6 replies to this topic

[Arez]

I just got my macbook from the apple store and it doesn't recognize my external harddrive(Western Digital - Model#: WD600U017) It worked fine when I had OSx86 on my old HP, but now it won't recognize when I plug it in to my new macbook, I know the USB Ports work, I know the cord works, I don't know what I'm missing here. The harddrive is supposed to work on a mac (box says so) but I can't figure out how to get it to recognize. Please help me.


EDIT: Nevermind, It works now...as long as it is plugged into my USB hub, but any ideas on how to get it to work on its own would be great. Thanks

[INFNITE]

is your USB hub powered? does your external HD run on its own power source?

[Swad]

What is the file format? NTFS? HFS+?

[Arez]

The Hub is powered externally. Right now the drive is powered by the USB connection. But it does have the option for external power.

The file format was NTFS, but I formatted the drive to HFS+ once I got it to read from the hub.

I think I see what your getting at Infnite...

[Arez]

Okay, the issue was that the macbook didn't supply enough power to the drive on it's own, it works fine when it has an external power source. Thanks Guys, I wouldn't have thought to check that.

[-TiLT-]

There are Y-Cables that you can use in these cases (It uses power from 2 USB-ports to have approximately 1000mah as one USB only supplies 500mah, but harddisks often need 600mah up to 2000mah.)

[mac_sm]

Hi, I just bought one of these drives (same Western Digital model WD600U017), and my mac doesn't recognize it either (under OSX), and it keeps giving a ticking sound. The drive is supposed to be self-powered - shouldn't require any external power source. There's no way of formatting the drive, as far as I can tell, because it doesn't appear in the list of drives when running DiskUtility. Any thoughts on this?