Cannot see new hard drive in slot 3 on my Mac Pro

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Cannot see new hard drive in slot 3 on my Mac Pro

In the past I purchased a second hdd for slot 2, inserted it, all fine.

I just inserted another one into slot 3 and now I cannot see slot 2 or slot 3 in Finder.

I went to Disc Utilty and cannot see anything except one of my DVD drives (Upper Superdrive) - and then it also shows 'Untitled' (Lower Superdrive).

I have repositioned the hdd several times, even tried slot 4, even tried pulling them all out and replacing them - no change in accessing the drives in slot 2 or slot 3.

The drive in slot 1 is still accessible.

Please help me as all my work is on slot 2 (I am a wedding photographer).

Thank you in advance

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 22, 2013 12:02 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

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126,991 points

Jan 22, 2013 12:23 PM in response to SheonaB

It is not unheard of to have one drive mess up the Bus and cause several others to malfunction. Malfunctioning SSD drives may be more likely to do this.

Try removing all but the one you are trying to get access to.

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Answer 2

SheonaB Author

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Jan 22, 2013 12:34 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you for your reply. With just the drives in slots 1 and 2, I still only see slot 1.

I even rebooted with just the slot 2 in place to see if that would have any effect but when I put slot 1 back in, I could still only see slot 1.

At this point I don't really care about the new drive in slot 3 - I just want access to the drive in slot 2 again ...

Thank you again. Does this mean I have to take my machine into an apple store?

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Answer 3

Jan 22, 2013 12:41 PM in response to SheonaB

You may get different answers using:

About this Mac > ( More Info ) > Serial-ATA...

... to show what is present, even if it cannot be mounted for some reason.

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Answer 4

SheonaB Author

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Jan 22, 2013 1:05 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Yes, under Serial-ATA I see the two DVD drives and the two Hitachi hard discs. I definately have different answers.

I then inserted the third drive (new one) into Bay 3, rebooted, and checked under Serial-ATA: it now shows a third Hitachi hard drive. But that's the only place I have any evidence of it.

So, I can see what's present. Thank you. I wonder what to do now?

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Answer 5

Jan 22, 2013 1:52 PM in response to SheonaB

In the 2009 and later models, all six slots (including DVD drives) are on the Serial-ATA Bus. so ANY device on that Bus could be causing the problem. Try disconnecting your DVD drives as well.

If 2008 model, the DVD readers are on ATA Bus.

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Answer 6

SheonaB Author

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Jan 22, 2013 2:30 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Well, now that you say this, I notice that I can't see either of my CD-ROM drives in Finder either. i have a 2010 machine. Ouch. Looks like you're right - I can't figure out how to disconnect them though. Do you know?

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