Why do I have 2 hard drives?

Why does my computer have 2 hard drives listed in the storage section? I am running low on storing and it looks like the other hard drive is not even being used (Mac HD2). How can I combine them or use some of the storage on the Mac HD 2?

Hi, sorry it has taken me so long to reply. Here are the screen shots. Also, it is an iMac 21.5 inch, mid 2011.

Similar Messages

Why my Toshiba mobile hard drive (1TB) can not be used in the macbook air?

Why my Toshiba mobile hard drive (1TB) can not be used in the macbook air?

If you are speaking of the USB 3.0 Canvio, you are not alone. Call Toshiba and check on their progress in alleviating the problem. I heard they are blaming Apple, but since theirs is the only drive that exhibits this problem, I think the burden is on Toshiba.
Some users have reported that by using a micro USB 2.0 connector (see bottom picture), instead of the 3.0 that comes with the drive, that it is a workaround. Notice that the 3.0 connector has sort of a "dual head" nature to the construction. One part of it is 2.0 USB micro compatible. I've never tried it myself though.
Read ths thread for a discussion on the subject.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3510032?tstart=0

Why is my External Hard Drive not showing in Aperture 3.6 Import?

Why is my External Hard Drive not showing in Aperture 3.6 Import?
Only my computer hard drive is and I want to import from an external drive. I have always been able to until I updated to Aperture 3.6 and Yosemite.

Only my computer hard drive is and I want to import from an external drive. I have always been able to until I updated to Aperture 3.6 and Yosemite.
I had the same problem. On the folders on the drive with the Aperture library did show in the Import panel. After I clicked the computer icon in the upper left corner of the Import panel, suddenly all drives appeared.
You can also try to drag the folder you want to import into the Import panel, to point the file chooser to the drive.

Why my Mac Pro hard drive noise and too slow?

Why my Mac Pro hard drive noise and too slow? Totally 8 gb speed system but now very slow . Please give some suggestions

Another thing you can do in Lion (and ML) is click on the "Info" button in Disk Utility to get the SMART status of the drive.It's more detailed now than it used to be and it might tell you if something is wrong.
A lot can go wrong with a hard drive which is why I tend to point people to the downloads section of the following web site:
http://scsc-online.com
They have a free hard drive troublleshooting download book there. I reccommend people download that before asking questionis because there are tons of problems that can act like hard drive problems when there's nothing wrong with the system at all. For example, how full is the drive? How many applications are running? What's the status of Spotlight indexing? How many apps are you running? How much memory do you have?
I could probably think up 20 or 30 more if needed.

Why doesn't macbook pro 2.3GHz Retina display have hard drive configuration?

When I'm about to order the macbook pro 2.3Ghz Retina display in the apple.com website. there are no hard drive configuration. the hardware configuration are only memory, apple usb super drive and apple thunderbolt. but no hardrive. why?

Because that is the base model of the Retina Edition.
The Retina Edition doesn't come with a Hard Drive. It uses a Flash Drive.
If you want a larger flash drive, you have to step up to the next model.

Early 2011 (March) MBP hard drive crashed a week ago, all data was lost. Why is the Hitachi hard drive so prone to have defective read/write heads?

Shouldn't Apple be better quality than this? I've used my old MBP from 2006 for 5 years with no problems. I've only had to back up data maybe once a year because it was so durable.
But this 2011 MBP had the hitachi 320gb SATA drive and one day it started clicking and everything froze. I immediately shut it down took it to the Apple Store, in which the genius bar guy said there was nothing they could do other than swap out the drive (which I did myself as I was not prepared to be charged $250+ for services and waste 2-3 weeks as my warranty was 1 month overdue). Even with AppleCare coverage, Apple will still not recover the data...
This is ridiculous! I strictly use the MBP for school/no gaming/haven't dropped it or moved it around rigorously/bought it instore (assuming it was handled properly). There is no reason for being such crap quality at $1300. I took it to a data recovery center and get this, the quote was $1700 as the read/write heads were defective and the surface of the disk was scratched, I could buy a new computer with that money! Were there no quality checks for these drives? I have PC laptops at home and none of them has had that problem! I'm planning to dispute this with Apple for losing years worth of valuable data.
Does anyone have the same problem? Are early 2011 MBPs prone to hard drive failures?

As Ogel stated drives fail. Unless you bought your 2011 Mac right when the early 2011 models came out you still should be under the one year warranty. They came out at the end of Febuary.
So that drive should be covered, dependinig on when you bought your Mac. And they offer a extended warranty which if you had purchased it would cover the drive failure, Hardware not data.
As far as the data, Apple includes the Time Machine program and there are 2, that I know of, cloning programs available to backup your data. If you did not use any of those programs you will ALWAYS LOSE YOUR DATA.
That is a fact of computers. They fail, end of story. Unless you have multiple copies of your files you are going to lose them.
Good Luck.

Why does dying internal hard drive stop you booting from external hd

Why do I need an internal hard drive if I am booting from an external drive? Doesnt make sense,
Disk Utility warned me that the internal hard drive is failing. I have managed to change start up disks. I have an external bootable drive and even have an empty partition on it, "just in case" I need to install a brand new OS, but here I am waiting for local disks, and I cant access my back-up OS.
Why doesnt OSX just move past the dying faulty hard drive and get to work on the bootable disk? Basically here I am supposedly doing all the right things to cover for an emergency - I may as well have no backup strategy.
Am I missing a step, or is this how OSX works. Perhaps if you read the steps and outcomes below, you can see if there is more I need to do?
If I press "option" at start up, it only shows the internal drive, not recognising the external bootable drive.
fsck -f produced a looping "missing thread" message that went on for an hour or more so I stopped that.
I tried the dvd and command-c at start up, got through to the installer window and when I selected disk utility it hung, but no spinning ball, just nothing was happening.
The next attempt with th DVD i changed start up disk, this time it saw the external bootable drive and I thought I was in business again.
And here I am full circle, waiting for local disks.
Any thoughts most welcome.
btw, does the SMART issue a warning of a failing drive because a drive is definitely unsalvagable due to a mechanical fault? or is there a chance my drive is physiclly healthy but shows as Failing because it has unbelievable directory issues that Apple tools cannot solve - but DW could?
PB Ti 867MHz 768MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9)
PB Ti 867MHz 768MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9)

The Bombich forums have helped me troubleshoot the integrity of the bootable volumes on my external hard drive which I made using Carbon Copy Cloner. The clones are fine ie after I reset nvram after booting up via command-alt-o-f, the clones are now recognised when I boot up-alt. So it seems that there was nothing wrong with the bootable volumes on the external drive per se.
However, the Powerbook will still not boot up past "Waiting for local disks".
As it stands now, nobody seems to be able to give a reason why I cannot bypass the failed internal hard drive. I found a Knowledge base article from Apple saying Cmd-Alt-shift-delete at start-up should skip you to the next working volume hitched up to your computer, but that didn't work either.
I have a new internal HDD coming, so prior to installing it, the final part of the troubleshoot will be to reboot the PB without an internal HDD. I will see what happens and see what conclusions can be drawn from that. Unless anyone has a clue now from what I have posted?
PB Ti 867MHz 768MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Why does my external Hard Drive not save album artwork? Help!

I have quite a lot of music saved digitally, so to save space I have been storing it on an external hard drive. Some of the music does not have any artwork attached (and does not download any when I select 'get album artwork').
So, as an example, starting with the music on iTunes, I have manually added some artwork via the 'Get info' option.
I then saved the music to my external hard drive.
However, when I next transfer the same album back onto iTunes, none of the artwork has been saved.
Why is this? And how can it be corrected?
Thank you!

Hi,
thanks for the reply, limnos, But let me explain: I have about 80gb-100gb of music.
I can't keep all of this on my computer (on iTunes) as it simply takes up too much space for the rest of my computer to run at a decent speed.
I therefore use my hard drive as a kind of library, where i store my music and occasionally transfer some music onto iTunes to listen to, and then transfer it back whe I'm done. Do you see?
I have done a bit more exploring and I think maybe I only have a problem with artwork 'disappearing' when it is albums that I have requested 'get album artwork'. i.e. the artwork downloads onto an album; then i copy the album onto my hard drive for storage; then when i want to play the album again and copy it back onto itunes, the artwork has been lost.
Do you know why?

Why does my external hard drive not allow me to save documents onto it?

My external hard drive is telling me that I have 'read only' permission! I just had to have my macbook pro whipped and I got everything back on the computer but it would also be nice to save stuff as I go since I've already had problems!
Thanks for any advice
Especially if you know where I can alter the permissions for such

Hi,
thanks for the reply, limnos, But let me explain: I have about 80gb-100gb of music.
I can't keep all of this on my computer (on iTunes) as it simply takes up too much space for the rest of my computer to run at a decent speed.
I therefore use my hard drive as a kind of library, where i store my music and occasionally transfer some music onto iTunes to listen to, and then transfer it back whe I'm done. Do you see?
I have done a bit more exploring and I think maybe I only have a problem with artwork 'disappearing' when it is albums that I have requested 'get album artwork'. i.e. the artwork downloads onto an album; then i copy the album onto my hard drive for storage; then when i want to play the album again and copy it back onto itunes, the artwork has been lost.
Do you know why?

Why Did My iMac Hard Drive FAIL?

I am majorly upset right now.
My iMac 2009, 21.5" (4GB Ram, 500GB Hard drive) computer that was practically unused since it was in storage for 2 years in my basement while I went out of town on business- suddenly had a Hard Drive Failure for no reason! Since the Warranty was expired on Apple Care, I took it in a Mac store - only to be told by the repair man that the hard drive needed a replacement. He did quick testing, and these were the results:
Ran MRI and everything passed
Reset pram and SMC
Ran storage diagnostics
Proposed Resolution: Replace hard drive
Total cost: A WHOPPING $229.00 plus tax for the hard drive plus labor costs. When I asked if I could just upgrade to a 1TB Hard drive since I was shelling out money anyways, Apple flat-out REFUSED- saying they couldn't put a warranty on a new hard drive, just the replaced one. Sounds like complete BS to me!
Further more, I would like to know how the **** this happened! A few times when the iMac was on the table and running, I lifted it up and clunked it back down a bit rough to readjust it- but it continued to work for a few more days. I doubt that would ruin a hard drive. I own a Macbook 13" that I clunk around all the time, the hard drive has never failed. Suddenly my hardly-used iMac that worked out the box when I first started using it again suddenly has a random hard drive malfunction a week in??? And now I'm out $250.00. I just feel jipped. I thought Apple products are meant to last. Apparently not. The guy said "Well it's a four year-old computer". Yeah but I only used it one year and then it was in storage! So whose to say THIS hard drive won't fail as well?
Why did this happen?

Hard Drive Warning (all makes and models)
Ironically but logical, new hard drives are far more fragile than one that has been working for several months or a couple years. So beware in your thinking that a new hard drive translates into “extremely reliable”!
Hard drives suffer from high rates of what has been termed "infant mortality". Essentially this means new drives have their highest likelihood of failing in the first few months of usage. This is because of very minor manufacturing defects or HD platter balancing, or head and armature geometry being less than perfect; and this is not immediately obvious and can quickly manifest itself once the drive is put to work.
Hard drives that survive the first few months of use without failing are likely to remain healthy for a number of years.
Generally HD are highly prone to death or corruption for a few months, then work fine for a few years, then spike in mortality starting at 3-4 years and certainly should be considered end-of-life at 5-7+ years even if still working well. Drives written to once and stored away have the highest risk of data corruption due to not being read/written to on a regular basis. Rotate older working HD into low-risk use.
The implication of this is that you should not trust a new hard drive completely (really never completely!) until it has been working perfectly for several months.
Given the second law of thermodynamics, any and all current mfg. HD will, under perfect storage conditions tend themselves to depolarization and a point will be reached, even if the HD mechanism is perfect, that the ferromagnetic read/write surface of the platter inside the HD will entropy to the point of no viable return for data extraction. HD life varies, but barring mechanical failure, 3-8 years typically.
Data redundancy (copies) makes all HD crashes inconsequential, an irrelevancy.
There are only two kinds of hard drives, those that have failed, and those that will fail, regardless of quality of manufacture.
Any Macbook or desktop should be idealized as a working platform computer system, containing all your applications, documents, and weekly-use necessary files; and all media files such as ‘big-data’ (music/PDF collections/video/pictures), unless directly needed in the near future, should be kept off the computer and on external storage USB or likewise bare hard drives.
Never consider any computer a data storage device at any time under any circumstance, rather a data creation, sending, and manipulation device. Anyone who thinks data is safe on any computer, even copied upon multiple partitions is making a mistake that will, without fail, strike.
Never backup your data exclusively upon magnetic hard drives or flash storage, nor consider same since magnetic storage degrades over time, roughly 3-8 years, even under ideal storage conditions.

Why does restoring a Hard Drive from Time Machine break all my software registration?

I've just upgraded the hard drive in my MacBook Pro using a Time Machine backup. (In the past I've used Carbon Copy cloner to duplicate the drive before installing it, but this seemed like an easier option.) The restore from TM went fine... but now all my apps are acting as if I've just installed them for the first time. Mail and Dropbox went thru their first time startup screens, and are reimporting all my files/messages. Word and Photoshop are asking for the registration serial numbers. What a hassle!
Does anyone know what Time Machine is doing, and why? Why aren't my apps fully restored? And is there any workaround?

I imagine it is because of the way CCC does makes an exact clone of your drive.
Time Machine restores the drive file-by-file and doesn't necessarily restore support files. Most apps know when they've been moved and ask for serial numbers.
However, I have never restored a complete hard drive with Time Machine, so I don't know exactly what to expect.
Pondini may have some info here: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

Why Does my external Hard drive not show up when i plug it in?

I have a 100Gb external harddrive formatted for mac's only. It didnt show the first time but then showed the second and third time i plugged it in and now it wont show again. why is this? Is There a way this can be fixed?
Thanks,

Show Hard Drive on Desktop...
Finder > Preferences > General > Show these items on the Desktop.

We are puzzled as to why we are having hard drive memory leakage. Tends to shrink with usage.Should we replace the hard drive? rive lea

According to the get info on the imac hd icon we have used 249.7 out of a possible 250 gb of hardrive. We have deleted some file, caches, but still face the shrinkage which occurs with usage. It may rise to 320 MB but with use fall to 10mb. Is there anything we can do or replace the hard drive?

The 'shrinkage' is due to the system using HD space as virtual memory. That is the reason why you should always leave a good chunk of disk space available for the system to use (depending on how much RAM you have and what sort of work you're using it for, that could be anything from 5 - 20GB or more).
Nothing wrong with the drive itself, you just need to offload some stuff to an external drive to free up enough space for the system to work.
Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
How to free up my disk space:
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html

Why is Copying a Hard Drive to another so difficult?

All I want to do is COPY one Hard Drive onto an External.
I have one MBP hooked up to another via Target Disk mode, the 1st MBP hooked up to another external HDD, and all I want to do it is copy the Target one to the HDD.
Copy, Paste, boom. But it always, always wants to hang. Just copy. That's all I want to do, why can't we just copy everything over like that? Do I have to use a proper application to formally copy a whole system and everything on it safely so that everything is there and nothing is missing?
What application would you recommend to do that?
Thank you!

24Golfer wrote:
All I want to do is COPY one Hard Drive onto an External.
I have one MBP hooked up to another via Target Disk mode, the 1st MBP hooked up to another external HDD, and all I want to do it is copy the Target one to the HDD.
Copy, Paste, boom. But it always, always wants to hang. Just copy. That's all I want to do, why can't we just copy everything over like that? Do I have to use a proper application to formally copy a whole system and everything on it safely so that everything is there and nothing is missing?
What application would you recommend to do that?
Thank you!
Use SuperDuper! or CCC. They are made for this purpose.

Why are my external hard drives always spinning up?

DESKTOP MAC.
I came home to my Mac after a day away, and found one of my external hard drives had been running apparently all day. The only thing I had open was Camino and iTunes, and also Activity Monitor.
DESKTOP MAC.
I often find the other hard drive(s) spin up at seemingly random times, for instance as soon as I sat down and started browsing the Web, the other external hard drive also spun up.
Why? I didn't do anything which would call for them to be active.
Is there any way to tell if certain applications have incorrectly placed important files on the external HD's (i.e. Safari putting its cache there, or iTunes linking to songs on an external)?
Are there utilities which can tell me which applications are banging on which disks or volumes?
DESKTOP MAC. Not laptop. Please do not give answers which use the words "sleep", "clamshell" or "battery". Again this is a desktop Mac not a laptop.
Oh and one other thing. It's a desktop Mac. Not a laptop. External drives are USB. Also it's a desktop Mac.

If it is a desktop machine, you want the hard drives to keep running all the time; it is disastrous to their longevity to be stopping and starting repeatedly.
I have a Seagate (that is NOT a recommendation) that I bought at a local PC outlet, and it insists on stopping and starting every 35 seconds or so, when I am not using the machine.
I found the utility Keep Drive Spinning on Apple’s web site ( www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/keepdrivespinning.html ) and I added it to my login items. During the boot process, it shows a dialogue; I click on a volume on the drive and type in 33 (seconds).
Thanks, Jon Stovell!!
p.s. There is a setting “Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible” in System Preferences: Energy Saver. This should be off, for the same reason; this is strictly for laptops, in my opinion.
p.p.s. If I leave my machine on, while I am not using it for a day or so, I put it to Sleep; under those circumstances, Keep Drive Spinning does allow the machine to sleep properly.

Why a "?" on hard drive icon in system preferences?

If I open System Preferences and go to Start Up Disc, there are 2 icons.
One is the hard drive icon on my Desktop (Mac OS X,10.5.8 on Rosebud).
The other hard drive icon is "Network Startup" and it has what looks like a dark grey circle with a white question mark on it.
I have selected Rosebud. I want to know why there is a "?" on the "Network Startup" icon.
Anyone?
Thanks in advance.

Hello,
This means it's either not avilable or not enough space.

Why do I have 2 hard drives?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for