Hard drive won't show up on desktop even though preferences are correct

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Hard drive won't show up on desktop even though preferences are correct

I just bought a Toshiba external 1TB USB drive for my wife's macbook air (newest July 2011 version macbook), the drive is powered by the UBS port. The drive paperwork said that it would have to be formatted for mac so I plugged it in and it did not show up on the desktop. I checked the preferences and all of the items were clicked under "General" so it should, I even tried rebooting the mac without success. I then plugged the hard drive into my macbook air (Dec 2010 version) and it showed up on the desktop. I formatted it successfully. I plugged it into my wife's macbook air and it still does not show up on the desktop. I tried multiple USB ports, I know they work and each port powered the drive on. I just tried a second external USB drive I have and it shows up. We macs are both running 10.7.3. Any suggestions?

Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Feb 28, 2012 2:28 PM

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Answer 1

BGreg

Level 6

17,552 points

Feb 28, 2012 3:58 PM in response to Yama10

Bring up Finder, then click Finder on the menu bar, and preferences. Is show external disks on the desktop checked?

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Answer 2

Feb 28, 2012 4:02 PM in response to Yama10

You can find numerous threads here via a search on the issues/problems with the Toshiba Canvio portable drives with a USB 3.0 connection.

A popular workaround that some have found working is to connect the drive using a USB 2.0 -> USB micro adapter cable. If you examine the slot of the drive itself, it is sectioned into two zones on the cable end. The wider portion is identical to a microUSB connector.

It seems that there is a incompatibility with Toshiba's implementation of the USB 3.0 connection and some Macs.

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Answer 3

Yama10 Author

Level 1

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Feb 29, 2012 6:26 PM in response to BGreg

Yes, the external disk on desktop is checked and I can plug another external drive in and I can see it, I just can't see this one.

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Answer 4

Yama10 Author

Level 1

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Feb 29, 2012 6:29 PM in response to SP Forsythe

I tried a USB 2 cable with the micro connector and still did not have any success. I tried the drive on my macbook air just to make sure the USB 2 cable was working and it shows up on my macbook air, but not my wife's. I plugged both the Toshiba drive and another external drive into the two USB ports on her computer and only the older drive shows up. I know the new one works because it shows up and works on my macbook air.

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