External HD not found on new Mac

[DjGeemix]

I have purchased a new Mac book Pro ir7 .
So it's updated to the latest iOS but my old Mac book is el capo as it worked and was solid I never bothered or needed to update it!
So i have all my music backed up on a 2tb external drive (self powered). Plug it into my old Mac book and if finds it straight away but I plug it into my new Mac and it don't find it. But memory stick no worries works on both.
I've been through a lot.of the online help already and made sure external search option is.on.
The drive is starting up when connected.
Could it be the file system ?
Could it be the size of the drive ?
Also if it's the file system is there an app that I could download?
Any ideas would be really appreciated becuase my only other option is using my memory stick and the would take for ever to put what I need across!!!

 

[ferrarr]

What have you tried?

How much time have you allowed for this to happen?

Restart the new MBP with the drive disconnected. If that doesn’t work, then restart the new MBP with the drive connected.


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[IWT]

A warm welcome to Mac-Forums, DjGeemix. Thanks for joining us.

I'm afraid I have a few questions for you as well.

The 2TB External Hard Drive (EHD) contains your music. Fine. May I ask in what form? By that I mean, is it a backup of your iTunes Library? Or is it in mp3 or similar format? This could matter because if you copied over your iTunes Library from a Mac running El Capitan it might not be compatible with the much more recent version of iTunes found in the new Mac (Mojave).

Also, when you connect the EHD, you say the drive starts up by which I assume you mean that you can feel or hear it spinning? Q. Does the EHD show up in Finder/Desktop/Disk Utility?

In other words, is the problem that the new Mac does not recognise the EHD or is it that it does recognise it, but you can't access the content?

The File System on El Capitan is OS X Extended (Journaled) and the 2TB EHD would be the same, I assume. That should be readable on your new Mac even though its File System is APFS. So there shouldn't be a File System problem.

I know these questions are tiresome, but relevant, particularly as we don't know your set up. I promise we will do our best to assist.

Ian

 

[DjGeemix]

A warm welcome to Mac-Forums, DjGeemix. Thanks for joining us.

I'm afraid I have a few questions for you as well.

The 2TB External Hard Drive (EHD) contains your music. Fine. May I ask in what form? By that I mean, is it a backup of your iTunes Library? Or is it in mp3 or similar format? This could matter because if you copied over your iTunes Library from a Mac running El Capitan it might not be compatible with the much more recent version of iTunes found in the new Mac (Mojave).

Also, when you connect the EHD, you say the drive starts up by which I assume you mean that you can feel or hear it spinning? Q. Does the EHD show up in Finder/Desktop/Disk Utility?

In other words, is the problem that the new Mac does not recognise the EHD or is it that it does recognise it, but you can't access the content?

The File System on El Capitan is OS X Extended (Journaled) and the 2TB EHD would be the same, I assume. That should be readable on your new Mac even though its File System is APFS. So there shouldn't be a File System problem.

I know these questions are tiresome, but relevant, particularly as we don't know your set up. I promise we will do our best to assist.

Ian

Thanks Ian for responding.

The drive contains folders with Mp3s and wavs.
The drive starts up and light on.
I've left it plugged in for 5 mins
The drive does not show up.anywhere
The drive was formatted on the machine running el capo.
A friend has suggested running time machine and back rolling the OS.
I've never done this and wonder how difficult it can be?
I hope this answers your questions and all help is much appreciated.

 

[ferrarr]

I don’t think you can roll back the new Mac.

One thing I forgot to mention, does the drive show up in Disk Utility?

You can look in Finder > Preferences, and make sure it is set up to display external drives on Desktop and in the Sidebar.


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[DjGeemix]

No it does not show up anywhere. And the preferences are set up to external
I think I did mention that my usb stick shows up on both macs. And I can read and write to it on both machines.
That sucks if you can't roll back ?

 

[MacInWin]

You can roll back, but it's pretty painful to do. The upgrade to Mojave changed the format of the internal drive, so you would have to boot from some external source, repartition and format the internal drive back to the El Cap format, then do a restore from TimeMachine, or whatever backup you may have.

But I don't think you need to do that.

Could it be the cable from the drive to the Mac? The port works, we know, as the USB Stick works. The drive isn't showing anywhere, but it's reacting to the Mac by spinning up, so something is getting through, but maybe not all it needs. Could be a duff cable?

 

[ferrarr]

You can roll back, but it's pretty painful to do. The upgrade to Mojave changed the format of the internal drive, so you would have to boot from some external source, repartition and format the internal drive back to the El Cap format, then do a restore from TimeMachine, or whatever backup you may have.

But I don't think you need to do that.

Could it be the cable from the drive to the Mac? The port works, we know, as the USB Stick works. The drive isn't showing anywhere, but it's reacting to the Mac by spinning up, so something is getting through, but maybe not all it needs. Could be a duff cable?

I thought the OP has a new MBP? If so, it won’t roll back to El Capitan.


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[MacInWin]

I didn't take it as new, but new to him. If it is a new machine, it cannot run El Cap, as you said. But you can roll back to a naked drive with any of the recovery boots. You can start here and follow the links: About macOS Recovery - Apple Support

 

[Rod]

I think you will find you can take it back if you erase it.
I had to do the same thing a couple of months ago Mojave to Sierra. If the OP makes a DiskmakerX copy of El Capitan as a bootable installer first on a USB thumb drive.
The copy of the El Capitan installer should be downloadable from his App Store purchases page.
DiskmakerX is free so no cost involved but it seems a shame to downgrade for what should be a fixable problem.

 

[Rod]

DjGeemix, can you just check what format the EHD is? Is it Macintosh Extended Journalled and HFS+?

Also go to Finder Menu > Finder Preferences > Sidebar > External HD's and make sure its ticked.

 

[kathmat]

Issues with Mac not recognising external drive

I have purchased a new Mac book Pro ir7 .
So it's updated to the latest iOS but my old Mac book is el capo as it worked and was solid I never bothered or needed to update it!
So i have all my music backed up on a 2tb external drive (self powered). Plug it into my old Mac book and if finds it straight away but I plug it into my new Mac and it don't find it. But memory stick no worries works on both.
I've been through a lot.of the online help already and made sure external search option is.on.
The drive is starting up when connected.
Could it be the file system ?
Could it be the size of the drive ?
Also if it's the file system is there an app that I could download?
Any ideas would be really appreciated becuase my only other option is using my memory stick and the would take for ever to put what I need across!!!

I completely feel your pain - especially today. Having a nervous, and have an appoinment to take my iMac in to Apple store tomorrow, as it has been freezing a lot recently. (Research suggests not enough storage space.) Now... it is not recognising my external drive. You can't win, as my Mac has 1T of space, (4 years old) almost all used, and my Passport for Mac which is 2T is also almost full. I have 50G on the cloud, which is a joke, and even if I paid $9.99 a month, the most I can get there is 1T. I have images that are as large at 2GB (I work in the area of Special Events) so it's ridiculous. I found some software to recover the files on the Passport iBoysoftdata recovery as the Passport looks as though it might be corrupted, but nowhere to save them! YIKES!!! Lord please don't let anyone call me today asking for an archived file.