Locating devices problems

[kristiwright]

I have an imac 20"/OS 10.5.8 and I've started having issues with external devices being recognized by my imac. Actually they are working when I plug them in (ext hard drives, wireless mouse, 7 port USB port) but I can't find them all under 'devices' and some I can't seem to find anywhere 'on this mac'.

Any ideas what's going on or am I not looking in the right place?

Thanks.

 

[DeltaMac]

Some of those devices would not show under the "Devices" category in the sidebar of a Finder window, as that would only show devices that are used for data storage, and only those that you choose in the Finder preferences/Sidebar tab.
A wireless mouse, for example - although it is a device, would not appear under Devices in the window sidebar, mostly because it is an input device, without any data storage.
You can view any such hardware items in your System Profiler (which you can launch either through Applications/Utilities - or choose About this Mac under the Apple menu, then click the More Info button) - then click down through the list, and you can find out a lot of information about your Mac and its hardware/software configuration.