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User profile for user: dieselboi
dieselboi Author
User level: Level 1
40 points

External Hard Drive Woes!

If it isn't one thing it's another:-( You may remember me from such posts as "Crazy Crashing Computer is About to Give Me a Stroke" and "Leopard Doesn't See My Hard Drive." Well now I come to you wonderful geniuses again with "External Hard Drive Woes". I just got a Seagate 250gig FreeAgent external hd and its not showing up on the desktop anymore. The day it happened my computer kind of half froze on me. I could still move the mouse and everything but I couldn't do anything at all. Nothing was responding, including the Finder and Force Quit; so I had to hit the power button to force the shut down and restart. Computer is working fine now except he doesn't recognize my external drive now. Not even disc utility is recognizing it. I've tried plugging it into different usb ports, unplugging the power cord etc. but still nothing. Help plz!

17" iMac G4, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Nov 6, 2007 9:59 PM

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User profile for user: Dale Weisshaar
Dale Weisshaar
User level: Level 6
15,870 points

Posted on Nov 7, 2007 9:19 PM

Shutting down your Mac without properly ejecting your drive (put icion in trash) can fry an external drive. I know, I did it! Maybe you'll have some luck with my tips.

Thought you could use this info about getting FireWire to work!

First, you should always Repair Permissions in Disk Utility before and after any update; I would do that now. If you installed your update with FireWire plugged in, your Mac may not recognize it anymore.

Try resetting your FireWire ports by disconnecting all FW devices, shut down your Mac and unplug it from AC power (wall socket) for 30 minutes. plug it back in and try FW.

If that still didn't get it Zap the PRAM. While restarting Mac hold down the following key combo Command-Option-P-R. Keep holding those keys down till you hear the second start-up chime, then release.

For those of you with Macs that are not PowerBooks or iBooks, a bad internal battery can cause FireWire to not be recognized, so make sure it's good! Also, here is Apple doc.#88338 on getting FireWire to work.
Here's some more FW tips.

 Cheers! DALE

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User profile for user: Dale Weisshaar
Dale Weisshaar
User level: Level 6
15,870 points

Nov 7, 2007 9:19 PM in response to dieselboi

Shutting down your Mac without properly ejecting your drive (put icion in trash) can fry an external drive. I know, I did it! Maybe you'll have some luck with my tips.

Thought you could use this info about getting FireWire to work!

First, you should always Repair Permissions in Disk Utility before and after any update; I would do that now. If you installed your update with FireWire plugged in, your Mac may not recognize it anymore.

Try resetting your FireWire ports by disconnecting all FW devices, shut down your Mac and unplug it from AC power (wall socket) for 30 minutes. plug it back in and try FW.

If that still didn't get it Zap the PRAM. While restarting Mac hold down the following key combo Command-Option-P-R. Keep holding those keys down till you hear the second start-up chime, then release.

For those of you with Macs that are not PowerBooks or iBooks, a bad internal battery can cause FireWire to not be recognized, so make sure it's good! Also, here is Apple doc.#88338 on getting FireWire to work.
Here's some more FW tips.

 Cheers! DALE

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External Hard Drive Woes!

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