Can't get external hard drive recognized

[rsherid]

I've had a 1TB external drive working wonderfully as a Time Machine backup for the last month. It had been unplugged for the last couple days, but I plugged it in today to do a back-up. Unfortunately, it wasn't recognized. It stills lights up and makes noises, but no matter which USB port I put I use or how many times I restart, my MacBook won't recognize it.

 

[rsherid]

Nevermind, it was just recognized after 20 minutes of nothing. Is this bad?

 

[chscag]

It should have taken no more than around 20 seconds for that drive to be recognized. Keep your eye on it very closely as that might indicate the drive is about to fail. You didn't mention the make of the drive, but it might be a good idea to do some on line searches to see there have been reported problems with particular model.

Regards.

 

[harryb2448]

And when connected run Disk Utility Verify Disk over it and see what is reported. It may well be on the way out. Alas even drives fresh out of the box fail at times.