I can't find my External Hard Drive!

Weird Fish · Weird Fish #1 (**permalink**)

12-26-2007, 02:46 PM

Hello. I am running a MacBook Pro 120GB with Leopard 10.5.1.

I just got a 160GB Maxtor Hard Drive for Christmas yesterday, and it had been working great until this morning. I hit software update, and there was a Security Update I was missing. I let it do it's thing, restarted my computer, and logged back in. I could only see "Miss Machine" (My Internal Hard Drive). The Maxtor Hard Drive had been partitioned into "Mister Machine" and "Time Machine", but could not be found. I opened up Disk Utility, and there they were! (See attached image)

Why can I see the drive in Disk Utility, but I can't see it in Finder or even access it?

Please help!

eric · eric #2 (**permalink**)

12-26-2007, 02:50 PM

never update with peripherals attached (except monitor, mouse, and keyboard if necessary).

i'm sure there's a fix besides reformatting.
if it were my drive i would probably start by hooking the thing up to a windows computer and deleting all the files that start with "." (period)

Weird Fish · Weird Fish #3 (**permalink**)

12-26-2007, 02:55 PM

Oh man.

I didn't know you weren't supposed to do that.

Any idea of what I could do without reformatting?

rman · rman #4 (**permalink**)

12-26-2007, 05:11 PM

Can you select the drive (Mister Machine) and click on the mount button? That should mount the drive.

eric · eric #5 (**permalink**)

12-27-2007, 10:00 AM

ooh, nice rman.

goobimama · goobimama #6 (**permalink**)

12-27-2007, 10:06 AM

Btw, why have you partitioned the external? Time Machine just creates it's own folder and works from there. I have had no issues with using Time Machine and also having my own folders on the drive...

rman · rman #7 (**permalink**)

12-27-2007, 11:20 AM

The best reason I can think of for partitioning the back up drive is to keep the back up data separate from live data. An example would be is my external drive is 750GB and the drive I and backing up is only 100GB. I may want to use part of the external for something else.

goobimama · goobimama #8 (**permalink**)

12-27-2007, 03:47 PM

Well where's the logic in that? If your external drive goes corrupt, it's going to take all the partitions with it. Partitioning was required in the days of FAT32 (on PC at least) where there was a lot of fragmentation. Now with HFS that issue is almost non existent. So why restrict time machine to 100GB (in your case) when it could just as well fill up and you will have like two separate backup locations.

If in case you didn't get it, you can use the Time Machine drive as a normal external drive to store all your files in. You can move the drive between Macs and it still gives no problems.

Weird Fish · Weird Fish #9 (**permalink**)

12-27-2007, 06:17 PM

The reason I partitioned the drive was to let Time Machine have most of it, but still have 30ishGB partitioned so I could use it as a method of file-transferring between a Windows machine.

Does this make sense?

rman · rman #10 (**permalink**)

12-27-2007, 07:07 PM

Thats okay. It is that goobimama prefers one partition, whereas you perfer two. There is nothing wrong with that.

Weird Fish · Weird Fish #11 (**permalink**)

12-28-2007, 01:18 AM

How do I format one of the partitions to be visible by Windows?

bubba · bubba #12 (**permalink**)

12-28-2007, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weird Fish

How do I format one of the partitions to be visible by Windows?

FAT32 -- I think it's called MS-DOS in OS X.

vamz · vamz #13 (**permalink**)

12-28-2007, 02:02 AM

yea FAT 32

eric #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Nov 04, 2006 Location: twin cities, mn, usa Posts: 8,800	12-26-2007, 02:50 PM never update with peripherals attached (except monitor, mouse, and keyboard if necessary). i'm sure there's a fix besides reformatting. if it were my drive i would probably start by hooking the thing up to a windows computer and deleting all the files that start with "." (period) Please participate in our Member of the Month polls. Every vote counts! And remember to use the user reputation system! ["Dear Homer, I. O. U. one emergency donut. Signed, Homer." - Note by Homer Simpson]
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rman #4 (permalink)
Inactive Staff Member Since: Dec 24, 2002 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 12,591 Mac Specs: 2 x 3.0GHz Quad-Core, 6GB OS X 10.6.8 \| 15in MacBook Pro 2.2GHz OS X 10.6.8 \| 64GB iPad 2 WiFi	12-26-2007, 05:11 PM Can you select the drive (Mister Machine) and click on the mount button? That should mount the drive. Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, It's about learning to dance in the rain!
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eric #5 (permalink)
Member Since: Nov 04, 2006 Location: twin cities, mn, usa Posts: 8,800	12-27-2007, 10:00 AM ooh, nice rman. Please participate in our Member of the Month polls. Every vote counts! And remember to use the user reputation system! ["Dear Homer, I. O. U. one emergency donut. Signed, Homer." - Note by Homer Simpson]
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rman #7 (permalink)
Inactive Staff Member Since: Dec 24, 2002 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 12,591 Mac Specs: 2 x 3.0GHz Quad-Core, 6GB OS X 10.6.8 \| 15in MacBook Pro 2.2GHz OS X 10.6.8 \| 64GB iPad 2 WiFi	12-27-2007, 11:20 AM The best reason I can think of for partitioning the back up drive is to keep the back up data separate from live data. An example would be is my external drive is 750GB and the drive I and backing up is only 100GB. I may want to use part of the external for something else. Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, It's about learning to dance in the rain!
	QUOTE Thanks

goobimama #8 (permalink)
Member Since: Apr 28, 2006 Posts: 2,542 Mac Specs: iMac Core Duo 20", iBook G4, iPhone 8GB :)	12-27-2007, 03:47 PM Well where's the logic in that? If your external drive goes corrupt, it's going to take all the partitions with it. Partitioning was required in the days of FAT32 (on PC at least) where there was a lot of fragmentation. Now with HFS that issue is almost non existent. So why restrict time machine to 100GB (in your case) when it could just as well fill up and you will have like two separate backup locations. If in case you didn't get it, you can use the Time Machine drive as a normal external drive to store all your files in. You can move the drive between Macs and it still gives no problems. Last edited by rman; 12-27-2007 at 04:46 PM. Reason: lang
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I can't find my External Hard Drive!

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goobimama #6 (permalink)
Member Since: Apr 28, 2006 Posts: 2,542 Mac Specs: iMac Core Duo 20", iBook G4, iPhone 8GB :)	12-27-2007, 10:06 AM Btw, why have you partitioned the external? Time Machine just creates it's own folder and works from there. I have had no issues with using Time Machine and also having my own folders on the drive...
	QUOTE Thanks

Weird Fish #9 (permalink)
Member Since: Nov 17, 2007 Location: Greenville, SC Posts: 267 Mac Specs: MacBook Pro 15" Matte 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM	12-27-2007, 06:17 PM The reason I partitioned the drive was to let Time Machine have most of it, but still have 30ishGB partitioned so I could use it as a method of file-transferring between a Windows machine. Does this make sense?
	QUOTE Thanks

rman #10 (permalink)
Inactive Staff Member Since: Dec 24, 2002 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 12,591 Mac Specs: 2 x 3.0GHz Quad-Core, 6GB OS X 10.6.8 \| 15in MacBook Pro 2.2GHz OS X 10.6.8 \| 64GB iPad 2 WiFi	12-27-2007, 07:07 PM Thats okay. It is that goobimama prefers one partition, whereas you perfer two. There is nothing wrong with that. Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, It's about learning to dance in the rain!
	QUOTE Thanks

Weird Fish #11 (permalink)
Member Since: Nov 17, 2007 Location: Greenville, SC Posts: 267 Mac Specs: MacBook Pro 15" Matte 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM	12-28-2007, 01:18 AM How do I format one of the partitions to be visible by Windows?
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vamz #13 (permalink)
Member Since: Sep 01, 2006 Location: Cali Posts: 26 Mac Specs: macbook	12-28-2007, 02:02 AM yea FAT 32
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