Sachin_B

Q: External USB Hard Drive not showing up, after Yosemite update

I recently updated my 13-inch Retina Macbook Pro (Late 2013) to OS X Yosemite (10.10).

 

I have a Western Digital My Passport (2TB) external hard drive and when I plug it in, I can hear the hard drive running but its not showing up in finder, or on the desktop, even though I have the option to show them enabled. The hard drive is showing up in Disk Utility.

 

I have a lot of stuff on this hard drive, so I would like to stay as far as possible from wiping it clean.

 

The external hard drive I'm using is formatted to NTFS (that could be the problem but not quite sure).

 

If anyone has any fixes, please let me know by replying to this thread.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 18, 2014 3:13 PM

Close

Q: External USB Hard Drive not showing up, after Yosemite update

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Page 1 of 13 last Next
  • by sterling r,Helpful

    sterling r sterling r Oct 21, 2014 11:59 AM in response to Sachin_B
    Community Specialists
    Oct 21, 2014 11:59 AM in response to Sachin_B

    Hey there Sachin_B,

     

    It sounds like your external USB hard drive is not being recognized when you plug it into your computer after updating to Mac OS 10.10. I recommend using the troubleshooting in the following article to help you resolve the issue, named:

     

    USB and FireWire Quick Assist

     

    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

    Regards,

    Sterling

  • by neonshez,Helpful

    neonshez neonshez Oct 23, 2014 12:23 AM in response to sterling r
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 23, 2014 12:23 AM in response to sterling r

    I also have the same issue, with two different hard drives. Both are new and run with USB 2.0. They were working perfectly fine minutes before I started the upgrade to Yosemite.

     

    I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012). The two drives are Western digital and Seagate. The link in the above answer did not solve anything for me.

  • by Hazeley,Helpful

    Hazeley Hazeley Oct 23, 2014 2:51 AM in response to neonshez
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 23, 2014 2:51 AM in response to neonshez

    Same here. No USB device -- or optical disc, for that matter -- automounts any longer. (Haven't tried a FW drive yet.) I have to manually mount anything I'm using in Disk Utility.

  • by neonshez,Helpful

    neonshez neonshez Oct 23, 2014 2:20 PM in response to Hazeley
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 23, 2014 2:20 PM in response to Hazeley

    I got one drive to work by plugging it in immediately after a restart. However I have gone to put it in again after the computer has been asleep, and it is not recognised.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Oct 23, 2014 2:26 PM in response to Sachin_B
    Level 10 (141,115 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 23, 2014 2:26 PM in response to Sachin_B

    Since Macs can't write to an NTFS volume without 3rd party software you may have to reinstall that software before you'll be able to mount and see the drive.  You did have such software installed before the upgrade, right?

    OTsig.png

  • by assault_is_eternal,

    assault_is_eternal assault_is_eternal Oct 25, 2014 4:19 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 25, 2014 4:19 PM in response to Old Toad

    I have an external Blu-Ray drive.  It doesn't even show up in Disk Utility anymore

  • by assault_is_eternal,

    assault_is_eternal assault_is_eternal Oct 25, 2014 4:57 PM in response to Sachin_B
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 25, 2014 4:57 PM in response to Sachin_B

    I could have sworn that I did this when I first saw the problem, but I guess I didn't.  I plugged my drive directly into my computer (bypassing my USB hub) and now it works fine.

  • by NormHouser,Helpful

    NormHouser NormHouser Oct 25, 2014 5:54 PM in response to sterling r
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 25, 2014 5:54 PM in response to sterling r

    Sterling, the link you provide is to a legacy article, and this is a little more serious than "check the connections and check the power." Any other suggestions?

  • by NormHouser,

    NormHouser NormHouser Oct 25, 2014 6:17 PM in response to Sachin_B
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 25, 2014 6:17 PM in response to Sachin_B

    Same problem. Thinking of using Time Machine to return my computer to yesterday, when my two external hard drives were working fine on Mavericks. I hate to do that, though. I like what I'm seeing of Yosemite.

  • by neonshez,

    neonshez neonshez Oct 25, 2014 9:16 PM in response to NormHouser
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 25, 2014 9:16 PM in response to NormHouser

    Yeah, I've now found it's affecting my ipod, because I had it set up to have external drive mode. This is a pretty shocking issue with Yosemite.

     

    NormHouser - I considered using time machine to go back too, but It's not even recognising my timemachine drive!

  • by eatsleepshawnrpt,

    eatsleepshawnrpt eatsleepshawnrpt Oct 27, 2014 12:56 PM in response to Sachin_B
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 12:56 PM in response to Sachin_B

    yosemite won't work with ntfs drives for some reason, i've had the same issue with my toshiba. i thought ok lemme buy another one, and transfer it over maybe it's a driver issue which i've tried over and over, apple support can't figure it out.

     

     

    here's a simple fix, but the problem is i have an external where all my photography and video files are stored, so i can't access them right now and it's making my life ****.

     

    http://guides.macrumors.com/Formatting_an_External_Device


    that does work and make the drive mountable now, but problem being i can't obviously reformat the old drive and lose everything. once the new drive is formatted for mac i can't plug it into a pc to transfer the files from. which is the only problem now. but formatting the drive for mac only DOES work. but you're just screwed and not able to use it ntfs. hope the link helps SOME people.

  • by TACOHELLION,

    TACOHELLION TACOHELLION Oct 27, 2014 1:34 PM in response to eatsleepshawnrpt
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 1:34 PM in response to eatsleepshawnrpt

    Also, just as a side note. This morning my external drive stopped working. I tried a few things, some utilities and such and figured that my enclosure had failed. After purchasing a new one, I found that it still didn't work. I had tried the usb port directly adjacent to the original port on my mac mini, and you guess it, it worked. It seems that half of my usb ports now no longer work. I have reset the pram and other things but still no luck. Tested with a low power device (thumb drive) and it lights up but still no joy. When I searched the other forums I noticed that others are having the same odd issues.

    Thanks All.

    TH

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Oct 27, 2014 2:03 PM in response to eatsleepshawnrpt
    Level 10 (141,115 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 27, 2014 2:03 PM in response to eatsleepshawnrpt
    yosemite won't work with ntfs drives for some reason,

    Macs were never able so write to NTFS drives without 3rd party software.  Possibly the install of Yosemite removed the software you had been using previously which killed the ability to even view the drive.

  • by eatsleepshawnrpt,

    eatsleepshawnrpt eatsleepshawnrpt Oct 27, 2014 2:13 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 2:13 PM in response to Old Toad

    AHHH HAA! I did get notifications some things were incompatible after the install but didn't recognize any of them. I was also told the app paragon? Will work to fix the drive read issues?

Page 1 of 13 last Next