GLSmith wrote:
try taking the 2 external drives and simply connect them to a different MAC...or even a PC as MAC uses ExFat file structure which can be seen/read by Windows...Are these devices seen by the PC, can you access the files...& then do a test...transfer a file from the PC to one of drives...If it works...It is not your external drives....As solid as MACs are they do have issues
Not entirely applicable as EXFAT disk file structure is one of severl file formats that can be used for MAC disk drives. It is NOT the default setting for formatting HDDs. So her HDDs are most likely not viewable on a PC.
If you don't have access to another MAC but live near to an Apple store, you might take them to an Apple store and have them try to read them. This might work by visiting a Best Buy store and going to their technical service desk for help.