External hard drive won't show up on my MacBook

[paulolobo123]

My WD external harddrive will not show up on my macbook anymore. I've tried to repair it in disk utility, but it says I have to back it up and restore it. However, it still isn't showing up, so how would I back it up?
Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[Buckshot420]

Is the HDD formated for Win? This will get you started.
http://www.techiecorner.com/159/how-to-format-external-hard-disk-for-mac-and-windows/

 

[paulolobo123]

I've had this harddrive for a while, so I know it already works with my macbook. Will this wipe my harddrive clean of the stuff I have one there?

 

[Buckshot420]

I've had this harddrive for a while, so I know it already works with my macbook. Will this wipe my harddrive clean of the stuff I have one there?

yes

 

[Buckshot420]

Is the external drive assigned a same letter as a drive in your Macbook? You can't have 2 drives assigned as D: (even if ones a DVD and one is a HDD). This sound like the problem you are having? Let me know if I'm getting warm.

 

[paulolobo123]

How do I check that? The harddrive isn't even showing up in disk utility anymore. I can't find it anywhere on my computer, but the light on the harddrive turns on like normal.

 

[SNGX1275]

Is the external drive assigned a same letter as a drive in your Macbook? You can't have 2 drives assigned as D: (even if ones a DVD and one is a HDD). This sound like the problem you are having? Let me know if I'm getting warm.

Not warm. OS X doesn't do drive letters.

If at all possible connect the drive to another computer. If you connect it to a Windows machine it probably won't show up because Windows doesn't natively read HFS+ drives (Mac OS Extended, Journaled). But that shouldn't prevent it from showing up in Disk Management (Admin tools, comp management, disk management). If it shows up in there that doesn't tell you a whole lot, but you can then run something like SeaTools on it. If it doesn't show up in Disk Management then the enclosure or drive is dead.

You can open up the enclosure and put the drive in another enclosure or internally in another computer to get at the data. You'll need a utility to read the drive if you are going to do this on Windows, but we'll cross that bridge when/if we get there.

 

[paulolobo123]

I tried it on another macbook, and it didn't show up in finder or in disk utility.

 

[SNGX1275]

The drive and or the enclosure is dead then. You may be able to take the drive out of the enclosure and hook it up internally on a PC (or Mac Pro if you have access to one) or you can buy another external enclosure and hook the drive up in that.

 

[paulolobo123]

How would I do this? and if I do, would it make the warranty invalid?

 

[SNGX1275]

I don't know how you would open it, but you did bring up a good point I overlooked. It will void your warranty. The good news if it is under warranty still, you can get it replaced for free. The bad news is they won't recover your data for you. So you have to decide how important that data is. If its real important, it is probably worth opening it up. If its not real important I'd be sure and check on the warranty.

 

[paulolobo123]

Okay, thank you! I think I will just get it replaced. As long as nothing happens to my computer before I can back it up again I should be fine.

 

[Orion2367]

Hey, same problem, and the drive shows up as you said it might- what is the next step?

Not warm. OS X doesn't do drive letters.

If at all possible connect the drive to another computer. If you connect it to a Windows machine it probably won't show up because Windows doesn't natively read HFS+ drives (Mac OS Extended, Journaled). But that shouldn't prevent it from showing up in Disk Management (Admin tools, comp management, disk management). If it shows up in there that doesn't tell you a whole lot, but you can then run something like SeaTools on it. If it doesn't show up in Disk Management then the enclosure or drive is dead.

You can open up the enclosure and put the drive in another enclosure or internally in another computer to get at the data. You'll need a utility to read the drive if you are going to do this on Windows, but we'll cross that bridge when/if we get there.

 

[xcylent]

I had a similar problem, and fixed it by booting in safe mode (windows 7), and from then, reformatting the drive and completely defragging and fixing the sectors, which brought it back to life. not sure about mac though.

 

[SNGX1275]

Hey, same problem, and the drive shows up as you said it might- what is the next step?

Shows up in Disk Utility? But not in Finder? If so, in the bottom of the Disk Utility window, when the drive is highlighted, there will be a blue link. Click that, should open up the drive. I'd do a verify/repair disk and also check the permissions from Disk Utility too.

If you get the drive to mount in Finder after clicking the blue link in DU, then be sure to properly eject the drive. Disconnect the drive and plug it back in, it should mount normally now.

This link has some more information, including a pic of what I'm talking about: https://www.techspot.com/community/...rive-not-showing-up-on-my-macbook-pro.172059/

 

[Andreaaaaaaaaaa]

Had the same problem and same kind of External Hard Drive - WB. I went up on Google to find a solution and I opened this. Opened up System Preferences and something popped up saying that Finder can't repair my External 2, It told me that I can still open It in finder but can't save any changes. So that's a problem. So I copied all of my files from External 2 to External 1 which I use as a backup for some personal stuff like pictures. Lost 120GB of my 300GB External 1.. 120GB worth of files needs so much time and patience to be copied. So as I said, I had to copy it to External 1, format External 2 (as Apple suggested I do) then copy it again to External 2, delete them in External 1 so I could have all my externals organized. A really long process, since formatting External 2 took about 20 minutes or so.