Not recognizing external hard drive

I have a 1 terabyte seagate external hard drive that I used to back up my PCs and tried to connect it to my Macbook Pro to transfer the files over from my old computers, but the Mac won't recognize the external hard drive at all. Any suggestions?

Macbook Pro 15" 2.66 ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Sep 5, 2010 1:58 PM

Reply
187 replies

Jan 28, 2014 8:22 PM in response to aiden.dias

If you're using it for your PC it may not be formatted for Mac use unless you previously formatted your drive to FAT 32 to be able to use it on both.


If not, then I would suggest saving the contents to your PC and then reformatting to FAT 32 and reinstalling the contents.


If you're not sure how to do this, here's a good link;

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to- fat-32/

Jan 28, 2014 8:25 PM in response to davidjtro

After searching the web for hours and trying everything I finally found the answer to this.


I have a MAC Book Pro and also have the WD Passport, it was working just the other day and now it wasn't. I could hear it working and see the white light on but it was NOT showing up in devices but WAS showing up in disc utility.


Here's what I did; With my WD Passport plugged in I went to;

FINDER

APPLICATIONS

DISC UTILITY

Click on the WD Passport (in My case it said 1TB WD My Passport) at the left hand side so it's highlighted

Then click on FIRST AID

in the middle section then at the bottom right hand side click on VERIFY DISC


This gave me some errors that needed to be fixed, and then I clicked on

REPAIR DISC and in a few minutes it was fixed.


Now, I don't know if this was a problem for you, but when I clicked below the 1TB WD My Passport where I named my passport "Modella2014" (you will have a different name obviously) in the bottom section it said MOUNT POINT "not mounted"

So I went back up to "Modella2014" and right clicked (on the mac track pad that's a 2 finger click) and

selected "Mount Modella2014" and in a few seconds that was mounted.


Hope this helps, feel free to share and save someone else the 4 hours it took me to figure this out. Now back to editing!

Feb 1, 2014 11:36 AM in response to Weeblerock

I have a LaCie 1TB USB 2.0 external HD. This drive mounts without hesitation on my most recent past version Mac Pro (USB 2.0 ports) and on my current version Mac Mini (USB 3.0 ports), yet it will not make an appearance on my 7 year old MacBook (USB 2.0), nor on my current version (Oct 2013) MacBook Pro (USB 3.0). When connecting to the 'desktop' systems, the drive's blue lamp lights and the HD spins up and there it is in the Finder. On the MacBooks - no blue lamps, no spin up, not even lised in system report USB tree. Thinking that USB power may be an issue (this unit is not bus powered; it has a 12 vdc power supply), I tried using a powered USB hub; no joy. I am currently using the drive as the backup (Time Machine) media for my new MBP (drive connected to MacMini - MBP via WiFi (Airport Express)). That works well, but I will soon change that arrangement - full system restoration could be problematic if the drive won't mount while physically connected to the MBP. I'll continue to watch for probable cause, and solutions, for this issue.

Feb 20, 2014 12:21 PM in response to Weeblerock

I was having the same problem. My MBP would not recognize my disk, and no image was mounted on my desktop. I went into System preferences and noted that while the disk was recognized it was not 'available'. I verified the disk through disk utility to no avail. In the end I ended up having to delete my previous backups, and re-format the disk for use by Time Machine.


I am using a 2010 MacBook Pro hard drive scavenged from my old laptop, the logic board of which suffered water damage.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Not recognizing external hard drive

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.