Resolved external drive not showing up...but I'm warned disconnecting!

[supermarky]

I don't see it on desktop or under "devices" in finder... yet when unplugging the drive once I noticed I was warned about possible damage to contents.

with a tower I'd know to disconnect power source and wait an hour. here ... is some analogous procedure indicated?

what the heck do I do
-- oh, also, btw - main HD was partitioned into 2 parts, only one of which is showing under "devices" and on the desktop.

Ext drive is linked via USB


there's gotta be a simple solution? Please advise, thanks

 

[MiMiN]

I don't see it on desktop or under "devices" in finder... yet when unplugging the drive once I noticed I was warned about possible damage to contents.

with a tower I'd know to disconnect power source and wait an hour. here ... is some analogous procedure indicated?

what the heck do I do
-- oh, also, btw - main HD was partitioned into 2 parts, only one of which is showing under "devices" and on the desktop.

Ext drive is linked via USB


there's gotta be a simple solution? Please advise, thanks

What brand is your hard drive? Some Seagates and Samsungs have been known to have Mac compatibility issues after a while for some reason. This has happened to me on more than one occasion. What you want to do now to pre-empt this is most likely get Data Rescue (http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php) and backup whatever you have before something major happens (I'm talking from experience here, wish I had done that on some of my earlier hard drives), and then format the HDD through Disk Utility.

 

[GGJstudios]

Finder > Preferences > General > Show these items on the Desktop: > External disks (is it checked?)
Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > Show these items in the Sidebar: > External Disks (is it checked?)

 

[MiMiN]

Finder > Preferences > General > Show these items on the Desktop: > External disks (is it checked?)
Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > Show these items in the Sidebar: > External Disks (is it checked?)

Also, what GGJstudios said.

 

[Schtumple]

What GGJ said, and also open up "Disk utility", when you plug in the hard drive does anything appear in bit on the left?

 

[808?]

Is the external drive plugged directly into your USB port or via a USB hub?

Some USB hubs don't have enough power to support some external drives and require an external power supply to work 100%.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

with a tower I'd know to disconnect power source and wait an hour. here ... is some analogous procedure indicated?

No need to wait an hour, a minute maybe in order to let platters spin down, but waiting an hour is not necessary.

 

[Prodo123]

Sounds like your hard drive is partitioned as NTFS or some other non-Mac-recognizable filesystem.

 

[supermarky]

oh wait, well in the finder pref sidebar the very tippity top thing wasn't checked, which appears to be "device central" and is called ""First Users Macbook Pro". now previously I didn't need this, but... when it's checked off it looks as though I get back both partitions and the ext drive via this "device".

under "devices" I still get the startupdisc partition of main HD listed below "first user's macbook pro"

so I Can get around now, thank you!

 

[GGJstudios]

Sounds like your hard drive is partitioned as NTFS or some other non-Mac-recognizable filesystem.

Macs do recognize NTFS drives and native Mac OS X can read NTFS drives. With additional software, Mac can also write to NTFS. That wouldn't be a reason for a drive to not be recognized by Mac OS X.

so I Can get around now, thank you!

Glad you got it sorted out!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

oh wait, well in the finder pref sidebar the very tippity top thing wasn't checked, which appears to be "device central" and is called ""First Users Macbook Pro". now previously I didn't need this, but... when it's checked off it looks as though I get back both partitions and the ext drive via this "device".

under "devices" I still get the startupdisc partition of main HD listed below "first user's macbook pro"

so I Can get around now, thank you!

What you see, is you computer name and it then lists all connected storage devices.
Click on External disks, as it probably looks like this now:

but it should look like this:

Helpful Information for Any Mac User by GGJstudios​

 

[supermarky]

oh that's also the case - the "tick" was a horizontal line, not a check mark!

 

[Prodo123]

Macs do recognize NTFS drives and native Mac OS X can read NTFS drives. With additional software, Mac can also write to NTFS. That wouldn't be a reason for a drive to not be recognized by Mac OS X.

Macs don't read ext partitions AFAIK.
But it doesn't matter, glad it's all sorted out.

 

[GGJstudios]

Macs don't read ext partitions

Yes, they do. Like many Mac users, I have a partitioned external drive that my Macs are able to read and write to with no problem whatsoever.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Macs don't read ext partitions AFAIK.
But it doesn't matter, glad it's all sorted out.

Do you mean "external" or "ext2" or "ext3"?