No My Book Icon

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I returned from a week's vacation and turned my computer on but the My Book icon did not appear. Everything is plugged in. The My Book light is on (right now going up and down) so I assume My Book is working but no icon.

Does this indicate something is wrong?

Thanks as usual for any help you can offer.

Bob
 

vansmith

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Not necessarily. I've got a MyBook and it's a touch flaky when it comes to showing up in Finder. That said, it doesn't mean that it's not working. A simple way to know is to either reboot the MyBook or connect to it manually. If you choose the latter option, open a Finder window and go to Go > "Connect to Server..." Once that's open, enter the following:
Code:
smb://<ip addr>
Replace <ip addr> with the IP address of the MyBook.
 

pigoo3

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I don't know if you have this setting already checked...but go to:

- Finder/Desktop
- Finder drop down menu
- Preferences
- General tab
- select all boxes you desire (specifically the "external disks" box)

HTH,

- Nick
 
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Thanks - the external disks box is checked.
When I opened Time Machine I get a window that says my Time Machine Back Up Disk can't be found but when I click set up time machine it tells me the latest back up was one week ago (when I turned the computer off) and that my next one will be when the disk is connected. In the time machine window when I choose Select Disk it gives me the red circle with a line through it.

A button in the window with the red circle that said Stop Backup was highlighted and I clicked on that which turned the time machine button to off. Turning it on again opened a window that asks if I want to Set Up time Capsule. Clicking on that opens the Airport Utility Window ???? And if I click cancel in that window it turns off Time Machine.

Now what?
 

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Rebooting does nothing. Why does it open Airport Utility when I click on the Setup Time Capsule button? And if I click the Cance button Time Machine turns off. Now I have no back up ...
 

chscag

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Rebooting does nothing. Why does it open Airport Utility when I click on the Setup Time Capsule button? And if I click the Cance button Time Machine turns off. Now I have no back up ...

Because that's how the Time Capsule is setup. Do you have a Time Capsule? You were referring to a My Book external hard drive not a Time Capsule.

If all you have is the external My Book WD drive, select Disk Utilities from Applications, Utilities and run a verify on the drive if it can be "seen" by Disk Utility. Let us know.
 
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I have a My Book external hard drive and Time Machine which as I understand back up data to the My Book.

When I open Disk Utility this is what I see on the left side of the window

320.07 GB Hitachi HDP825032GLA380
Macintosh HD
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-KO6A

----------------------------------------------------------
SKYPE _2-1.8.0.851.dmg
installer.dmg

There is nothing in the larger window.

Here is the exact sequence of what happens when I open Time Machine

Click on Time Machine and a window opens that says "You haven't selected a location
for Time Machine Backups
To select a location for backups, set up Time Machine
Buttons Cancel Set Up Time Machine

Click on Set Up Time Machine Button and a Time Machine window opens. The On / Off
button is OFF.

Turn button on and a blank window opens with three buttons the first two are highlighted. The same sequence below occurs if I click on the Select Backup Disk on the Time Machine Window.

Set Up Time Capsule Cancel Use for Backup

Click on Set Up Time Capsule and Airport window opens
Click on Cancel and Time Machine turns to OFF

Thanks for all your patience but I need a little hand holding on this. Do I need to go into Airport Utility to set up Tine Machine and even so, what happened to My Book? If Disk Utility doesn't see My Book, is it no longer there.
 

chscag

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Again, if you don't have a Time Capsule, you do not need to use or activate the airport utility. I realize that it can be confusing but you can ignore anything that has to do with Time Capsule.

I suspect your WD My Book external hard drive may have failed or the enclosure which it is in has failed. Disk Utility is only "seeing" your internal Macintosh HD (Hitachi 320 GB) your optical drive and a Skype image which you haven't ejected.

If your My Book is still under warranty (WD warranty is three years) you can contact Western Digital on their support web page and request a RMA. They will replace the drive with a new one. You can find out about their support and turn around on the same web page.
 

pigoo3

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I suspect your WD My Book external hard drive may have failed or the enclosure which it is in has failed.

After reviewing things in this thread...I was just about to suggest the same thing. The external HD and/or HD housing may have bit the dust.

- Nick
 
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After reviewing the entire thread I tried ferrarr's suggestion - "Shut down the computer. Unplug the My Book. Restart the computer, when you get to the desktop plug in the My Book"

This simple solution did the trick. The backup disk came back and time machine turned on and started backing up. I guess that just because its a computer doesn't mean that a problem has to have a complicated fix ...

Thank you all for your time and effort to help.
 

pigoo3

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Congrats. Much better than a dead HD!:)

- Nick
 

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