external disk fails to mount

Morning FredNashville,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Many external hard drives come pre-formatted as FAT 32. This is a native Windows file format that can be read by Mac OS X, but is not ideal for use.

From the Format should be Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

and

Mac OS X v10.6: How to show your hard drive icon on the desktop

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3746

1. In the Finder, choose Preferences from the Finder menu.
2. Click the General icon on the toolbar.
3. Select "Hard disks" in the "Show these items on the desktop:" section.
4. Close the Finder Preferences window.

Hope this helps,

Mario