Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

NYmacAttack

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2005
432
6
NY
I was writing some files to my external hard drive from my MBP. I looked back at my MBP the hard drive was gone off the desktop and when I attempted to plug it back in it was not recognized. It would not mount through disk utility either. Its formatted with FAT32 and used by both my Mac and PC. Any idea how I can get this drive to work again?

Thanks
 

frankblundt

macrumors 65816
Sep 19, 2005
1,271
0
South of the border
What are the lights on the enclosure showing when you plug it in? Is the green "powered" light on, does it blink red for a bit (showing access) when you plug it in and does it go back to green after a while?
Does the device (as opposed to the device and volumes) show up in Disk Utility?
Does it show up on the PC?
Have you rebooted the Mac and checked the /Volumes/ folder while it's unplugged to see if there's a dead alias sitting in there?
What shows up, if anything, in System Profiler under USB/Firewire when it is plugged in?
Do other devices still work successfully on the same port?
 

NYmacAttack

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2005
432
6
NY
Yup the drive lights up and shoes activity. It is listed in the diskutility but it is grayed out. On the PC it says theres nothing on it and asks to reformat it.

Thanks
 

yellow

Moderator emeritus
Oct 21, 2003
16,018
6
Portland, OR
Disk Utility isn't prepared to fix any issues with a FAT32 formated disk.
You're going to have to use some Windows-based software for that.
 

NYmacAttack

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2005
432
6
NY
Disk Utility isn't prepared to fix any issues with a FAT32 formated disk.
You're going to have to use some Windows-based software for that.

Anyone have any reccomendation for software that could do this?
 

techster85

macrumors regular
Oct 17, 2006
190
0
Lubbock, TX
DiskWarrior might be able to help. I had the exact same thing happen to my external drive and my buddy used diskwarrior to check the drive. We think that the interface is jacked up, so now I have to buy a new enclosure. If I was you, I would try another enclosure and then see if the same thing happens.
 

NYmacAttack

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2005
432
6
NY
DiskWarrior might be able to help. I had the exact same thing happen to my external drive and my buddy used diskwarrior to check the drive. We think that the interface is jacked up, so now I have to buy a new enclosure. If I was you, I would try another enclosure and then see if the same thing happens.

Can disk warrior repair the file system? I would really like a program that can repair the drive so it mounts. Every program I found so far just copies the files off the drive.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.