External Hard Drives Not Seen by iMac

[Mork]

I was done doing various tasks on the iMac and when I decided to plug in the external hard drive for a Time Machine backup, the drive spun, but was never shown on the desktop.

I also tried another external drive and had the same thing happen.

After rebooting (hey, this sounds like Windows!), the drive again showed up on the desktop and Time Machine worked fine.

Is an external hard drive not showing up on the desktop a somewhat common issue?

Thanks in advance.

- M

 

[Hellhammer]

As reboot fixed it, it may have just been a small issue. If everything works now and that hasn't happened before, stop worrying

 

[Mork]

As reboot fixed it, it may have just been a small issue. If everything works now and that hasn't happened before, stop worrying

 

[mstrze]

I know that I have had issues in the past with at least Firewire drives. I couldn't turn a drive off after ejecting and just turn it back on when I wanted it to show up. I would have to disconnect the FW cable...power it back up, then reconnect it or else it wouldn't show up. I haven't had this issue in years. I don't know if it's because I haven't been disconnecting my hard drives recently or that Apple has perhaps 'fixed' the issue.

 

[Mork]

I know that I have had issues in the past with at least Firewire drives. I couldn't turn a drive off after ejecting and just turn it back on when I wanted it to show up. I would have to disconnect the FW cable...power it back up, then reconnect it or else it wouldn't show up. I haven't had this issue in years. I don't know if it's because I haven't been disconnecting my hard drives recently or that Apple has perhaps 'fixed' the issue.

Thanks for your reply.

Both of these were USB drives. I've never had that happen before where the drive wouldn't be recognized. No big deal I guess...

- M