External HD no longer appears in Finder...

FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
...it does however appear in Disk Utility. I've ran verify & repair checks on the disk and still no worky!

I haven't installed anything new or updated anything recently so I'm wondering what the problem is. Anyone have any ideas?

Using Leopard 10.5.3 incase that helps.
 
chscag

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Try plugging it into another machine, Mac or PC and see if it appears. If it doesn't it may be time for a new external drive. There's also a possibility the drive itself may be OK but the interface electronics have gone bad. If the electronics are at fault, you might be able to remove the drive from its case and place it in a substitute external case.

Regards.
 
H

hexonxonx


Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
226
Reaction score
4
Points
18
So, you can still see the drive on Disk Utility?

Did you by chance one day click on the drive and select get info? In that box, did you add a comment in the spot light box? If so, this will cause the drive to no longer show up in finder until you tell spotlight to ignore the drive. Had this very same thing happen a few weeks back. This is a bug in Leopard.
 
OP
FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
chscag said:
Try plugging it into another machine, Mac or PC and see if it appears. If it doesn't it may be time for a new external drive. There's also a possibility the drive itself may be OK but the interface electronics have gone bad. If the electronics are at fault, you might be able to remove the drive from its case and place it in a substitute external case.

Regards.
Click to expand...

sorry I forgot to say in the original post, the drive appears fine in Boot Camp (on the same machine) & works perfectly.


hexonxonx said:
So, you can still see the drive on Disk Utility?

Did you by chance one day click on the drive and select get info? In that box, did you add a comment in the spot light box? If so, this will cause the drive to no longer show up in finder until you tell spotlight to ignore the drive. Had this very same thing happen a few weeks back. This is a bug in Leopard.
Click to expand...

no i didn't do anything like that at all. Good suggestion though and I will remember that for the future!
 
H

hexonxonx


Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
226
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Ok, try the following:

Open Apple Script in your apps folder. Copy and paste:

tell application "System Events"
set visible of disk "LaCie" to true
end tell
tell application "Finder" to quit
delay 1
tell application "Finder" to launch


Where I have Lacie, put the name of your external drive in it's place. Now click run and it will run the script. See if the drive appears now when finder restarts. Good luck.
 
OP
FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
hexonxonx said:
Ok, try the following:

Open Apple Script in your apps folder. Copy and paste:

tell application "System Events"
set visible of disk "LaCie" to true
end tell
tell application "Finder" to quit
delay 1
tell application "Finder" to launch


Where I have Lacie, put the name of your external drive in it's place. Now click run and it will run the script. See if the drive appears now when finder restarts. Good luck.
Click to expand...

ok tried this, but when I click run I get the message,

"Applescript Error,

System Events got an error: Can’t set disk "CJS 500GB" to true."

Any ideas? I'm assuming of course I completed it all correctly
 
dtravis7

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
In Finder under Preferences, on the General Tab, be sure External Disks is checked. See pic below.

pic2.jpg
 
OP
FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
dtravis7 said:
In Finder under Preferences, on the General Tab, be sure External Disks is checked. See pic below.
Click to expand...

just looked & its definitely checked already.
 
dtravis7

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
When you open the Disk Utility and see the drive, can you Mount it?
 
H

hexonxonx


Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
226
Reaction score
4
Points
18
FreshPants said:
ok tried this, but when I click run I get the message,

"Applescript Error,

System Events got an error: Can’t set disk "CJS 500GB" to true."

Any ideas? I'm assuming of course I completed it all correctly
Click to expand...

I'm out of ideas now. When I run the script on my iMac, it works because the drive is connected. If I try to run that on my MBP without the drive connected, I get the same error you are getting. I am wondering now if your drive is bad.

Do you possibly have another computer to try the drive on? You need to verify that it is working before you can do anything else. Disk Utility may not be giving you an accurate report.
 
OP
FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
dtravis7 said:
When you open the Disk Utility and see the drive, can you Mount it?
Click to expand...

no. I get this message,

"Mount failed

The disk “CJS 500GB" could not be mounted. Try running First Aid on the disk and then retry mounting.
 
OP
FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
hexonxonx said:
I'm out of ideas now. When I run the script on my iMac, it works because the drive is connected. If I try to run that on my MBP without the drive connected, I get the same error you are getting. I am wondering now if your drive is bad.

Do you possibly have another computer to try the drive on? You need to verify that it is working before you can do anything else. Disk Utility may not be giving you an accurate report.
Click to expand...

Right...I tried connecting to my old pc laptop & it works fine.

And the weird thing is , the drive works perfectly in Boot Camp on my MBP! :Confused:
 
T

theonegod


Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
476
Reaction score
9
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
24" 2.8ghz IMAC, MB Pro
This happened to me once or twice with my firewire drive. Unplug the drive, reboot, repair disk permissions on your main drive, reboot again, then plug in the drive.

This may help you. It helped me.
 
OP
FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
theonegod said:
This happened to me once or twice with my firewire drive. Unplug the drive, reboot, repair disk permissions on your main drive, reboot again, then plug in the drive.

This may help you. It helped me.
Click to expand...

no, this didn't work either! :(
 
OP
FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
nope. nothing on that page worked either!!!

Do you think this comes under Applecare? ie could I phone them up and ask for help?
 
OP
FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
back to the top to see if anyone else can help me!
 
OP
FreshPants

FreshPants


Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Jönköping, Sweden
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4, 1.07Ghz, 768 MB / iPod Video / Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz
surely there must be others on this forum with the same problem as me!
 
dtravis7

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Did you try a search here on the forums? I seem to remember others with the same issue. I will look later also. The strange thing is it works on other systems.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top