External Harddrive shows up with a red minus sign?

[bAck2beAt84]

Hey thereee.

Problem: I have a half-terabyte external harddrive by western digital. It's been working for about a year now, no problems ever. it's basically halfway filled with movies and music and stuff; however, recently, it's not being recognized by my macbook. It uses a mini USB to USB cable. I switched the cables and it still didn't come up.

When I plug it into the AC it lights up and looks like its searching to 'talk' with my macbook. It has always done this, then the light would become solid and it would show up on my desktop. I tried it on different computers as well and it still doesn't actually show up. All the computers I've tried notify me that a drive has been connected, but not recognized. I really really need it to be recognized or else I lost A LOT of information.

I went to upload a file to Mediafire, and when it redirected me to Finder, my hard drive was the default folder to pick the files from. However, it had a red minus sign on it and I have no clue what that means. Anyone have any suggestions?

thanks!!

 

[GoCubsGo]

It won't mount at all? Best to perhaps remove the drive and see if it is the enclosure. Let's hope so.

 

[bAck2beAt84]

It won't mount at all? Best to perhaps remove the drive and see if it is the enclosure. Let's hope so.

Like, remove it from the drive from the actual box? It's sealed completely =[

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

Like, remove it from the drive from the actual box? It's sealed completely =[

There are always either screws under the feet or a couple locations where you can pop it open with a thin screwdriver. Time to google around for some tutorials on it!

 

[andalusia]

A red minus sign?
Could you perhaps show us a screenshot of said sign?

 

[bAck2beAt84]

A red minus sign?
Could you perhaps show us a screenshot of said sign?

I would but now, for some reason, it isn't even coming up with the minus sign. I plug it in and it's blue light in front alternates which means its trying to be recognized...then it goes solid but still doesn't show up.

This is terrible. I'm about to do some of the options of this page: http://www.fixya.com/support/t458033-western_digital_book_premium_es_edition

They talk about taking it apart and cleaning it, maybe defraging the HD. If someone has some input, please haaaalp!!

 

[matthewscott661]

the red minus sign means you do not have permission to access the drive. the same sign is on folders of other users if they have a password. i would say try repairing permissions. if that doesn't help then i'm stumped.

 

[andalusia]

the red minus sign means you do not have permission to access the drive. the same sign is on folders of other users if they have a password. i would say try repairing permissions. if that doesn't help then i'm stumped.

That's exactly what I thought, however in that symbol the minus sign is white with a red circle, so I just wanted confirmation of what it was first.

Since a screenshot couldn't be acquired, I'll ask this to the OP:
Did the minus signs look anything like they do on the screenshot I attached?

 

[bAck2beAt84]

That's exactly what I thought, however in that symbol the minus sign is white with a red circle, so I just wanted confirmation of what it was first.

Since a screenshot couldn't be acquired, I'll ask this to the OP:
Did the minus signs look anything like they do on the screenshot I attached?

Exactly. Now I'm confronted with my next problem.

The external showed up with the red circle/minus sign when I went onto Mediafire, a file hosting site, and tried to pull something from the drive itself; however, now when I go to the do the same thing, it doesn't even come up.

I've been researching this on a few Western Digital forums and it seems that they're all recommending to open it up and take the actual HD out. I would rather find a solution on here. I've been trying different scenarios and they all seem to come out void

 

[bAck2beAt84]

In addition, when I plug the USB into my computer to connect it, the noise the drive makes is the same as it's always been...the disc spins up and remains spinning; it doesn't stop/fail. There's a faint noise that sounds like loading, or clicking...but it has always done that.

I'm still at the point where the blue light on the front alternates from top to bottom and eventually remains solid, but shows no sign of recognition.