Mac shows Time Maching but not External HD
March 31, 2013 11:16 AM   Subscribe

Reinstalled Snow Leopard but ejected my external drive before this. Then, when done, plugged back in via USB as my usual custom....and Time Machine still shows up, but the External Seagate drive does not. I made sure that in Finder/Preferences that the external disc box as others was checked. I tried a different cord, and different port. I opened up Disc Utility and the External HD's partioned Time Machine is available but the other part, now renamed something else (a default name from manufacturer?) is greyed out and I cannot touch it. Any thoughts? Should i now go to the boot disc of Snow Leopard? Not sure why TM shows but the rest does not.
posted by chicaboom to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)
 
Let's clear up some ambiguity in your question. Are you referring to a single external hard drive that you have partitioned into a Time Machine, as well as normal disk storage? And that only the Time Machine appears to be working?

If that's the case, and you went to Disk Utility and the "normal" part of drive is listed but greyed out, then I think you're in luck. Just click on the greyed out drive once, and click the "Mount" icon up top. That should mount your drive on to your desktop, and the name you assigned that partition will pop up in Disk Utility as well. Usually a fucked up drive won't show up in DU at all.
posted by phaedon at 12:37 PM on March 31, 2013


Can you plug in the external HD, open up "Terminal" from your utilities folder, type "diskutil list", and paste the output here?
posted by vasi at 2:18 PM on March 31, 2013


Response by poster: @phaedon -- tried that before but will not mount. It also had been partitioned so that it was accessible via Mac or Windows (and was a few times). BTW, it is now called disk2s2. My windows laptop won't recoginze it though my PC at work did before it went wonky.

@vasi:
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *250.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 249.7 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_partition_scheme *8.1 GB disk1
1: Apple_partition_map 30.7 KB disk1s1
2: Apple_Driver_ATAPI 827.5 MB disk1s2
3: Apple_HFS Mac OS X Install DVD 7.3 GB disk1s3
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2
1: Apple_HFS Time Machine 280.1 GB disk2s1
2: Windows_NTFS 720.1 GB disk2s2
posted by chicaboom at 3:50 PM on March 31, 2013


Best answer: Hmm, it looks like the second partition is NTFS formatted—that's Windows' file system. OS X should be able to mount NTFS volumes, but I think it has difficulty if they weren't cleanly unmounted, like if you yanked the plug.

Do you have Windows available? (Even in Parallels or VMWare would be ok.) Try attaching the drive to a Windows computer, and then checking for filesystem errors in Windows. You can leave bad-sector checking off, but be sure to repair any errors found. After Windows has checked the disk, it should work ok in OS X.

PS: Is it supposed to be an NTFS partition? I hope you didn't accidentally wipe a Mac partition!
posted by vasi at 4:29 PM on March 31, 2013


Response by poster: Thanks Vasi, I will try that...I plugged it in recently to my windows xp laptop and it wanted to format the disk but I guess that is not what you are saying. I will reconnect it to the laptop and follow those instructions...have to out for a bit but will update you later. Thanks for your input. I have been down several rabbit holes on mac forums and other sites.
posted by chicaboom at 4:51 PM on March 31, 2013


Response by poster: @vasi - well it can't do that on the window xp laptop as it want/asks for the disk to be formattted. If I say yes, will it pretty much wipe it?
posted by chicaboom at 7:05 PM on March 31, 2013


Best answer: Yes, formatting the disk will wipe it. Most versions of XP don't understand the "GPT" partitioning scheme that Apple prefers. Can you try Windows Vista or 7?
posted by vasi at 7:29 PM on March 31, 2013


Response by poster: I will take it to work tomorrow and try it. I have maybe spent 12 hours or so and am not sure if it is hardware issue with Seagate (saw some bad reviews of the drive failing after a few months...and mine is a few months old, enslosure (not exactly sure what that means)...Very crummy. I will drop you an update tomorrow if it even can work on my windows pc to check for errors. I suspect I need to find Disc Warrior or say "bloody hell" and buy another HD.
posted by chicaboom at 8:11 PM on March 31, 2013


Response by poster: plus learn how to type...Time "Machine" right as well as 'enclosure'....sigh...
posted by chicaboom at 8:40 PM on March 31, 2013


Disk Warrior won't do anything useful for an NTFS partition, sorry. Let us know how it goes, and good luck!
posted by vasi at 9:13 PM on March 31, 2013


Response by poster: @vasl - HEY, IT WORKED! I lugged my computer in, too and a system update on a solid wifi may have fixed my wifi bounce. The external was repairable on a Windows 7 machine and is now working on my mac with all things seeming normal. I may exchange the external for another brank.... after I copy what I need off. It was a little wonky to start.
posted by chicaboom at 3:54 PM on April 1, 2013


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