# External Drive won't mount



## burgeois (Feb 7, 2009)

I have Mac OS X 10.4.11, Power Mac G5 (PowerPC). I've had an external hard drive (Maxtor one touch II) for years with no problems. Suddenly, when I boot up the computer - the drive is no longer showing itself on the desktop. I've run checks (system profiler and disk utility) and the computer is not reading it at all. I've tried different firewire (one I know is working on different external drive). The external drive is on (blue light showing) and humming. Not sure what else I should / could do but if someone has some pointers I'll try them. I did shut it all down, unplug it all, let it rest and re-booted and no luck.
PS: If you tell me to re-install the external drive, will I have to erase all info on the external drive in order to re-mount?


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

With the drive connected to the Mac, click on the Apple icon in the upper left and select About this Mac, then click the More info button. In the System Profiler window that opens, select Firewire from the list on the left. It will list all the Firewire devices it sees plugged in. If the drive is listed there, there is something wrong with the hard drive in the enclosure. If nothing is listed, the enclosure could be bad, and the hard drive in it good. You would have to get a new enclosure and put the drive in it at that point.


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## OM3GA (Jan 22, 2008)

How can you erase the external drive if your machine wont detected?? try using other Macs to see if the drive is good. Also if you can see the drive in Disk Utility you can manually Mount the drive by clicking the Mount Icon (can't miss it).


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## appatight (Sep 19, 2007)

I'm not by my Mac so this may not be 100% accurate... if the OS sees the hard drive (disk utility) then go to finder and preferences it should have the option to put it on the desktop.


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