2012 Macbook Pro with retina display won't recognize my External Hard drive.

[Mick350]

I have 2 Macbook Pro's, a 2009 and this brand new one I got today. My external hard drive is a 1 TB click free. It has worked for months on my old Mac but when I plug it into my new mac it doesn't even show up in finder or disk utility. I tried the USB ports with another device and they work fine. So it isn't a hard ware issue.
Can someone offer me help onto how I can get my Mac to recognize it?

 

[SoulRed12]

It might be formatted for Windows only, i.e. NTFS. Either connect it to a Windows computer and reformat it as FAT32 (and then connect it to your mac and reformat it again as HFS+ Journaled) or download an app for your mac to let it recognize the external drive. Like this one (don't know if it will actually work, it's just what a quick google search turned up)

EDIT: Just saw you said it works with your other Macs. Could they already have software like the above installed?

 

[ycl1688]

did you run software update on your new mbp ? the goal is to keep the software as current as possible.

 

[Mick350]

I did update my mbp as soon as I booted it up. It is fully up to date. I tried calling apple tech support and they don't know what the problem is either because it isn't a hardware issue.
I am trying to find a firmware upgrade for it but I am starting to think the only way this will work is if I reformat the external hard drive.

 

[ycl1688]

maybe take it to a apple store and show them the problem. bring your external drive along though.

 

[dtravis7]

A quick question. The new Macbook is all USB 3.0. What drive do you have, brand and Model? I know USB 3 is all supposed to be backward compatible, but who knows! If I have the info on your drive will see what I can find.

 

[Mick350]

Yeah I am thinking I will take it in to them later this week, I feel like they will say the same thing; that I should reformat it and try again.
The External hard drive is a clickfree model # HD2037N3

 

[dtravis7]

OSX out of the box reads NTFS perfectly. It just won't write to NTFS without either a hack or after market apps.

 

[chscag]

I believe Dennis is correct. Some USB 2.0 drives are simply not compatible with USB 3 regardless of the "backward" compatibility as stated. The problem is the speed of the USB 3.0 port being many times faster than USB 2.0 (and even firewire).

 

[Ramimac1]

according to the model number provided the drive is USB 3.0

Clickfree C2N 2 Terabytes (2TB) SuperSpeed USB 3.0 3.5" Clickfree HD2037N3 Clickfree C2N

 

[macmacattack]

according to the model number provided the drive is USB 3.0

Clickfree C2N 2 Terabytes (2TB) SuperSpeed USB 3.0 3.5" Clickfree HD2037N3 Clickfree C2N

So uhh, is it plugged in?

 

[Mick350]

Yes it is plugged in, I have both macs beside each other, I can eject it from my old mac and go to put it in this one and I get no response at all from it. I even tried to send the "Clickfree" application to the new mac via air drop and it still doesn't recognize it.

 

[Mick350]

Also, I asked on another site and got this reply:
"I am having the EXACT same problem and I can't seem to find an answer to this. I'm using a 1tb external and it works fine on all my other computers but I can't get it to work with my new macbook pro with retina display. I'm really hoping someone can figure this out."

 

[chscag]

Are you sure the particular model he has is USB 3.0? Note he has the 1 TB model not the 2 TB or 3 TB which are in fact USB 3.0. The web site also states that the C2N is USB 2.0 only.

 

[Mick350]

I am 100% positive, it says "USB 3.0" right on the cable

 

[Mick350]

Update:
I tried reformatting it and still nothing.

 

[Mick350]

sorry it is a 2 TB, I didn't notice I put 1 until now.

 

[Cryder21]

Hey Mick,
I am having the same problem on my girlfriend's new Macbook Air with USB 3.0. Brand new Seagate GoFlex Desk with USB 3.0 is recognized immediately by my 6 month old Macbook Pro (USB 2.0) but not recognized my the Air. Tried both ports, restarted both the computer and the drive and nothing, not showing up in disk utility either. Reformatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and didn't change a thing. I must add that other USB 2.0 drives and thumb drives work great but I don't have access at the time to another USB 3.0 drive. Wondering now if something is special about Apple's new USB 3.0. Doubt it, but seems like there is a firmware issue. An issue that I thought would be resolved with the firmware update that was available when the new line was first released 2 weeks ago. Best of luck to you, I'll stay on the hunt.

 

[BoBoDuck]

Same here

Hi.
I have the same problem.
GoFlex Desk USB 3 formatted with Mac Os ext journaling.
Recognized by USB 2 snow leopard iMac but intermittently recognized and intermittently mounted by lion MBA 2012 using USB 3.
No error in console for enumeration.
If it mounts, it is recognized as USB 3 device and the speed is incredible.

I would appreciate any advice.

 

[maka]

Same again

Hi.
Same problem.
GoFlex Desk USB 3 formatted with Mac OS ext journaling.
Recognized by 13" & 15" USB 2 MacBookPro's running Lion but only one of 15 attempts to mount on 2012 MBA USB3 successful.
Other USB 3 drives - WD My Passport 500GB & Verbatim 500GB, WD My Book Essential 2TB mount with no problems on the MBA USB3.
Also tried 3 different USB3 cables. No difference.
This appears to be a specific problem with Seagate USB3 drives and is probably not an Apple problem.