My external hard drive icon does not appear on my desktop. I am running mac os 10.5. I used disk utility. The icon appears, but my only option is to erase the disk along with the data on it. How do I recover the data and repair the disk? The external hard drive is a western digital my book 250gb.

sounds like your hard drive has come unplugged, you will have to remove the battery and possibly the "L" shaped metal strip then you can push the hard drive back in

The Hitachi XL3000 is formatted for the PC, but your Mac should recognize it. Try another cable or port. Check in Disk Utility to see if the drive appears. If it does, then you can format it for the Mac. You can do this in Disk Utility by clicking on the hard drive on the left side of the window. Then choose the Partition Tab, and change the Volume Scheme drop-down menu to 1 Partition. Then click on the Option button, choose GUID partition map, and click OK. Then choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the format and click Apply and OK. Your drive should then format for Mac and mount on the desktop. If it does not appear in Disk Utility after changing the cable and port, or trying another computer, then you may need to return it for replacement. I hope this helps.

1 . Open the system drive, usually titled "Macintosh HD." Open Applications, then Utilities and double click the "Disk Utility" program to open it. A window will open giving a list of all the drives currently mounted on the computer.

2. Select the disk that needs to be formatted on the left. It is not possible to format the startup disk unless the system has booted from the Install Disk. It is important to note that formatting the startup disk will permanently erase the data stored on the disk. If you are planning on erasing the startup disk, back up all important files and applications.

3. Click on the "Erase" tab to the right of the list of drives. The window will now display the options for erasing the hard drive and formatting it to work on the Macintosh computer.

4. Select the Volume Format from the pop-up list. In most cases it's best to leave it at "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as this is the default. This setting is the best option for running Mac OS X. If there are other requirements for the disk, then select the format that best suits your needs.

5. Name the hard drive. Type a name for the disk in the field where it asks for the name. This name will always appear when the disk is mounted on a Macintosh computer.

6. Click the erase button. A window will open asking to verify the erase procedure. Click the erase button in this window to start the process of erasing the disk. Once the process is complete, the drive will appear with the name it was given on the left side of the window with the list of drives and on the desktop of the Macintosh computer.

With regards to the blank screen, this usually indicates an issue with the hard drive being faulty (hardware) or the OS might have corrupt system files (software).
These are the items you will need before we begin:
A. Mac desktop/laptop B. Mac OSX Installation DVD
A. Software Related
1. Power on the Mac computer/laptop and immediately press and hold the option key. 2. After about 15 seconds of holding the option key, release it and insert the Mac OSX DVD. 3. The DVD should load and display on-screen (along with any additional drives available on the system). 4. If the hard drive icon appears, then click on it. (if the hard drive boots the OS, then the issue is software related. Skip down to Section B, step #1). 5. If the hard drive did not appear, then the system does not recognize it. However, the DVD icon should have appeared, click on it. 6. The DVD will boot and begin the installation process. 7. Follow the installation prompts. 8. Once completed, the desktop/laptop will reboot and after logging in, will execute the registration process. 9. Complete the registration exercise and access the desktop. 10. Perform a software update and download all system and application updates to their latest versions.

B. Hardware Related
1. Power on the Mac computer/laptop and immediately press and hold the option key. 2. After about 15 seconds of holding the option key, release it and insert the Mac OSX DVD. 3. The DVD should load and display on-screen (along with any additional drives available on the system). 4. If the hard drive icon appears, then click on it. (if the hard drive boots the OS, then the issue is software related. Restart the computer and skip up to Section A, step #1). 5. If the hard drive did not appear, then the system does not recognize it. However, the DVD icon should have appeared, click on it. 6. The DVD will boot and begin the installation process. 7. Close the installation application and select "Disk Utility" from the "Utilities" menu option. 8. When Disk Utility loads, look to the left-hand pane and locate your hard drive (if detected). If so, click on it and format the hard drive then reboot and skip up to Section A, step #1. If the hard drive is not detected, then the hard drive has malfunctioned and needs to be replaced.
Hard drive's cost from $40-100 for sizes ranging from 40GB to 1TB. Once the hard drive has been replaced, you can install OSX from the installation DVD.

Since I don't know what Mac you're talking about, nor what version of the OS, I will speak generically.

What your friend did was probably formatted the disk as an NTFS disk. No, you won't be able to see it or access it.
You need to go to Disk Utility, which came with your operating system, and run that. When the utility scans your computer and turns up the drives that are connected, it should show the drive in question (assuming that you have it connected and turned on at the time of the scan).
What you're going to have to do is repartition the drive. When your drive shows up in Disk Utility, it will appear in the left part of the window that displays all the disks and volumes mounted. For the purposes of this discussion, I will define my terms. Volume means the physical hardware, Drive means the partitioned and formatted disk.
If you look at the Disk utility window, on the left are all the volumes and disks displayed. Those are what your computer sees when it scans for drives. For example, on my computer I have 2 drives connected to it. Each drive has a drive name, and a volume name. Mine are: 465.8GB WDC5000 (which is my internal HD/hardware/VOLUME) 500 gb HD (which is the name of the DISK as it appears on my desktop)
1.4 TB Seagate (Hardware/VOLUME) Freeagent Xtreme 1.5 TB HD (which is the DISK name as it appears on my desktop)
Now, you'll want to click on the VOLUME/HARDWARE icon in the left side of the Disk Utility window. When you do this, and you've clicked on the correct icon, you'll notice that it changes the menu on the right side of the Disk Utility window. So you'll know you've clicked on the correct icon, the menu should show five options. First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID, Restore
Having selected the VOLUME in question, you'll want to click on PARTITION. That will take you to another screen that says VOLUME SCHEME
Assuming that you're only going to be running Mac OS X on this drive, I will tell you to create only (1) one partition. To the right of VOLUME SCHEME you'll see VOLUME INFORMATION. Put in the appropriate information. Select the correct format you want. If you're going to only use this drive on a Mac, then select MAC OS EXTENDED (JOURNALED) and click the APPLY button at the bottom right of the screen. This will repartition your drive and do a low level format. I am assuming that you have no data on this drive, thus there is no need to back up the data.
Once that completes, you'll want to select the disk icon from the left side of the Disk Utility window. The menu on the right will change. It will only display four options. They are: First Aid, Erase, RAID, Restore.
You'll want to click on ERASE In the next window, it should say: Volume Format: Name: Select MAC OS (journaled) for volume format. For Name: put whatever you like Now click on the ERASE button on the right part of the screen.
Once this completes, you should be good to go!
If you're still having problems, you can e-mail me [email protected] and I will try to help you out.
Best regards, -Ric Carvalho

Here's two suggestions. (If your using Mac OS X 10.x)
Make sure external hard drives are to be shown by clicking "Finder" in the menu bar then "Preferences" and under the "Sidebar" section selecting "External Disks".
Also check that the hard drive is mounting by opening "Disk Utility" by first opening the "Applications" folder then the "Utilities" folder and double clicking "Disk Utility" and in the left sidebar checking to see if your external hard drive is listed as one of the mounted drives. Hope this helps, don't forget to comment/vote if this helped. Thank you.

You can tell if your hard drive for your Macbook Pro has really crashed, if you attempt to run these 3 diagnose and repair procedures and there is no response from the hard drive:

1st Procedure:

font.f1 {font: 12.0px Helvetica} font.f2 {font: 14.0px Myriad Pro} - USING FSCK COMMAND TO VERIFY AND REPAIR DISK-
Start up your computer in Single-User Mode to reach the command line by doing this:
•Make sure your Mac is shutdown.
• Reboot your Mac
• When Mac starts up, press the Apple Command key+ S Key
- A black screen, with white text appears
• At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
• Press Return.
--fsck will run through a series of tests and will return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. When completed, it will display this message if no issue is found:

The volume (name_of_your_Mac_volume) appears to be OK

If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message: --FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED--

Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed at the beginning, until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).

• When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.
• This last command after completing the fsck process, is going to attempt to boot your Mac to the main desktop.

If unable to reach your Desktop with the fsck procedure, go to the next step.
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Procedure # 2
font.f1 {font: 13.0px Myriad Pro}
-RUN DISK UTILITY WITH STARTUP DISK-

Insert your Mac OS X Startup disk
•Reboot your Mac
•At the Apple Chime, press the C key and hold it until you see a White screen, gray Apple and eventually a Spinning gear.
• Release the C key only after you see the Spinning gear.
•Mac will boot from the startup disk to the Installer environment
• From the Installer Menu bar, click Utilities > Disk Utility and open up Disk Utility application.
• Click on on the hard drive at the top of the window in the left sidebar and
• Select "Repair Disk"
**Let Disk Utilities run this repair the disk until completion
• At the end of this process, reboot your Mac

* If you have still not gotten a successful boot to your main desktop, try this final step.
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Procedure # 3
My recommendation for this issue, is that you use the Archive and Install procedure to resolve this issue.

What this process consists of (using your Mac OS X install disc),is removing the damaged or corrupted Mac OS X directory and replacing it with a brand new directory.

This procedure also allows you to save your applications, files and folders without the old directory interferring with you then accessing those files.

-ARCHIVE AND INSTALL-

• Start up from your Mac OS X Install Disc 1 or Install DVD. Please remember to use the install disc that matches the current operating system your system haves.

Usually, you can start from the disc by putting it in your computer, restarting, and holding the C key.
• Hold the C key until you see a White screen, with a Gray Apple icon and eventually a Spinning gear.
• Release the C key only after you see the Spinning gear.

-Your mac will now boot from the disc and load into the Installer environment.

• Select your language. The Welcome to the Mac OS X Installer window appears.
• Click Continue. The Important Information window appears.
• Follow the prompts until you get to the licensing agreement screen
• An agreement sheet appears. If you agree with
the license agreement, click Agree. Then Select a
Destination window appears.
• Click the volume that you wish to install to (your primary hard drive).
• Click Options. The installation options sheet appears.
• Select Archive and Install.
• Select the volume which already has Mac OS X installed.
• You should also select Preserve Users and Network Settings, to preserve network and Home directory settings.

• Click OK.
• Click Continue to begin the installation.
• Once the Archive and Install is completed, when you reach your desktop be sure to run all Software updates to bring your new Mac OS X directory back
up to current.

Also, if you look inside your Macintosh HD icon on your Desktop, look for a folder entitled "Previous System Folder" which will have all of your previous Home folder files prior to the Archive and Install.

Here is the link (below) from Apple for more information about how to locate the Previous System Folder

How to locate Previous System Folder (after Archive and Install)
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If there is still no responsiveness of the hard drive after this last procedure, your best option would be to take your Macbook Pro in for repair or replacement of the hard drive, to your local Apple retail store Genius bar or local Apple authorized service center.

Best Regards,

-Mactechtrainer

Is the FW drive have been formatted? You may need to run the Disk Utility on your Mac to use the external drive. Make sure you choose FAT 32 as the format option if you want to use the drive in both Mac and Windows machines.

hey anna dont worry , you need to mac it because right now its for pc to do that go to the utility folder
which is in applications, the run disk utility

whislt the external drive is hooked up.
in the disk utility click on the drive, and earse using "mac extended"
once finished, plug it out and in again and it should work