Thunderbolt external drive no longer appears

just insalled osx and at first thunderbolt drive showed up
then let system update including thunderbolt firmware update an no go anymore
lacue g raid 8 tb

Hello Souploops,
I would also be concerned if my external drive was not appearing after the software update. I found two articles that have steps to help troubleshoot connection issues with Thunderbolt devices:
OS X Mountain Lion: If a Thunderbolt device isn’t working
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11408
OS X Mountain Lion: Check your device’s Thunderbolt connection
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11409
Thank you for posting in the Apple Support Communities.
All the best,
Sheila M.

Similar Messages

My external drives no longer appear in Finder, BUT they do appear in Disk Utility (and network drives appear also)

Hi folks, I hope someone can assist. I have a Mac Mini 2011 running 10.8.5. All has been well. Suddenly, when I plugged in an external flash drive (USB), nothing showed up in Finder. Things I have done:
Confirmed SideBar and other Finder preferences are set to show/reveal external, network, and internal HDs
Tried multiple flash drives and hard drives, using drives formated in GUID/OSXExtended as well as FAT and NTSF. None show up.
Confirmed that the Hidden flag in terminal is not set.
Note: I can see the drives in Disk Utility, but the partitions/volumes are gray and will not be mounted.
Note: Network drives and internal drives appear and work as expected
Note: My network Time Machine also appears and performs as expected.
The only suspect I can think of is a small, free app I installed this morning called Caffein (which manages the sleep mode).
Also, I loged out and switched to another user account on the same machine (that I use solely for the purpose of troubleshooting), and it was similarly affected.
Thanks in advance!
Dave

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It makes no changes to your data.
Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
diskutil list | pbcopy
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered.
The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.
The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

I have a MacBook Pro, 10.10.2 Yosemite. My external hard drive no longer appears on my screen or in Time Machine

I have a MacBook Pro, 10.10.2 Yosemite. My external hard drive no longer appears on my screen or in Time Machine. I have gone into Disc Utility to repair disc, and get the message: Error: Partition map check failed because no slices were found. I was trying to follow Melophage's instructions by going into "Terminal" and entering "diskutil list; diskutil cs list; mount" and "diskutil info disk2." Then I entered the command "sudo got show disk1."   I am sure I have made the problem worse. Can you give me some help? Thank you. blelambert
Last login: Wed Mar 11 19:23:03 on ttys000
~ belambert$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         250.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *249.8 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk2s1
~ belambert$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 883A56F4-5559-4872-A8DA-960F99655B63
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
Status:       Online
    Size:         250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
    Free Space:   8921088 B (8.9 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 7EDAFA20-FF9A-45FB-BA44-6526BB46C381
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     250140434432 B (250.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family B47B0B40-CBF2-4D02-BFEF-182061AC6F8E
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
        Conversion Status:       Complete
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   Yes
        Fully Secure:            Yes
        Passphrase Required:     Yes
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          249779191808 B (249.8 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
~ belambert$ mount
/dev/disk1 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
localhost:/vB3z604U-dvSpES6320fHq on /Volumes/MobileBackups (mtmfs, nosuid, read-only, nobrowse)
~ belambert$ diskutil info disk2
   Device Identifier:        disk2
   Device Node:              /dev/disk2
   Part of Whole:            disk2
   Device / Media Name:      WD My Book 111A Media
File System:              None
   Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Total Size:               2.0 TB (2000365289472 Bytes) (exactly 3906963456 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                Yes
File System:              None
   Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Total Size:               2.0 TB (2000365289472 Bytes) (exactly 3906963456 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                Yes
belambert ttys000                   Wed Mar 11 17:34 - 17:39 (00:05)
belambert ttys000                   Wed Mar 11 17:33 - 17:34 (00:00)
wtmp begins Sun Mar 8 14:40
~ belambert$ ~ belambert$ diskutil list
-bash: :~: command not found
~ belambert$ /dev/disk0
-bash: /dev/disk0: Permission denied
:~ belambert$    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
~ belambert$    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
-bash: 0:: command not found
:~ belambert$    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
-bash: 1:: command not found
~ belambert$    2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         250.1 GB   disk0s2
-bash: 2:: command not found
~ belambert$    3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
-bash: /dev/disk1: Permission denied
~ belambert$    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
~ belambert$    0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *249.8 GB   disk1
-bash: 0:: command not found
~ belambert$                                  Logical Volume on disk0s2
-bash: Logical: command not found
~ belambert$                                  7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C
-bash: 7A998EAE-68FB-4BAC-BF40-7A31D2806B2C: command not found
~ belambert$                                  Unlocked Encrypted
-bash: Unlocked: command not found
:~ belambert$ /dev/disk2
-bash: /dev/disk2: Permission denied
~ belambert$    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
:~ belambert$    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
-bash: 0:: command not found
~ belambert$    1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk2s1
-bash: 1:: command not found
~ belambert$ ~ belambert$ diskutil cs list
-bash: ~: command not found
~ belambert$ CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
~ belambert$ |
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `|'
~ belambert$ +-- Logical Volume Group 883A56F4-5559-4872-A8DA-960F99655B63
-bash: +--: command not found
~ belambert$     =========================================================
-bash: =========================================================: command not found
~ belambert$     Name:         Macintosh HD
-bash: Name:: command not found
~ belambert$
-bash: 3:: command not found
~ belambert$ /dev/disk1
   Whole:                    Yes
   Internal:                 No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported
:~ belambert$ Last login: Wed Mar 11 19:23:03 on ttys000
~ belambert$ diskutil list
   Whole:                    Yes
   Internal:                 No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported
~ belambert$ Last login: Wed Mar 11 19:23:03 on ttys000
~ belambert$ diskutil list
   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)
   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)

racergirl,
have you tried resetting your MacBook Pro’s System Management Controller, to see if that makes a difference with the heat?

LR 5 my external hard drive no longer appears as a hard drive but as a folder under "Volumes"

I am running LR 5 on a MacBook pro and my external hard drive no longer appears as a hard drive but as a folder under "Volumes". will this affect my ability to search and store in this external hard drive? How can I get it back to normal?

I just started having the same problem, oddly enough with a LaCie 500GB D2 Quadra external. Had it connected via FW800 then suddenly it won't appear in the Finder.
It shows up as an "Unknown Device" in the System Profiler under the FireWire Bus.
I do need the data on it so which solution is easier?
Replace the housing? Or am I better off calling LaCie and using the warrenty?
Thanks,
Shannon

Dreamweaver sites on external drive no longer working

Just started having this problem. Sites I previsously created and store on an external drive no longer allow me to edit styles from the CSS Designer and running link checker show all files as being broken. I've deleted caches and even completely reinstalled Dreamweaver CC but nothing. If I move the files to the local drive and update the site settings in Dreamweaver, everything works fine. I have a Lacie 1TB Raid drive...been using this setup for more than a year and have never had a problem before. I ran disk utility and found no errors on the drive. Any ideas?

You may have the same issue that many have had since updating iTunes to version 11: Movies added to iTunes since the upgrade are not appearing on your Apple TV.
If that is the case, here is the solution:
In ITunes, find the movies that your Apple TV isn't seeing.
Highlight them all.
Use Command-I to open the Info window.
Click on Options.
If "Media Kind" is set to "Home Video," change it to "Movie."
Unfortunately, iTunes now thinks any newly-added movie it doesn't immediately recognize is a Home Video until you change it.
Hope this helps.

Am I better leaving my music on the imac drive or putting on thunderbolt external drive?

My current set-up is that I have a 6 year old imac. I also have an external hard drive where I moved all of my itunes content (about 400gb of movies, music, etc.) and I also moved our iphoto files to this external hard drive. This drive is connected by ethernet in our house and it feeds the apple TV that is in another room (wifi connected).
I just ordered the new imac retina (has yet to arrive) and I upgraded to the 1TB flash drive. I also ordered a thunderbolt external drive. My question is this...I believe a Flash drive is fast. I believe a Thunderbolt drive is fast. For accessing the content especially for Apple TV, is it actually better to leave the content on the imac going forward rather than a hard drive?
I had the external drive to free up hard drive space and to make it easier to move to a new mac when the time came. I had also hoped to find a way for apple tv to access the content even when the imac was turned off but I haven't been able to make that happen.
So, just asking here about leaving content on the new imac when it comes versus moving the data over to the thunderbolt drive.
Being that the apple tv will still be accessing content via wifi in the house, I wonder if I will see any speed improvements in streaming with the combo of a faster mac, faster thunderbolt, etc.
Hopefully upgrading to the flash drive was a smart decision in general.
Thanks.

Streaming will be faster from the new iMac. However it is still a good idea to keep the bulk of your material, 400 GB is a lot of content, on external drives. That serves to protect the material if an internal drive fails, and also keeps the internal drive from getting too loaded down. You can increase speed by simply moving content you want to use in the short term to the iMac SSD where it will be at its fastest speed, and then take it off when no longer needed there.
That gives the speed and security for your material.

Daisy chain from Thunderbolt external drive to Firewire 800 external drive?

Can I go from a Thunderbolt external drive, using its second thunderbolt port via the Apple Thunderbolt/Firewire adapter to a Firewire external drive?

Sharon,
did you do anything else besides copying your library to a fire wire drive after your last post Aperture not responding ?
Since that library probalbly already needed fixing, I'd recommend to force quit Aperture and use the "First Aid" to repair your Library.
Aperture 3: Troubleshooting Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3805
Regards
Léonie

HT5299 Thunderbolt-Can you use an adaptor From a thunderbolt External drive to a firewire 800/400 Mac

Thunderbolt-Can you use an adaptor From a thunderbolt External drive to a firewire 800/400 Mac

No. The Thunderbolt to Firewire adapters only work to connect a Firewire drive to a Thunderbolt port. They do not work in reverse, to connect a Thunderbolt-only drive to a Firewire port. If the only port your drive has is a Thunderbolt port and all you have on the Mac is Firewire, you can't use that drive with that computer.
Regards.

When I plug in my Lacie (thunderbolt) External Drive it doesn't show up on the desktop. I need to move some stuff out of my hard drive to make room.

When I plug in my Lacie (thunderbolt) External Drive it doesn't show up on the desktop. I need to move some stuff out of my hard drive to make room. I have very little room left on the hard drive and need to move an iPhoto library.

i have a lacie, and i encrypted it. i had to wipe it, because it kept dropping off over and over and re-logging in. so unencrypted i went.
at some point it wasn't recognized at all. sometimes disk utility would open it, but then it got to the point that it wouldn't recognize it either.
i hadn't realized that the power supply was dysfunctional. but i was able to recover it using disk warrior at the last deep breath it took. the disk itself still works, but not in that housing.

Will my mid 2010 iMac 27inch work with Thunderbolt external drives?*

will my mid 2010 iMac 27inch work with Thunderbolt external drives?*

No. Your iMac doesn't have Thunderbolt. You'll need a Firewire or USB drive.
Regards.

External Hard Drive No longer Appearing on Macbook Pro

Hello, I have a Iomega ldhd-up 1TB external hard drive which I have owned for about 3-4 years. The enclosure case of the hard drive is very poorly designed and the port for the USB cable does not fit the cable tightly. Over the years I often would have to turn off the hard drive and adjust the cord so it would appear on my computer. (yes i know its a bad idea to turn it off without unmounting, but i didn't have much choice)
However, as of today, it is no longer appearing at all no matter what I do. (not on the desktop, or disk utility, or anywhere). It is making the same sounds and the light on the external is showing up as if should be working though.
Does anyone have a fix for this or suggestions to make my hard drive appear and function again. Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you.

Since you have had a history of connection problems with the Iomega, get a new enclosure for the HDD. That of course assumes that the HDD is functional.
Ciao.

RMBP, Windows 7 64 bit, thunderbolt external drive

I finally figured out how to install and run Win 7 off of my thunderbolt drive (seagate).
the rMBP requires a FAT partition to be created on the interal SSD. If you use bootcamp utility it creates a huge 20GB partition. I was able to create a small FAT partition on the internal SSD and then proceed to install and run win 7 off of the external thunderbolt drive.
PROCEDURE:
1. run diskutil command:
Code:
diskutil list
you will need to know if your internal SSD is disk0 or disk1 (in this guide it was disk0
2. Create the small partition:
***my ssd is a 512 GB drive, you can break down the partition here ***
Code:
diskutil resizevolume /dev/disk0s2 494G MS-DOS FAT 5G
3. Within Mac, create a single msdos partition on the external thunderbolt drive. (GUID or MBR)
4. for the rMBP, use the Bootcamp assistant utility to create your USB windows 7 installer from an iso and also with the bootcamp drivers.
5. Reboot and press the option key at the chime.
6. Choose the windows installer
7. at the drive screen of the installer you will see your 2 drives. drive0 maybe the external. Format the external drive ntfs and then install to the drive.
8. On reboot and eventually install bootcamp drivers.
Trial and error:
I tried install without internal partition and received 0x8030024 error which in some of apple forums can be overcome by removing the main drive. I did this but installer would freeze.
Good luck. If you need any help let me know.
see forum for complete disscussion
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1414769

I have a related question. I have a 2012 top-of-the-line iMac with Thunderbolt, and I already have the internal SSD partitioned into both Mac and Bootcamp running Windows 7 64 bit. The internal hard drive is also partitioned into both mac and PC hard drives I just added a 4 TB external Thunderbolt drive (Seagate Backup Plus using the external Seagate Thunderbolt adapter/dock), and I do NOT want to install Windows bootcamp on the external drive - I just want to partition it so that the Mac has access to 2 TB and Bootcamp has access to the other 2 TB. Using Mac Disk Utility, I can easily partition it, although I can't format the PC side into NTSF. However, when I startup using Windows, it doesn't seem to recognize either of the external hard drive partitions that the Mac side already recognizes. The Mac side even assigned little icons (automatically) to both partitions showing the Seagate harddrive docked in its little Thunderbolt adapter/dock. The PC side didn't assign icons, and didn't recognize either partition UNTIL I WENT INTO PC DISK MANAGEMENT AND FORMATTED THE PC PARTITION AGAIN, as NTSB. Now the PC side recognizes the Windows Partitions, but still doesn't recognize the Mac partition - it says that partition hasn't been formatted yet. Oddly, the Mac side still recognizes both partitions even after I changed the PC version. So what's going on here? Does Windows require some sort of Thunderbolt driver in order to correctly recognize an external hard drive that Mac Disk Utility has formatted? I didn't have this problem on the internal hard drive that come in my iMac - it's recognized easily by both PC and Mac.
I am using only the Windows NTSF partition on the external hard drive at the moment. I transferred all my Steam games to it as an experiment (about 350 GB). The games are running just fine, but it seems that the frame rates and speeds are slower than they were on the original internal hard drive. I bought the external Thunderbolt drive because it was supposed to be faster.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Any help on this matter would be appreciated. Thanks!

External Drive No Longer Accessible after 10.9.5 Update

After upgrading to 10.9.5 from 10.9.4, I have lost access to my external drive (USB connected) used by Time Machine. The icon on the desktop is amber. Disk Utility can not repair it. I get "Error Some information was unavailable during an internal lookup." Also.. "Problems were encountered during repair of the partition map." The disk format is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If I launch Windows 7 (using Fusion 6) on the iMac, it recognizes the drive (I have the HFS+ driver installed.) I can read and write to the drive and see all the time machine backups on the Win 7 virtual machine. I am logged in to my iMac as a Standard User. Logging in as the Administrator has no effect. The drive can not be repaired or formatted. This is a late 2009 iMac with 12GB ram. Original OS was Snow Leopard. It was upgraded from 10.6.8 to the full Mavericks OS.

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 the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually login 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?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

External drives no longer show up - light is on but nobody home!

Hey all,
Still using an old iMac G4 and it works great... 10.2.8
(and ibook 10.3.9)
plugging in some Maxtor External drives and they don't show up (mount)
I hear them. The light is on.
Checking in disk utility shows that computer senses them and says I can repair permissions (have not tried that yet) but they never appear
on the desktop. These drives are more than 5 years old and haven't been used in about a year - my mistake. use it or lose it apparently.
If anyone can throw a life raft I'll grab it.
thanks,
Al

Dale,
They don't show up in Disk Util.
Nothing to click on.
When I plug them in I get a message saying do I want to initialize or ignore?
I am assuming initialize would erase everything but there is stuff on them so I don't want to erase.
thanks,
Al

Daisy-Chained External Drive No Longer Mounting

I have two external hard drives daisy-chained (firewire 800) to my iMac. The hard drive directly connected my iMac mounts fine. The daisy-chained hard drive no longer mounts, after mounting perfectly fine for a few months. I've tried restarting, etc with no success. Any help would be appreciated.

moretoexplore wrote:
No, it does not mount directly. I did however try using the other hard drive's power cord and it mounted without problem. But this doesn't fix the problem.. only one drive is mounting. At least it seems I have ruled out a more serious problem with the drive itself. I'm contacting Lacie to get a new power cord. Hopefully, with a new power cord, this will resolve the issue and it isn't some sort of daisy-chain issue.
I think you have solved the problem by elimination.
You can prove that it's the power cord by using the "bad" one on the working drive. If it stops working, it's guaranteed to be the power cord.
I believe that there were some issues with some of the LaCie Power Supplies.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Thunderbolt external drive no longer appears

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