HELP! External hard rive has disappeared from finder.

[designandinnovation321]

I just bought a Samsung M3 external portable hard drive to store photos etc from my Macbook pro 13 inch 2013 model. I am terrible with technology in general (it seems to hate me), and what I was promised would be simple has turned into a three hour long ordeal.

First I tried to copy my iPhoto library onto the hard drive, following instructions on another forum. But it would not let me click and drop, or paste in the file. Then somehow I accidentally dragged the samsung hard drive from "devices" in "finder" and its completely disappeared. I can't access it or eject it, or even find it in spotlight even though I know it is still connected. I have tried taking it out and putting it in again. Does anyone know where I am going wrong?

 

[Fishrrman]

So long as you haven't copied anything to the drive that is irreplaceable -- that exists nowhere else -- I suggest you use Disk Utility to re-initalize the drive, and start over.

A few questions:
- What is the size of your internal drive?
- What is the size of the Samsung M3?

If the M3 drive is the same size (or larger than) as your internal drive, the easiest way to back things up is to use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable clone of the internal drive.

If you do this, EVERYTHING on your internal drive will be backed up on the external.
In addition, the external will also be BOOTABLE -- invaluable if something ever goes wrong with the internal drive.
You just connect the external, boot from it, and it will appear exactly as did your internal (up to the last backup).

 

[Weaselboy]

I just bought a Samsung M3 external portable hard drive to store photos etc from my Macbook pro 13 inch 2013 model. I am terrible with technology in general (it seems to hate me), and what I was promised would be simple has turned into a three hour long ordeal.

First I tried to copy my iPhoto library onto the hard drive, following instructions on another forum. But it would not let me click and drop, or paste in the file. Then somehow I accidentally dragged the samsung hard drive from "devices" in "finder" and its completely disappeared. I can't access it or eject it, or even find it in spotlight even though I know it is still connected. I have tried taking it out and putting it in again. Does anyone know where I am going wrong?

Have you formatted the new drive with Disk Utility yet?

If not, just follow the instructions at this link.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201909