Finder icon for external drives disappear

I have several external hd attached to my imac. Today, one of them was missing from the finder and the desktop. I did unplug and replug the usb connection and it showed up.

I then went into the finder and clicked on the up arrow icon next to the drives and a USB flash card. They are no longer visible on the desktop or in finder. Short of doing the same as above, is there a way to restore the icon in Finder and on the desktop?

I suspect that I ejected the disks, and that is what the icon is for, but I do not know how to restore them. The disk utility says that they are not mounted. Sounds simple, but I cannot find a answer using google or this forum.

As you can tell I am new to the mac.

gasport said:

I then went into the finder and clicked on the up arrow icon next to the drives and a USB flash card.

Click to expand...

I hope I am not just being dense, but I don't understand what you mean when you reference an "up arrow icon" next to the drives. Could you explain please?

Clearly, do the unplug/replug game to get them back, and then perhaps explain the above. I am sure that there is a simple explanation. A little more detail will reveal it I am sure.

Would the up arrow be an alias?

MAC 57,

I was referring to the icon next to the name of the drive in Finder. I now know it is the eject button. The unplug - plug in again worked, but I was hoping there was a more elegant way of doing this in OS X, especially:Blushing: :Blushing: :Blushing: where the disk utility knows the drive is still attached.. I spent most of my life on the PC and there are still a few things that XP does better. There are certain times that a "do you really want to do this" message would be helpful. It is pretty easy to click the eject button without realizing it. In the future I will be more cautious.