I am trying to trasfer a large amount of files from my macbook to a dell laptop. The mac will recognize the drive and i am able to backup and save files onto it, however when i plug the drive into the dell it briefly prompts me that there is a new external drive attached, however when i go into my computer there is no icon and I cannot access the drive whatsoever. However, when I go to eject it, the computer still seems to recognize its presence because there is an icon for USB mass storage device. Please help me i need the files for a major report for school.

Open up time machine and allow it to make your drive a backup. If the drive is large and you don't want to make the whole drive a backup. Whatever is a backup cannot be used for anything else until formatted. It will direct you from there.

Open Disk Utility and reformat the drive by creating a new partition and start with a fresh backup.

Your MacBook should recognize the default file system already used to pre-format the LG extenal hard drive at the factory. You'll be able to write and read from it without issue. In fact, if you intend to ever also use it with a Windows machine, using it and leaving it in its pre-formatted state is recommended. As a novice user, I'm imagining you'll use the external drive for file storage. You'll only need to format it specifically for your MacBook if you intend to use it for more specialized MacBook tasks (like using the built-in Mac backup utility). In which case, the instructions to format it for Mac is available here -

Format an External Hard Drive or USB Flash Drive for Mac OS

This issue needs to go back to Newtech. They can guide you through the issue. Is the external drive LARGE enough? Windows backup takes huge amounts of room. I suggest Handy Backup Pro, it can pull backup across networks, and push the data to drives and ONLINE locations.

use s video cable

open adress book it have all your address and keychain access have all your password stored. rate it please

I got the solution to this problem at the Genius Bar.
As they explained it, Time Machine is software that saves files on the backup drive in a format that can only be read by Time Machine. So, when you open Time Machine, you can click on any file and it will open.
If you try to open a file directly from the backup drive, it needs a program to open it, and if Time Machine is not open, you get the error message.

If your computer crashes, when you get it fixed (or get a new Mac)and when you connect the backup drive, Time Machine will recognize it, will ask you if you want to associate it with your computer, and when you say yes, all your backed-up files are availabel and copied back into the computer.
Genius Bar:

http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

Click on this link. Or copy and paste it into your browser.
If I could be of further assistance, let me know.
If this solves your issue, please be kind to rate it.
Thanks, Joe


I’m happy to assist further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/joe_8b8c2cd6ce148309

DO NOT panic! Try this: restart your computer and plug your USB in again(this helps to clean the buffer), see if you drive can be recognized.

If you still can't access the data inside, try this data recovery program Wondershare Data Recovery. Get the program here,

Mac Data Recovery (Mac OS version)
Windows Data Recovery (Windows Version)

Take care - Before those items are recovered, stop saving more files to the USB in case the file data are overwritten!

Your drive is probably in FAT32 format.  FAT32 has a 4GB file limit that is why your 5GB movie isn't saving.  You will have to format the drive in Mac OS file format (HFS) using Disk Utility.
Unfortunately once its in Mac format the drive will not be recognized by windows PCs.  What I do is have a program called macdrive installed on my windows computers so that they can access mac format hard drives.
i hope this helps!

Sounds like there is an issue with the drive itself. How old is it? it may be that you need to replace it.