USB external hard drive won't show up in Lion

My external USB hard drive won't show up in Finder, even though it's visible in both the Disk Utility, which says the drive is fine, and in Terminal.
How can I get it mounted? I have researched the issue and found no solution.It disappeared while I was downloading IOS6.
It has all my iTunes and iPhoto files!
Many thanks

I have a very similar issue. I have a seagate external usb drive 500 GB that is partitioned. One FAT 32 the other MAC OS Extended (Journaled). It has suddenly for no apparent reason stopped being able to mount the Mac OS volume. The FAT 32 vol. works fine. Disk Utility says that it is fine when I do a repair or verity etc. When I click on mount, it won't work. It says mount failed. Try running First Aid on the disk and then retry mounting. Same thing happens once that is done. ??????Any ideas?????

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After installing snow leopard my external hard drive won't show up on screen or backup

Afer installing leopard my external hard drive won't show up on my desk top. It also won't backup my hard drive with time machine. I need help.

Try going to finder preferences, general, make sure show these items on desktop external disks is clicked. You can also go to sidebar (same pane) and click it there so it will show when you open your HD. Time Machine>system preferences>time machine>turn it off click select disk, make sure the correct disk is selected, the turn TM back on. Hope this helps.

HELP! External hard drive won't show up in finder!

Last night, I was updating my macbook (from August 2008, still runs on leopard) and it needed to restart. I forgot to eject my LaCie Porsche 1tb external hard drive first and, when it rebooted, I got the error of death (aka "disk was not ejected..."). When connected to the USB port, the drive lights up, I can hear it spinning, but it won't show up in finder and I can't see it in Disk Utility to repair it (after the first error of death, the computer wouldn't even acknowledge that I had the drive plugged in). I've tried plugging it into the different USB ports and even on a different macbook, but no luck in getting the computer to recognize it long enough to use Disk Utility or DiskWarrior. Any tips on how I can get my macbook to read the drive again?

If the external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility when connected to two or more different computers, then the problem is with the hard drive, it is broken. Get a new one.

New external hard drive won't show up in disk utilities...

I have a 2010 macbook pro 13" and just bought a 1tb toshiba canvio external hard drive.
The hard drive itself has a USB 3.0 hub running out of it and the specifications say that it needs to run into at least a 2.0 hub, which I have.
I know I will need to reformat the external drive to get it to work on a mac, but it won't show up at all when I plug it in... the drive starts spinning but there is no recognition by my mac.
Does anyone know what this is and how to fix it?

So far all MacBook users have been able to use this drive as a USB 2.0 by using a USB 2.0 cable with a micro usb connector (same as smartphones, Kindle, Nook) on one end. Connect the micro connector to the opening on the left side of the USB 3.0 connector on the Canvio - if you look closely you'll see that side is exactly like the USB 2.0 micro receptacle. That's all you need to connect as a USB 2.0 - the other connections are for USB 3.0 which no Apple system has yet (Dec 2011). Connect the other end (a standard USB type A plug) to your MacBook and it will work. If you want to use it for Time Machine, you'll have to reformat it. None of the supplied software will work with Mac You can read more at this thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3510032?start=0&tstart=0

My external hard drive won't show up on my MacBook Pro

So, I'm trying to transfer my music from my PC to my MacBook Pro. I put all my music on an external hard drive, but for some reason when I plug it into my MacBook it won't show up on the desk top. I've already changed my preferences in Finder so that hard drives and disks will show on the desktop, but still nothing. I looked in utilities to see if the hard drive was there, and still nothing. The hard drive is a Toshiba and is fairly new, the light goes on when I plug it into my laptop, so I'm very confused. Can anyone help me with my predicament?

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?
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.

My external hard drive won't show up on my macbook air, and my iPhone when connected won't show up as connected in iTunes, help

When I connect my external hard drive to my MB Air it is to recognizing it. It did 2 days ago and it is compatible I have been using it for a month now. Also when I connect my iPhone 6 to it, it won't show up in iTunes anymore......please help

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?
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.

My Passport External Hard Drive won't show up

I've been using a My Passport external hard drive for the past two years, and it's always worked perfectly fine. All my files are on it since my Macbook Air can't fit much. But just recently, I plugged it in and the disk runs, and the LED light flashes, but it doesn't show up on my computer at all. What should I do? I don't think it's a bad cable because otherwise it wouldn't run at all.

There is also a chance that the cable may have a poor
connection, as there are several contacts inside and
the cable ends may not be making a connection. As
power to run the device may get there, data may not.
A spare known-good cable is also something to try;
be sure to follow the shutdown/restart as previously
suggested since the device may not appear correctly
should it be disconnected improperly, at any time.
A shutdown (then dis or reconnect) lessens the likeli-
hood of there being an error message, or loss of the
ability to use the external drive at all. When it doesn't
appear on the desktop at all, you have to be careful.
Good luck

Western Digital My Book Studio II external hard drive won't mount on Mountain Lion

I have the Western Digital My Book Studio II external hard drive. It was working fine. After upgrading to Mountain Lion, the disk does not mount. I can't find any help on the Western Digital site. Has anyone else run into this? Is there a solution?
Immediately, I'm more concerned about getting the data off this drive than getting it to work. If I take it to an Apple Store with another external drive, could they transfer the data to it for me?

Also, check the Western Digital website for software updates. They have made numerous updates recently.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?wdc_lang=en
Firmware update for Mac users
Mac release 3.1.0.10E (updated 9/4/2012)
See: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/firmware.asp?id=wdfGeneric&os=ma c
WD Universal Firmware Updater Release Notes 1
WD Universal FW Updater 3.1.0.10E: Fixes:
• Added additional drive support.
WD Universal FW Updater 3.1.0.10D: Fixes:
• Now works with 10.8 Mt. Lion.

My external hard drive won't show up on the desktop!!

Alright!
I bought a 250Go external hard disk at the same time as my alumnium iMac around september 2007. Since then I had no problems.
I also created partitions on my hard disk:
1 - Mac = Mac OS extended (Journaled) 202 Go
2 - PC = MS-DOS (Fat) 30 Go
When I turn on on my hard disk, both icons usually appear on my desktop but since yesterday, ONLY my PC icon appear.
I went in the Disk Utility and it seems that the MAC partition is always here but won't show up on the desktop. It's like it's become invisible or something.
Should I be worried? Because I use the MAC partition to back up all my files with Time Machine.
I find it annoying so anybody can help me out? Thanks!!

Patrick, I have same issue with my (Intel) MacBook's internal HD. Tried your Script solution but recv'd Systems Events ERROR "Can't set disk "MacBook HD" to true".
The (missing) HD is Boot Camp Partitioned and running Fusion. BTW, Fusion/WinXP will no longer open - "File not Found" error. Also, I didn't immediately notice the disappearance because my MacBook started booting from one of ext HD's (w/o me changing the startup drive).
Any ideas greatly appreciated. I haven't tried the Terminal solutions posted since I'm not Terminal savey.

External Hard Drive Won't Show Up

Hello.
I have a Toshiba Canvio Connect HDTC605XK3A1, a little more than three years old. It's a 3.0 HDD and I've been using a 2.0 USB wire instead of the 3.0 wire, it works fine, but since it's not connected in that other connector, it can be loose and the HDD does turn off. So, I finally got a 3.0 wire for it so it doesn't turn on and off by a little movement but now I don't see the HDD in my finder? This is strange because it works with the 2.0 wire. The light on the HDD is a different color as well, it's blue instead of white. Nothing in the manual indicates what this means, I've also searched online to see what it means, can't find anything. Does anyone know why it won't show up in my finder? It won't show up in the disk utility as well and when I go to the terminal and type in "diskutil list," it doesn't come up.

I've used two different 3.0 USB wires, both with the same results.

External Hard Drive won't show.

I use a FreeAgent GoFlex (Seagate) Hard Drive, I've previously used it on a Dell computer without any issues but when i plug it into my MacBook Air the hard drive shows in finder but when i click on it it's empty, i've tried to make it compatible with Mac with the help of youtube and google but nothing works and i need this content on the hard drive for my school work like yesterday so if you know how i can fix this problem fast, please comment.

Honestly I've no idea, i've done so much with it today.. But if you have any clue on to how i can fix it just comment..

My external hard drive won't show up anymore.

It worked perfectly yesterday, but today it wont show up on the desktop or in disk utility at all. I have windows 8 on a bootcamp partition in parallels. if i connect it while my VM is open it asks whether to connect it to my mac or my boot camp. If i connect it to the mac, same as before. if i connect it to boot camp then it works just fine. What can i do?
Edit: It is formatted as exFAT so it should work properly on mac and windows.
Edit: I just connected it to my roommate's laptop (also a macbook pro) and it worked just fine.

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?
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 Won't Mount- Need to recover files

Hello Everyone,
I am hoping that one of you fine mac experts may be able to assist ~
Problem: External Seagate FreeAgent Desktop USB external hard drive
won't mount on desktop=ie: no access to my important files.. Please Help!
Details:
External seagate freeagent 500 GB Desktop USB HD ( only 2 months old)
(using for document / file backup-not as a startup disc)
on my Mac G3 350 MZ Blue & White Tower /768 ram/ running OSX 10.1.5 & OS9.2~
~
Problem: Started using the external 500 GB HD 2 months ago -with no problems-until this morning. Tried to double click to open it to access files
and got the "beach ball of death" and needed to restart.
My trusty G3 started up fine, however, the external HD was now
not showing up on the desktop as normal. I troubleshooted -by restarting,
trying different a/c plugs/ different USB ports , ran disk utility..called
seagate -not much help . Seagate said to try the HD on another mac-which I did-
a G5 tower- same problem.
~
The External hard drive will show up in disk utility, but is grayed out.
and when click "mount" same two messages keep showing:
message 1: "a disk attempting to mount as unknown has failed verification or has failed to
mount.please use disk utility to check the disk"
~
message 2- when unplugging and repluggin the usb in-and upon
restart:" you have inserted a disk containg no volumes that mac osx
can read to use unreadable volumes,click initialize to continue with the disk inserted ,click continue"
~
( I really need access to these files- and do not want to re-initialize the HD!!)
I ran Disk Utility /first aid "verify & repair , the following info came up:
Repairing disk "main backup 2007 ".
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid key length ( <<<IN RED )
Repair completed. "
~~
Though it said the repair was completed, the "invalid key length" issue
still comes up when re-running disk utility...Hard drive would still not
mount on desktop-even after restarting .
~~~~~
If there is a mac genius out there that can help?- it would be greatly
appreciated. I have tried to call seagate several times in the last several hours-
1st time-they disconnected me after being on hold 10 minutes-2nd call
I was put on hold for 40 minutes ..Finally spoke to someone ( they are not mac users or mac experts!)and he said I would need to send it to Seagate's Data Recovery-... for a fee of course!
~~~
At this point, I am hoping to just get the files and photos off
the hard drive- I heard about Disk Warrior-should I use that and if so
what version?
Thank you very much!
L

Will zapping the PRAM be of any use in getting the external to mount on the desktop?
Your external Hard drive is already recognized. But it cannot be mounted on the desktop due to its directory damage. You can certainly Zap the PRAM, and it will not hurt anything, but I am skeptical that it will change the situation.
Do you think the Disk Warrior 4.0 cd will even work on my G3 350MHZ running Mac OS 10.1.5?
If you boot from the CD and run it from the CD, absolutely yes. If you attempt to INSTALL it from a download or a CD, probably not.
Have you ever used Disc Warrior and is using it complicated?
I own and use Disk Warrior. You select the drive to be rebuilt, it builds a proposed new directory from the information and file fragments available.
When complete, it will provide a list of problems encountered, tell you what files have been placed in the "Rescued Items" folder, and allow you too look at your drive using the proposed new directory. Your only decision is whether the new directory seems to be an improvement over the old \[in your case, hopelessly corrupted] directory. You then tell it whether to replace the old directory with the proposed new directory, or to abandon its work and leave your Hard Drive unchanged.
Is there a good chance that the ext HD will still have my files on it- or do you think from what I've described that they are gone ?
From what you have described, your files are very likely to still be there. Sometimes in a situation like this, a handful of files cannot be recovered.
My other thought was to take the external HD there and have them try to recover the files.
Make sure you completely understand the costs involved. File recovery using a service like DriveSavers can run into many hundreds of dollars. They are prepared to disassemble your drive in a clean room and replace controller boards and read/write heads to achieve success. Your drive has serious, but not fatal, Directory damage. The Hardware, and most of your files, are likely just fine.

How do i repair or recover data from a corrupt USB external hard drive that does not show up on my Mac desktop or disk utility

How do i repair or recover data from a corrupt USB external hard drive that does not show up on my Mac desktop or disk utility?
Last night i was using my external hard drive, for some reason the folder just closed and i couldn't find it on my desktop.
After googling solutions, i found it in the disk utilities, i clicked on the 'repair' button many times, but it said the 'error...' message.
So i ejected it to try again, now when i connect the USB external hard drive it doesn't show up on my desktop or disk utilities.
I really just want to either repair or recover the data on it because it literally has everything (documents, work files, photos etc) on it,
I downloaded an application to recover my files but it needs the USB to at least show up.recognise it which mine doesn't.
I know i should've backed it up on another USB, this definitely teaches me for next time to back up all my files.
Are the files lost forever or can i recover them by going to a shop or using a software?

Thank you for responding.
This might sound stupid since i'm not really knowledgeable with Macs,
but since all my files were moved from my mac computer to the external hard drive,
is it possible to recover those files through my Mac - like recovering deleted files?

Can I use a usb external hard drive larger than 2TB? I have tried to use a 3TB but it shows up as 800GB.

Can I use a usb external hard drive larger than 2TB? I have tried to use a 3TB but it shows up as 800GB. Even tred to reformat in disk utility but only shows as 800 gb as well. It is a Seagate 3TB harddrive and enclosure. Nothing on the Seagate site about it other than it says Mac os through 10.6 is supported for larger than 2TB (might be old).

You might have better luck in the Snow Leopard community. I'll ask the hosts to relocate your post.
10.6 Snow Leopard

USB external hard drive won't show up in Lion

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