Mac Mini won't recognize external hard drive

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Level 1

4 points

Mac Mini won't recognize external hard drive

Hi!

I have weird issue on my Mac Mini. I have two Seagate 8TB external hard drives connected by USB to my Mac Mini (mid 2011 with Maverics). The discs have worked fine, but suddenly one of them will not be recognized by the Mac Mini.

I have connected the hard drive to my MacBook Pro and an old PC and it works fine and all the files are available, but for some reason my Mac Mini won't have anything to do with it anymore.

It does not appear in the finder or the disc utility. I have disconnected the hard drive for hours and then tried to reconnect it without any luck. I have restarted the Mac Mini several times. I have also tried to connect it to all the USB ports on the Mac Mini. When I connect it to the USB ports, it does make that murmuring sound indicating it has started working. However, no sign of it on the Mac Mini.

It's like the Mac Mini has decided to ignore the external hard drive no matter what I do. Seeing it works on other devices, I'm pretty certain that the problem lies within the Mac Mini.

I am no expert at this, so any help will be very valuable to me. And if you are kind to help, please explain it to me like I'm either 8 or 93 years old.

Thank you.

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Apr 14, 2016 9:57 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 14, 2016 10:04 AM in response to TinyHampton

Are these independently powered drives or do they rely upon USB power?

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Answer 2

TinyHampton Author

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Apr 14, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Limnos

They run on their own power cords.

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Answer 3

lllaass

Level 10

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Apr 14, 2016 10:27 AM in response to TinyHampton

- Does it show in System Profiler under USB? You should see the chipset in the enclosure as well as the HD itself

OS X: About System Information and System Profiler - Apple Support

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Answer 4

TinyHampton Author

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Apr 14, 2016 10:43 AM in response to lllaass

Thank you for your reply.

I am not sure if I checked the System Profiler correctly, but there are two «USB Hi-Speed-buss» thingys (don't know the English word), and when I disconnected the troublesome hard drive, it still showed two of them.

The last sentence went way over my head (not sure what «chipset in the enclosure» means, and googling it didn't help -- sorry).

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Answer 5

TinyHampton Author

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Apr 14, 2016 10:58 AM in response to TinyHampton

Is there a way to make the Mac Mini «forget» the hard drives that have been connected to it in the past?

The Mac Mini accept all my discs -- even ones that have never been connected to it before -- so I thought maybe that will solve my problem? I tried to google how to make a Mac Mini forget about previous hard drives, but all I found was stuff about resetting the entire machine.

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Answer 6

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Apr 14, 2016 11:00 AM in response to TinyHampton

Profiler should show like this. Omega is the chipset.

If you connect the good one what does it show?

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Answer 7

TinyHampton Author

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Apr 14, 2016 11:08 AM in response to lllaass

Mine looks different than yours. Here it is with both discs connected (the one who works and the one who doesn't).

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Answer 8

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Apr 14, 2016 12:29 PM in response to TinyHampton

If you click on Backup+ Desk what does that show? That description sounds like an external HD.

You can take a screen shot of the screen. See:

How to take a screenshot on your Mac - Apple Support

and post that here. You click on the camera icon in the menu bar of the of reply box and browse to the screenshot file and select it to post it here.

Are you using the same cable and USB port that work with the good external disk wit the problem one?

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Answer 9

TinyHampton Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 14, 2016 12:49 PM in response to TinyHampton

Yay, I solved my issue. Thank you for all the replies.

This is how I fixed it: I removed the USB cable and replaced it with another one! Have noooo idea why the Mac Mini suddenly found the old USB cable unacceptable, because the disc would work with that USB cable on both MacBook Pro and a PC. Anywho, as long as it works I'm happy.

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