OS X :: External Hard Drive Stopped Showing Files
Sep 23, 2009
Recently I just converted my old PC's 250gb Hard drive into an external drive. In the beginning everything worked fine. Though I could only read the files from it on my mac, I was fine with that because there was so much old music and pictures that I wanted to get off of it. There happened to be one particular picture that I couldn't find searching through the HDD with my mac, so I thought maybe I would be able to find if I looked for it through a windows system.
So I then plugged the external into my Windows laptop. After failing to find the picture on the PC, I plugged the hard drive back into my mac, but for some reason it's not showing the files. The hard drive is being found, but when i click on them in the finder no files show! The drive is not erased because the capacity and amount free is still the same. And to put the icing on the cake when I plugged the drive back into my PC a message comes up that says "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error".
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Mar 12, 2010
We have a 320gb external hard drive formatted in FAT32 so both the macbook and our windows computer could use the drive. We copied 5 gigs of music to the hard drive to view on the Windows computer. The computer recognizes the drive and shows that 5 gigs are being used but I cant see any of the files.
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May 12, 2012
i have this strange issue that occured just out of nowhere without me (knowingly) having contributed anything to it.yesterday i launched my iMac and my external firewire drive wasn't showing up in neither the finder nor on the desktop. i instantly thought about a hard drive crash, but soon tried other things to evaluate (or not) my guess.
for instance, i unplugged the drive waited a few minutes before i plugged it in again. since this iomega drive is also equipped with a regular usb port i also switched cables and tried connecting it via the iMac usb sockets as well as via an usb hub without any luck. the drive still won't show up. so i launched the Disk Utility, to see if the drive needs some checking/repairing, but to my surprise it wasn't showing in Disk Utility either.
thus far i only considered this to be an issue with only this particular external drive, but when i eventually switched on a 2nd external drive (this time an usb drive i use for Time Machine) that drive also refused to show up in either the Finder or the Disk Utility app.
curious as i was, i then fired up a 3rd and 4th external drive and now had all 4 drives running at the same time. none of which were showing up, just as if they weren't even connected with the iMac.
this strikes me as more than odd. i've heard about hard drive failures and crashes. they just occur over time. maybe and under some very strange coincidences it is possible that two external hard drives quit their jobs at the very same time, but seriously .... 4 of them?? i hardly think so.
well, maybe it's the iMac's usb/firewire controller that's causing the trouble, i thought. but then again, my other connected devices (iPhone, iPad, Printer, Scanner, eyeTV) are functioning and get detected just fine as far as i can tell.
i have no idea what's going on. i dismiss the idea of 4 external drives having crashed all at the same time just as much as i don't think that the iMac's usb/firewire controller has got any issues. re-formatting any of the 4 drives is out of the question and even if i'd consider such desperate measures, the Disk Utility wouldn't let me re-format anything anyhow, because the drives aren't listed there. i wish i could just use my Time Machine to resolve the issue but, as i mentioned earlier, i can't access the Time Machine because it also won't show up.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Sep 4, 2009
So, I've been searching the forums, as I just had a 1TB (well actually a dual 500GB) external drive stop mounting and start clicking on me. I'm trying to find a way to recover files, and I know I've seen a lot of posts on DriveSavers, which. I was searching around, and I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of a company called "OneWorld Data Recovery." It was something I stumbled across, but I can't find any reviews, or nail down anybody who's used it.
Clearly, this seems fairly suspect, but I figured I'd check and see if anybody had ever heard of it or used it. Thanks!
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Aug 22, 2009
I have a Western Digital external hard drive. I just noticed that the icon was not showing up on my desktop. This could have been the case for awhile, I don't use it that often just as storage. I have restarted, unplugged and replugged many ways. I can hear it running and the light is on. It does not show up in the system profiler, I have reset the PRAM. I have not as of yet got new cables to try as this was discovered last night. Is there anything else I can try until I get new cables? Or what does this sound like to you. Also, what are the chances that the information on my drive is gone? This is the only copy I have for some work that I do.
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Aug 5, 2009
I am backing stuff up to an external drive (G-Raid 1TB, if that matters), and the process will randomly stop and not allow me to cancel out the copy process once it does so. I have had multiple problems with many drives (lacie and g-raid) in the past before, on different machines (G5 tower, mac pros, intel imacs, etc) so for some reason in my head I figure it as random. I'm guessing there's a hiccup somewhere.
They're all formatted correctly to handle large files, and I know it's not good, but if it hangs up and I pull power or shut down, it'll unfreeze and remount (about 80% of the time success rate, 20% of the time it wont even show up, not even in disk utility). This also occurs when I am going from external drive to external drive and internal drive to external drive. It seems very random. And finder seems to stall out too (like it is now) and when I try to relaunch it, it will not come back until one of the drives that is causing the problem is disconnected from the computer.
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Mar 20, 2009
I have a Toshiba 160 GB USB external HDD (no power supply required) that I use simply as a backup for some Windows programs when I am using my virtual machine. It required a double USB cable and its icon showed on both the Windows and iMAC screen until a day or so ago. It is a functioning unit when I put it on a separate PC. I have not been able to correct the problem and in viewing some of the forum items I keep seeing suggestions to view the 'System Preferences --> general' - I do not see a 'general' nor any reference in the 'apple' that refers to hard drives (external or internal).
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Apr 18, 2009
A bit of a PITA to get the external HD to show as an AirDisk. (AEBS)
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Nov 1, 2009
i just bought an external hard drive enclosure for a new hard drive but it doesn't show up when i plug it into my macbook. the enclosure lights up with a blue status light when i plug in the USB but it never shows in disk utility and finder. leopard is installed on the external hard drive (im trying to clone my macbook's hd). i'm thinking its the enclosure but are there any steps i can take to ensure i'm doing everything correctly? the external hard drive is working, it was installed in my macbook yesterday but i took it out because time machine restoring fails also, i plugged the external into my time capsule. the blue status light turns on meaning its plugged in but i only see my time capsule in the network
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Mar 2, 2012
I've just brought a new external Hard drive for my mac book pro and when I put the usb cable into the laptop nothing showed up on the desktop. I waited a few minutes but nothing happen and then I turned off the computer and did it again.
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May 1, 2012
i have an external hard drive and when i plug that into the usb port, it does NOT show up as an icon on desktop.
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Jul 18, 2010
I have a 1TB external LaCie hard drive. Presently, it is loaded with about 300GBs of space so I should have around 650GBs left. However, it is only showing about 240GBs left. I think the problem is that I used to use this hard drive for Time Machine backups, I deleted them via the recycle bin. I checked the recycle bin, nothing there. I verified the disk, everything ok, I repaired it as well. I even erased the empty space.
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Feb 29, 2012
My external WD 320GB hard drive wont show up on Finder when I connect it up. Ive been having this problem ever since I pulled it out without ejecting it - I know thats bad but my macbook froze and I had no choice.
Now my external hard drive wont show up on Finder, I even tried disk utility and I was able to verify the disk & then repair it, but its like I cant use the hard drive anymore. Every time I try to add files to it or remove files my laptop freezes and I cant do anything.
Its got to the point where all I want to do now is get all my files off this external hard drive somewhow, Is there a way to get my files off this hard drive before its too late if isnt already so.
Info:
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum Late 2008)
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Aug 20, 2014
I have a Hitachi Touro USB 3.0 1TB external hard drive that has always worked on my Macbook. Formatted in FAT so it would work on both my PC and Mac. I can't remember exactly when it stopped working, but I think I had to reset my mac once as it stopped responding and the HDD was plugged in. After that it stopped showing up in Finder, but still appears in Disk Utility. It also shows up in Storage under "About This Mac". I've tried resetting my computer, ran Apple Hardware Test, and have tested the hard drive on other computers and it works fine. Just doesn't show up in Finder on my mac!!
Info:
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 13" Late 2012 model
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Jun 30, 2014
My blue 1TB external WD Passport Drive (whose name is Ralph and who holds all kinds of precious things that I love and can't lose) isn't showing up on my Finder screen. Whenever I connect him, his light turns up and blinks as usual, but I can't access anything on him. I don't even get an error message when I disconnect him without ejecting. I've tried using different USB ports and different cables, but it's not working. I've also tried connecting him to different computers (3 different macs and 1 Windows 8 PC), but NOTHING.
I've been trying everything the past few days to get him to work. He shows up on Disk Utility occasionally. I've tried verifying and repairing him through Disk Utility, but it says that the verification could not be completed, or that it can't repair him. It tells me to back up as many files as I can and then restore him, but I can't access the files to back them up in the first place. Also, the partition name seems to have changed to 'disk1s3', which appears greyed out on the Disk Utility screen.
In regards to mount point, it says that the disk isn't mounted. I tried mounting it by right-clicking it on Disk Utility, but the mount failed. I tried restoring him onto another 1TB WD drive (Oscar), but that failed too.
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Nov 12, 2009
if i delete files off my internal hard drive (Macintosh HD), will it still be on my external hard drive or will it just add to it?
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Aug 28, 2014
So a couple of days ago it was fine and today it does not show up in finder, or utility disk
I am about to upgrade to Mavericks now
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Sep 8, 2014
my external dvd player has stopped showing up in finder
Info:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
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Nov 18, 2010
My friend wanted some files to be transferred to his external hard drive from my Mac. As he is a Windows user, I guess his hard drive is formatted for Windows as well. As I plug in the hard disk in my Mac, I can't transfer the files. It says something like "the disk cannot be modified". So, please help me on how can I transfer this files from my Mac and if I do format it to work with the Mac, will it work for Windows later?
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Jun 23, 2006
I have an external usb hdd attached to my mini. I was able to network with my new macbook easily, but I couldnt find any way to access the external drive. I have all my music on that external hdd, and want to be able to stream that to the new macbook.
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Jun 9, 2009
Basically I have an iMac and a Macbook Pro (unibody) and a USB external hard drive (500GB) I want to wirelessly back up my Macbook Pro and the iMac with the hard drive connected to the iMac. A sort of time capsule concept. But i don't have an airport base station to make this process easier I only have a wanadoo livebox.
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Jul 27, 2009
just a few minutes ago, i decided to install leopard on my mac. So i cloned my old install onto my external hard drive using carbon copy cloner. once that was done and verified that it was good, i inserted my leopard dvd and installed: erasing my os x install...now i booted up and was messing in disk utility and erased my external hard drive...i thot it was the other one i had plugged in for time machine! i just lost all my important files, including my itunes library, and everything else that i really need!!
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Oct 22, 2009
I have an external hard drive that I use as my "back-up" of old jobs. I then burn my jobs to a dvd and then delete the files I burned. Is it possible to just delete the files from the external hd and not my computer?
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Sep 21, 2010
I am trying to use my hard drive I have had for a couple years to back up some files on my computer, but the data I had stored on there already has disappeared. I previously had the hard drive connected to the Time Machine application, but have not used it in over a year when I received an error message trying to backup my computer using that application.
I know the data I already had on there is still on the hard drive because nearly half of the space on the drive is used up, but when I plug the hard drive in to my computer and open it there are no files to be found. I want to back up the current files on my computer, but I don't want to risk losing what I already had on the hard drive, so is there any way I can find and access the old files again?
I'll include my hardware information on here in case that helps to find a solution:
2006 MacBook Pro 15"
Intel Core Duo
Mac OS X 10.5.8
1TB Western Digital My Book: Studio Edition II
Dual-drive Storage System with RAID
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Oct 21, 2010
I have a Macbook Pro 13.3" running 10.6.4. I've had this computer for a year now and I have always wondered. Can my 500 GB Toshiba Hard Drive be used for Time Machine and for storing files at the same time?
I've heard about partitioning it, but will that delete the files on there? I dont have enough space on my hard drive to backup my external HD.
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Mar 11, 2009
I had just purchased a Lacie 500GB xternal drive for my G5, I also have another xternal drive hooked up which is a Western Digital. I copied everything , music video files ect... onto the Lacie drive to clean up the WD drive, now when I went to clean up the new Lacie drive the files I deleted are gone but it is not freeing up any space. I went to disk utilities and re-formatted but it wiped it clean, is there such a way to delete a few files here and there and gain the space they were taking up without going this route?
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May 18, 2009
I'm new to Mac so I'm sure its user error.
I recently bought a Macbook and I have a external USB hard drive that is formatted NTFS. I copied all of the files off of external HD and pasted them on my Macbook. I slicked the external hard drive and formatted it as FAT32 so I could read & write on both a PC and Mac if I need.
Anyways, once the external hard drive was formatted I tried moving all of the files back to the external but I keep getting and error code once I paste the files on the external drive. It says: "Sorry, the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred. Error code 0"
Now I'm not sure if the files are locked or what but I need help. I want to move them back to the external drive. It actually copies a few files to the external but nowhere near what all I need. They are just some .doc files that are on there
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Oct 15, 2009
I have an IMAC and I am having problems transferring video files I download to my external hard drive. I had trouble playing the files at first because it was not readable with Quicktime. I downloaded VPN and it played with VPN. I don't want to save those files on my computer so I would like to transfer it to my external harddrive. When I try to drag it over, it won't let me drop it in. I am new to the MAC world. Is there a way to choose where it will save itself right before you download like there is on windows. I click on it and it does not prompt you, it just starts downloading.
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Dec 28, 2009
I have recently made the plunge into mac kingdom and very pleased so far.
I am going through the pain staking task of transferring music, photos etc.. from my windows laptop to my new macbook pro.
I started off by setting up file sharing and copying files but it is taking absolutely ages.
Ideally I would like to use my 500gb mybook external hard drive but given an experience I just had when putting a memory stick in my mac straight after loading it up from my pc am I likely to lose all my current external hard drive data?
Complete ball ache if thats the case as all my films are on there and burning it all to DVD would take forever.
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Jan 28, 2010
finder application stopped finding certain types of files on an external drive. The external drive (WD 80GB) is recognised and I have access to all files, however, when I search for specific files in the finder window it wont find pdf, txt, doc files. It does find picture files such as jpg. I have tried using the drive on my laptop (snow leopard) and macmini (leopard)
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