I have a new iMAC Lion 10.7.2. I had a flashdrive in a USB port a few days ago and removed it without dumping the icon first. Now, I can't find the icon on the desktop in order to remove it safely. (I have a mouse drive in another port and there is no icon for that, either.)
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
What usually works well is to plug the flash drive back in. With luck it will appear on the desktop, and be accessible. That is when you should unmount the drive properly. To unmount the drive, do one of the following -
• Select the drive by clicking its icon once, then press Command-E (Eject in the File menu).
• Right-click or Control-click the icon for the drive, and select Eject from the contextual menu that appears.
• Drag the icon to the Trash. The Trash icon will change to an eject symbol when you're partway there - keep dragging it all the way to the Trash, drop it into that symbol.
Once the drive has been unmounted you can safely unplug it.
Lanny - If you mean that I should make sure that "External Disks" is clicked, I neglected to mention that it is. It is also not listed to the left of the Disk Utility window. What I meant by "mouse drive" is the USB connection for my wireless mouse.
Don - My flashdrive has been plugged back in after originally disconnecting it incorrectly. The icon is not showing up anywhere.
Don - My flashdrive has been plugged back in after originally disconnecting it incorrectly. The icon is not showing up anywhere.
Have you tried restarting the Mac? Sometimes doing so will 'fix' an upset condition.
After doing that, with the flash drive still plugged in, run Disk Utility and see if it can 'see' that drive, i.e. whether the drive appears in the list in the left pane of Disk Utility. If it does, select it and try the Repair Drive item.
Thanks, Don! I went to start closing some of my programs so I could shut down the Mac. Suddenly the flash drive icon showed up! I don't know which program I shut down to make that happen, but I'm just glad I did. I went ahead and shut down anyway (after ejecting the icon) and the icon was there again when I restarted. So, I ejected it again and removed the flashdrive from the USB port. Didn't get any nasty warning, so I think I am good.
Thank you!
Glad it's working again.
Suddenly the flash drive icon showed up! I don't know which program I shut down to make that happen, but I'm just glad I did.
It should not happen, but sometimes the desktop does not get refreshed regularly; it should get refreshed even when it is in the backgrouond.
Check here:
What is a mouse drive?
Can't see my USB icon on my desktop so I can disconnect it
