Mac OS X: Disk Drives Not Showing On Desktop

With Macintosh OS X, it is possible to configure the desktop so that disk drives are not shown.

In the Finder, go to the File menu and select Preferences.

In the window that appears, there is a list of three checkboxes: "Hard disks", "Removable media" (such as CDs), and "Connected Servers". Checking the checkboxes will cause those disk drives to appear on the desktop; unchecking any of them will remove that type of drive from the desktop. The drives are still available by opening a new Finder window, they're just not displayed on the desktop.

In Mac OS 10.3.X, Finder Preferences is divided into several parts. In order to find the checkboxes that control which disks appear on the desktop click on "General", the leftmost icon in the tool bar at the top of the preferences window.

In a situation where only some of the disks appear on the desktop

• If some hard disks are present and other do not appear then it's possible the directory structure on the missing hard drive is corrupt. Run the Disk Utility to check for possible corruption.
• Check the cable connections for missing exernal hard drives. Make sure the plugs are plugged into the sockets by gently pushing on them.
• If a CD doesn't appear on the desktop then it's possible it's either unformatted, a DVD inserted into a CD-only drive, or in a non-standard format.
• If the drive is plugged into a FireWire hub, make sure the hub is powered and that the cable running from the hub to the back of the computer is plugged into the sockets by gently pushing on them.