Hi, Esther and others: thanks so much for your responses. I am now able to find the drive, and what I want to do is copy music files to it. However, I cannot figure out how to do this. I selected several files, copied them, then interacted with the empty table for the centon drive. I hit command v -- and got the error sound. This is how I went about things with my PC -- is there some step or nuance I'm missing? Even if someone must contact me off-list, could you walk me through the process, or point me to a podcast or web site that does so? I thought this was going to be one of the simpler things I would be doing . . . (grin). Christine On Jun 8, 2011, at 12:32 AM, Esther wrote:
> Hi Christine, > > If this is a USB flash drive or memory stick you should not have to format or > otherwise activate it. If this is a new hard drive, depending on the format, > you may or may not want, or have to format (or reformat) the drive with Disk > Utility. What you decide to do depends on how you plan to use the drive, and > whether you need to both read and write to it from different operating > systems, or just plan to use it with your Mac, and the issue here is that, > without additional software, Windows file systems can't read the default Mac > file system file formats. > > Since, from your subject line, you are using a USB flash drive, I'll add a > suggestion to the good recommendations you've had from Zack and Ricardo. If > you can't find the drive on your Desktop, and Carolyn's suggestion of looking > in Finder on your computer (Command+Shift+C) doesn't work, try the keyboard > shortcut in Finder of Command+Shift+G (for "Go to Folder"). In the text box > of the dialog window that appears when you issue this command, type or paste > in: > "/Volumes" > without the surrounding quotation marks, but with the slash mark at the > beginning, and using a capital "V" for "Volumes", then press Return. > > This should show you all mounted volumes that are attached to your computer > in your Finder window. One of them will be "Macintosh HD", which is your > main hard drive. Another should be the name of your USB flash drive (e.g., > "Lexar", "Crucial", or "Untitled"), which you can then select. This method > (pressing Command+Shift+G and then going to the "/Volumes" folder in Finder) > works for me in the very few instances where an attached drive is mounted on > the system, but for some reason the graphical user interface (GUI) doesn't > update the information. The Finder view is a little simpler with this > command than what is displayed with Command+Shift+C (which, as Carolyn > explained, shows the top level of your Computer), because it doesn't include > network connections. > > Remember that you have to exit the files on the attached USB drive before > ejecting it. That means that you cannot have any of the files open in > another application (e.g., be viewing one of the files on the drive in > TextEdit), and you should navigate to the top level of the device in the > Finder window (use Command+Up arrow to move up levels). Then you can use > Command+E to eject the attached USB flash drive and remove it safely from the > USB port on your computer. > > HTH. Cheers, > > Esther > > On Jun 7, 2011, at 16:27, Christine Grassman wrote: > >> I did check that external disks were checked in Finder preferences to show >> on the desktop, but the only untitled folder there is not the disk. I can't >> find anything to activate the disk. Is there something else I can try -- is >> it possible I have to format it or something? It's brand-new. >> On Jun 7, 2011, at 10:08 PM, Zachary Kline wrote: >> >>> Hi Christine, >>> When you insert the drive an icon will appear on the desktop, which you can >>> then open. It might be labeled as Untitled or similar, depending on >>> whether the drive has a volume label or not. You open this with command-o, >>> and then can copy files to it by, for instance, opening a new Finder window >>> with command-n and navigating to where ever you want to copy from. To >>> remove the drive, first eject it with command-e on its icon. >>> Hope this helps, >>> Zack. >>> On Jun 7, 2011, at 7:05 PM, Christine Grassman wrote: >>> >>>> Hi, everyone, I'm really confused right now. I placed a new drive into >>>> the USB port and expected some sort of dialog box or alert telling me it >>>> was available; I want to copy music files onto it. Nothing, and I can't >>>> figure out how to locate it, the way I used to on a PC using "my >>>> computer". What must I do? (I did try removing it, and I got the alert >>>> that it was not removed safely, but it doesn't seem to notice when I >>>> insert it.) >>>> Christine >>>> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
