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prodigiousfool · Oct 7, 2006, 12:20 AM

I'm going to put this here, since I know the drive came out of a macbookpro.

Anyways, I bought an 80 GB SATA drive from a guy who was upgrading his drive in his MBP. The drive is a Seagate Momentus 5400 RPM 80GB SATA HDD, model # ST98823AS (Which is also the same as my Mac Mini [see sig])Link to Seagate. I got it becuase I wanted to pop it into an external enclosure, and have it act as a go-between and a temp storage for my Windows box and my Macs, as well as to take to class with me.

So I got the enclosure, and formatted it and re-partitioned it (it did have boot camp on there, from when the guy was using it) and I've tried the MS-DOS/FAT32, the Journaled, and the UNIX filesystems, but in every single case, it refuses to be recognized by my Windows box. It works on all 3 of my Macs, in every format. The external enclosure is a Bytecc BT-280 Series Link to Bytecc

So my question is this, is it becuase of the fact that it is a Mac Harddrive that it isn't being read by Windows? Or is it more likely an issue with the external enclosure that can't be read by Windows? I know both of them work, since they work in my Macs, but I wasn't sure if there was something special about the Mac Harddrives that would not allow it to be read by Windows, despite being even in FAT32.

Thanks for your help and I look forward to your responses. If this is in the wrong forum, let me know and I'll move accordingly.

Dane

ibook_steve · Oct 7, 2006, 01:41 AM

Define "refuses to be recognized by my Windows box." Does it not even detect you attaching a USB device? Have you tried other drives with the enclosure with the Windows box? You could download the demo of MacDrive and format the drive Mac to test on the Windows box. I think more detail about what happens with Windows is needed.

Steve

mduell · Oct 7, 2006, 09:06 AM

With the drive formatted as FAT32, there's nothing about your setup that shouldn't work with Windows. Even with the drive formatted with some other filesystem, it should at least show up in Disk Management.

Do other external USB mass storage devices (such as USB keys) work with your Windows box?

ghporter · Oct 7, 2006, 09:50 AM

The drive is still "a peripheral" because it is NOT IN a MBP at the moment. Moving to Peripherals...

Macola · Oct 7, 2006, 10:57 AM

Try formatting it in Windows using Disk Management. Even if it does not show up in My Computer, it may be recognized.

prodigiousfool · Oct 7, 2006, 12:20 PM

Sorry for posting in the wrong spot mods, thanks for the move.

To answer what I mean by "refuses to be recognized by my Window's box", I mean that when I plug it in, it does nothing at all. No dialog boxes pop up, no messages that say that it can't install the new hardware and when I view the device manager, there isn't even a change to the USB ports or anything like that.

I've trying going through disk management on the Windows machine, and it doesn't detect anything. I have my 2 DVD drives, my 2 Hard Drives, and my virtual DVD drive (daemon tools). I know that the machine can read external devices becuase i have a couple of thumb drives that i've plugged in to it just to make sure as well as my normal 250GB external drive.

I have a full version on MacDrive on my box but since Windows doesn't even detect that there is a device connected, MacDrive doesn't see it as a Mac-formatted drive, since it doesn't see anything at all.

I'm reinstalling Windows on my server at home as I type, and once i get that up and running, I'm going to try to see if i can get anything to happen on a fresh, clean install.

Thanks for everyone's help in this. If you all have any more ideas, throw them at me, I'm willing to try. I'll post back when I try the server out. Thanks again

Dane

cagljevic · Oct 7, 2006, 02:54 PM

I dont know if you have solved this issue yet or not, but hopefully I can help you out. I think I recall a similar situation when I upgraded my hard drive in my powerbook. I used the 80GB ata drive in a small enclosure to act as a backup drive for my powerbook and windows box. I think it wasn't recognized by Windows Xp even though it was formatted with the FAT filesystem. The reason that sticks out in my mind is that the name that I gave it was not accepted in windows but the name i gave it was accepted in mac os x. I dont know how to explain, but I think windows is more particular about the characters (i.e. spaces between words, symbols, etc) and it wont mount/detect the drive if it does meet its requirements. Hope this theory helps...

mark

prodigiousfool · Oct 7, 2006, 07:53 PM

Well I tried it out on my server and it seemed to work just fine. In answer to your comment cagljevic, the name is simply "external", no caps and it's formatted with one partition in Fat32. Anyways, like I said, it seems to be working which just means that for whatever reason, it's just an issue with my main windows machine. I'm glad at least that I know that it works on the PC, that gives me something the work off of. Thanks to everyone who offered help and suggestions, I'll play with it some more since I know that it's 100% fully functional.

mark.s · Oct 9, 2006, 10:00 AM

Maybe it's not getting enough power from the USB port on your PC?

prodigiousfool · Oct 9, 2006, 10:11 AM

I tried plugging in both cables (it comes with a Y-split USB cable) and that still didn't seem to make a difference. When I tried it on my server, it was a USB 2.0 port on a PCI USB card, and on my main computer it is coming from the Mobo, still USB 2.0. On both the server and all my macs, it works with only one of the plugs being in there, so i don't know why it would be different and need both of the plugs just because it's connected to the motherboard of my main comp. If anything, i would think that the motherboard connectors would have more of a potentional for a higher power draw that a PCI card, but i don't know.

At this point i've kinda given up on it working with my main computer, it'll still be handy for taking to class and to home from my dorm, since it works with my laptop. In my dorm i have my imac, mini, powerbook and main PC all networked, so if i need a file i can just transfer it that way.

Thanks again for all the suggestions, obviously it's just an issue with my main pc for whatever reason...well that's why i have macs in the first place right? Thanks everyone!

Dane

chabig · Oct 9, 2006, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by prodigiousfool

...is it becuase of the fact that it is a Mac Harddrive that it isn't being read by Windows? Or is it more likely an issue with the external enclosure that can't be read by Windows?

Dane,

I didnt see answers to these specific questions, so I'll take them.

1. There is no such thing as a Mac hard drive. All hard drives are physically the same. It's only the formatting that matters. So this can't be a problem for you.

2. The external enclosure can't be a problem, because there isn't anything Mac specific about the enclosure.

Given those two things, I'd say you have a Windows problem.

Chris

prodigiousfool · Oct 9, 2006, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by chabig

Dane,

I didnt see answers to these specific questions, so I'll take them.

1. There is no such thing as a Mac hard drive. All hard drives are physically the same. It's only the formatting that matters. So this can't be a problem for you.

2. The external enclosure can't be a problem, because there isn't anything Mac specific about the enclosure.

Given those two things, I'd say you have a Windows problem.

Chris

Thanks for the specific answers. Once I plugged it into my Mini and saw the formatting options, i figured that there wasn't anything specific about mac Hard drives. I remember pulling a 20GB HDD out of a PMG4 and putting it into my brother's computer, so I didn't really suspect that there was, but I knew I had to cover all the bases. The enclosure explicitly said for both Windows and Mac, so I knew that wasn't an issue. The main reason all of this came up was becuase I didn't have a 2nd Windows box to test myself against, so I figured that in the mean time I might as well tap the resources available and make sure that I'm not completely off base. Like i said in my previous post, i know with 100% certainty that it's either my computer itself or the Windows i have on it (ex: hasn't been re-installed in a long time, could just be fouled up driver somewhere). Thanks for answering and helping!

Dane

iDaver · Oct 12, 2006, 12:33 AM

If you have an open slot, perhaps you could try a new USB 2 card. I understand they're pretty darned cheap. Someone told me he got one for eight bucks. I don't know if he was exaggerating.

prodigiousfool · Oct 12, 2006, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by iDaver

If you have an open slot, perhaps you could try a new USB 2 card. I understand they're pretty darned cheap. Someone told me he got one for eight bucks. I don't know if he was exaggerating.

He wasn't, they are pretty cheap. Unfortunately, I can't add any USB card in. I have all of my PCI slots open, but If you look below you will see why i can't easily add in a card.

While it wouldn't be hard to cut a new slot...well it's a lot of time and effort for not guaranteed results