Started to Erase External HD, Is No Longer Recognized.

I know this was a crazy oversight on my part, but in case there is someone out there that can help, here's the scenario:
An external hard drive, totally reformatted to store files in MS-DOS, as I am sharing work files with a Windows computer. Trying to copy an 11GB file over, found out MS-DOS won't recognize files over 4GB, and that with software a Windows user could read HFS formatted drives.
In disk utility, I went to reformat...only to realize that I deleted the files from my computer due to a permissions error. As soon as it said "Partitioning" I pulled the USB cord (I know...). Now Disk Utility states it cannot read the drive.
Is there any way to "fix" the file system so that the external drive can still be read?
This is my work computer, a Core Duo 17" MBP with 10.4.11.
Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the quick response! To answer your questions:
1. - Yes, recovering the files with FileSalvage now (but they will be renamed and out of order).
2. - They were working files - whole story below.
3. - Probably not any more, as FileSalvage is backing up what it finds on the internal drive.
4. - External drive shows up in Disk Utility, but with a big red error.
Whole story:
Leaving jobs.
Put my working files in Macintosh HD from my home folder and created a new user account.
Deleted old user account (along with all information other than work).
Erased free space with a 7-pass sweep.
Logged into new user account and found that there were a lot of files I didn't have permission to.
Tried to "Get Info" and apply permissions to all files in the subfolder.
Wouldn't change the permissions successfully.
Put all of the files on the external HD is formatted MS-DOS, where it of course stripped permissions and allowed me to work with the files again (the person I am passing these files on to uses a Dell).
Deleted the files on the MBP as they were largely unusable, anyway.
Tried to back up my VirtualBox virtual XP hard drive to the external.
Realized 4GB or larger files don't play well with MS-DOS.
Read online that HFS drives can be recognized by windows, just need a driver or program to make it work.
Went to Disk Utility to format the external as HFS.
Hit the erase button, and had the sudden realization that I never re-imported the files as soon as I clicked it.
Pulled the USB plug.
Closed Disk Utility.
Plugged the drive back in.
No love.

Similar Messages

After security patch 03/04/2014 OSX 10.7.5, first one, then a second, external backup drive no longer recognized. Diagnostics for the FireWire one displays brand name of unit, but Time Machine and its own app don't see it. Where do I start?

Yesterday I installed the security patch, OSX 10.7.5 to my IMac that is about 2 years old.
Today my Seagate BackupPlus for Mac will power on but is not recognized. It does not show up as a device, Time Machine says the latest backup was DELAYED, last successful at 03/04/2014 9:35 PM (yesterday) and next backup would begin when the disk was connected. An error message I did not save said basically the drive was not recognized.   I did all drive's troubleshooting steps, including installing a newer version of their app. I tried swapping USB for FireWire, changing electrical outlets, etc.
It seems a bit coincidental to have 2 drives "fail" simultaneously. Is anyone else having this issue after this security patch? What would be the approach from the Mac side? TIA for any assistance.
Please see below regarding the second drive. Is this a red herring, or does it help pinpoint where the failure might lie?
I also have a Seagate GoFlex that WAS recognized until I did the troubleshooting on the other drive. When I put it back on after testing the other drive with FireWire, it now is no longer recognized.
Diagnostics says this about that:
FireWire Bus:
Maximum Speed:          Up to 800 Mb/sec
GoFlex Mac:
Manufacturer:          Seagate
Model:          0x6090
GUID:          0x2037600121908F
Maximum Speed:          Up to 800 Mb/sec
Connection Speed:          Up to 800 Mb/sec
Sub-units:
GoFlex Mac Unit:
Unit Software Version:          0x10483
Unit Spec ID:          0x609E
Firmware Revision:          0x111
Sub-units:
GoFlex Mac SBP-LUN:
Thirdly, in after one of the testing/reboot loops, the HP WiFi printer was no longer recognized, but after a few more it came back.

I have a similar problem.
Moreover, as my external drive is split in 2 for (a) regular storage // (b) time machine usage, I can see in the Finder that I can connect to the (a) regular storage part and use it normally (image 1).
And I cannot connect to the backup part in Finder , nor see it in Disk Utility, nor use it in Time Machine (although it's listed in the Time Machine preferences, image 2), as it does not connect (image 3).
Can somebody help?

External USB storage no longer recognized by kernel [SOLVED]

If I plug in an external USB thumb drive, my system no longer sees it.
-gdisk and fdisk do not see it
-gparted cannot see it
-thunar cannot see it
I have a USB mouse and keyboard that work just fine. Here is my dmesg. You can see in the last line that something detected me plugging in the USB thumb drive, but that's it. Is this something with udev or ?
[ 110.596683] usb 1-3: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
I found this thread but my problem is different from the op's.
I run the linux-ck package from the AUR but as a sanity check, installed the ARCH kernel package and this problem exists under both:
$ uname -r
3.2.6-2-ARCH
Last edited by graysky (2012-02-19 00:44:26)

I know this thread is marked solved, but I have the exact same problem - I just installed the linux-ck package from the AUR (running linux-ck version 3.2.11-1), alongwith the nvidia-ck package. The kernel was compiled with the localmodcfg and BFQ options enabled in the pkgbuild. Now when I plug in an external drive, dmesg detects it, but no device nodes are created under /dev.
There is nothing wrong with the drives (happens with multiple drives) - and they are mounting fine under the stock kernel. lsusb also shows the drive present. I thought this might be an issue with needing to rebuild initramfs using mkinitcpio, but the available hooks seem to include all the usual ones from the stock kernel, nor does the wiki article mention needing to do such a thing. Any ideas?
EDIT: I didn't notice in the OP that the problem persisted with both the -ck kernel and the stock kernel. In my case, it only persists with the -ck kernel - and this happens on two different computers.
Last edited by manzdagratiano (2012-03-16 06:40:27)

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE NO LONGER RECOGNIZED, DOES NOT MOUNT

Hello everyone, this is not necessarily a mac mini issue
last night was working on my mac mini (intel 2007), it froze up, couldnt even restart, so i held the power button (hard reset i guess)
it came back on but then would NOT recognize my external HD, (which is an iomega mini max 1TB)
perhaps this was considered by my mac as "not ejecting or putting the disc away properly "
i did a ton of research (here and elsewhere)..found various hints/fixes but nothing works so far
i tried using different cables, firewire, usb..ran hardware test...zapped the pram....tried it on my ibook (which also does not recognize it)...turned the hd off and on...
i unplugged everything, power to mac, all cables.. left overnight...tried again with no luck
restarted, powered down...nothing
tried finding the the external hd partitions in "/Volumes" to trash. there was ONE of the partitions there, which i trashed - no luck (i had 3 partitions on the external hd)
was going to swap the hd to another enclosure, but the mini max hd wont fit it/work
disk utility doesnt see it
i tried a few things with terminal - nothing
i am unable to open firmware (via commandoption+OF, as this is an intel)
it doesnt seem to be a problem with the firewire port, as that port recognized my video camera
im pretty sure the HD and my data is fine, its just that my mac doesnt recognize it. its like its already "on" or "mounted"
it cant find the path or map or something like that
in system profiler it comes up as:
"Unknown Device:
Manufacturer: Unknown
Model: Unknown Device
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec"
any ideas? why would force shutting down (by holding the power button) cause my mac to no longer recognize the external HD?
i have NOT tried "discwarrior" or norton. trying to avoid having to pay $100 and i read that others with this problem bought discwarrior, which didnt see it or help
i did try something called "total recall" by virtualab - it did NOT see the external HD
and as i mentioned above, disk utility does not recognize it
ok please let me know, i could really use some help here
i do usually backup to dvd's but not everything..also did a ton of work recently that was NOT backed up
hope to hear from you soon!!!
thanks in advance, andrew

hello, i dont have a UPS but have it connected to a power strip
what might this mean?
btw - when this first happened (3 days ago) i used disk utility/first aid to examine my mini, it PASSED
yesterday i thought what the heck, ill run first aid again
and this is what i got:
verifying volume "mac mini"
checking HFS plus volume
checking extents overflow file
checking catalog file
incorrect block count for file AbletonTmp-0001
(it should be 1 instead of 0)
1%)
checking multi-linked files
checking catalog hierarchy
checking extended attributes file
checking volume bitmap
checking volume bitmap
or repair",0)
checking volume information
volume header needs minor repair
the volume mac mini needs to be repaired
error: the underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume needs repair
it wasnt able to fix it while booting/running off the mini so
i then ran disk utility on the OSX install disc and was able to fix that problem
but alas, no luck with the external HD, still not recognized
the AbletonTmp-0001 makes sense because that was one of the programs i was running when it crashed
i was hopeful that fixing that problem would help.
ive been through quite a few crashes and restarts like that, i wonder why this time it caused such a serious problem
i would imagine there are a ton of people who have to force a restart or dont eject the HD, or unplug it, etc
i wonder why there isnt an easier/better way for a mac to deal with an external hd/flash etc. are pc's as sensitive with ex hd's?
ive had to tell new mac owners again and again -"no! you have to eject it first!"
ok well thanks in advance for any further advice/help
it means a lot to me, so thank you!!
-andrew

External USB harddrive no longer recognized/accepted

Hi,
Since updating to Mac OS X 10.5.9 my Mac doesn't recognize/accept one of my external USB harddrives--both are Western Digital ones, which I'm using successfully for more than one year now--, and upgrading to Snow Leopard didn't resolve this issue (see console output at the end).
Changing USB ports--hub, directly on my Mac--is to no avail either.
-- MMHein
PS: Console Message;
17.09.09 06:00:45 kernel USBF: 3.896 [0x4e04000] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in. It will keep retrying. (Port 4 of hub @ location: 0xfd500000)
17.09.09 06:00:48 kernel USBF: 7.491 [0x4e04000] The IOUSBFamily was not able to enumerate a device.
17.09.09 06:00:48 kernel USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 2HAC0Q6F 0xd49 0x7300 0x121

Hi,
Well, at least momentarily this issue seems to be resolved, although I quite can't grasp all of it.
I've unplugged the external drive in question, both from the USB hub, as well as from the power jack, waited now for two days, until just a couple of minutes reconnecting everything again, starting with the power supply, and after some seconds the USB followed.
Et voilá the drive is being recognized and mounted again.
Weird, really weird, as I haven't got the slightes clue whatever, when this will arise the next time!
-- MMHein

LaCie 120Gb external hard drive no longer recognized

I've had a LaCie 120Gb external hard drive working independently off a firewire cable for a couple of months now. This morning it stopped being picked up as an external drive. It connects because you can feel it whirring, and stops when the computer is turned off (so the cables are working), but it no longer shows up in the finder or disk utility. I tried resetting the PRAM to no effect. Any ideas anyone???
Dave Nicholls, Auckland.

it spins because it has power. maybe your firewire port is damaged? does the drive have a usb port that you can try? if not, you can remove the hard drive from it's enclosure and install it in a tower mac or pc if you have one and see if it shows up then.

External Drive is no longer recognized by Macbook

I have this external drive....
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Essential-WDME2500TN/dp/B0012GK3M Q/ref=sr11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1280159206&sr=1-1
It is about 60% full of music/pictures/documents that are NOT on my Macbook, therefore I use it regularly.
Every once in a while, I accidentally remove it without properly ejecting first. But I guess I did it one too many times because now the computer will not recognize it at all.
To insure that the drive wasn't corrupt, I plugged it into a PC. It worked fine. The files are all there and were completely accessible. But as soon as I plugged it back into the Mac, it won't show up.
When I try a Disk Utilities repair, I get the following message:::::
FIRST AID FAILED
Disk Utility stopped repairing “My Passport” because the following error was encountered:
The underlying task reported failure on exit
Verify and Repair disk “My Passport”
** /dev/disk1s1
** Phase 1 - Read FAT
** Phase 2 - Check Cluster Chains
** Phase 3 - Checking Directories
Unable to read directory (Input/output error)
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 non HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
I have NO $$$, so telling me to purchase a $30-100 program will not help me AT ALL. I'm looking for solutions that will not effect my wallet, even if they take all day to complete.
What can I do????????

Ok. Just to set one part straight- I doubt the problem came from unplugging your drive without ejecting. This usually isn't a problem unless files are writing or in use when you do it, but ejecting is a safe way to avoid issues.
Try force-mounting the drive in terminal by using the following commands
*mkdir /Volumes/yourdrivename*
this command should give you the location of the drive on your computer. (It should be something like disk2 or disk1s3) Then type the location into:
*mount /dev/yourdrivelocation*
Whether or not this works, follow up this step by ejecting the drive and unplugging and plugging it back in. This worked for me when I was having this issue.
Also- are you able to backup and reformat the drive? This would be a good thing to try if other attempts have failed.

Greetings. I need to know what to do if a formerly recognized external drive is no longer recognized by my iMac.

Greetings. I could use some advice here.
I bought a WD external hard drive to back-up some files on my old iMac, but I reformatted it & set it up on my new iMac.
After I backed up the files I wanted, I hooked the external drive to the new iMac, but now the new iMac doesn't recognize that external drive.
What should I do?
I also have a flash drive that neither iMac will recognize. Similar issue or no?
Would appreciate any adice I can get on these situations.
Thanks for you time and attention.

You need to deal with your vendor or AppleCare Customer Relations. We can't tell you what to do nor what is possible.
It's unfortunate you have had these problems, but we really cannot resolve them for you. We do not represent Apple nor can we tell you what to do other than attempt to resolve the issue either with your vendor or through Customer Relations.

External (Backup) Drive No Longer Recognized After Mavericks

Since installing Mavericks on my iMac (was running Snow Leopard) I can only see partial information from my WD My Book Live external backup drive. Finder lets me see the two partitions but only some of the files on that drive. However, the Disk Utility does not see the external drive at all. This is mostly impacting Time Machine which also does not seem to recognize the external drive at all. I cannot enter Time Machine to access my old backups and cannot create new ones.
I would prefer not to re-format the external drive since it has other files on it that I don't want to lose.
All helpful suggestions appreciated!

lettertosteve
PROBLEM SOLVED! It was as simple as going to the WD (Western Digital) site and downloading a few updates for the My Book Live.
You need to NOT connect any WD MyBook right now under Mavericks, you have a high likelihood of severe data corruption
WD is telling its customers to REMOVE WD SOFTWARE especially on WD MyBook
keep your WD MY BOOK unconnected right now until a resolution unless you have a backup of ALL DATA on your MyBook stored elsewhere
http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/bd-p/passport_mac
Bill_S
Community Manager
External Drives for Mac Experiencing Data Loss with Maverick OS (10/30/13)
There are reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9). Western Digital is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications.
Until the issue is understood and the cause identified, WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications on their systems before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks, WD recommends that you remove these applications and restart your computer. WD has removed these software applications from our web site solely as a precaution as we investigate this issue.

External ISO keyboard no longer recognized

Hi,
I'm using a MacBook Pro Early 2008 with an external USB keyboard (a Das Keyboard III Ultimate with ISO layout). The MBP is working in clamshell mode.
Everything has gone great for the latest two weeks. Now, It seems there is no way to make all keys of the external keyboard be seen. By looking at the Keyboard Viewer, it seems the keyboard is seen as an ANSI keyboard.
I tried disconnecting it, and then reconnecting, in the hope the Mac would ask me to press the key at the right of the left Shift key. Now way, no question asked.
By connecting the same keyboard to a G5/Tiger, all keys are correctly seen.
Is there something I can do to force my MBP to recognize this keyboard? I rebooted several times, fixed permissions, run Cocktail, but at no avail.
Best regards,
Paolo

OK, I can answer to myself. The trick is deleting the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.keyboardtype.plist file, then disconnect and reconnect the the keyboard. After that, the Keyboard Setup Assistant appears, and the "Change keyboard type" button is back again in the Keyboard Preference pane.

External Hard Drive No Longer Recognized

Well, I've had this external for months...I've been backing up my files with Time Machine the whole time. It was time to back up again so I turned on the external, but now it does not come up or register with the computer at all. Disk Utility doesn't list the drive...I don't know why this would happen so suddenly, so I tried another USB cable but that didn't help either. Anybody come across this before?

I'm beginning to think time machine is going to cause a lot of drive failures. My external Lacie had being spinning up every hour 24/7 since October 27, 2007 until this last week. That is over 10225 times just for time machine. That's not counting the times it spun up whenever I hit the save button. So at least 10300 times. Any way, I spent the last week trying to isolate the cause of my computer hangs thinking they were caused by the new OS 10.5.6 or the new Software I'd put in. I re and re'd the OS so many times, I had the installer verify the Leopard disc to make sure I hadn't worn it out. I even installed the OS on the Lacie and run the computer from there. it seemed to work fine and for a while I thought I had it beat. But no, not a chance. Last night, I was down at the local Apple dealer seriously considering a new Imac but they didn't have one in stock. This AM I thought I'd give it one more shot and it finally dawned on me that the Lacie wasn't spinning up the way it use to. I unplugged the Lacie and everything is now working just fine. Still kind of disappointed though. that new 24" Imac is one sweet machine.
Dave

Time machine makes no backups - External HD is no longer recognized

My external HD is only used for backups with time machine.
About 30 days ago I took the usb out of my Mac, so the time machine did not work.
Now I put the usb back in my Mac and the external HD is not recognized any more. I did do nothing else with the HD.. I did a software update, thought that that would solve the problem, read a lot of suggestions on this forum, but i cannot solve it. Maybe you have a suggestion?

cobruijn wrote:
I took the usb out of my Mac
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
Did you dismount that drive first?
Now I put the usb back in my Mac and the external HD is not recognized any more.
Can you see that drive in Disk Utility? Have you tried a different USB port? Does the drive show any signs of working, such as noise or lights?

External iSight no longer recognized, built-in iSight works - how to fix?

I have a new MacBook Pro with Leopard and both the built-in iSight and my external iSight were recognized and I could switch between them. This past week or so my external iSight became no longer recognized even after unplugging and re-plugging in. When I plug it into the Firewire port, the green light goes on and it makes a whirring sound, but my computer does not recognize it in iChat, in PhotoBooth, nor in iMovie. I repaired permissions and it still doesn't get recognized in any applications. Is there a setting someplace that needs resetting? Or do I need to bring it into the Apple store for technical help?
Richard

Hello Richard
I wonder how many others have this problem?
A search or look through iSight Discussions will show you that a few of the many users of external iSight have reported problems using their Firewire iSights with MacBook Pro. I will leave it to you to try to determine whether that might be because few external iSight users have problems, few have MacBook Pros, or few use their external iSights with their MacBook Pros.
I agree that the system should allow both to co-exist.
Any other suggestions before I go to the Apple Genius folks?
If you have already considered all the suggestions about cables, connections, Firewire ports, possible conflicts, and the relevant suggestions in Apple's How to Troubleshoot iSight without success, you can also try the following:
• Backup your Home Folder, or at very least, your important files.
• Repair permissions. (Click here if you need help.)
• Then download and apply the Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo Update.
• Finish with another Permissions Repair, and then check your iSight again.
Users have reported fixes to a variety of audio, video, connectivity, and software conflicts and unreliability issues after properly applying Combo Updates.
Please let us know how it goes.
EZ Jim
PowerBook 1.67 GHz w/Mac OS X (10.4.11) G5 DP 1.8 w/Mac OS X (10.5.2) External iSight.

I have just started using WD external hard drives, I use it to save my movies and music on. On more than one occasion, when I connect to my MacBook it erases everything on had on there. Can someone please help with this problem?

I have just started using WD external hard drives, I use it to save my movies and music on. On more than one occasion, when I connect it to my MacBook it erases everything I had save on the hard drive. Can someone please help me with this problem? I am super tired of having to put all of my movies and music on the hard drive just to have it erased again. The products I am using are WD 4TB My Book and 2 TB My Passport external hard drives. When it happens, there is always an icon that reads, EFI, along with the My Book icon. Thank you for your assisstance.

dwgar1322 wrote:
I have just started using WD external hard drives, I use it to save my movies and music on. On more than one occasion, when I connect it to my MacBook it erases everything I had save on the hard drive. Can someone please help me with this problem? I am super tired of having to put all of my movies and music on the hard drive just to have it erased again. The products I am using are WD 4TB My Book and 2 TB My Passport external hard drives. When it happens, there is always an icon that reads, EFI, along with the My Book icon. Thank you for your assisstance.
Yes, you have WD software installed REMOVE IT !!
WD has warned its customers about their huge mistake that their software doesnt work on Mavericks and causes data loss.
(also dont use WD drives anymore)
Read all about it here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5475136?start=255&tstart=0
See their website on removing the destructive WD software here:
http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/External-Drives-for-Mac-Exper iencing-Data-Loss-with-Maverick-OS/td-p/613775
Western Digital External Hard Drives Experiencing Data Loss On OS X Mavericks
http://www.cultofmac.com/252826/western-digital-external-hard-drives-experiencin g-data-loss-on-os-x-mavericks/

HT201274 I backed up my iPhone 4 last night, and started the erase contents and settings 4 hrs. ago. How long should it take to complete the erase? Will it automatically be restored?

I backed up my iPhone 4 last night on iCloud, and started the erase all content and settings a little over 4 hrs. ago. How long should I expect it to take to complete this process? Will it automatically do a restore on my phone? The reason I had to do this was because my iPhone 4 would not upgrade the latest IOS. Thanks for any information! Karnysue

Something has gone wrong. That should have happened almost instantly. Force the phone into recovery mode & restore it:
Leave the USB cable connected to your computer, but NOT your phone, iTunes running, press & hold the home button while connecting the USB cable to your dock connector, continue holding the home button until you see “Connect to iTunes” on the screen. You may now release the home button. iTunes should now display that it has detected your phone in recovery mode, if not quit and reopen iTunes. If you still don't see the recovery message repeat these steps again. iTunes will give you the option to restore from a backup or set up as new.

Started to Erase External HD, Is No Longer Recognized.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for