External HD with USB Connection no longer recognized

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External HD with USB Connection no longer recognized

Hi,

I have read all the posts here and in most cases the problems are with an external HD that uses Firewire. Mine uses USB.

It has been working fine for a year and now it won't show up on the desktop. I went to Disk Utility and it was there. When I clicked verify, the external drive kicked into gear and the log said there was no problem. But I still can't see the drive or access any of the file I have on it. Any thoughts?

eMac (USB 2.0) Mac OS X (10.4.10)

eMac (USB 2.0) Mac OS X (10.4.10)

eMac (USB 2.0), Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Jul 16, 2007 8:30 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 16, 2007 7:52 PM in response to Garry0526

Hello! Does the drive have a separate power supply or does it only connect with a usb cable? Also often times using DiskWarrior will resolve such problems even if the DU doesn't see a problem. Tom

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Answer 2

JMVP

Level 6

16,851 points

Jul 17, 2007 6:33 AM in response to Garry0526

Don't overlook checking the trivial cause for disks not appearing on the Desktop; corrupted preferences .plist files could effective mis-set the Finder's preferences setting for "show items on Desktop". It's a quick check to try unsetting and then resetting the checkboxes, or to log on under a different account.

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Answer 3

Garry0526 Author

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Jul 19, 2007 7:22 PM in response to Thomas Bryant

It has an external power source. Here is something really strange. When I open disk utility, it shows both the Hard Drive and the External Drive.

Now it has two entries for the main drive. On the first line it says 38.3 GB Maxtor, and underneath it says Macintosh HD, both lines have the same icon. For the external drive it says 111.8 GB external media on the first line, and on the second line is says simply external drive (which is what I named it). However the icons for the external drive are not same, the bottom entry looks like a little piece of paper with a fold in the upper right, while the top entry is a little orange box with a USB symbol.

This may not seem like a big deal, but to be its as if the computer knows its there but has no idea how to read it.

Also on disk utility it has 111.8 for the capacity but is blank where it should list available space and used space. It also says number of files is 0.

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Answer 4

Jul 19, 2007 7:59 PM in response to Garry0526

Hello! What happens when you try to repair it in disk utility? Tom

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Answer 5

JMVP

Level 6

16,851 points

Jul 20, 2007 9:19 AM in response to Garry0526

Have you tried using Disk Utility to Repair (not Verify) the external HD?

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Answer 6

Garry0526 Author

Level 1

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Jul 20, 2007 11:27 AM in response to JMVP

When I repair with the Disk Utility it simple says there was nothing wrong with the disk. This is like bizarro world.

Also, I have a program called Omni-Disk Sweeper. It is supposed to examine hard disks and show where the big files are. Well when I run it on the external drive (yes it sees the drive) it also says that it has 111 GB of capacity, and 10 GB of free space and 0 folders or files. How can it say most of the disk is full, but no files or folders?

I am going to the apple store today to inquire about Disk Warrior.

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