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Q: Not recognizing external hard drive

I have a 1 terabyte seagate external hard drive that I used to back up my PCs and tried to connect it to my Macbook Pro to transfer the files over from my old computers, but the Mac won't recognize the external hard drive at all. Any suggestions?

Macbook Pro 15" 2.66 ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Sep 5, 2010 1:58 PM

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Q: Not recognizing external hard drive

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  • by Don Barthel,

    Don Barthel Don Barthel Nov 7, 2012 10:57 PM in response to Funkin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2012 10:57 PM in response to Funkin

    Wow, who'd a thunk it? Replacing the power brick on my Vantec NexStar hard drive dock solved my issue.

     

    The old power brick used to work. But after a hiatus of a couple of months I tried it and it didn't work for 3.5" drives in the dock, just 2.5" drives.

     

    So I had a power supply from an old external drive and that worked! Presto!

     

    I'm amazed.

  • by corey0528,

    corey0528 corey0528 Dec 17, 2012 10:22 PM in response to Weeblerock
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 17, 2012 10:22 PM in response to Weeblerock

    For those who are using a mac with a Western Digital external drive and is having issues with recognizing the external drive, a simple solution could be unplugging the power from the external and the USB cable from the computer...wait 5 min and plug everything back in.  This solution fixed my problem.  Initially, neither my computer or disk utility recognized the external. 

  • by scrib74,

    scrib74 scrib74 Jan 2, 2013 8:46 PM in response to Weeblerock
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 2, 2013 8:46 PM in response to Weeblerock

    If you're restoring from an external drive because you got a new computer or did a clean install, you must set up the new installation with the same system user name and password as your time machine user and password.  I believe this may also be case sensitive.

  • by scrib74,

    scrib74 scrib74 Jan 2, 2013 8:48 PM in response to scrib74
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 2, 2013 8:48 PM in response to scrib74

    Do not format your backup drive as case sensitive.

  • by twe_za,

    twe_za twe_za Jan 5, 2013 12:23 PM in response to scrib74
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2013 12:23 PM in response to scrib74
    scrib74 what type of error would you expect if the username and passwords do not match up.  I am trying to use migration tool to import photos to my imac from a time capsule for a computer that just had a faulty harddrive replaced.  I admit both the time capsule and computer were packed away for some time as I was just not ready to deal with my harddrive crash.  I did try to use the time capsule as a router (unsuccessfully)  and I am wondering if I might have changed a password or something and this is why I am getting an unable to connect... check to see if your device is already mounted to another computer type error
  • by Kenstl,

    Kenstl Kenstl Jan 8, 2013 6:42 AM in response to Weeblerock
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2013 6:42 AM in response to Weeblerock

    Same issues here.

     

    2010 Imac, running Seagate Free Agent 1TB through Firewire, format is Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

    15 days ago it stopped backing up.  I ran disk utility and it stated it needed repair.  I ran repair and it states Error:  Disk Utility cant repair this disk reformat you disk, and restore your backed up files.

     

    Fortunately I also use an off site back up of my files, I would like to know what happened.  I will try to reformat the disc and reinstall.

  • by PavlovsStepson,

    PavlovsStepson PavlovsStepson Jan 16, 2013 12:51 PM in response to Weeblerock
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 16, 2013 12:51 PM in response to Weeblerock

    I'm not sure this is the same problem but it seems to be related.  My flash drive stopped working in any of the USB ports of my Mac Pro.  I don't get the error message when pulling it out but I do get the low power error message when plugging into the keyboard's USB port.  I tried with two other flash drives (Kingston, Memorex, Sandisk) and the same thing.  All of them work on the iMacs, G5s, and other Power Macs around the office.  I tried an WD external 1 TB drive and exactly the same thing.  Otherwise the computer works fine, with the exception that the Bluetooth stops working periodically and then comes back just as unexpectedly.  Any ideas?

  • by voiceofsf,

    voiceofsf voiceofsf Feb 19, 2013 9:17 AM in response to Weeblerock
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 9:17 AM in response to Weeblerock

    And adding to the woes - my trusty backup external drive suddenly was reported as ejected, but without unmounting. It's no longer recognized by my MB Pro running Mountain Lion, even in Disk Utility. But it is readily recognized by my Mini desktop and Windows laptop. All other external drives are still mounting normally on my MB Pro. It's only this one drive that's a problem - but it contains months of Time Machine backups (along with much video content). It's not a power problem. The drive immediately powers up on the MB. It's not a cable issue either. Partitions and data are intact - I'm still using this drive on my other machines. I'm using a Y usb cable and using both usb connections doesn't make any difference.

     

    I tried rebooting my MB, shutting it down for a while. Tried to wait it out to see if the MB would eventually recognize the drive again. Nada. It's the first and only quirky behavior of my otherwise well-behaved MB Pro (2010 late summer, 13", 4 gigs ram, etc.)

  • by thatssocrissy,

    thatssocrissy thatssocrissy Feb 19, 2013 11:42 AM in response to Weeblerock
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 11:42 AM in response to Weeblerock

    I have the exact same problem.

     

    3 out of 10 times, it won't recognize my ext HD, of course it has to be those times when I'm in a hurry to access important files. Not fun. I took it to Apple yesterday and this is basically what they told me:

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/21291717#21291717

     

    Excerpt from customer service call with the a senior manager "It's a machine. It's like buying a car. It breaks down." And I just got mine last December (2012)

     

     

     

    If you find a solution, do let me know.

  • by Bo.Lasater,

    Bo.Lasater Bo.Lasater Apr 4, 2013 11:13 AM in response to Weeblerock
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 4, 2013 11:13 AM in response to Weeblerock

    I had same problem and was able to fix it by going to "System Information", looking at "Thunderbolt" connections, ("USB" should work as well), finding my external hard drive in the list, and clicking on it to get more information.

     

    For some reason, that caused my hard drive to mount in Finder. 

     

    So... you should at least see if your hard drive shows in "System Information".  It's possible that it's there without showing in Finder. 

  • by Airtekuk,

    Airtekuk Airtekuk Apr 28, 2013 9:27 AM in response to Weeblerock
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 28, 2013 9:27 AM in response to Weeblerock

    I had this proble; WD 1TB External drive stoped being recognised by my iMac. It was on an external Belkin USB7 Port hub, but even when moved to a USB port on the iMAc still no joy.

     

    In the disc utility, it was recognised so just verified the disc. Seems OK, but as these are my Photos, i will be looking at online or another means of storage as well.

     

    Theks to everyone for your help on here

  • by dxs309,

    dxs309 dxs309 May 31, 2013 11:21 PM in response to Weeblerock
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2013 11:21 PM in response to Weeblerock

    Apple has a problem with their software. Spoke to tier 2 and my external hard drives will be come read only.

    Administrator of this computer. As this computer is best before my options are limited. Hit and miss so software based.

  • by Push Pal,

    Push Pal Push Pal Jun 2, 2013 3:08 AM in response to JasonFear
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 3:08 AM in response to JasonFear

    Hi JasonFear

     

    I am having a strang problem with my hard drive. When i connect it to my macpro in the disk utility it shows only the free space and dosen't highlight any option(First aid, Repair, Partition etc.).This is a  1 terabyte seagate external hard drive but shows only 4.14 gb drive and which i can not access. I have checked it into system profiler and it gives me following details

     

    USB 2.0 Cable:

     

      Capacity:    4.14 GB (4,14,20,53,888 bytes)

      Removable Media:    Yes

      Detachable Drive:    Yes

      BSD Name:    disk18

      Product ID:    0x5020

      Vendor ID:    0x0bc2

      Version:     1.48

      Serial Number:    2HC015KJ

      Speed:    Up to 480 Mb/sec

      Manufacturer:    Seagate

      Location ID:    0xfa400000

      Current Available (mA):    500

      Current Required (mA):    100

      Partition Map Type:    Unknown

      S.M.A.R.T. status:    Not Supported

     

    Please help me.

  • by C767938211,

    C767938211 C767938211 Jun 3, 2013 11:30 AM in response to Push Pal
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 3, 2013 11:30 AM in response to Push Pal

    I can't believe this discussion has been going on so long without a clear solution that works for everyone.  I've just about given up on my HD, and I have been using Backblaze online automatic backup.  Easy as pie, nothing to do, it just auto backs up a couple of times a day.

  • by dxs309,

    dxs309 dxs309 Jun 6, 2013 12:37 AM in response to blondieblue227
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2013 12:37 AM in response to blondieblue227

    Simple. At any point at any time either of two external harddrives will become read only. One is a Seagate, one is WD. I am the administrator of this system.

    Software based (Mountainlion June 5 updates). Talking to tier 2 and they cannot believe that tier1 suggested a harddrive failing in my IMac. This is the support you can expect going forward. Little to none. 

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