Why won't my external hard drive open

So I downloaded mavericks when it came out and now one of my external hard drives will not open but disk utility Will recognize the hard drive but I cannot access the lights on the hard drive work you can feel it spinning but it just won't access I've tried everything I know the hard drive fine why won't my Mac read my drive?

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.

Similar Messages

Why won't my external hard drive show up anywhere? Something wrong abt NTFS.

Why won't my external hard drive show up anywhere? Something wrong abt NTFS. After my OS turn to OS X Lion, this problem occur. I couldn't solve it, anybody?

It doesn't make sense.
Anyway, I found the solutions. Download software for solving this problem.
Here is the link:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g

Why won't my external hard drive appear in Finder?

I have an Iomega 320GB SPHDU external hard drive which I was using as my backup disk for Time Machine and also to store other files (documents, photos, etc.). I have been using for some time now and never had any problems, however this morning, I plugged the hard drive into my MacBook Pro, which is from early 2011 and on operating system OS X 10.9.4, using the USB ports and the hard drive did not appear in Finder. I checked to see if it had appeared in Disk Utility which it does, but Disk Utility is telling me that the hard drive needs repairing. When I try to repair the hard drive, I get the message 'Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed up files.' As I said I have never had any problems with it before, but this has just occurred this morning and I'm unsure why it has happened.

Because there's a problem with the disk's directory structure; these are often the result of improperly unplugging drives or forcing a computer to shut down. Proceed as instructed, or try using a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior to repair it.
(111975)

Why won't my external hard drive mount?

Hi
I am having problems getting my new iMac to recognise an external hard drive. It is a 40gb Western Digital hard drive that I copied over photos and music from my old computer (not an Apple) on. When I plug it in to the USD port it recognises the hard drive but then drops it after about 2 minutes and then it won't recognise it again until I restart the computer at which point it recognises it again for 2 minutes.
The hard drive work's fine on my Thinkpad and my Dell desktop.
Can anyone help?
Thanks.

It doesn't make sense.
Anyway, I found the solutions. Download software for solving this problem.
Here is the link:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g

Why won't my external hard drive connect to my mac anymore

I have a 1 Terabyte external HD that I use for my timemachine back ups. I eject it whenever I need to use my laptop away from my desk and re-connect it so it will do an automatic back up. the other day, it would not eject at ALL, so I ended up having to shutdown my laptop and disconnect it. Later, when I went to reconnect it to the laptop, my Mac doesn't recognize it. I have rebooted the laptop and the external hard drive multiple times, but when I plug the HD into the laptop, the Mac still doesn't "sense" it. I can't do any backups at the moment.

From reading similar threads, and from my own experiences, the prevailing wisdom seems to be that:
* the drive must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journal), not FAT32, NTFS or other
* the drive must not be currently used as a time machine disk
* (theory) the drive must not have previously been used a time machine disk
From my own experiences, I had 3 externals that worked w/ iMovie 11 but not w/ FCP X. With some experimentation, I was able to confirm the above items.
- one drive was a TM disk, and just wasn't ever going to work. Annoying, but at least an identified issue (or bug)
- one drive was once a TM disk but I'd stopped using it as such. I'd manually deleted the backups on it, but suspect that TM likely leaves invisble files around to identify meta on file lists, exclusions, etc. Showing invisibles in finder listed a plethora of files that I wasn't willing to research. Went into disk utility, formatted as Extended Journaled, and the disk started to appear in project and event windows in FCP X.
- one drive was formatted as NTFS. I use Tuxera to read/write NTFS and this seemingly caused no problems in iMovie. With numerous threads discussing FAT32/NTFS incompatability, I opted to format this disk and then restore my old iMovie events and projects. Again, this resulted in the drive being visible in FCP X.
One note, as mentioned above, in the case of the disk wehere I restored old iMovie events/projects, the disk didn't immediately show in the events window (but did show projects immediately). The solution was to insure that the events window was grouping events by disk. The default layout hid away my external disk until I did this--and once grouped properly, I was able to then import my iMovie events into FCP X successfully.
Good luck...the support for exernal drives (and likely NAS) seems really poorly documented. I lost at least two days to this.

Why won't my external hard drive show up in the hard drive list in final cut pro x?

I can't figure out how to get my external hard drive to show up in the list of available drives in final cut pro x. It works just fine in iMovie 11 and every where else on my MacBook pro. The external hard drive I am trying to get to appear is an iomega 1 TB hard drive. Please help as I have a ton of footage on it and don't have the room to move it to my internal drive on the MacBook.

I have the same problem with internal drives. Only the one with the largest free space shows up. The others ”blink” in the Event viewer, and then disappear. Sounds like a bug...
Regards,
Rabbe

Why won't my external hard drive show up in the hard drive list in final cut pro 8?

I can't figure out how to get my external hard drive to show up in the list of available drives in final cut pro x. It works just fine in iMovie 11 and every where else on my MacBook pro. The external hard drive I am trying to get to appear is an iomega 1 TB hard drive. Please help as I have a ton of footage on it and don't have the room to move it to my internal drive on the MacBook.

From reading similar threads, and from my own experiences, the prevailing wisdom seems to be that:
* the drive must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journal), not FAT32, NTFS or other
* the drive must not be currently used as a time machine disk
* (theory) the drive must not have previously been used a time machine disk
From my own experiences, I had 3 externals that worked w/ iMovie 11 but not w/ FCP X. With some experimentation, I was able to confirm the above items.
- one drive was a TM disk, and just wasn't ever going to work. Annoying, but at least an identified issue (or bug)
- one drive was once a TM disk but I'd stopped using it as such. I'd manually deleted the backups on it, but suspect that TM likely leaves invisble files around to identify meta on file lists, exclusions, etc. Showing invisibles in finder listed a plethora of files that I wasn't willing to research. Went into disk utility, formatted as Extended Journaled, and the disk started to appear in project and event windows in FCP X.
- one drive was formatted as NTFS. I use Tuxera to read/write NTFS and this seemingly caused no problems in iMovie. With numerous threads discussing FAT32/NTFS incompatability, I opted to format this disk and then restore my old iMovie events and projects. Again, this resulted in the drive being visible in FCP X.
One note, as mentioned above, in the case of the disk wehere I restored old iMovie events/projects, the disk didn't immediately show in the events window (but did show projects immediately). The solution was to insure that the events window was grouping events by disk. The default layout hid away my external disk until I did this--and once grouped properly, I was able to then import my iMovie events into FCP X successfully.
Good luck...the support for exernal drives (and likely NAS) seems really poorly documented. I lost at least two days to this.

Why won't my external hard drive mount in Disk Utility even when it shows up on the list?

Hey all,
For the last few years I've used a Samsung S2 1TB external harddrive to back up all my files, this includes photos, music and a vast amount of resources required for Uni. However I plugged it in for the first time in about two months and discovered that neither my Macbook Pro (late 2011) or my Mac Mini (early 2013) are able to mount the hard drive.
It shows up in Disk Utilty however the harddrive is greyed out and when I manually try to mount it I get an error message saying that it can't be mounted and to use the first aid 'Repair disk permissions' feature which would be all good and well were that not also greyed out.
I've read a fair amount on this forum that suggest that Mavericks has caused quite an issue with harddrives and although I don't know for sure, the harddrive did stop working at a very similar time to when I updated. I've sinced used the basic version of 'Disk Drill' on the harddrive and all the files show up perfectly which leads me to believe that perhaps the issue isn't with the harddrive itself but perhaps a compatibility issue.
I was just wondering whether anyone had any advice or had suffered a similiar issue, preferably in relation to the Samsung S2 harddrive. The partition type is a Windows_FAT_32 and it's a USB hard drive.
Thanks in advance!

Because there's a problem with the disk's directory structure; these are often the result of improperly unplugging drives or forcing a computer to shut down. Proceed as instructed, or try using a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior to repair it.
(111975)

Why won't my external hard drive show up in iMovie 11?

My external USB drive - formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) shows up fine on my desktop, and worked fine with iMovie in the past. Now, it won't show up in the event library, or in the "Save to:" menu when I try to import video. I can see my iMovie projects and events on the drive in Finder, but iMovie just doesn't recognize the drive. Argh!!! Any ideas?? Thanks in advance!

Luyen wrote:
Ignore ownership? Yep, it's checked.
although some say it's plain voodoo, but try the Disk Utilitys 'repair permissions' command
You'll find the DU in your applications/utilities Folder ........

Why do my two external hard drives require "ejection" prior to shutdown?

Why do my two external hard drives require "ejection" upon shutdown?

Problem solved. I had plugged in my external hard drives into a USB card. I switched my two printers to the USB card and plugged in the two hard drives into the computer's USB outlets and now NO improper eject messages. What a relief!!! Thanks again.

IMAC won't recognize external hard drive anymore

I am running snow leopard on my IMAC with all the latest software updates. I've been using a LaCie Quadra external hard drive with time machine for backups for awhile with no problems. From the beginning is was plug in the hard drive and go, the mac recognized it. Now, suddenly, it won't. When I turn on the LaCie to back up, the icon no longer pops on the desktop. It is also not listed in the Time Machine preferences anymore. I tried to open the LaCie from Mac systems preferences and get a message with something like "64 bit cannot recognize 32 bit" I am asked to close and reopen system preferences, which would change to 32 bit. I tried that and it did not work,and a report was sent to Apple. Has anyone else been experiencing this? Thanks

jraguseo wrote:
Thanks. I don't disconnect the drive, only turn it off with it's own power switch. According to LaCie, this should not be a problem.
No, it's not a problem for the drive, but neither is leaving it (and Time Machine) on. Most externals will "spin down" after a few minutes of activity, but even if they don't, modern drives are built to run 24/7.
Time Machine was designed to do quick hourly backups of changes, and will protect you best that way. Just leave both Time Machine and the drive on; they'll be fine.

IMovie Won't Recognize External Hard Drive...?

Hello,
Yesterday, I upgraded to a new Macbook Pro using OSX 10.9.4 (Mavericks) and I'm working with iMovie 10.0.2.
On my old Macbook, I had an external hard drive which held all of my raw video footage, and instead of filling my hard drive with iMovie Projects and videos, I just kept them saved on the hard drive and edited projects from that.
Theoretically, this should be possible with this newest version of iMovie, right? However, when I open iMovie, I cannot find the hard drive. It is connected to my computer, and I can see and access it on the desktop, but there is no "Devices" icon listed in iMovie. Isn't it supposed to automatically display? I have two external hard drives, both formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and I tried both of them, but why don't they display in iMovie?
Is this a strange problem or am I just completely missing something really basic........? I've looked online, and it seems like they should display automatically.
I'm stumped and am totally unfamiliar with this version of iMovie.
Thanks so much for your help!

It might be really basic, but what was the solution? It eludes me....
== ==
Okay, quick edit, the answer is to double click on the .imovielibrary file you want to import. I still think that is not obvious, you'd think there was something you could do inside iMovie that would work, or, that it should simply recognize it automatically...

Suddenly won't recognize external hard drive

Hi,
Yesterday, while my 3- or 4-year-old external hard drive was plugged into my MacBook Pro but not being actively used by me, I heard a faint "click" come from the external drive. Since I was done with it, I tried to drag the icon to the trash to eject it, but the icon turned a faded grey color, and a message popped up saying something like "The disk was not ejected properly, etc."
Now when I turn the external drive on, I can hear it starting up and the lights come on as always...but the icon won't show up on my desktop.
I can find the external drive in Disk Utility, but that's it. I clicked "Repair Disk" and "Verify Disk", but the icon still won't show up on the desktop.
My buddy tried connecting it to his PC laptop, and the same thing happened -- his computer knew it was there, but he couldn't open it and actually USE it.
-It's not the power supply, because it turns on.
-It's not my laptop's USB slots, because both of them detect other devices.
-It's not the USB cable itself, because the computer detects the hard drive via the cable.
-I opened up the enclosure, which is made by a brand name called "Anvesome" or something (The icon itself is called Afterthemac, and the sticker inside the case says Western Digital, and it was manufactured in 2005. The hard drive came in a box with less-than-perfect English grammar, if that means anything.
I had been using this external drive on my eMac for a few years, and about 7 months on my MacBook Pro with no problems. If anyone knows what's wrong with it, or how I can recover the data, that'd be great!
Thanks!
-Andrew

The enclosure should come with its own set of instructions. One end of the hard drive will have some pins, and it will just plug into a cable or connector. I personally like OWC enclosures, and here is a link for installation instructions for their external enclosures:
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/basictrob.cfm
Not knowing exactly which drive you have, I can't make a specific recommendation. I'm guessing that it may be a 3.5 inch SATA drive if it was bought to be used with an eMac, but you would probably have to find out for sure from the serial number. However, if you look at a set of installation instructions, you should be able to gain some insight as to how to remove the drive from its current enclosure.
You may also want to check with Western Digital, as they do have a link to some data recovery services should you ultimately need them:
http://support.wdc.com/recovery/index.asp?lang=en&selregion=americas
However, professional data recovery can be very expensive, and if you can place the drive in a different enclosure and use one of the links eww gave you, you may be able to recover your data for a fraction of the cost.
Go ahead and get your new 2 TB drive and get your stuff backed up. I don't think it would hurt to let the old drive sit until you figure out what you want to do with it, as long as you don't let it sit for years and years.
At this point, we don't really know if the drive has physical damage or not. If not, data recovery costs shouldn't be too bad. If the drive actually has failed, then expect to pay a lot.
Good luck!

Why is my Toshiba external hard drive not being recognized by my new Mac?

So: When I moved from Colombia I packed my stuff in an external hard drive, that was at the end of last year, Today I got my new MacBook Pro and I can't transfer my stuff because it doesn't even pop up anywhere. I read some other people's post and no: It doesn't appear in any of the two places people say it should appear (or I am not seeing it) whenever it doesn't automatically appears in desktop.
Funny story: It appears that my Mac's hard drive is a toshiba, the same brand as my 1tb external hard drive.
Suggestions?

I'm having the exact same problem... I have my Toshiba 1TB Hard Drive which I formatted to FAT32 so I was able to watch films on my PS3 off of it and recently got a MacBook Pro 13" i7 8GB RAM 750GB HDD, which is unable to read it (and I'm experiencing the same White Light when used with a PC and PS3 - which is when it works, and Blue Light when it is plugged into my MacBook and unable to open).
I've tried to follow as many instructions as possible that I've found on the internet but nothing seems to work - it won't even appear in Disk Utility, I don't know what to do. All I need to know is whether this a problem that can be fixed or not - otherwise I'll just get a new Hard Drive.

Computer Suddenly Slow & Won't Recoginze External Hard Drive

Hey All,
My computer has been running really slow for the last few weeks. I can't even open Firefox 2.0 without it crashing. It also won't recognize my external 500GB GTech hard drive at all anymore so I can't listen to music or access a lot of my pics. It's connected via Firewire 800.
I have a 1.54 GHz Power PC G4 and I upgraded the memory to 1.5 GB. The internal hard drive is an 80 gigger with 17G left.
I ran disk utility on the internal and the below is what I got:
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Homebase needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
* The Repair option is not selectable. What do I do as I don't want to lose anything on my hard drive.
I'd really like to know how to speed my Powerbook back up and what I can do to have it recognize the external hard drive again? And if I should even be messing around with the disc utility?
Any and all help is appreciated.
Thanks!
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

In order to repair your internal hard drive, you need to boot from another drive. If you have your OS X DVD's, insert the first one, and reboot holding the C key. From the utilities menu, choose your internal hard drive and the option to repair the disk will be available to you.
Regarding the slow running, you might want to run the Apple hardware test. Insert the OS X DVD, and reboot holding the option key down. Choose the Apple hardware test, and choose the extended test. Does that identify any issues?
If you have OnyX, you might want to run the cleaning and maintenance tabs. In additon, under the utilities tab, run the check on the system preferences. OnyX is available from http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx.html

Why won't my external hard drive open

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for