Kazul9

Q: Macbook suddenly stopped recognizing all USB storage devices.

A couple of days ago I plugged in my Toshiba external harddrive which I'd been using for over a year as my time capsule, and my Macbook (running on Snow Leopard) won't recognize it. The light on the external harddrive comes on, but it won't show up in the finder at all. Thinking it might have been just a problem with the  external harddrive itself, I plugged inmy little 2gb Stamples Relay USB storage that I've also been using for over a year, and the light on that isn't even coming on.

Does anyone have any suggestions how to go about fixing this? Thank you very much in advance!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 30, 2012 6:28 AM

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Q: Macbook suddenly stopped recognizing all USB storage devices.

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  • by Kazul9,

    Kazul9 Kazul9 Oct 30, 2012 6:29 AM in response to Kazul9
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    Oct 30, 2012 6:29 AM in response to Kazul9

    Also, it recognises my iPod and printer perfectly fine, so it's only an issue with storage devices.

  • by KBoyKool,

    KBoyKool KBoyKool Aug 23, 2016 7:06 AM in response to Kazul9
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 23, 2016 7:06 AM in response to Kazul9

    I have a similar problem.  My Late-2007 MacBook is dual booting OSX 10.5.8 and OSX 10.7.5.  In Leopard, no USB storage devices are recognized.  They appear in the USB Tree under System Profiler, but they don't show up in Disk Utility or Finder.  External Keyboards, mice and iPods all appear.  I tried resetting the SMC and PRAM to no avail.  When I boot in Lion, there are no issues with the USB devices appearing.  This suggests a repair or reinstall of Leopard is needed, but I have found no other description of exactly my issue in the Apple Communities.