External HD Problem

Discussion in 'iMac' started by trsblader, Apr 20, 2012.

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  1. trsblader, Apr 20, 2012

    trsblader macrumors 6502

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    May 20, 2011
    #1
    Hey all, first off I've never experienced a hard drive failure of any kind before so I'm not sure what the symptoms are. My external drive had been working just fine for over a year, and then just today it doesn't appear that my iMac or macbook will recognize it. The drive starts up and everything just like before and sounds like it's working, but like I said, nothing appears.

    Is this a hard drive failure? For what it's worth my other 2 external drives DO work on both machines.
     
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  2. simsaladimbamba, Apr 20, 2012

    simsaladimbamba Guest

    simsaladimbamba

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    located
    #2
    Does the misbehaving HDD show up in Disk Utility?


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    Links to guides on how to use Disk Utility, the application Mac OS X provides for managing internal and external HDD/SSDs and its formats.
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  3. musty345, Apr 20, 2012

    musty345 macrumors regular

    musty345

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    #3
    Try another USB cable

    I had a problem like this and it turned out to be a broken USB cable that was the problem.

    Restart your Mac and try to connect it with a USB cable.

    If that still doesn't work, try connecting it to a different computer (preferably a different Windows one).

    If these two steps don't work then I'm guessing your Hard drive's failed :(
     
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  4. trsblader, Apr 22, 2012

    trsblader thread starter macrumors 6502

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    May 20, 2011
    #4
    Sorry it took a few days guys. It didn't show up in disk utility, and after sourcing another USB cord, it was in fact a broken USB cord. So happy the drive isn't gone. No idea what caused the cord to fail (no kinks, not stepped on, etc.) but guess that doesn't really matter.

    Thanks for your help
     
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