Seagate FreeAgent 500GB external disk drive not recognized

After installing Mountain Lion Time Machine worked at first but after a few days the backup failed saying it could not create a backup folder. After troubleshooting with verify disk it stated the disk needed to be repaired. After clicking on repair, it was unable to be competed because it could not unmount the disk.
After rebooting the Mac Mini can no longer see the external dirve.
Does anyone know if my data is lost or how I can get it to be recognized again?

If you cannot get the computer to recognize it the prognosis isn't good. There are lots of possible causes but two things I'd definitely try. 1) if you can, try mounting it with another computer. 2) if the device supports both FW and USB see if it mounts connected via USB.

Similar Messages

My Canvio 500gb external hard drive not recognized on my Toshiba Laptop

Seems a bit ironic that it won't work on my Toshiba laptop (runnng both windows 7 64 bit and 32 bit) but the drivers fail when attempting to install.
Drive works fine on my old custom desktop running Vista-32 bit.
To make matters worse the Model number of my Canvio (HDTC605XK3A1) isn't showing up under product support.
Please help. This is rather unforgivable.

Jerry,
I am experiencing the same problems with the Canvio 500GB drive I purchased today, and have read many posts about these poorly supported devices. After reading your reply I felt obligated to point out just how unhelpful it was. The issue is that it is not reconised as a USB device correctly in Windows, which is required BEFORE it would ever show up in disk management. Pretty obvious really. Second, your link was to a product specification and purchase page and has nothing close to support information. Again, pretty obvious. It seems like you did not understand the original poster's post and gave generic, unrelated information in your reply.
This Toshiba Canvio product has NO support page online from Toshiba. It is obviously riddled with problems of power usage and Windows 7 incompatibility to which Toshiba have offerred no solution either. How I wish I had read the reviews earlier instead of trusting the Toshiba brand as I have been able to in the past.
Technical forums are already full of enough useless misdirection. We don't need any more.

External hard drive not recognized by Mavericks?

I have a Western Digital My Passbook 500GB external hard drive connected to my MacBook Pro via USB.
It worked fine until I upgraded to Mavericks. Now it is not recognized at all in my Finder.
When I go to Disk Utility, it finds it and says "not supported". When I do "disk verify" it says it needs to be repaired.
When I try to repair it, it says it can not.
What do I do?

See: http://wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/wdsmartware.asp?id=wdfGeneric&os=mac
WD SmartWare update highlights:
Mac release 1.3.6 (updated 11/25/2013)
Fixed an issue related to reports of some customers, under certain conditions, experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9).For more information on this issue, please click here.*Please note that if you have a previous version of WD Drive Manager installed on your computer, this software package will automatically uninstall the old version and install a new version.

External hard drive not recognized by OS

External FW HD not recognized by Disk Utility and "not available" to Time Machine. Had worked fine until last attempt to B.U. Core Duo, OS10.8.4. Suggestions to make this drive available again?

If the drive has more than one interface (USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, eSATA), try one of the other interfaces.
Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
Try a different cable.
If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
Disconnect all other devices on the bus, or as many as possible.
Test the drive with another Mac. Test another drive with this Mac.
If the drive is bus-powered, but has an AC adapter, connect the adapter.
Boot into Recovery and launch Disk Utility. Is the drive recognized?
Start up in Safe Mode and test.
Reset the NVRAM.
Reset the System Management Controller.
If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, and if another drive does work with the same Mac, then the drive has failed. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

External hard drive not recognized in Finder or Disk Utility

Two weeks ago, my 2007 black Macbook stopped recognizing the hard drive. I was told by some IT friends that the controller had likely failed and I needed to purchase a new laptop. I removed the hard drive and placed it into an enclosure (turning it into an external hard drive) and hooked it up to a new Macbook Pro which I purchased a couple days ago. The external hard drive did not show up in Finder or Disk Utility but the light on the enclosure was on and it was making a very soft whirring noise and got warm after a few minutes. I usually backed up the hard drive but, of course, hadn't done it in a couple of weeks before it died so everything I worked on in that time is lost to me at the moment. I'm trying to avoid paying tons of money for a data recovery service so any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

That whirring noise might be due to physical damage on the disk. I know data recovery services are costly but that remains only the solution for damaged HDD. You can get latest quotes on services from different dealers. Proceed only when your data is very important to be recovered.

Acomdata 500gb External FW Drive NOT BEING RECOGNIZED!!!

I have been running an Acomdata 500gb FW External Hard Drive for my data intensive applications such as FCP and it has been working flawlessly for about the last year...
Yesterday I powered up the Mac and turned on the drive along with my external USB drive and the Acomdata drive turns on, lights up, and makes noise like it's working, but it is not being recognized at all by the Mac. I tried unplugging it, switching out the FW cord, changing the FW slot it was being plugged into, and everything else of that nature that I could think of. Of course the USB drive that has non-important work related stuff works just fine :/
So I'm wondering, does anyone think the drive has officially crapped out? It turns on and works so I can't tell. I'm PRAYING this is not the case, but I didn't know if there were any possible FW configuration settings that could have been changed or something like that. Any ideas?

Did you recently update to 10.4.10? Is there another computer that you can plug the external into to see if it's recognized? Have you tried plugging another FW peripheral into your main computer to see if it recognizes it?
Some people have had good results from the following:
1. Downloading and installing the combo updater of the system software update they've just applied via "Software Update...". In your case the update you need is at:
10.4.10 combo updater
2. Another trick is to restart each by zapping the parameter RAM:
Zapping the P-RAM:
After the startup tone, hold down <commandd><option><r> until 3 additional startup tones are heard, then release the 4 keys.
3. A 3rd tip would be to do Open Firmware resets on each:
After the startup tone, hold down <command><option><o><f> until the text screen is visible. When text can be entered, type the following commands, followed by the <return> key (there are no space characters in each command):
reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all (the Mac will boot up after this command is entered).
Also, see if anything in this Apple KB article helps:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
Please post back with results,
Miriam

External hard drives not recognized by imac

I am a new Mac user and have been having lots of trouble getting my external hard drives to mount. I have a simpletech and a seagate external hard drive both NFTS formatted neither of which is recognized by my iMac. They don't show up on disk utility or system profiier under USB ports. They both work on my PC laptop and a friends iMac (OS 10.6.4) just fine. I have a card reader and flash drive that work perfectly on my iMac. Apple support orginally thought it might be the logic board so they replaced it. The new one is having the exact same problem. Does anyone have any idea what could possibly be the problem?? This is driving me insane.

I'm having exactly the same problem with a new iMac purchased one week ago. I have two Maxtor drives and one WD, all firewire 400 drives, all of which mount briefly and then unmount and will not mount again. I am not new to Macs. The drives work fine on the older PowerPC Mac running 10.4.11. These drives contain my backups and aren't recognized by the new iMac. I cannot believe that 3 external drives are all going into failure mode at the same time since they were all purchased at different times and only used as backup drives, so they weren't on all of the time. Is there an incompatibility between 800 and 400?? I'm using a LaCie 800 to 400 firewire cable. Suggestions??

External Hard Drive not recognized.

Hello everyone,
I have a probem where my external hard drive is not being recognized by my late 2009 iMac.
The hard drive is an OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro connected to the firewire port.
It was working fine till this happenend:
I keep all of my iTuned music on the external hard drive.
I was using a meta tag fixer type program.
I dragged the files from itunes into this program (Tune Up) to fix the meta tags.
However, I missed the program and dragged thusands of .mp3 files onto my desktop.
My computer, of course, became unresponsive.
So I used the power button on the back of the iMac to shut it off.
I used my MacBookPro to connect to my iMac as a target drive, and deleted all the .mp3's from the desktop there.
Once I restarted my iMac everything was fine, except that the external hard drive has not been able to be recognised ever since.
The same drive shows up just fine on my MacBookPro.
Help!
Thanks!

I had the exact same problem! I had to force shut down my iMac (24in, Mid 2007) due to a system freeze. After restarting, everything was working fine, except for my external 1GB G-Drive, which was connected through FW800 port.
The drive connected fine to my MacBook Pro, but it would not be recognized by my iMac. I tried restarting, but neither Disk Utility, nor System profiler would see the drive.
What worked though, was Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC):
1.          Shut down the computer.
2.          Unplug the computer's power cord.
3.          Wait fifteen seconds.
4.          Attach the computer's power cord.
5.          Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
The drive mounts fine now. I am surprised this is not mentioned by Apple in their support documents! It has happened twice to me and it was the only thing worked both times. The link for the resetting the SMC is here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Hope this helps solve your problem too.

Some data DVD's and External Hard Drives not recognized by Leopard only.

1] Some data DVDs that were burned under Tiger do not show up in Leopard. Only a dialog box asking what I want to do with the blank DVD comes up when I insert the disk. On my Tiger computer, the disk shows up perfectly fine. It is a DVD+R being used on a MBP 2ghz... and was burned on that very machine in Tiger and would load fine in Tiger. Now nothing on the same computer in Leopard. I'm going to reburn the disk on my Mac Mini on a DVD-R, but still wanted to know any ideas or input as to why it won't recognize the disk.
2] I also have an external USB2.0 HD. I formatted the disk using my G4 Mac Mini (which has Tiger) and it is not recognized on my MBP. In Disk Utility I try to reformat the drive, but it says that it cannot do so because the "resource is busy". I plug the drive back into the mac mini and it works perfectly fine. Why would this be and how do I correct it?
Full updates on both OS's. No other problems with either computer that I know of.

Unfortunately, commercial DVDs that you have bought 99.9% of the time will be copy protected and Apple's forum terms prohibit discussion of circumventing the copy protection. In various places circumventing digital copy protection is potentially illegal even if you own and intend to keep the DVD. Hence Apple do not wish DVD rippers etc discussed here.
Another problem is that AppleTv cannot play back DVDs copied to an external drive as it does not understand the format. So even if you can 'copy' your DVDs you then need to convert to h264 format to play on AppleTV.
Video formats for AppleTv are limited. They also do not support DVD like menu structures (thogh AppleTV 1 did with itunes Extras movies).
If you have unprotected video you wish to convert eg home video on DVD, then something like Handbrake or MPEGStreamclip with Apple's MPEG2 component might do the job. These programs are not DVD rippers but can process unprotected MPEG2 video.
AC

External DVD Drive Not Recognized

Just got a Toshiba portable supermulti DVD/CD drive. My internal drive is fried and figured it would be cheaper to get an external until I can get a new computer. Except, when I plug it into either of my USB ports, the drive lights up and makes noise for about 10 secs, then stops and it does not register on my computer. The drive shows up on the System Profiler, but nowhere else is it recognized. When I try to open Disk Utility, it just says 'Gathering Disk Info' and just pinwheels and is Not Responding until I Force Quit. Any thoughts as to what the issue is? My computer recognizes my external hard drive, iPod and anything else I plug into it and the DVD drive was recognized no-problem by my Dad's new Macook Pro and by my brother's PC. I should say I have the 2007 model Pro. Thanks!

Is the DVD drive externally powered? I.e. does it have a power supply?
For exmple my LG external DVD won't work with a single USB on my Macbook Pro - it requires another usb cable that has a power plug on the end. So both USB ports are used.
It kinda works without power, but it's unreliable, it could be you're having a similar issue?

External hard drive not recognized, or recognized as RAW

I have the Pavillon desktop running Windows 7 and have been having trouble with my computer either not recognizing Seagate 2 TB external drive, or if recognized, it is listed as Raw. I have:
1. Connected the drive to my laptop - it worked fine;
2. Changed the USB port on my desktop, over and over, same problem;
3. Reformatted the drive, same problem;
4. hooked it up to a different outlet, same problem;
5. Run the delivered HP hardware diagnostic tools, no errors noted, but same drive problem persists;
6. Updated drivers, over and over.
Is there ANYTHING else I can try?

Hi,
Please post the HP product number for your PC. How to Find the HP Model Number and the HP Product Number or let HP automatically find your PC model number and HP network attached printers. This will allow others to review your issue, make suggestions and review your responses. This is usually the best way to get assistance.
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

External hard drive not recognized... help please.

okay, well here is the story:
my iBook G4 had its stock 30gb hard drive in it and it was running extremely low on space. so i figured i didn't want to carry around an external hard drive, therefore i would buy an internal hard drive an install it. so i purchased a new 2.5" 80gb hard drive and called up the local apple store. they told me that although it was under warranty, that it did not cover hard drive installation. so i looked it up online and found step by step instructions to install the hard drive. so after lots of hard work and many screws, i installed the new hard drive successfully... but i still had this perfect 30gb hard drive. i thought maybe to save a few bucks i could turn it into a usb external hard drive. i found an enclosure for the hard drive and a usb 2.0 cable and plugged it into my ibook. it was recognized and everything. i put some files on the external hard drive and transferred it to another mac. this is where the trouble started. i plugged the hard drive into a PowerMac G4, and it was not recognized... so i tried it on a different mac. this time on a PowerBook G4, but no luck. this issue has been troubling me for a few weeks. but then i tried it on a similar iBook G4... and it was recognized. but i don't know why it was only recognized only on the iBook G4 (not the same iBook G4 it was pulled out of) and no other macs.
does anybody have any ideas what we can do to get this hard drive to be recognized by other macs?
any of even the smallest ideas would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
tyler
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I can walk you through formatting the hard drive:
1. Hook it up to an iBook that recognizes it.
2. Go into your Applications folder, then scroll down to Utilities. Open Utilities and scroll down a bit and you should see Disk Utility. Double-click.
3. On the left side you should see your internal hard drive and your external one. Each hard drive will have a sub-catagory with the partition indented.
4. Your external hard drive will probably be the second catagory. Click it.
5. In the center-top you should see the tabs First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID, and Restore. Click the Erase tab.
6. You should see Volume Format: and then a drop down menu, and Name: and a text box. Type in the name you want the external hard drive to be named.
7. In the drop down menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
8. Then, simply click Erase, watch the progress and it should be good to go!!
Hope I helped you out. Oh, and it might be the enclosure...and also what OS's? Since it's USB it is probably using a USB Mass Storage driver. Mac-wise, if formatting doesn't help, I would get a FireWire enclosure because FireWire is much faster than just USB 2.0. Oh, thats nother thing...Is the enclosure Hi-Speed USB? If it isn't, I would definitely get a FireWire one...If it is, the PowerMac G4 doesn't have Hi-Speed so you're not taking full advantage..Just some insight
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 512 MB Ram, CD-RW Combo Drive, 40 Gig HD, bought in October of 2005...
Message was edited by: Hilary_Rose

External hard drive not recognized by LR 3.6

I'm running Mac OS 10.8.2.
One of my external image storage drives is not being recognized by LR 3.6. The drive shows up on my desktop and can easily be accessed by other apps. But it's not included in the list of drives in my Folders. All other external drives show up fine.
Interestingly, if I boot up with my back-up external boot drive, it shows up! The back-up and the regular boot-up are identical in every way.

Ok ... here are the screen shots. I hope the details are visible.
• First screen shot shows LR Library when started from main drive. Drive is called "10.6.8 #3" Selection in Library is on "Previous Import," which is all of the images I re-imported last night to drive 10.6.8#3. All images show up and are accessible for all functions, ie Develop, etc.
• Second screen shot is the Import Source folder from the same start-up. All connected drives show up.
• Third screen shot shows LR Library when started from back-up boot-up disk, which has the same content as 10.6.8#3. Back-up is called "10.8.2#1." Library selection is on "Previous Import." As you can see, all of the images are grayed out and have a question mark. The connected drive, 10.6.8#3, doesn't show up in the Folders list.
• Fourth screen shot is the Import Source folder from the back-up boot disk. 10.6.8#3 shows up.

Toshiba External Hard Drive not recognized by computer. Please help!

I was wondering if anyone could help me. I have an external hard drive and it will not show up in "My computer" when I plug it in. I have tried other USB drives and other computers. I am starting to think it is a hardware issue but I don't want to lose hope. The blue light is coming on when you plug it in but it doesn't blink and there is no noise whatsoever. Is there anything I can do to fix this issue so that I can recover the information on it? Thanks in advance for any help. It is greatly appreciated.
Additional information: I'm not sure how old this thing is but the model number is HDDR160E03X.

Same problem: I can't see my Toshiba PH3100U-EXB (Gen 2) external hard drive when I plug it in. After awhile I get this error message (see attachment): USB Device Not Recognized. One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. FOr assistance in solving this problem, click this message."
When I click it, I get a list of USB ports and devices, with Unknown Device in bold face. No real information there.
Yes, I ran Disk Management and the Toshiba did not show up when I plugged it in and hit Refresh.
Does it make a difference that the last time I used the external hard drive, we were in Windows XP and now we're in Windows 7?
Please help! It's not just the backing up I'm worried about...it's being able to retrieve files later!
Thanks!
Attachments:
USB-NotRecognized.jpg ‏28 KB

External hard drive not recognized on new macbook

we have an external harddrive that we used as the time machine for our previous imac. we just bought a macbook pro, and the harddrive is not recognized and does not show up on the sidebar. it is however shows up on disk utility but i dont know what to do with it/how to get files from my old time machine. please help! thanks

The hard drive will not show up on the sidebar or desktop unless Finder preferences are set to do that:
In Finder's General preference section, make sure "External disks" is checked in the list of things to show on the desktop if you want to see them there.
Likewise, in Finder's Sidebar preference section, make sure "External disks" is checked in the "DEVICES" section to see them automatically appear on the sidebar.
But you don't need to do either for the MBP to recognize the drive, or to get files from its Time Machine backup set. To do that, you should use the Time Machine "Star Wars" interface. Pondini's FAQ's (already mentioned) tell you how to do that. Tip 17 is particularly relevant.

Seagate FreeAgent 500GB external disk drive not recognized

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