My external hard drive won't show up on the desktop!!

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Level 1

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My external hard drive won't show up on the desktop!!

Alright!

I bought a 250Go external hard disk at the same time as my alumnium iMac around september 2007. Since then I had no problems.

I also created partitions on my hard disk:
1 - Mac = Mac OS extended (Journaled) 202 Go
2 - PC = MS-DOS (Fat) 30 Go

When I turn on on my hard disk, both icons usually appear on my desktop but since yesterday, ONLY my PC icon appear.

I went in the Disk Utility and it seems that the MAC partition is always here but won't show up on the desktop. It's like it's become invisible or something.

Should I be worried? Because I use the MAC partition to back up all my files with Time Machine.

I find it annoying so anybody can help me out? Thanks!!

Intel-based iMac 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.4), My first one :P

Posted on Apr 11, 2008 2:45 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 9

77,134 points

Apr 11, 2008 5:28 PM in response to xoxo666

Hello xoxo666

Go to: "Finder / Finder Preferences / General" and make sure the boxes are checked for "Show these items on the Desktop" then restart!

If it's still not showing up perhaps the drive was disconnected or shut off while mounted or in use?

1. Open Disk Utility and select the TM partition then First Aid and Repair Disk.
2. Then eject both partitions from Disk Utility, power down the External HD and disconnect it.
3. Restart the iMac, reconnect the External HD and power it back up.

Dennis

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Answer 2

xoxo666 Author

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Apr 11, 2008 6:24 PM in response to den.thed

Hello Dennis! Thanks for your reply but unfortunately, it didnt work.

Boxes are checked
Repair disk says the volume appears to be OK
try everything you said but nope 😟

But still, the PC partition appears...

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 9

77,134 points

Apr 11, 2008 8:36 PM in response to xoxo666

When you open the TimeMachine Preference and select Change Disk does the 202 GO partition show up there, and is TimeMachine backing up to it regularly?

"Humm Strange" I don't know maybe the icon was moved off the edge of your display or something like that! Click on your desktop and go up to the menu bar: Finder / View / Arrange By and change it to Name or Kind to see if it pops up below your Macintosh HD.

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Answer 4

xoxo666 Author

Level 1

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Apr 11, 2008 9:36 PM in response to den.thed

Yup Time Machine detects it normally. The 202Go icon is shown and it does the back up work perfectly.

No my desktop is ok. Anyway, I should see the icon on the side of opened windows but its not there so the problem is somewhere else I guess :S

Thanks anyway for trying to solve my problem, i appreciate it.

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Answer 5

SteveLamb0

Level 5

4,110 points

Apr 13, 2008 4:15 AM in response to xoxo666

Hi

Anything at http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/invisible.html helpful?

Steve

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Answer 6

PatrickR

Level 1

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Apr 13, 2008 3:14 PM in response to xoxo666

Here is a zip file... unzip it and you will find a script that I wrote for invisable hard drives... open it up and there is a line in the script that says

"tell application "System Events" to set visible of disk "Name of Hard Drive" to true"

Change "Name of hard drive" to what ever the name of your hard drive is but don't delete the quotes. Then click run and your hard drive should pop up on the desktop.

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Answer 7

PatrickR

Level 1

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Apr 13, 2008 3:17 PM in response to PatrickR

here is the script open up script editor and paste this in

tell application "System Events" to set visible of disk "Name of Hard Drive" to true
tell application "Finder" to quit
delay 1
tell application "Finder" to launch
delay 1
tell application "System Events" to quit

then change "Name of Hard Drive" to the name of whatever hard drive you want and click run and it will pop up on your desktop!!!

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Answer 8

Mark Fab

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2008 5:51 PM in response to PatrickR

Patrick, I have same issue with my (Intel) MacBook's internal HD. Tried your Script solution but recv'd Systems Events ERROR "Can't set disk "MacBook HD" to true".
The (missing) HD is Boot Camp Partitioned and running Fusion. BTW, Fusion/WinXP will no longer open - "File not Found" error. Also, I didn't immediately notice the disappearance because my MacBook started booting from one of ext HD's (w/o me changing the startup drive).

Any ideas greatly appreciated. I haven't tried the Terminal solutions posted since I'm not Terminal savey.

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