What can I do when my USB and External Hard-Drive don't show up on the desktop?

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Level 1

8 points

What can I do when my USB and External Hard-Drive don't show up on the desktop?

I've plugged my USB into my computer after a fortnight and it gives me a message to do a custom scan. I don't know how to do that. Help?

I've followed some threats telling to "verify" and "repair" on the Disk Utility, and the first time I went through it, it said that it couldn't be repaired but before I could do anything else, my USB disappeared from the list on the left of the window. I tried again but this time and every other time I try, it disappears straight after I verify it. What's going on? What can I do? Please Help?

This has happened before to an External Hard-Drive but I didn't ask for help then.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Mar 27, 2015 2:29 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 27, 2015 4:26 AM in response to Nalishia

By USB do you mean a USB hard drive or a USB flash drive?

Can you also clarify whether they appear on your desktop when you first plug them in (i.e. Before you run Disk Utility) or do they not appear at all?

Also, have you tried to 'mount' them using Disk Utility?

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Answer 2

Mar 27, 2015 8:01 AM in response to Nalishia

Oops, forgot to address your first question about the 'custom scan' message. I'm almost 100% certain this is NOT generated by Mac OS X. Do you happen to know what software is displaying the message? If not do you have virus software installed (e.g. Sophie antivirus)? Perhaps whatever 3rd party software is giving you this message is unmounting your drive in preparation of a scan.

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Answer 3

Nalishia Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 27, 2015 10:21 PM in response to Joe Felice

sorry i meant by USB flash drive.... i think?? sorry, I don't know the difference :\ it's a little 8GB stick that goes into the USB ports.
And no, they do not appear on the desktop before I go into the desk utility, and when I inserted the USB now, it doesn't show up even with a message telling me to do a custom scan so I cannot answer your other question. So they do not appear at all.

And what is 'mount'ing on Disk Ulility?

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Mar 28, 2015 10:32 AM in response to Nalishia

If you can see the Flash drive in Disk Utility, can you repair disk?

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Answer 5

Mar 28, 2015 2:45 PM in response to Nalishia

Mounting your drive

To mount your drive you can select it in the left hand pane of Disk Utility and then click on the Mount icon in the toolbar.

If you try that, what happens? Does it appear on your desktop? If so, I would strongly recommend you copying any data you want from it and then use a new USB stick (they're so cheap these days and you can buy them just about anywhere).

You could also try reformatting the USB stick using Disk Utility (after you've copied whatever you want from it), but you need to make sure you Choose the right format so that's it's still usable on PCs etc. Personally I wouldn't bother as it sounds like it's on its way out and I wouldn't trust it with your data.

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Answer 6

Nalishia Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2015 9:48 PM in response to Eric Root

i have tried to no help.

I tried it several times and now "repair disk" cannot even be clicked after verifying

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Answer 7

Nalishia Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2015 9:46 PM in response to Joe Felice

I attempted to Mount the drive but it told me to do first aid on it first. So I went to Verify and Repair again, however now after verifying, the repair disk button is not being highlighted and cannot be clicked

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Answer 8

Mar 29, 2015 3:11 AM in response to Nalishia

Okay, maybe we should take a step back. Is there anything on the USB stick you need that you don't have saved elsewhere?

If not, then I would just put this down to a bad USB stick and not worry about it anymore. And, if that's the case, I would get rid of the USB stick as it's no longer reliable. Also, if it's a bad USB stick then that can explain why Disk Utility may not work as expected.

If, on the other hand, you do have data on it that you really do need to recover, then that's another question altogether and we could try and help you work through it.

As for your original question about a 'custom scan', I'd say that it was some 3rd party software (e.g. virus scanning software) alerting you, not Mac OS X, and I probably wouldn't worry about that unless it comes up again relating to your Macintosh HD.

Hope this all helps.

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Answer 9

Nalishia Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 29, 2015 10:18 PM in response to Joe Felice

Thank you

I thought I did have back-ups of back-ups of the important stuff on the USB, but in the cruelest twist of fate, I cannot find ANY of the back-ups. All of the important Documents are either from Word, Powerpoint or Excel if that means anything...

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