Same problem! My mac went a bit crazy (everything not responding even to force quits!) and it now can't see the drive!!!

We had a similar problem a few months ago when I took a 1TB hard drive to a friend for him to test. He tried everything he could but none of his machines or software would open it and some didn't even recognise it. He couldn't even format it so we could start again.

Finally in desperation he tried his sister's laptop and bingo everything worked as it should. The difference was his machines were all on 32 bit software but the laptop used 64 bit.

I hope this helps.

Using Force Quit Force Quit is the Mac's common way of telling an iced application "I've had it; I'm not going to take it anymore!" Choose Mac menu --> Force Quit or press Command+Option+Esc. A window appears, and you can click the name of the deviant application (not responding probably appears next to its name). With Force Quit, you typically don't have to reboot your computer.
Because you will lose any unsaved changes, Apple throws up a little admonition before allowing you to Force Quit. Alas, you may have no choice.
Dealing with a program that quits on you Sometimes, for unknown reasons, a program keels over. You could reopen the app and hope that this was a one-time aberration caused by mischievous space aliens. Or, you might have a chronic ailment on your hands.
When programs suddenly drop, you may see dialog boxes with the word unexpectedly, like the ones shown in Figure 1. The box on the left appears the first time you experience this issue; the box at the right shows what happens if the problem persists. If so, you may want to click Try Again to safely relaunch the fussy program. OS X restores the application's default settings (thus setting aside newer preferences settings), in case something you did caused the snafu.
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Figure 1: When an application unexpectedly quits . . . and quits again.
Assuming that everything went swell from there, you'll be given the option of keeping the new settings upon quitting the program. Your old preferences are saved in a file with a .saved extension, in case you ever want to go back. If that is the case, move the newer and current preferences file from its present location and remove the .saved extension from the older file.
If the problem continues, it may be time to visit the library. (No, not that kind of library.) A Preferences folder lives inside your Library folder, which in turn resides in your Home folder.
These preferences files have the .plistsuffix and typically begin with com.followed by the name of the program, as in com.microsoft.Word.plist. Try dragging a .plist file with the name of the troubled application out to the desktop. If the program runs smoothly, trash the corrupted preferences file.
Forcing a restart Force Quit usually rescues you from a minor problem, but it's not effective all the time. If that's the situation you're in now, you'll likely have to reboot. The assumption here is that your frozen computer won't permit you to start over in a conventional way by choosing Mac menu --> Restart.
Instead, try holding down the power button for several seconds or press Control+Command and then the power button. If all else fails, pull the plug (or remove the battery from a laptop), though only as a last resort.

For most situations, a restart is sufficient. If the computer has stopped responding, try these steps, in order, until the computer responds:

1. Force Quit (Option-Command-Escape)
2. Restart (Control-Command-Power)
3. Force Shut Down (press the power button for 10 seconds)

Only perform a PMU reset on the computer if none of the above steps resolved the situation.

Go to the Apple icon in the Menu Bar; select Force Quit; in the list you will see iPhoto, you'll need to select that then hit force quit. That will only force quit iPhoto and your email should be fine.

When you did the Force Quit, it may have damaged the directory. Try using DiskWarrior on the drive, it can often repair a damaged directory and allow the drive to mount.

last resort-force quit

Hi,

Force quit usually shuts down an app that is not responding and not your Mac. Should be no implications on the Mac itself - is the equivalent of using task manager to end a program on Windows.

If your Mac won't shut down, just hold the power button in for about 7 seconds. Should not cause any damage other than you losing any unsaved information.

Hope that helps, pls rate the solution

hello,) try this : put a empty cdrom in the cd reader then restart the computer --------------- if it's not workin do a virus scan, and after remove and do a new installation of firefox
good luck

Similar problem except worse. Can't even burn anything. Furthermore, disks inserted in the drive are not appearing on the desktop or anywhere. The drive appears in disk utility. It also seems to cause a host of other problems, various burning applications are CRASHING and not even responding to force quit (haven't tried to kill from terminal yet). We've had to reboot several times.

So far experience is awful. Going to return this if it computer keeps crashing everytime the drive is plugged in.

Macbook Pro (intel) with latest updates.

If the colour circle shows... find a tiny bit of wallpaper showing through the back, then click. Then, you should see it labled finder instead of preview. Next, click on the blue apple. If it doesn't happen immediatly, a dropdown bar will show in a couple minutes. In the dropout bar, click Force Quit. It usually takes 2 minutes for the Force Quit window to show up. It'll ask you what you want to force quit,  Look at the choices and force quit all of the ones that say: NOT RESPONDING. Then the computer will clear up for a while, in wich you can probably preview your pictures.