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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Consumer Hardware & Components > "the disk you inserted is not readable by this computer"

"the disk you inserted is not readable by this computer"
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tiger
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Join Date: Jun 2007
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Dec 24, 2010, 04:40 AM
 
So I bought a new 320GB 2.5 HD and have tried hooking it up inside a computer, through an external enclosure.. both to no avail... I keep getting this message

"the disk you inserted is not readable by this computer"

It also doesn't show up on disk utility as anything other than a ghost image (and it doesn't let me format it)

Is there an app that I can use that is able to read different formats? Or what can I do to format this drive into something that is readable by a mac?

Thanks.
iBook 12" 500MHz 576MB
iMac G4 17" 1GHz (USB 2.0) 2GB 80GB SATA HD
MacBook 1.83GHz 2GB
MacBook Pro 15" 2.4GHz 4GB
     
Spheric Harlot
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Dec 24, 2010, 05:28 AM
 
Is this on the MacBook pro?

What kind of enclosure?
     
shifuimam
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Dec 24, 2010, 12:10 PM
 
What are you doing in Disk Utility to format it? It needs to be partitioned, THEN formatted.
Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
     
tiger  (op)
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Dec 25, 2010, 02:23 AM
 
Yes, however I tried it on a MacBook since they are so much easier to swap than the Pro.

I tried a usb 2.0 enclosure for a 2.5 sata hd as well.. I recognizes it after some spinning and then just displays the "the disk is not readable by this computer" message.

I thought it could be that the computer couldn't recognize the format but could it possibly be that it's just a bad HD?

@shifuimam: It doesn't let me partition it or reformat it... in fact Disk Utility doesn't seem to recognize anything from the drive, and despite being a 320GB HD, it shows up as 0.
iBook 12" 500MHz 576MB
iMac G4 17" 1GHz (USB 2.0) 2GB 80GB SATA HD
MacBook 1.83GHz 2GB
MacBook Pro 15" 2.4GHz 4GB
     
AKcrab
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Join Date: Apr 2001
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Dec 25, 2010, 02:47 AM
 
I think the drive is dead.
     
   
 
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