Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side. How to replace and upgrade a macbook pro hard disk. Save space by storing your content in icloud or using builtin tools to find and remove large or unneeded files. Erasing a drive will remove all its content, so backup before performing this. Note, the photo shows the new ssd drive installed in place of. So its possible that youll see the wd my passport for mac drive not mounting in disk utility. Click the file menu, and select get info, or press comandi on your keyboard. If your mac starts up to a question mark apple support. Optimized storage in macos sierra and later can save space by storing your content in icloud and making it available on demand. I was able to download the os x on my external hard drive so i can operate the mac now. When i go to the disk utility, i only see my back up hd. If youd like to see the icons for your macs builtin hard drive, solidstate. Download 962 free hard drive icons here icon archive. Ive redone my drive icons for my internal drive on my macbook pro.
A hard disk analysis tool like disk inventory x will scan your macs hard disk and display which folders and files are using up the most space. The first thing is to boot your mac into recovery mode. Rightclick the drive youd like to give a custom icon, then click get info. Remember that this method can only be used to erase the hard disk drive which does not have the mac os installed on it. You can save even more on apples newest macbook air today. Boot from your old drive by starting your computer and pressing the option key. Restoring your mac to factory setting implies that you are ready to format hard format your macintosh hdd startup disk and remove all of its content, installed applications, widgets, and the userdefined settings so that the macbook pro is rolled back to its original state. Select the macs system disk and click the verify disk or repair disk button found on the first aid tab. Store files securely with this 4tb western digital my book hard drive. If you dont, then just click on the finder icon from your macs dock to bring it to the foreground. Congrats on the new mac, but yes, i can see how it might be a bit odd that theres no hard drive icon sitting on your desktop.
Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the finder in the lefthand column under devices, since macs treat them the same way as. Step 2 from the disk utility window, select the internal nonboot mac volume or external hard drive that you want to protect via password and click on the erase tab. Macbook pro 2009 blinking question mark mifix youtube. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we. If you find your external hard drive is ntfs format, thats what the cause is. When you see the drive listing, select the icon for your original drive. Some external hard drive manufacturers may offer icons to match the drives they sell. This formats the hard drive using the mac os extended journaled file system.
In this case the problem turned out to be the hard drive ribbon conector. How to transfer files from a mac desktop to an external. Fix a macbook that is not booting up, test to see if the hard drive is at fault or if it is the connector. Its 5 gbps data transfer rate enables fast copying of files, and its automatic backup software can be set to fit any schedule. The hard drives location within the mid2012 macbook pro is circled in red within the next photo. How to put a missing macintosh hd icon back on your mac desktop. Turn on the mac whilst holding the alt option key, see if your hard disk is recognized at all or if the system is trying to boot from the wrong volumedevice. This method uses the utilities which can be run only on the mac os. First, open a finder window that contains an application, file, folder, url, or disk icon that you use frequently. Other way, is to go into the system profiler and checking for all the details. Icns files are a handy way to store and distribute mac icons, but their one downside is that the method of copying an image from the icns file to a folder or drive is slightly different from the usual process and not as wellknown. Erase everything on macbook pro with data wiper recommend. This will bring up the information screen for your hard drive.
How to fix macintosh hd greyed out in disk utility. How to show your hard drive icon on your desktop for mac youtube. Type disk utility and click the disk utility search result to launch the application. How to diagnose a failing mac hard disk techrepublic. Startup disk in mac book pro missing apple community. Drag the mac os x install esd icon into the source field on the right. If your hard drive icon doesnt appear there, go to go computer, then click the hard drive icon under devices. How to make your drive icons show up in macos rocket yard. Heres how you can add an icon to the dock or remove a dock icon you no longer desire. In this article, i will be showing how simply you can display hard disks on the mac os x desktop. Ntfs is a file system that is optimal for windowsbased computer. How to erase everything on macbook pro hard drive befre.
When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom. There will be a list of items eligible for display on your desktop hard disks, external disks. Typically the utility should respond that the volume. To free up disk space, its helpful to know exactly what is using disk space on your mac. Install carbon copy cloner if you have not done so already, then launch the application. To cut a long story short, the startup disk is showing as missing. Check your disk to see what is taking up space and find large files.
New macs ship with a clean desktop, meaning you wont see icons for the computers main drive, external drives plugged into the usb port, or network drives and. Today, we are going to let you know how to find or check your current hard disk size and available space. Wondering if your mac has enough storage space for that massive download. Force restarting a macbook, macbook air, or macbook pro is generally considered a last resort, but if the worst happens and your machine freezes up. How to hide the macintosh hd icon from the desktop. All you have to do is connect your external drive to your mac, launch the app, click on the icon of the disk you want to format, navigate to the erase tab and click on the erase button while having mac os x extended selected as the volume format, as seen in the image below. Since yesterday my mac will boot and then shut down. Look for icons that are square, ideally 512 by 512 pixels or higher, and in apple s. Adding an application, file, or folder to the dock is as easy as 123. In this situation, you can manually mount the hard drive. How to force restart a macbook, macbook air, and macbook pro. Why cant i see my external hard drive icon on my desktop. Here is how you can do that go to the apple icon in the top left of the screen, and in the list of options, click on about this mac as. The incompatibility of the file system is the main cause of the errorexternal hard drive read only on mac.
How to check a mac s free hard drive space macworld. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. By default, mac os x does not display any icon on the desktop. Click on your desktop or the finder icon in your dock to bring the finder to the front of your screen. How to make external disks appear on desktop mac yosemites os. How to fix external drive not showing up on macbook pro. Flashing folder with question mark, fix macbook not. Sometimes, hard drives cannot be automatically mounted in disk utility, even though mac has detected the hard drive. The apple icon image format supports a wide variety of icon types ranging from tiny 16by16pixel icons to the 1024by1024 ones for retinaequipped macs. Once you have the icon you wish to use on your mac, rightclick the icon and select get info from the popup menu. Prepare the hard drive click disk utility, click continue, click the newly installed hard drive from the internal section in the left pane vmware virtual sata hard drive media for this example, click erase, give a name to the hard drive main for this example, click erase again, and click done upon completion.
Macbook pro why did duplicate icon of hard drive show up on desktop. Sunmall hdd hard drive wirsleephd cable replacement with bracket 9229771 8211226a for apple macbook pro unibody a1278 2011 year mb990lla mb991lla mc374lla mc375lla 4. How to free up storage space on your mac apple support. Then i wanted to get a fresh copy of yosemite and it is asking me to choose a disk, there is no disk to choose. How to encrypt, decrypt mac hard drive and recover files. So i went to mac os utilities and went to disk and accidentally deleted my 3tb hard drive. How to put a missing macintosh hd icon back on your mac. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition.
Apple apparently thinks that youd prefer not to see the icons for your macs. Adding and removing dock icons in mac os x dummies. Get the hard drive icon on your desktop, sd card icon desktop mac, yosemite 10. How to show the storage drive icon on your mac desktop. How to upgrade your macbook pro hard disk toms guide forum.
They say while they are trying to connect external usb hard disk with macbook pro, mac book air, imac or macmini then disk utility doesnt show up external drive icon on the desktop. I am currently using my back up hd on my macbook pro to run my computer macbook pro inch, early 2011. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Click the small icon thumbnail that is present at the top lefthand side of the get info window. I just updated os x to macos but now i cant see the hard drive, just all the files. The mac startup disk almost full message and how to fix it.
Mac how to find hard drive size on macbook pro, macbook air. How can i make the hard drive icon appear on my desktop. As your mac wont boot, all the solutions below are finished in recovery mode. Choose system preferences from the apple menu, then click startup disk. Click the icon of the disk you normally use to start up your computer. Your macbook pro comes with 90 days of complimentary technical support and a one. Get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. If your mac displays a flashing question mark for a few moments but then continues to start up, you might need to reselect your startup disk in system preferences.
If you do, you will also see another disk underneath macintosh hd called bootcamp. New macs ship with a clean desktop, meaning you wont see icons for the computers main drive, external drives plugged into the usb port, or. Fix wd my passport for mac not showing upnot working on mac. Once youre on the same page, simply follow these steps to show all your macs storage disks on the desktop. How to remove the macintosh hd icon from the desktop on mac. So for your easy convenience, i offer you potential clues to fix external hard disk missing on mac desktop. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your macs usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. How to check a macs free hard drive space macworld. I tried all the trouble shooting and seem to be unable to identify and fix the problem.
If you click the icon at the top of this window, you will see a blue highlight, indicating that the icon has been selected. Now, one way to deal with a missing macintosh hd icon is to simply select new finder window from the finders file menu at the top of the screen. Select mac os x install esd in the disk utility sidebar, and click restore. As you can see, not a single icon is displayed on the mac os x desktop. If you need to remove the hard drive with os files, you can use method 2. This does not mean the total disk space of the hard drive.