Mac desktops: My new external hard drive won't appear on my MAC. Help.
My new external hard drive won't appear on my MAC. Help.
by tickereditor - 11/8/08 7:47 PMWhen I plug in my 250gb Wester Digital external hard drive into my mac, it just makes some starting up noise, and clicks and then does it again, and again,... never appearing on my desktop or in my finder. My mac is an Ibook from 2002. I need to back up my data on an external drive to move to my new PC computer (it was free.)Is the drive bad? Or am I not doing something correctly? There's no user manual. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
WD drive
by BeatleMegaFan - 11/8/08 8:41 PM In reply to: My new external hard drive won't appear on my MAC. Help. by tickereditorI have a WD drive myself. It works well, especially over FireWire, but I have had one fail on me before. Luckily, I had it replaced even though it was 6 months old at the time.
First of all, it sounds like you are using a white iBook G3, one of the most problematic lines in the iBook line. It could be the computer, but if the drive does not appear on the PC, I would doubt that. What type of external drive is this, and what type of connection are you using? USB? FireWire, if it has it? Know that FireWire 400 is generally faster on Macs when compared to USB 2.0, but FireWire draws a lot of power and is prone to work on and off. For example, my old iMac G4's FireWire ports have given me trouble in the past. If you are using FireWire, switch to USB and see if that works, or the reverse if you are already using that.
If the drive is spinning, something is working, but if it is constantly "restarting" and does not stabilize (for lack of a better term) the external enclosure could very well be fried, like the drive I used to have, or it is simply failing and will die completely soon enough. Will it turn on normally when it is not connected to a machine? My WD drive has a manual power button on the back, so I'd reckon yours has one too. Try that out. And again, see if it will be recognized by other computers. If you can't get the thing to work, you may have to replace it.
-BMF
It's the MAC. PC worked.
by tickereditor - 11/8/08 9:59 PM In reply to: WD drive by BeatleMegaFanI plugged the WD drive into my PC and it worked, so yes, it's the crappy Mac. I'm pretty sure it's a USB cable, although I'm somewhat a novice on the cable issue. I did google, and so I'm pretty sure it's USB, based on pictures?? I'm kinda puzzeled on how to get my documents, and music onto my new PC. Any thoughts? Maybe I should take my computer to the MAC store, and say "make it work!" Any other thoughts? Thanks for your help.
Where does this drive get its power?
by R. Proffitt
- 11/9/08 6:24 AM
In reply to: My new external hard drive won't appear on my MAC. Help. by tickereditor
If from the USB port you can sometimes cure that by this method:\
Computer USB port -> POWERED USB Hub -> Drive.
Good luck,
Bob
More info
by mrmacfixit - 11/9/08 6:50 AM
In reply to: My new external hard drive won't appear on my MAC. Help. by tickereditor
This iBook has only got USB 1.0 (12Mbps) so any movement of data from the iBook to the drive is going to be slow.
As MBF suggested, if this drive has a Firewire (IEEE 1394) connection, buy a firewire cable and use it.
As Bob suggested, if this drive is powered by the USB connection and does not have its own power supply, try the powered hub. Of course, if it has a power supply of its own, use it.
The clicking sound could mean a couple of things.
1. Not enough power to keep the device running correctly.
2. The Hard Drive is failing.
What I really wanted to point out is that if this drive has been used exclusively on a PC, there is a possibility that it has been formatted as NTFS, in which case, you will not be able to transfer data from the Mac (Note the capitalization) to the drive. The Mac can read from, but not to, an NTFS formatted drive without the aid of third party software. The PC, on the other hand, cannot read or write to a disk that is formatted as HFS+, the normal Mac format, without the aid of third party software.
P
The box says MAC OS X 10.4.8+
by tickereditor - 11/9/08 7:55 AM In reply to: More info by mrmacfixit
Oh, maybe this is the problem...I just looked at the box, and it says it's compatiable with Mac OS 10.4.8+, my ibook is MAC OS 10.2 -- Maybe that's the problem? Yeah? Should I get an older hard drive?
I can still try the other suggestions, but not sure if it's pointless at this point -- the firewall cable, and see if that helps. This external hard drive doesn't have its own power switch. As for the formatting. It's brand new. I was just testing it on the PC to make sure the drive works, but I didn't do anything once it appeared.
Thanks again for everyone's help.
Powered Hub
by mrmacfixit - 11/9/08 8:00 AM
In reply to: The box says MAC OS X 10.4.8+ by tickereditor
is probably the only solution here.
If the drive has a firewire connection, and you did not say whether it had or not, the Mac may be able to provide enough power for it from that port.
Using the USB connection to transfer data from the Mac will be painfully slow.
Try the firewire, if possible, or return that drive and purchase one with its own power supply and firewire connectivity.
P
Crossover cable
by kevanatkins - 11/15/08 12:44 AM In reply to: My new external hard drive won't appear on my MAC. Help. by tickereditorWhat you can do is connect both computers to the same hub and enable file sharing on your windows computer and it should appear as a network drive. Make sure enable writing files to the PC. This can be done in the control panel. Then you can just drag and drop the files directly to the PC.
Crossover cable
by hanbledzoin - 4/7/09 7:28 AM In reply to: Crossover cable by kevanatkinscould someone please explain what is meant by connecting both computers to the same hub?
Hubs and switches
by mrmacfixit - 4/7/09 7:06 PM
In reply to: Crossover cable by hanbledzoin
are both devices used to connect computers together on a network.
Each computer has an ethernet cable connected to it which in turn is plugged in to the switch or hub.
The switch or hub takes care of receiving the data from one computer and sending it out to the other.
If you are using a switch or hub, there is no need for a "crossover" cable.
Before you ask, a crossover cable is on where each end is wired slightly differently from the other. This allows the sending computer to transmit data down the two transmit pins in the plug and have that data come out the other end on the two receive pins.
Hope that helps a little
P
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