The disk was not ejected properly".
Have tried verifying and repairing using Disk Utility, to no avail.
Am prompted to reformat but I don't have a good understanding of what this means and how to do it. I'm guessing this would wipe the disk clean and I'd have to create the initial back up image all over again -- I'm reluctant to do this since this HD is my only back up and if it all goes tits up I'll be up that famous creek without a paddle.
Thoughts, suggestions, input all welcome and deeply appreciated -- thank you!

fzgy wrote:
"Mac OS X can't repair the disk. You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can't save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can."
It's possible a heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app can fix it, but they're expensive (DiskWarrior is about $100), and there's no guarantee it can do it.
Am prompted to reformat but I don't have a good understanding of what this means and how to do it.
That will erase it. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #5.
It sounds very much like the disk is beginning to fail, although it's possible there's a bad port, cable, connection or power supply (if it has its own).
I'd suggest getting a new one, and using it for your Time Machine backups; once you have a good backup there, reformat the old one (and select Security Options to write zeros to the whole drive -- if that fails, you know the drive is toast). Use it for secondary backups, per FAQ #27. If it has failed, get a second new one for secondary backups.

Back up using time machine and external hard drive

Hello,
I am having a difficult time deciding the best way to back up important documents.
I have:
1TB internal hard drive
3 TB external hard drive and
1TB external hard drive
I currently have about 1TB worth of data to be stored, but that will increase to about 1.5TB once I get a bunch of stuff off the HD camera's hard drive. I would like to keep my internal hard drive somewhat free to keep the computer running fast, but also want to make sure I am properly backed up.
Should I put ALL (or nearly all) of the files on the 3 TB external hard drive, and have time machine back that up and not worry about the rest? I'm a little weary about putting all of the files on one device even if it is backed up by TM.
If I do this, do I need to back up the 3 TB external drive in addition to using TM?
Thanks!

iMac11,2
OS X 10.6.8

How can I use one external hard drive for both Time Machine and iPhoto Library?

I have been using a 1 TG LaCie external hard drive for Time Machine backups. My (older) Mac has 160 GB and is almost full. I would like to move my iPhoto Library to the external hard drive, but I've heard Time Machine doesn't share one space well. Should I
1. create another partition (but will this erase what I've already saved) with Disk Utility? *I am running Snow Leopard*
2. create another volume to use for iPhoto, and if so, should the two volumes be of equal size?
3. leave it with one partition and move the iPhoto Library to the same partition with Time Machine back ups?
I know I don't need the entire 1 TG for back up of 160 GBs. Please advise the best path to take. Thank you!

You are getting incorrect information from your ASP. If you look at drive specifications the heat generated is no different for high vs low capacity drives.
I have upgraded the internal drive in my iMac 2007 with a 3TB Hitachi drive without any heat issues or other problems.
Larger hard drives have higher density platters so to access any given amount data the drives travel a shorter distance. Higher capacity drives should therefore run cooler than lower density drives because the drive spends less time spinning to access data.

I need to delete a lot of duplicates on iPhoto. I just bought my MacBook Pro and was so excited I downloaded my external hard drive without thinking through the process. I now realize I had my photos doubled up. So I actually have the same library twice.

Hello All!
I am so excited about my new computer and I didn't know that my external hard drive had so many pictures duplicated on it. So I downloaded the entire hard drive. I thought iPhoto was going to be my answer, and now after reading a lot of discussions, it seems I have royally screwed up. Please help me fix this problem. I am a computer novice. An even more Mac novice. I need very simple directions. I would just start over with iPhoto, but I downloaded my digital camera with brand new photos on iPhoto and also downloaded my digital camera software on my new MacBookPro. I am afraid if I "start over" with iPhoto I will lose my digital camera pictures. I bought the Mac to finally get my pictures straight, and look at the mess I have made. I had AVG PC cleanup and used that program last night to delete duplicates from my PC. I also used it to delete duplicates from my external hard drive. I omega. I know, I know, too late huh? But I am teachable. And I now have my external hard drive fixed. But now, my question to the community is how to fix my new Mac, and my iPhoto.
Thanks,

SweetThunder73 wrote:
When you say to remove the photos out of the iPhoto folder, then import the clean single copies, I am understanding that the "original" file that the decloner was run against is now the "clean" single copies?
Ok, you've got iPhoto Library that you have imported everything into, you can't delete the iPhoto Library and start over because you have only one copy of some pictures in there, combined with a lot of duplicates.
You want all the duplicates out, but it will take you ages to do it by hand.
What you do is.
1: Right click on the iPhoto Library and "Show Package Contents"
2: You will see a folder called Originals, these are all your original photo's, copy this folder to a external drive someplace, it's your backup.
3: Select the Originals folder again and from the Finder Menu > File > Duplicate.
4: Now you will have a OriginalsCopy folder, move that OriginalsCopy folder onto the desktop area out of the iPhoto Library folder. Close the iPhoto Library folder/window.
5: Download the Decloner software and install it, use it to find all the "real" duplicates, via it's content on the OriginalsCopy folder.
6: From the Finder menu > New Folder, now send the duplicate files to that folder, so all that is left in the OriginalsCopy folder is 1 copy of your pictures, minus all the duplicates which are now in New Folder.
7: Open iPhoto and remove all your pictures in there. The iPhoto Library will update to become empty.
8: Now import the pictures from the OriginalsCopy folder, these will now have only one copy of each picture.
9: Open your New Folder, from the Edit menu > Select All and
10 From the Finder > File Menu > Open With > Preview.
Now you have one copy in your iPhoto Library and the duplicates in a New Folder opened with Preview which you can compare to make sure.
Make as many backups of your pictures as you think you need during this prcess, but eventually you only want 1 picture of all you have in the iPhoto Library.
Some pictures may be the same thing but a little smaller etc., these obviously are not duplicates, and you can weed those out by hand in iPhoto.
Good Luck.

IPod cannot be synced because external hard drive could not be read

I moved my music folder to an external hard drive to create space on my laptop, and changed the location under Preferences / Advanced. Since I did this, my iPod trys to automatically sync but gives the error message "The iPoD "[name]" cannot be synced. The disk could not be read from or written to." The external hard drive is on and working. Is there some reason that the iPod will not sync with this external hard drive? What do I need to do to fix it? Thanks, Bill

First question, since you made
the change, can you still play your music from within
iTunes?
Patrick
Sorry for the delay in answering as I have been traveling. Yes, I can play music from iTunes. The music is located on my external hard drive. iTunes software is on my laptop, and the music library points to the music folder on my external hard drive.
Thanks, Bill
Dell Laptop Windows XP

My external hard drive is no longer recognized by my Mac

I have used Time Machine and a WD external hard drive to back up my computer for several years. Now, when I connect the hard drive, the drive lights up as though it's working, but the connection does not appear on my Mac -- the external hard drive is not listed in Device (in Finder). Any suggestions?

power feed issues and data appearance/disappearance are both symptoms of the SATA bridge card,..arguably the most failing modern computer component made.
throwing more power to the drive wont fix that.
SATA bridge card as found inside all USB HD devices which has an extremely high failure rate.
Inside a USB hard drive, containing the HD and SATA card
Countless 1000s of good external hard drives are thrown away each year because the owner thought the HD was bad when it fact it was the SATA bridge card which had failed. This card is removed in a matter of mere second once an external USB HD is cracked open from its plastic casing to reveal the bare HD and the attached SATA card which attaches between the HD and the USB cable.
quick and easy option is to crack open the WD USB drive, and remove the SATA card, and put the WD drive into a new enclosure ($20)
HOWEVER, if its an OLD WD drive, the SATA interface is permanently attached to the HD and the OP is "out of luck".

My WD external hard drive is no longer show up on my computer-it no longer recognizes it.

I have a WD external hard drive for sometime that I have been using to backup my computer and generally keep some of my bigger things on it(such as degital copies of movies). But suddenly one day my computer won't recognize my external hard drive when I went to plug it in. The light on it that is on when it is plugged in is on when I do plug it in, yet I can't actually find and acess my external hard drive. I don't know whats wrong and how to fix it so I can continue using my hard drive.

dead sata bridge card. very common problem.
see all about it here:
Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD
verify HD on another Mac however, if same, dead SATA card most likely

Prob w/external hard drive

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