# External Hard Drive



## nadergt (Jul 22, 2012)

I'm very new to mac , I have iMac , OS X 10.7.5 . I disconnected my 1TB External Hard Drive (EHD) few times without going to File & Eject & Now my mac is not Reading my (EHD) & can't see it in Finder under DEVICES either .
I tried Formatting the (EHD) in my Laptop which runs on windows7 & tried connecting it back to my mac , But unfortunately it still won't work or show in Finder under DEVICES .

How can I get my (EHD) working in my mac again ?


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## bravo3Sgt (Oct 23, 2012)

What file system do you have on that EHD? Is it NTFS or FAT32?


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## nadergt (Jul 22, 2012)

I formated the (EHD) So there are no files on it , it's empty .


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

nadergt said:


> I formated the (EHD) So there are no files on it , it's empty .


Filesystem is the partitioning format/structure used by the partition, not whether files are on the drive or not.

If you start /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility, does the drive appear there?

Start /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and type

```
diskutil list
```
Can you post the output here?
(This is with drive attached)


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## nadergt (Jul 22, 2012)

Sorry like I said I'm very new to mac . Yes the drive appears in Disk Utility & in the Partition says ( File System NTFS ) . I've opened the Utility/Console ( All Messages ) page opens but I can't type diskutil list like you said or anything else in the main page , How or where in the page do I do that , because when I click on the All Messages Main page nothing happens , in it's Search bar it says ( String Matching ) Do I type diskutil list in it's search Bar or some where else ?


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

I accidentally wrote the wrong application. (Meant Terminal, not Console)

It's seen in Disk Utility so you don't have to do that command anyways.

So, if you open a Finder window, the drive isn't listed on the left sidebar under Devices?

If not, make sure Finder is front most app, select *Preferences* under the Finder menu in the menubar.

Under the *General* tab, you can select that you want external HDs to appear on the Desktop.
Under the *Sidebar* tab, you can select that you want external HDs to appear in the Sidebar in Finder windows.


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## nadergt (Jul 22, 2012)

Thanks a lot for your help Headrush , It's now showing under Devices , But I just noticed I can copy files from EHD to my Mac But not the other way round , so I can't copy anything to the EHD from my mac like I used to before & another think when I Right Click on EHD I don't see *Move to Trash* in the R/C menu either , so I can't delete any files on EHD either . Any suggestion ?


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

Most likely your HD was formatted in FAT32 format before.
OS X has read and write drivers for FAT32.

OS X only has native read support enabled for NTFS formatted HDs, which your drive is this time.
(So anything that involves writing like empty trash will be disabled)

To get write support you need a 3rd party product like:
http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/features.html

There is a free open source approach, but it involves patching to work on newer OS X versions and might be too much for you, (not tested myself)

Or reformatted in FAT32 or exFAT (OS X can write to both)


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## nadergt (Jul 22, 2012)

*Tuxera did the job , Thank you very much for all your help mate .

God Bless*


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## Apple911ca (Oct 26, 2012)

Unless you want to, or need to use the drive with both computers you are better to repartition/format the drive as Mac journal format that way you can use time machine to back up your Mac automatically.


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## nadergt (Jul 22, 2012)

how do I do that ?


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## Apple911ca (Oct 26, 2012)

Click search glass in top right of Mac, type disk utility and load program. 
Select external hard drive from list on left, then partition tab, where it says current change that to 1 partition. (This does erase the drive FYI) select Mac OS X journaled format, click apply/partition. 

When it's done time machine should recognize new drive and pop up asking if you want to backup to that drive - click yes, it does all the rest.


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## nadergt (Jul 22, 2012)

Thank You for the info & your time mate .
God Bless


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