mac wont read USB flash drive

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Level 1

5 points

mac wont read USB flash drive

I am currently unable to use my flash drive on my new mac. when i plug the drive in it lights up telling me it's on but nothing happens on the computer. i have tried multiple flash drives and none work. i have tried each port on my computer with no luck. i have also tried this drive on several other macs and it always works. each usb port on the back of my computer works with other devices such as the keyboard. when i check the disk utility the drive does not appear. however i know that the computer can see something because when i check the system profiler under "USB High-Speed Bus" i see my drive listed with all the relevant information. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is or what i can do to fix it?

24" iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 16, 2008 7:40 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

J D McIninch

Level 5

4,091 points

Jul 16, 2008 9:59 AM in response to tomer485

Click on the Finder icon on the dock (stylized blue smiley face).

Select the menu item "Finder >> Preferences..."

Check the box marked "External Disks" under "Show these items on the Desktop:" (if already checked, uncheck, then check again)

Click on the tab labeled "Sidebar"

Click on the box next to "External Disks" under Devices (if already checked, uncheck, then check again)

Finally, if that doesn't fix it, do the following: in your home directory, find the file Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and drag it to the Trashcan, and then hold down the "option" key while clicking on the Finder icon in the dock and select "Relaunch" from the pop-up menu.

The first set of instructions merely enables the disk appearing on the desktop and in the Finder. If disabled, you'd see absolutely nothing happen when you inserted an USB disk (hard disk or thumb drive).

The second set of instructions presumes that the Finder preferences file has somehow gotten botched. Removing it and restarting the finder will generally fix things.

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Answer 2

tomer485 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 18, 2008 6:59 AM in response to J D McIninch

Thanks for your reply. It turns out that even though the computer is brand new the drivers for all external disks were older than the kernel and they just needed to be updated.

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Answer 3

Jul 19, 2008 1:36 AM in response to tomer485

I seem to have a similar problem - where do you go to find the new drivers and how do you install them?

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