External drive won't connect - Imac2
 

Just had to replace the power/transformer cable for the IcyBox external drive as the original one packed in. (3 months old !)
Box has the old drive from the G4 that died on us and is linked to the new duo core Imac2 (think it's something like that).
But now the desktop icon to show it is there has disappeared ! Previously it just came up as an icon under the Hardrive icon. Cables all OK. So where do I look to find it ? Will ask the dealer helpline tomorrow but thought I would ask here first to see if anyone can help.

Cheers

JBL

first thing is to try Disk Utility - I've had this "kickstart" a drive.....

Also is it firewire or USB? If FW, you could try it in target mode on a mac.... again, kickstarting a boot up.

Just a thought...

Dan :)

I agree with Dan, DU is a good place to start. Here's what I'd do:

1) Power down the drive
2) Ensure it's plugged in
3) Launch Disk Utility (it's in /Applications/Utilities/)
4) Power on the drive and see if Disk Utility displays the drive and/or paritions. If it does I'd select the partitions on the disk and use the "Verify Disk" option, see if any errors are picked up, if they are, use the Repair option to repair them.

Thanks.
Ran Disk utility and verify hd, all OK
I waited until DU had finished before switching on the external drive, and nothing showed in the menu window on the left, just the MacHD details. Did you mean to switch it on whilst DU was actually running a verify check ?

Cheers

JBL

Sorry, I should have been more clear, the verify check was meant to be on the partitions on the external, if it showed up that is, in Disk Utility.

Sounds like it isn't showing up in DU, which isn't good. However, I've had it happen with my external drive. What I'd try next is to power down the iMac, switch the port on the iMac that the external is plugged into, then power the iMac back on, once it's up and running, turn on the external disk and see if it comes up.

Thanks again.
No success though, tried that and still no recognition of the external drive by the iMac.

Cheers

JBL

I don't suppose you have another working Mac do you, or access to one? If so, plug it into the other machine and see if it comes up. I've also had a problem with one of my drives where the iMac won't mount it, no matter what I do. However, I plug it into the iBook and it'll mount, at which point I run Disk Utility on it and it doesn't find any problems with it. I unmount it, power it off, plug it back into the iMac and power it on and it comes up without issue.

You could also try the same thing on a PC, however, if the drive is HFS+ formatted a PC probably won't "see" it, but it might give it enough of a kick that when you plug it back into the Mac it will see and mount it.

I've never looked at the system or console logs at this point to see if there are any errors there, and I really should do. You may want to fire up the Console application and then view the system and console logs, click the "clear display" button, then power on the drive, wait a minute or two and see if any errors/messages are posted to the logs, if there are, export the logs/screenshot them and post them up and we'll see if there is anything meaningful in them.

FWIW, I've also had instances where a "dodgy" drive has "stepped into the light" by plugging it into a PC...... XP etc. You'd (hopefully) hear the chimes. The eject the drive normally and re connect to the Mac......

Sometimes comes up....

HTH :)

Dan

Cheers for the hints, saved for the future .

It works now.

'phoned the Apple dealer tech help and the first check was the Disk Utility look, as suggested last night, still nothing. Obviously, as known, computer is not getting a signal from the box.
Told to remove the drive from the icybox and just press all the wires/connections/plugs etc to confirm a good connection and refix and plug in again. I did this and also found a different USB lead to try. Switched on and all is OK. Put the old USB lead on and..nothing ! So could have been the lead that for some unknown reason failed and possibly a connection in the box. Never known a lead to fail before but 'first time...and all that !'

Again, thanks for the help.

Cheers

JBL