When I plug my portable Toshiba 250gb hard-drive into my powerbook it just does nothing. I have installed all of the latest updates on my laptop and still nothing. I'm not real good with computers but when I used this with my PC it was recognized. Any suggestions?
Powerbook doesn't recognize portable harddrive
- Thread starter Metal4130
- Start date
D Slicker
Durham, dont forget it
- Location
- Pottstown, PA
That happened to a buddy of mine. he had to reformat the hard drive. Its in the directions.
rasper99
Freighter wake hunter
- Location
- Portland, OR
If you formatted it to NTFS on the PC the Mac won't see it. You need to format it MSDOS on the Mac for both to use it.
what power book do you have?
is your drive able to be bus powered even?
or is there an external power supply>?
if you reformat the drive you will loose your data
so make a back up somewhere. there may be alternatives but i have never tried
anyhow, you will find the program to reformat in your utilities folder under applications
it's in disk utilities
is your drive able to be bus powered even?
or is there an external power supply>?
if you reformat the drive you will loose your data
so make a back up somewhere. there may be alternatives but i have never tried
anyhow, you will find the program to reformat in your utilities folder under applications
it's in disk utilities
Last edited:
rasper99
Freighter wake hunter
- Location
- Portland, OR
This could get messy...Remember you asked for help.
Now that I think about it if the external drive is NTFS the Mac should see it. It would only be able to copy data off but not write to it. If there are filesystem errors on the disk it might work as you described (PC sees it, Mac doesn't).
First figure out if it is NTFS so we know what is going on. On the PC under "My Computer" right click on the external drive and choose properties. There should be something that says "File system". It should be follow by NTFS or FAT32.
One of the things you need to consider is if it is NTFS how it got that way. If it was sold as a PC only drive it might have come NTFS. Did it ever work on the Mac?
Did you have a friend help you with it? If you are playing with DVD images he might have changed it to NTFS. FAT32 can't handle files over 4 gig and DVD images are usually like 4.2gig. If you are using it for DVD images it needs to be NTFS and won't work with the Mac. You could split it into partitions it but that's another episode.
As I said if it's NTFS it needs to be changed to FAT32.
Formatting will cause all the data to go to bit heaven if it was good data. :smile: You need to get the data off the external before formatting.
1. If the PC can see it copy the data from the external to the PC internal hard drive if it will fit. If there is too much data to fit on PC you have a problem. If it fits go to step 2 below.
1a. In that case you will need a second external drive to temporarily store your data. Maybe you could borrow one. You do NOT want to hook up two external drives and copy between them. Sometimes it works but when it doesn't things go very bad fast. Hook up your drive copy a bunch to the PC internal HD. Use "safely remove hardware" to unhook externals. Hook up the second external and copy stuff copied from internal to second external. Repeat as necessary.
2. Then you need to format it FAT32 on the Mac. This is from memory so I hope it's right. Under the icon that is your hard disk -> applications -> utilities -> disk manager
3. Select the external drive on the left and choose erase with it set to MSDOS in the pull down menu in the middle right.
4. Then reverse the copies done in step 1a.
Simple right? Was all that porn worth this? :smile:
Now that I think about it if the external drive is NTFS the Mac should see it. It would only be able to copy data off but not write to it. If there are filesystem errors on the disk it might work as you described (PC sees it, Mac doesn't).
First figure out if it is NTFS so we know what is going on. On the PC under "My Computer" right click on the external drive and choose properties. There should be something that says "File system". It should be follow by NTFS or FAT32.
One of the things you need to consider is if it is NTFS how it got that way. If it was sold as a PC only drive it might have come NTFS. Did it ever work on the Mac?
Did you have a friend help you with it? If you are playing with DVD images he might have changed it to NTFS. FAT32 can't handle files over 4 gig and DVD images are usually like 4.2gig. If you are using it for DVD images it needs to be NTFS and won't work with the Mac. You could split it into partitions it but that's another episode.
As I said if it's NTFS it needs to be changed to FAT32.
Formatting will cause all the data to go to bit heaven if it was good data. :smile: You need to get the data off the external before formatting.
1. If the PC can see it copy the data from the external to the PC internal hard drive if it will fit. If there is too much data to fit on PC you have a problem. If it fits go to step 2 below.
1a. In that case you will need a second external drive to temporarily store your data. Maybe you could borrow one. You do NOT want to hook up two external drives and copy between them. Sometimes it works but when it doesn't things go very bad fast. Hook up your drive copy a bunch to the PC internal HD. Use "safely remove hardware" to unhook externals. Hook up the second external and copy stuff copied from internal to second external. Repeat as necessary.
2. Then you need to format it FAT32 on the Mac. This is from memory so I hope it's right. Under the icon that is your hard disk -> applications -> utilities -> disk manager
3. Select the external drive on the left and choose erase with it set to MSDOS in the pull down menu in the middle right.
4. Then reverse the copies done in step 1a.
Simple right? Was all that porn worth this? :smile:
It is a Powerbook G4. I do not have any movies on this Hd at all and never have, it is all word documents and pictures. I'm at school here so right now all I have to work with is this Mac. When i plug in the hard drive and go the the disc manager the only hard drive that shows up is the one for the computer and not the external. I haven't checked but I read on an amazon review that this is formatted to FAT32 from the factory. This was sold as a PC/MAC drive.
cosander
Dallas/Fort worth
so the drive only has a usb port correct? That would mean it will need to be powered by the usb port on the g4
you may want to look over this site.
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/powerbookg4/topic3606.html
Nov. 7, 2005
Fernando Urbina
I'd like to address the issue of bus-powered USB hard drives and media readers attached to recent PowerBooks:
A USB port on a PowerBook will provide 500mA to any attached device. If the device draws more than that, then it is violating the USB spec. What is happening is that these devices are indeed drawing more than 500mA. The newer generation PowerBooks will not provide more and thus the device goes into some sort of brownout condition and will not work. In the earlier generation of PowerBooks Apple was more lenient in that regard. As some of you readers discovered, putting a self-powered hub in between the device and the PowerBook might help, if the hub allows individual ports to draw more than 500mA.
These devices are non-compliant with the USB spec.
you may want to look over this site.
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/powerbookg4/topic3606.html
Nov. 7, 2005
Fernando Urbina
I'd like to address the issue of bus-powered USB hard drives and media readers attached to recent PowerBooks:
A USB port on a PowerBook will provide 500mA to any attached device. If the device draws more than that, then it is violating the USB spec. What is happening is that these devices are indeed drawing more than 500mA. The newer generation PowerBooks will not provide more and thus the device goes into some sort of brownout condition and will not work. In the earlier generation of PowerBooks Apple was more lenient in that regard. As some of you readers discovered, putting a self-powered hub in between the device and the PowerBook might help, if the hub allows individual ports to draw more than 500mA.
These devices are non-compliant with the USB spec.
I don't believe it is a formating issue because in the instructions it says it is for both mac and PC. Also, many people seem to have the same problem as me in that link you provided. When i plug the External HD in it doesn't show up in the system profiler as plugged into the USB. It also doesn't show up in the disc utilities. One person recommended the Belkin USB 2.0 4-port hub which is powered externally from the computer. Would this be a good idea to try?
demolition_x
Not After Fame & Fortune
- Location
- Holden Beach / Wilmington NC
your gonna have to format it. i had one i used on windows machine and it would not work with my macbook so i had to reformat the hard drive then it worked like a charm.
call the manufacturer for the hard drive and see what they say it all depends on the format it was set up to run with.
call the manufacturer for the hard drive and see what they say it all depends on the format it was set up to run with.
cosander
Dallas/Fort worth
if it is not showing up, how would he format it?
rasper99
Freighter wake hunter
- Location
- Portland, OR
That's why I asked if something had been done format wise to it since "the factory". Just trying to cover all the bases.
Does sound like it wants more power or something if it works with the PC. If the PC is a desktop the USB ports have more power than laptops. Something about battery life.
If it's a small external there is usually a second cable that is USB on one end and a power plug on the other that you plug into a second USB port for more power. If you didn't have the second "power" cable it would power the disk controller in the ext and show up under USB but wouldn't spin up the drive.
Does sound like it wants more power or something if it works with the PC. If the PC is a desktop the USB ports have more power than laptops. Something about battery life.
If it's a small external there is usually a second cable that is USB on one end and a power plug on the other that you plug into a second USB port for more power. If you didn't have the second "power" cable it would power the disk controller in the ext and show up under USB but wouldn't spin up the drive.
demolition_x
Not After Fame & Fortune
- Location
- Holden Beach / Wilmington NC
i dumped every thing that was on it onto a windows computer and formatted it from that and dumped all the files back onto it once i was done.
If you want use bootcamp and install windows on a partition on your mac then format it from that.
this is assuming that the hard drive works on a windows based machine.
rasper99
Freighter wake hunter
- Location
- Portland, OR
It's all in my post #8.