[USNA91]

I have an 80GB, 7200 RPM HDD that I had bought for my HP Pavilion laptop. Well, seeing as that laptop is now on my shitlist, I'm wondering if I can use this HDD with my Powerbook.

The drive is currently housed in a USB enclosure which does NOT work with my PB. I was told in the Apple Store that I need to get a Firewire enclosure.

So, is that correct? Also, anyone know if I CAN swap with the drive in the computer?

Thanks...

[Macola]

What PowerBook do you have? If it has Firewire, it should also have USB. The drive enclosure should work with any USB-equipped Mac.

[USNA91]

Originally posted by Macola:
What PowerBook do you have? If it has Firewire, it should also have USB. The drive enclosure should work with any USB-equipped Mac.

PB G4 15 loaded.

When I plug in the USB cable, the little light on the drive lights up, but the drive doesn't mount. No recognition at all.

It was formatted for PC and has some data on it. Could that be it?

[Dog Like Nature]

Is it bus powered, or does it have an external adaptor?

[Macola]

If the drive was formatted for NTFS, then you'd need to reformat in either HFS+ or FAT32 (if you want cross-platform use).

[USNA91]

It is bus-powered, at least on the PC. The enclosure didn't even bring a power cord!

I would reformat it, but there is ZERO recognition from the OS that any such drive is attached at all.

[swichd]

You might be able to use it in your PowerBook if it is a 2.5" drive. Standard PC 3.5" drives won't fit in most notebooks, inc PowerBooks.

[power142]

Originally posted by USNA91:
I would reformat it, but there is ZERO recognition from the OS that any such drive is attached at all.

Run Disk Utility (in Applications->Utilities) and double check that it isn't showing up as a drive (+partition). You could also use System Profiler to check for USB devices.

Like Macola said, if it is NTFS formatted your Mac will not automount it and will ignore it, but at least you can use the above to see if the computer has recognized that the drive is plugged in. You will need to format it in a Mac-friendly format before it will mount automatically and become useable to you on your Powerbook.

[USNA91]

Originally posted by power142:
Run Disk Utility (in Applications->Utilities) and double check that it isn't showing up as a drive (+partition). You could also use System Profiler to check for USB devices.

Like Macola said, if it is NTFS formatted your Mac will not automount it and will ignore it, but at least you can use the above to see if the computer has recognized that the drive is plugged in. You will need to format it in a Mac-friendly format before it will mount automatically and become useable to you on your Powerbook.

I ran both programs and nada. It's not seeing the drive at all....

[megasad]

Originally posted by USNA91:
I have an 80GB, 7200 RPM HDD that I had bought for my HP Pavilion laptop. Well, seeing as that laptop is now on my shitlist, I'm wondering if I can use this HDD with my Powerbook.

The drive is currently housed in a USB enclosure which does NOT work with my PB. I was told in the Apple Store that I need to get a Firewire enclosure.

So, is that correct? Also, anyone know if I CAN swap with the drive in the computer?

Thanks...

People have been telling you foolish things. I tell you smart things.

OS X can see NTFS formatted hard drives just fine, no problem. It won't let you write to them, but it will let you see them. I know this because I took a 80GB NTFS formatted hard drive out of a PC and replaced the 20GB HFS+ formatted one in a Cube, started the Cube in FireWire Target Disk mode, and it showed up on my iBook. I took what I needed off of the 80GB drive, formatted it as HFS+ using Disk Utility, installed OS X, and all has been well.

The reason that your external hard drive isn't showing up on your PowerBook is because it is bus powered and the USB ports on your PowerBook are not providing enough electricity. I have the same issue with my own external USB 2.0 hard drive, which you can see here. It works just fine on my eMac, with any standard "camera" USB cable. But on my iBook, or my girlfriend's PowerBook (12.1" 1.33GHz model), I have to use a foolish-looking double-headed USB cable that came with the enclosure.

You do not need a FireWire enclosure, but it would mean that you would not run into this problem; FireWire ports are designed to deliver the correct amount of electricity to power bus-powered drives.

And yes, if you manage to take apart your PowerBook, you can put that hard drive inside of there. So long as it's a 9mm high 2.5" hard drive. Probably wouldn't work out too well if you tried to put a 3.5" disk in there...

[Dog Like Nature]

Originally posted by Dog Like Nature:
Is it bus powered, or does it have an external adaptor?

Originally posted by megasad:
The reason that your external hard drive isn't showing up on your PowerBook is because it is bus powered and the USB ports on your PowerBook are not providing enough electricity.

That's what I was going to say!

[USNA91]

God bless you, Megasad!

Now, before I decide to name my next child after you, please confirm for mme the folowing:

The drive in question is a Hitachi TravelStar designed for Laptops. It is 2 5/8 inches wide by 3 3/4 inches long by 3/8 inch high. 60 GB 7200RPM.

So, can you confirm it will work in the PB? I at least want to consider it because, while it's smaller than the existing drive, it's faster, and I'll use the speed before I ever out-fill the drive. The plan would be to get the damned drive working, copy the data on it to the PB, then image the PB drive onto the external drive, then swap them. Any comments on that?

Also, this enclosure has a firewire port (the same type found on the PD; the one with six sides). If I simply get the appropriate Firewire cable, will it work?

Thanks!

ETA: Oh, and for the record, I'm REALLY upset with these underpowered USB ports!

[megasad]

Originally posted by USNA91:
God bless you, Megasad!

Now, before I decide to name my next child after you, please confirm for mme the folowing:

The drive in question is a Hitachi TravelStar designed for Laptops. It is 2 5/8 inches wide by 3 3/4 inches long by 3/8 inch high. 60 GB 7200RPM.

So, can you confirm it will work in the PB? I at least want to consider it because, while it's smaller than the existing drive, it's faster, and I'll use the speed before I ever out-fill the drive. The plan would be to get the damned drive working, copy the data on it to the PB, then image the PB drive onto the external drive, then swap them. Any comments on that?

Also, this enclosure has a firewire port (the same type found on the PD; the one with six sides). If I simply get the appropriate Firewire cable, will it work?

Thanks!

ETA: Oh, and for the record, I'm REALLY upset with these underpowered USB ports!

Yup, that hard drive should fit just fine. You have one of the newer aluminium PowerBooks or one of the older titanium ones? Same dimension hard drives for both, it will just be a bit more fiddly to fit in the aluminium, and void your warranty. Easy as pie in the titanium, just undo a few screws. Apple Service Manuals for both, plus PB FixIt.

As far as imaging the current internal drive onto the current external drive, that should work fine, I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner. I did the exact same thing myself just a few weeks ago; cloned the system on the 20GB internal iBook hard drive onto 60GB external hard drive, swapped them around, booted up fine.

Sounds like a "6 to 6 pin" FireWire cable would be the simplest solution. Dirt cheap on eBay, or wherever you go for your electrical cable needs.

And, for what it's worth, it's not Apple's fault, as such, that their laptops don't provide enough electricity. As I understand it, they're doing USB correctly; 0.5v. Many PCs, and it would seem the eMac too, provide 1.0v, which is what some USB bus-powered enclosures demand. I'm guessing Apple are strict on their portables so that they can save battery life? Less so on the desktops because it's plugged in to the wall, who cares? Or something like that.

Ooh, and if you do name your first born after me, don't use Megasad, for that would be cruel. Instead, if it's a boy, I recommend Montgomery (though call him Monty in day to day life). I don't have a preferred name for a girl, so... Montella, Monti in day to day life.

[USNA91]

It worked!

A 6-to-6 Firewire connection and it's up and running!

Already copied the data off, but unfortunately none of my multimedia players can play the files (MPG's). I created them on my PC from a video camera, and they played fine on Windows Media Player on the PC. Now they won't run on MP, QT, or RP. Any ideas?

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to look at those utilities you recommended...

Oh, my next child is going to be a dog, so worry not!

ETA: Oh, BTW, mine is an aluminum G4 15" Loaded. It's three weeks old.

[megasad]

Originally posted by USNA91:
It worked!

A 6-to-6 Firewire connection and it's up and running!

Already copied the data off, but unfortunately none of my multimedia players can play the files (MPG's). I created them on my PC from a video camera, and they played fine on Windows Media Player on the PC. Now they won't run on MP, QT, or RP. Any ideas?

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to look at those utilities you recommended...

Oh, my next child is going to be a dog, so worry not!

ETA: Oh, BTW, mine is an aluminum G4 15" Loaded. It's three weeks old.

Tried VideoLan Client, or, failing that, MPlayer? If it doesn't work in either of those, then I'm afraid I haven't a clue.

[USNA91]

Originally posted by megasad:
Tried VideoLan Client, or, failing that, MPlayer? If it doesn't work in either of those, then I'm afraid I haven't a clue.

Bingo again!

I wonder why it won't work with the others?

Whatever!