Trying to download from an external hard drive, no icon appears on the screen
trying to transfer files from external hard drive to mac, no icon appears on the screen
Windows uses either FAT32 or NTFS. Mac OS X uses Mac OS Extended also known as HFS+. All you really need to know is that they are just three different methods for storing information. Macs can handle some Windows formats, but Windows cannot handle HFS+ without additional software.
To see the format of the external drive, right-click on the icon and select Properties (Windows) or Get Info (Mac)
Mac OS X has been able to read and write FAT32 formatted hard drives since the very beginning. If you have a FAT32 drive you can simply connect it to your Mac and it will very easily be able to read and write to it. There is nothing special you need to do. However, there are two limitations of FAT32. 1.) It only supports file sizes of 4GB or less. 2.) Some Mac applications may not run from the drive as FAT32 does not adequately handle the permissions structure of Mac OS X.
NTFS is a different story. NTFS is a more modern Windows format but is proprietary to Microsoft. Licensing is required to use it which is probably why Apple doesn’t fully support it. Macs can read an NTFS drive, but they cannot write to one.
Similar Messages
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I have an imac 2009 the disk drive is damaged and I have lost the passwords I need to reset passwords I tried booting with a macosx disk from an external hard drive but did not read the drive how else can I reset password ?
I have a 2012 mac book pro can I use that to connect with firewire and load osx that way? and how woudl I do that?
Thanks so much!To what password are you referring? Do you mean your user account's admin password? Or do you mean the master password for File Vault or do you mean a Firmware Password?
For an admin password:
Forgot Your Account Password
For Snow Leopard and earlier
Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password
For Lion/Mountain Lion
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow
instructions in the dialog window that will appear.
Or see Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password and
OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
If you cannot do the above then try this:
1. Boot to Safe Mode by restarting and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-S keys until a black screen with white type appears.
2. At the prompt, type the following commands pressing return after each command line:
/sbin/fsck -yf
If you do not receive a "Filesystem OK" message then repeat this command until
you do. If after seven tries you still do not receive a "Filesystem OK" message,
then the system is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled.
mount -uw /
cd /private/var/db/netinfo
mv local.nidb local.old
rm ../.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -r now
The second-to-last command above will cause OS X to think that the operating system is newly installed, and when the new owner starts up the computer it will send him/her to the startup wizard where he/she can start a new user without reinstalling.
This last method does not actually change a password. It simply removes the user accounts and lets you create an initial admin account as if the computer were new out of the box.
How to reset the OS X password without a startup CD:
Reboot into Single-user Mode. Enter the following and press RETURN after each command line
1. Type fsck -fy
2. Type mount -uw /
3. Type passwd <username>
I have never tried this method myself. -
Is there a possibility to recover erased files from an external hard drive that was reformatted by the Time Machine?
Basics of File Recovery
Files in Trash
If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery. -
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? -
Two external hard drive are not appearing on the desktop anymore on my 2008 24" iMac. One is a Lacie d2 Quadra and the other is a G Drive. Both are 1 Tb
Are they daisy chained? Have you tried them one at a time? Have you tried a different FireWire cable? Do they show up in either system profiler or Disk Utility? Have you reset the SMC? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
-
A library on my hard drive became corrupted, so I over-wrote it from an external hard drive. When I now access the library on my hard drive, many of the images are vertical, and cannot be rotated other than one at a time. Ideas to correct this?
You had already done "Repair" and "Rebuild"? These usually takes scores of minutes or hours.
Does the Library on your external drive work from the external drive? Navigate to it in Finder and double-click the name.
If it does, delete the problem Library, empty the System Trash, reboot, Verify your system disk using Disk Utility (and might as well repair permissions while you're at it), reboot, test the external drive Library once more to confirm it works properly, then close it and copy the Library to your system drive. When the copying is done, double-click the Library (now on the system drive) and see what you get. -
How can I copy files from an external hard drive without creating copies on the disk?
I recently purchased a MacBook Air as part of a requirement for schoolwork. I decided to use it to sync music to my iPod and iPhone, and it worked perfectly well, however, i keep most of my music files on an external hard drive. Recently, it started sending me messages about the hard drive being almost full. I checked on the about this Mac screen, and it said that up to 95 gigabytes on the disk drive had been taken up by music. This was not my intention, as i had previously assumed the music was kept on my external hard drive as it had been on windows. I attempted to delete the folder, but it now said that my disk drive was taken up by "other" files. I want to still use my iTunes without these files copying. How?
Hi flyingroastchicken,
If the songs are being stored on your Mac, then make sure that the location of where the iTunes media is being store. Take a look at the article below to verify that you have it set up the way you want.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201562
Take it easy,
-Norm G. -
Trying to boot from an external hard drive - drive not recognized at boot
I am trying to upgrade my Operating system. I am going from Mac OS 10.4.11 to Mac OS 10.6.
Hardware:
Model Name:
MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier:
MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name:
Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed:
2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors:
1
Total Number Of Cores:
2
L2 Cache (per processor):
2 MB
Memory:
2 GB
Bus Speed:
667 MHz
To backup my existing environment I bought Seagate Free Agent GoFlex 500GB for PC and Mac. USB 3.0 but backward comaptible to USB 2.0 which is what my laptop is. The system requirements included support for 10.4.11. I attached the drive to my lap top and used disk utility to format to Mac Extended OS (journaled). It recognized the drive immediately.
I used SuperDuper 2.6.4 to copy all files to the external drive. It seemed to copy just fine. It said it made the drive bootable. TO test it, I shutdown the system and started it back up with the option key pressed, but it only gave me my original HD as a choice to boot from. When the system came up, it didn't recognize the external drive. I unplugged the drive and re attached it and it seemed to recognize it, I trued to reboot again and it doesn't recognize the hard drive on reboot. Only when I un attach and reattach it.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.I haven't forgotten, it just takes forever to get to a result when backing up an entire system.
So here's what I did. I agree with this idea:
Limnos wrote:
mac-sales.com I mentioned above is the OWC Ogelthorpe uses.
I suspect StartupDisk is seeing a nicely mounted drive connected in a bootable interface (USB) with all the needed files (palced there by SuperDuper). However, what it doesn't know if that drive isn't really accessible until the computer has properly booted because the chipset doesn't work without full system support. This is not at all unusual in external drives. Many years ago you really has to insist upon having an Oxford chipset in an enclosure to guarantee booting, but for general backup use any chipset was fine.
I had an old Lacie drive I have used for file backups over the years:
Disk:
Name :
LaCie Group SA
Type :
Disk
Disk Identifier :
disk1
Media Name :
WDC WD80 0BB-00JHC0 Media
Media Type :
Generic
Connection Bus :
FireWire
Connection Type :
External
Connection ID :
58629628097197639
Partition Type :
GUID_partition_scheme
Device Tree :
/PCI0@0/PCIB@1E/FRWR@3/node@d04b560c0bf647/sbp-2@c000/@0:0
Writable :
Yes
Ejectable :
Yes
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed :
No
Location :
External
Total Capacity :
74.5 GB (80,026,361,856 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status :
Not Supported
Disk Number :
1
Partition Number :
0
Name :
Macintosh HD
Type :
Volume
Disk Identifier :
disk1s2
Mount Point :
/Volumes/Macintosh HD 1
File System :
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus :
FireWire
Partition Type :
Apple_HFS
Device Tree :
/PCI0@0/PCIB@1E/FRWR@3/node@d04b560c0bf647/sbp-2@c000/@0:2
Writable :
Yes
Universal Unique Identifier :
438A4768-6F2C-3A0A-96A3-AEF60B7B8815
Capacity :
44.5 GB (47,768,887,296 Bytes)
Free Space :
4.2 GB (4,464,005,120 Bytes)
Used :
40.3 GB (43,304,882,176 Bytes)
Number of Files :
432,903
Number of Folders :
97,585
Owners Enabled :
No
Can Turn Owners Off :
Yes
Can Be Formatted :
Yes
Bootable :
Yes
Supports Journaling :
Yes
Journaled :
Yes
S.M.A.R.T. Status :
Not Supported
Disk Number :
1
Partition Number :
2
I moved everything from the Lacie to the SEaget - at least is it will be useful for something!
Erased the Lacie, partitioned it to 2 partitions.
Formnatted the partition GUID as suggested. I had named the partition for the backup something cutre like 10.4.11 OS clone.
Used Disk Utility>Restore to backup/clone the environment.
During the backup, it renamed the partition Macintosh HD, which was encouraging. After waiting a very long time for the backup, I was able to try to test booting from it and received many diagnostic errors including permission type errors, some of the files in /etc did not beloing to root. I have a couple of things I am going to try but thought I'd throw it out here since you guys have kept me pointed in the right direction.
Any more ideas as to why the drive won' t boot? Did I not give the partition enough space? Is it the chipset thing? -
hi. i am trying to transfer my old pictures and music files from my external drive into my new laptop.and first of all only a coupleof my foldersare coming up.and even those few files/folders wont play ....i am new to mac.i REALLY need help. my old pictures and music are real important to me.plz help me.
IS the external HD from another Mac or a PC?
-
My computer is Stuck at "looking for other computers" while trying to Upload from an external hard drive using migration assistant.
Wow, the wording in Migration Assistant is misleading. I've never used it before, so I thought I would try to copy my files from the external drive ... my old iMac died, but I managed to get everything I need off it, using the 'cp' command in single-user mode. So I guess I'll just have to manually copy the files from the external drive to the new machine. I was hoping that Migration Assistant might help somehow, but obviously not.
Thanks for the quick reply! -
How do I move data on time machine from one external hard drive to another
How do I move data on time machine from one external hard drive to another?
Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. Turn Time Machine OFF in its preference pane while copying the volume. -
Running itunes from an external hard drive
Hi there,
My itunes library is getting a little too large for my iMac to handle (nearing 500gb of my 1TB hard drive, leaving little space for all my other software and documents) and I'd like to move the itunes library and run it from an external hard drive.
I've read the following link and am clear on the procedure...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Sure, I can go through the process and see what happens, however, I thought I'd ask to see if anyone else has done something similar and am curious as to whether they encountered any issues / have any words of wisdom to impart?!
I have an Apple TV which syncs with my iTunes, as well as an iPad and an iPhone. The iPad and iPhone sync when connected, but the Apple TV syncs over WiFi...
Will I have any side affects by moving my library to an external hard drive?
I plan to purchase a drive with FireWire 800. That said, I do have a 2TB TimeCapsule, but I cant seem to find any decent information on how to use it as an external hard drive...(even though, I believe, it says you can do so in the 'sales bumf' on the Apple store)
Your thoughts/advice/comments wold be appreciated!
Cheers,
DMacFormat Issue 236 page 65.
Sorted! -
After transferring my songs from an external hard drive, every song appears twice in my library. Both songs will play until I delete one of them and then I get a message saying the file can't be located. I can restore the song from my recycle bin and the remaining file will then work but it doesn't shopw up but once in my library. I have over 1600 songs and don't want to go thru this process for every song.......PLEASE HELP
No.
tt2 -
Current computer that I just bought used is operating on Leopard 10.5.8
I have Mountain Lion OS X CD installation files downloaded on my external hard drive from another Mac that I have owned.
How do I use my external HD to download and Install Mountain OS X wizard.
Is the only way to do this to buy a copy of snow leopard and then once upgrading to that, plug in my external HD and then access the Mtn install file as I would if I had the installation CD?
When I try to access the install file from my external HD, i get to the installation window and then when I am to select a hard drive to install it on I receuve a red exclamation mark error that says it can not be written to the HD. Why is this? Because I'm not on snow leopard but rather leopard?As you have the installer on a DVD, you can do a trick that consists in formatting the hard drive, and then, install Mountain Lion.
First, make a backup of your files with Time Machine > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427 I recommend Time Machine because it will be easier to restore your files later.
Then, insert the DVD with Mountain Lion and hold the C key while your Mac is starting, so you will see a window with different options. Open Disk Utility, choose Macintosh HD in the sidebar, go to Erase tab and erase the drive.
After erasing the drive, you can install Mountain Lion. Close Disk Utility and install it. During the initial setup, it will ask you to restore your files, so plug the external drive with the backup and follow its steps. Note that PowerPC apps aren't compatible -
I cannot get my iTunes library/music from my old computer to my new one. The old computer is so messed up that I cannot even open a browser.I tried to copy to an external hard drive and the music was there until I went to upload to the new computer. I disconnected my old computer so I will have to reconnect it I am sure. thank you for any help. Last time I transferred I used a product I purchased. That was a long time ago.
First of all make sure that you've definitely backed up the movies to your external hard disc.
In iMovie click on any event you don't want, go to the file menu and select 'move event to trash'. Then do the same for any unwanted projects - 'move project to trash'. Quit out of iMovie and empty the trash.
Hope that helps!
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