Hard Drive not visible Mac OSx

[megalinx]

Please help, my first post. I have an Intel Mac Pro. Been having no problems to date, But now a problem. I have 2 additional hard drives installed and only one is visible. If I go to the Disk utility I can see the drive, repair or verify it but it is not visible on the desktop not in finder. Programs that have accessed the drive previously can read and write to the drive. But if I want to access it through finder it is not visible. In the dick utility I can see it mounted and if I click on the link it opens the drive but that is the only way I can get to it.

Thanks for your time and advice.

bob

[John A]

If you open the Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities) and run ls /Volumes , does the name of the hard drive show up in the listing? What happens if you go into the Finder, choose Go->Go to Folder... and type in "/Volumes" as the destination folder?

[megalinx]

Thanks for the reply.
1) ls ?Volumes lists all my volumes including HD3 which is invisible.
2) In Finder Go-> Go to Folder Lists all the Volumes including HD3.

I can see the content on the drive as well.

Bob

[John A]

I don't know why the drive isn't mounting on the desktop, but a temporary solution that I can think of is to go back to the Finder, and do the Go->Go To Folder... thing again. Select the hard drive, and choose File->Make Alias. It will create a shortcut to the hard drive which you can drag onto your desktop for quick access.

[megalinx]

Thanks a lot that is working, at least I can access the drive. I appreciate your time.

Bob

[mdunjic]

Please help, my first post. I have an Intel Mac Pro. Been having no problems to date, But now a problem. I have 2 additional hard drives installed and only one is visible. If I go to the Disk utility I can see the drive, repair or verify it but it is not visible on the desktop not in finder. Programs that have accessed the drive previously can read and write to the drive. But if I want to access it through finder it is not visible. In the dick utility I can see it mounted and if I click on the link it opens the drive but that is the only way I can get to it.

Thanks for your time and advice.

bob

Yes I believe to be having the exact same issue, or at least something very similar. I am using Mac Mini with 2 external hard disks as my dedicated Music Server. On my iOmega 500GB HDD I have complete iTunes ripped CD library and the second Western Digital 500GB HDD I have set up as the Time Machine backup of the iOmega drive. After tonight's automatic software update my Mac Mini got resterated and after that my iOmega (iTunes library HDD) is not visible in Finder nor on Desktop. Disk Utility sees it and verifies and repairs it OK. No issues reported.

1) /Volumes lists all my volumes including iOmega drive which is invisible in Finder.
2) In Finder Go-> Go to Folder Lists all the Volumes including iOmega drive which is invisible in Finder Device list.

iTunes still works and plays all of my music which means that the iOmega drive is still visible to iTunes. Time Machine on this drive doesn't work anymore though, although I believe it is still backing up the drive somehow since I see them both blinking after I rip couple of new CDs and add it to my iTunes library.

Did anybody solve this issue? It is my huge dissapointment in Mac OS X and the whole Mac "user friedliness". Never had these issues with my 3 laptops running Vista.

[mdunjic]

I finally solved this scary issue with the help of the article by Francine Schwieder @ http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/invisible.html.

Here is how I did it:

1) I started Terminal and entered following command:
Milos Mac:~ milos$ sudo chflags nohidden /Volumes/"Name Of Drive"

where "Milos Mac:~ milos$" is prompt on my Mac Mini, and "Name Of Drive" is "Iomega iTunes Library HDD" in my case. It asked me for a password that I use to logon and executed the command.

2) I restarted my Mac Mini drive "magically" appeared in Finder sidebar, on Desktop, TimeMachine, etc...all of the right places where it used to appear

Thanks Francine for providing simple steps in her article, much appreciated.

[jus learnin]

Have a similar problem with my Mackbook pro running lion and unable to see external WD My Book Media drive in finder. I had used it for months with no problem. Now Disk Utility sayis is not formatted. Tried the fixes mentioned above and the external drive was not visible in Terminal, or Finder - Go To Folder. Also tried the link above and it returned and error saying can't make "name of drive" true.

Also attempted to partition drive and came up with error that it could not process last block of device. Same result when attempting to erase.

Does this mean my external drive has failed ? I would like to at least be able to erase the drive and reformat if possible.

Does this mean my external drive has failed.

[jingda]

Seems like your hard disk has crashed. Try using disk utility and repair your external hard disk. I also want you to test out the external hard disk on other macbooks and see whether it can be detected. Before using lion, when using snow leopard does this problem occur or this occur when changing from Snow Leopard OS to Lion OS.

[shuja chishti]

sir,
1- when i start the mac mini question mark appear in the screen.
2- press option and start no any hard disk and dvd appear on the screen.
3- use firewire cable and connect other computer hard disk appear and work correctly, format the hard disk and install 10.6, all is well.
4- then i remove fire wire cable and start computer, again question mark apper.

kindly solve this problem.

regards.

shuja chishti

[jingda]

Your hard disk has crash, you need to get a new hard disk. Try sending it to a local repair shop and have some expert to closely look at it.

Do this steps

1) On your mac and insert the Mac OSX Installation Disk into your mac mini
2) Restart your mac and hold down the option key as it boot up again
3) Select the disk and choose your language.
4) When you enter, remember do not reinstall snow leopard at the top of the screen there will be a utilites bar something like that.
5) Go and search for disk utility and use it to repair your hard disk. After you are done, restart your mac but this time boot up from the internal hard disk.

See whether that works, if that fails most likely you need to get a new hard disk for your mac. Send your mac to an authorized apple store and get the technician there to help you fix.

[imalizya]

go inside boot

[hawtballa]

i'm running lion and i wonder if that's why your instructions aren't working for me.
i'm having the exact same issue as the original poster. Disk utility--only way I can access ext. HD.
Is the finder different in Lion? Any suggestions on how to get to this ext. HD in Lion?
Thanks-

[dioioib]

To: Shuja Chishi

I had this issue once and it turned out to be a disk failure. I was able to access the disk after several attempts at booting.

First try booting the setup CD/DVD and run a disk repair and repair permissions. With any luck this will fix the issue. Otherwise, use the system disk to boot. Access the drive from terminal and transferred as many files as you can to an external. Then replace the drive and make a clean install.

Probable not the solution you wanted to hear.

[luisportas]

OMG, thanks so much. The iomega app was not logging in. I did the Finder > Go > Connect to server thinguie... and it worked.
Gee... I wish I had seen this earlier. I would have saved me a lot of trouble.
Thanks a million megalinx

[coltech88]

I just cloned my drive (with Carbon Copy) onto a new, larger hard drive on my 2011 Intel MacBook Pro (Mountain Lion). And, when I put the old drive into an external enclosure, and connected it to the USB port, it didn't appear in the finder under the devices section. So, I went to Go>Computer and saw the drive listed there. I then moved the icon for the drive to position it under the Devices column. Problem solved. I don't know why Mountain Lion OSX didn't put it automatically under the Devices column so I could access the contents more easily.