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External HD won't show up

J

jnottingham13

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 8, 2012
3
0
I have a new Toshiba external hard drive that I purchased on black friday. It works on my windows PC as well as my friends Macbook Pro. However it does NOT work on my brand new macbook pro. It was originally formatted NTFS but i reformatted it for exFat. Still doesn't work on my mac.

The drive doesn't show up in finder or disk utility. I've heard rumors that macbook pros cannot power bus powered external HDs, but this doesn't make any sense considering my 3 year old dell and my friends MBPro finds the hard drive.

Any suggestions? I really need to get this working. :confused:
 
They definitely can power external HDs.

I assume you've tried it multiple times and have ensured it was firmly inserted into the port on the MacBook Pro, etc.

Does that port work for other devices like a mouse or some other device? Maybe you have a bad port.
 
Just to be sure, have you tried the other USB port? And have you tried the ports with another device?
 
Thanks for all the replies everyone. I have tried it multiple times on both USB ports. The light on the HD does come on, and the computer appears to freeze up for a few seconds, but nothing ever shows up in Finder or Disk Utility.

USB flash drives, USB mouse etc all work on both USB ports.

Also I had no idea that some hard drives require a USB "Y" cable to connect to two ports for power. I can't imagine this is the problem in my case though, because the hard drive lights up and I can hear it spinning but it does not show up on my computer.
 
I have not tried that yet, and have just learned of it from you (new to mac). How safe is the process?
 
jnottingham13 said:
Thanks for all the replies everyone. I have tried it multiple times on both USB ports. The light on the HD does come on, and the computer appears to freeze up for a few seconds, but nothing ever shows up in Finder or Disk Utility.

USB flash drives, USB mouse etc all work on both USB ports.

Also I had no idea that some hard drives require a USB "Y" cable to connect to two ports for power. I can't imagine this is the problem in my case though, because the hard drive lights up and I can hear it spinning but it does not show up on my computer.
Click to expand...

I believe its only 1TB and higher that requires it but than again im not sure it would be only on MACs and not PCS USB 2.0 should give the same power regardless if its PC or MAC
 
Sorry for thread jacking but my topic is mostly related to yours.

I have a WD My Book Studio drive with my itunes on it. Due to an accident it got dropped and now everytime I attach the firewire or usb cable. The white light lights up for a second but nothing happens. I have it tried different cables and macs.

What can I do? is there anyway of recovering data from a dead drive? Theres still warranty on the drive and WD would exchange it but everything on the drive would be lost.

Thanx for the help in Advance! :)
 
To retrieve files you can use
Data Rescue 3 (trial lets you scan the HDD and see, if data is recoverable, but to actually recover files, you need to buy the full version for 99 USD) or
FileSalvage (trial lets you scan the HDD and see, if data is recoverable, but to actually recover files, you need to buy the full version for 89.95 USD).
DiskDrill - lets you recover data from HFS/HFS+, FAT, NTFS & other file systems right on your Mac., for free.​

Also know, that you should immediately stop any writing processes to the actual HDD. If it is the same HDD as the one your operating system (OS) resides on, it is better to use an external HDD with Mac OS X on to boot from and install Data Rescue or FileSalvage onto to scan the HDD from which the data has been accidentally deleted.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
snip
Click to expand...

Its an external hd. And I can't access it because it doesn't even show up in disk utility nor in finder nor in terminal. Do the above software also work with a drive that seems pretty much dead? Or do you know of a service that can retrieve files from a dead drive? Thanx!
 
maril1111 said:
Its an external hd. And I can't access it because it doesn't even show up in disk utility nor in finder nor in terminal. Do the above software also work with a drive that seems pretty much dead? Or do you know of a service that can retrieve files from a dead drive? Thanx!
Click to expand...

I don't know one in your country, but every bigger city (Århus or similar) should have a computer shop with data recovery service.
The scan to determine, if the data can be saved should cost 600 to 1200 Dkr, the recovery can cost 6000 Dkr or more.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
I don't know one in your country, but every bigger city (Århus or similar) should have a computer shop with data recovery service.
The scan to determine, if the data can be saved should cost 600 to 1200 Dkr, the recovery can cost 6000 Dkr or more.
Click to expand...

thanx for the help i live in copenhagen so it shouldn't be too much of a problem but those costs aren't pretty.
 
maril1111 said:
thanx for the help i live in copenhagen so it shouldn't be too much of a problem but those costs aren't pretty.
Click to expand...

Greetings to Greve Strand then. And yes, those prices aren't pretty. I just converted the 1000 USD price to Dkr, maybe it costs less, but I guess it is the opposite.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Greetings to Greve Strand then. And yes, those prices aren't pretty. I just converted the 1000 USD price to Dkr, maybe it costs less, but I guess it is the opposite.
Click to expand...

evening neighbor :D, yep it will probably be more expensive. Have you tried a service yet or do you think i could request for maybe a special fee for Western Digital (the brand of the drive) to try to recover it? Because I don't feel like paying 3000+dkk plus on a unknown service.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
I don't know one in your country, but every bigger city (Århus or similar) should have a computer shop with data recovery service.
The scan to determine, if the data can be saved should cost 600 to 1200 Dkr, the recovery can cost 6000 Dkr or more.
Click to expand...

maril1111 said:
thanx for the help i live in copenhagen so it shouldn't be too much of a problem but those costs aren't pretty.
Click to expand...

I know it's not cheap to replace the heads, but there is the possibility that this would solve the problem and make the drive usable again, and it would most likely be less expensive than 1 000 USD...
 
maril1111 said:
evening neighbor :D, yep it will probably be more expensive. Have you tried a service yet or do you think i could request for maybe a special fee for Western Digital (the brand of the drive) to try to recover it? Because I don't feel like paying 3000+dkk plus on a unknown service.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried such service yet, as the two drives I had fail were either backed up or the data on it was easily re-creatable.

I also don't know, if WD offers any data recovery service. You better ask them.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
I haven't tried such service yet, as the two drives I had fail were either backed up or the data on it was easily re-creatable.

I also don't know, if WD offers any data recovery service. You better ask them.
Click to expand...

IBAS Data recovery Denmark

This is a data recovery partner for WD and they can be found in Virum and do it for 1290Dkk inc tax and free analysis.

Just a tip for the future.
 
maril1111 said:
i am guessing since you are a guy and its most likely feminine. :D
Click to expand...
Oh no, that was a long time ago. ;)
I guess it is just the country. I have visited Danmark five times since 1992, (93, 94, 96, 2000) and I can't really pinpoint it. I have several destinations I am drawn to, London is another, but since it is such a big city, it might not be for me. Who knows, maybe it is just my programming. København was only visited twice by me, I could not really make a connection with it, sadly.
 
put in a plastic bag in the freezer for a few hours... or 15 minutes if you're in a hurry, should mount in disc utility then reformat.
 
kokako said:
put in a plastic bag in the freezer for a few hours... or 15 minutes if you're in a hurry, should mount in disc utility then reformat.
Click to expand...

thanx for the idea will try it out.

EDIT: sadly that didn't work left it in the freezer overnight, still nothing i think i just gotta buy a new one. and scrape up my itunes from a combination of ipods i have.
 
Last edited:
maril1111 said:
thanx for the idea will try it out.

EDIT: sadly that didn't work left it in the freezer overnight, still nothing i think i just gotta buy a new one. and scrape up my itunes from a combination of ipods i have.
Click to expand...

Did you not see my post? There is a possibility that the drop made the heads come loose, why don't you look into it? If that's the problem, the solution is cheaper than a restore and you have your drive with everything on it.
 
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