My External Hard Drives will no longer connect

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Hello everyone! This is my first thread and hopefully it will be my last in that I don't run into any more problems with my computer.

Here's my problem for you all:

My hard drives, after many months of running like dreams, are no longer connecting to my computer.

Let's have a little background, shall we?

First off, my hardware: I have two, count 'em two, hard drives. 1) Cavalry 1TB HD and 2) Seagate 3TB External Desktop Drive. My computer is a MacBook Pro.

Now, my story. I keep my iTunes library on my Cavalry HD so one day, I was listening to music on my computer (the MBP) when iTunes started to get a little bit of a headache. The program lagged, sputtered, and eventually stalled. I force-quit iTunes, shut down my computer, then turned off the Cavalry HD. When I next turned on my computer, everything was running just fine until I tried to access my music on the Cavalry HD.

I'll pause here to note that the Cavalry HD does not directly hook up to my laptop because there is no FW800 port on the computer. This being the case, I purchased a while ago an adaptor with a FW800 female port on one end and a FW400 male port on the other (forgive me if I'm getting the names/numbers wrong, the point is the Cavalry cable needed an adaptor, and I got one). With the adaptor in place, the Cavalry HD connected to my laptop no problem.

Ever since iTunes tuckered out on me that one time, my Cavalry HD will not connect to my laptop. Here are the aspects of the connection issue that, from looking at posts with similar problems, I've learned to look for:
  • Cavalry HD is whirring and purring like a kitten, sounding like it's running as usual as if it were connected to the computer
  • The HD icon does not appear on the desktop
  • The HD does not appear on Disk Utility

Now this could mean that there is a problem with the Cavalry HD but I have reason to believe otherwise. I haven't plugged in my Seagate Drive for a while but to test a hunch, I hooked it up just now. Wouldn't you know it, the Seagate wouldn't connect either when, prior to the iTunes issue, it worked just fine.

Here are the aspects of the Seagate connection:
  • Like the Cavalry HD, the Seagate Drive is buzzing and whirring like always, as if it were connected to the computer
  • The HD icon does not appear on the desktop
  • The HD does appear on the Disk Utility but none of the option buttons are live (Verify Disk Permissions, Repair Disk Permissions, Verify Disk, nor Repair Disk), also, the Disk appears under its original product name, not the name I had given it
  • In Disk Utility, there appear to be no existing partitions on the HD, though previously there had been
  • When the HD was initially plugged in, a window popped up that said the disk could not be read, giving me three options to a) Initialize, b) Ignore, or c)Eject (for now, I selected "Ignore")

The Cavalry HD, which I inherited (meaning someone else did all the setup for it), has always worked on my computer as well as on two other iMac desktop computers. The Seagate Drive, which has been appropriately partitioned, also worked just fine on my laptop as well as on two other iMacs.

So my hunch is that there is something wrong with how my computer is reading the Hard Drives, as opposed to something being wrong with the HDs themselves. That's as far as my guessing goes because I have no idea what to do from here other than to reach out to you all for help!

Here are the background specs of my computer, in case they're needed:
MacBook Pro
Running Mac OS X version 10.7.5
No updates on Software Update pending
 

chscag

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Very well worded first post. I wish all our first posts were done as well. And Welcome to the Mac Forums.

Things I would try:

If possible, swap cables and adapter for the FW drive. Not likely, but maybe the adapter went south.

As for the Seagate drive, run a verify and repair from Disk Utility to see what it says.

If you have access to another Mac, try both drives with it to see if they mount. You can even use a PC but of course don't allow Windows to format either drive!
 
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Chscag,

Suddenly my cavalry is working so that solves that - I think good ol' Cavalry knew he was being talked about. However the Seagate is still not reading. As I said, while Seagate appears in Disk Utility, none of the action buttons (Verify Disk Permissions, Repair Disk Permissions, Verify Disk, or Repair Disk) are live. I cannot run any of those functions.
 

chscag

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It sounds like the Seagate drive may be corrupt which is why the options are grayed out in Disk Utility. If you have critical data on the drive that you need, you might try Disk Warrior 4 to see if it can revive it. It's an expensive solution though, $99. I'm not sure if they offer a trial version. However, if you can afford to lose what's on the Seagate, I would write the drive off and replace it. And make backups of the Calvary drive just in case it decides to go off line again.
 

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