HELP. External hard drive suddenly won't show up on Mac.

Question

Level 1

1 points

HELP. External hard drive suddenly won't show up on Mac.

So, I left for a few minutes and when I got back, there was that warning on my screen that said the disc wasn't ejected properly, etc. Which was weird because the drive was still plugged in fine. Anyway, when this happens, I usually just pull the hard drive out then plug it back in and it works fine but now it won't show up on the desktop or on the disk utility 😢 I got it to show up on disk utility once, but the subheading under the hard drive was greyed out. I could click it but when I tried to run Verify or Repair, nothing would happen. It would show up on the history as "repaired disc" but NOTHING. And I am honestly freaking out 😟 Please help, anyone 😟

Posted on Aug 18, 2013 6:06 PM

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Answer 1

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

Aug 18, 2013 7:05 PM in response to greenapple28

Test with a different port and/or different cable. Is this external powered or not? If powered, might also be a problem with the adaptor or the cable from the adaptor.

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Answer 2

Aug 19, 2013 9:02 PM in response to greenapple28

I'd have to agree with WZZZ. That sounds like either a bad connection, bad cable, or faulty supply. The port could be bad as well but the cable either being bad or not properly plugged in or maybe even worn out. When the "disk ejected" message shows up it's usually because somehow the cable was yanked out of the system while it was plugged in. Intermittenet connections in the cable, particularly in supply lines between the drive and the unit can cause this to happen as well...it's as if you unplugged the external hard drive from the system for a very short time, but the system still picks it up and sees it as bad.

If worse comes to worse, download the hard drive troubleshooting book in the downloads section at:

http://scsc-online.com

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Answer 3

Fred1956

Level 1

10 points

Aug 20, 2013 11:17 AM in response to greenapple28

FWIW I had a problem like that about 3 years ago with an external USB drive. It did exactly what yours did. It was caused exactly by what the 2 guys above are telling you: It was a bad cable.

Nice thing about that was the cost was only a few bucks for a new cable. I'd swap out the cable and try it with a good one. Cables are cheap and they don't last.

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Answer 4

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Aug 20, 2013 12:47 PM in response to greenapple28

If the afore mentioned suggestions do not resolve the issue, though rare, the enclosure might be faulty. If available switch it into another one. If nothing works, it may be that the HDD has seen its demise.

Ciao.

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