Mac cannot detect WD elements external hard drive!

Question

Level 1

6 points

Mac cannot detect WD elements external hard drive!

Hi all,

I have a really strange problem.

My finder window indicates the existence of my Western Digital (WD) external hard drive 1 TB, but my Disk Utility cannot detect the external hard drive. (Am trying to reformat it)

Any answers? Help really appreciated, and thanks in advance.

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Mar 21, 2010 5:13 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 21, 2010 5:17 AM in response to TonoGam

Is it a bus powered or self powered drive? 2.5" or 3.5"? Connected through USB? Directly connected or using a Hub?

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Answer 2

TonoGam Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 21, 2010 5:23 AM in response to Kay Marczoch

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response. Not too sure what you mean below, but...

1. It is powered by external source. (Need to connect cable)

2. Not sure what you mean by 2.5, by 3.5.

3. It is connected via USB.

4. It is directly connected to the mac.

Below is a link to the product.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=760

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Answer 3

Mar 21, 2010 5:25 AM in response to TonoGam

2.5/3.5" refers to the form factor - yours is a 3.5" drive.

1st try another cable
2nd try another port on your mac

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Answer 4

TonoGam Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 21, 2010 5:32 AM in response to Kay Marczoch

Tried both methods. Cannot work...

It doesn't show up in System Profiler as well. But why would it show up in Finder then???

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Answer 5

Mar 21, 2010 5:37 AM in response to TonoGam

CTRL-Click on that drive's icon -> Get Info

What's listed @ General and @ Sharing & Permissions?

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Answer 6

TonoGam Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 21, 2010 5:41 AM in response to Kay Marczoch

Ok.

Kind: Volume
Format: Windows NT File System (NTFS)
Capacity: 1TB
Available: 110.68GB
Used: 889.53GB

Shared Folder = unchecked

Sharing and Permission: Read only

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Answer 7

Mar 21, 2010 5:50 AM in response to TonoGam

Have you installed any kind of additional NTFS drivers on your mac?

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Answer 8

TonoGam Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 21, 2010 5:50 AM in response to Kay Marczoch

Nope. I don't think so. Any ideas on how I can check on that? I do have VMware on my Mac. How would it affect the viewing of the folder.

By rite, I am supposed to reformat the external hard disk as NTFS is not suitable for Mac.

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Answer 9

Mar 21, 2010 5:52 AM in response to TonoGam

Anyway NTFS might cause this issue - Try to follow these steps: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2176

Or try reformatting that disk to FAT32 using your VMWare Windows installation

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Answer 10

Mar 21, 2010 6:06 AM in response to TonoGam

You also might try to install this 10 day trial: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/download.html
of a commercial NFTS driver - maybe this enables you to reformat your drive

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Answer 11

TonoGam Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 21, 2010 8:50 AM in response to Kay Marczoch

Hey Kay,

This support by APPLE works! (Not sure why, but I am finally able to access and reformat the disk.

Cheers!
Gam

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Answer 12

Mar 22, 2010 5:02 AM in response to TonoGam

Good News to Read.

🙂

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