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robo74 · Jun 19, 2004, 12:31 PM

I traded a member my FW External 3.5 drive for his 2.5 External USB drive, so I can use this drive when I am on the go. I reveived the drive, hooked it up to my 12in PB 1ghz and I cant get it to mount. Actually, it was making weird noises (pings) the first time I hooked it up. This is BUS powered USB 2.0 case with a Toshiba 5400RPM drive. I was able to get the ping sound to stop once I hooked the PB up to its power cord and no longer was running off the battery. But the drives is now powered up and still wont mount. Cant see it in disk utility either.
So I guess my question is, is the powerbook not putting out enough power thru USB? Would it make a difference if I had a FW case instead? Or I am I going to be limited by having a need for a power source for this HD?
Or did I get shafted in this deal with a bad drive (I dont think I did, he was straight with me)

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Rob

Randman · Jun 19, 2004, 01:05 PM

What model is it? I would think it being USB-powered that it would need an external power source.
How did your friend use it? On what type of computer?

vinster · Jun 19, 2004, 01:30 PM

Originally posted by robo74:
So I guess my question is, is the powerbook not putting out enough power thru USB? Would it make a difference if I had a FW case instead? Or I am I going to be limited by having a need for a power source for this HD?
Or did I get shafted in this deal with a bad drive (I dont think I did, he was straight with me)

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Rob

Does it show up in the System Profiler app?

romeosc · Jun 19, 2004, 03:10 PM

Unfortunately a lot of usb 2.5 drives quit funtioning under OS X.2 & up .... might be a driver issue, I have 2 that were unusable til I put in a firewire case

robo74 · Jun 19, 2004, 10:10 PM

When the drive is hooked up, both the Disk utility and system profiler just spin the beach ball. I have waited several minutes and it doesnt show up.
I just got a email back from him and he said he used it on a PC so I will probably have to format it for mac. But it should show up first right?

The USB case is called STORAGE BOX ATN-251 2.5 External HDD

Rob

vinster · Jun 19, 2004, 10:38 PM

Originally posted by robo74:
When the drive is hooked up, both the Disk utility and system profiler just spin the beach ball. I have waited several minutes and it doesnt show up.
I just got a email back from him and he said he used it on a PC so I will probably have to format it for mac. But it should show up first right?

The USB case is called STORAGE BOX ATN-251 2.5 External HDD

Rob

Should show up as OS X can read the DOS FAT format.

I bet it's an off-brand ATA/USB bridge that OS X is having trouble with. You might want to check out some of the USB drivers on Versiontracker. This one looks like it might work with various ATA/ATAPI devices.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not responsible for any problems that may occur by installing third-party drivers. Make sure you have a backup or alternative boot drive.

robo74 · Jun 19, 2004, 11:14 PM

its either the driver or the drive is formated under NTFS... I used a utility called drive PC and it see's it. Now I just need to find a utility that will see NTFS and allow me to get it to fat32 or mac,

errrrr pc people!

Rob

robo74 · Jun 20, 2004, 12:09 AM

well..its NTFS for sure.. and I cant get it to show up so I can format it to mac.. anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on a utility?

Rob

vinster · Jun 20, 2004, 01:22 AM

Originally posted by robo74:
well..its NTFS for sure.. and I cant get it to show up so I can format it to mac.. anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on a utility?

Rob

Virtsal PC (if you have it). Or bring it in to CompUSA or similar and see if they'll do it there.