my hard drive won't be recognized after os x lion update!!!

There are NUMEROUS posts in the Western Digital forums and in other forums (one example in Apple's forums: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3201308?start=45&tstart=0 ) where it is discovered that certain Western Digital drives no longer are usable after a Lion upgrade. This includes both Network Attached Storage as well as USB and Firewire external drives. You might check Western Digital's site for firmware updates, they provide updates for SOME drives, but some they are no longer supporting for anything past 10.6.

Western Digital drives have more complex firmware than other hard drive makers. They also offer a number of extra "features" with that firmware, but it can be a problem sometimes.

The only quick solution I have found is to remove the hard drive from its enclosure and plug it into an external dock. I use the Thermaltake BlacX Duet Storage Controller. I think I paid like $35 for it at Wal Mart (go figure). I can access all of my data. I did this after spending numerous hours trying to get my Lacie 1TB Backup One Touch to work and after their support encouraged me to format the hard drive. I needed that data!! SO before I did this (thank goodness) I saw this docking stattion and thought i'd try it. It worked! I have not had one single problem using external docks. I can guarantee that this works and if for some reason it doesn't you can take the dock back for a refund. I personally think its worth a drive to the store. Any external dock should work. After the problems Ive had with Lacie, I'll never buy their products again. Oh, and I did the format as instructed by Lacie, and it still didnt work.

Message was edited by: jamiesonfromportland

I had a similar problem my Maxtor One Touch wouldn't show up. I searched around various forums for solutions but didn't find anything helpful. Then on a whim I tried installing the Maxtor One Touch MacIntel Update, since I knew the problem was Power PC based software, and it worked!

Here's the link for anyone who might need it.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=Maxtor_OneTouch_MacIntel _Update&vgnextoid=770f8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Greetings 'Frombreda' et al,

I was wondering if you ever managed to reslove not being able to read your LaClie 500gb Ext HDD on your Mac?

I have the same problem. I get an error message (1st screen shot below) when I plug it in via any of the connection options - firewire, separate usb data and power, and Micro B to dual USB A.

I cannot see the drive in finder but I can in disc utilities where it will verify it happily but cannot repair the boot sectors. (Screen shots below).

I came across a mention of 'Disc Warrior' im not familiar with it but perhaps there is a more robust utility like that which may be able to sort the boot sectors out? My LaClie500 'Rugged' has been formated on a Vista PC, this is the first time ive tried it on a Mac so do not know if the Lion OS has a bearing on the issue.

Any help or direction greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I had the same problem. I have a Maxtor onetouch4 and it wouldn't read after I updated lion... I noramally use my Mac Pro (10.7.3) and I had the drive plugged into the firewire 400 that was in the 23 inch cienma screen. I also have a newer 2010 MacBook Pro and I moved to the firewire ports in the tower of the Mac Pro and daisy chained it to my Macbook Pro and it worked and that is running 10.7.3 as well. So it wasn't Lion just a bad / glitchy port.

Basically i just swapped ports and it worked. I'm not 100% sure that Lion needs the driver updates, but in my case it doesn't. Just depends on what you have (firewire, USB 2/3.0 etc) and where you can plug into. Lion might not have the drivers to power or have acces to certain ports. Not really sure, but thats why I waited until last month (April 2012) to upgrade for any bugs to be gone. Some of these posts go back to Sept of 2011. So the issue has been around for sometime now.

SOLUTION FOUND!

At least it works for me!

I had the same problems like you guys did. Here is a very simple solution:

1. Run Disk Utility

2. Select your connected USB or external drive

3. Click Verify Disk

4. Check Finder to see your drive poping up immediately.

It seems to me that I only have this problem with NTFS external drives. FAT works just fine.

Good luck.

First time on the forums and I must say .. Duytinle.. you are a god... you saved all my information!! Thank you!!!!

duytinle wrote:

SOLUTION FOUND!

At least it works for me!

I had the same problems like you guys did. Here is a very simple solution:

1. Run Disk Utility

2. Select your connected USB or external drive

3. Click Verify Disk

4. Check Finder to see your drive poping up immediately.

It seems to me that I only have this problem with NTFS external drives. FAT works just fine.

Good luck.