rchamberlin Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 Hello, I have a WD external USB hard drive that I'd like to be able to access, as it has all of my files and music on it. For some reason it does not show up. It is formatted as NTFS, but so is my XP (internal) drive and I can see it fine. All other USB devices work great (keyboard, mouse, printer, etc. I have searched already, but all I can find are topics about trying to boot OSX86 from external drives, and that's not what I'm looking for. NOTE: I am a COMPLETE Mactard. Today is my FIRST day at it so I know next to nothing. It's a wonder I even got the thing working. Here's my specs: It's an old(er) Compaq S5100NX P4 2.8GHZ 1GB RAM Intel 82845G Graphics (I know about this already, I'm just dealing with the resolution) Anything else you need please let me know. I'd appreciate any guidance. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hecker Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 (edited) You could be the victim of a little mac bug I like to call: "NTFS Phantom Directories". There is a known problem of OSX not being able to mount NTFS partitions. To check, open your Disk Utilites app (Applications/Utilities) and check the list to see if your external drive shows up on the left panel. If it shows up but you can't mount it, then the bug might be the problem. I am not sure if this is an issue with real macs. Use the forum search function to find out more about this annoying bug. I converted all of my drives into HFS+ ever since it started happening to me. I rather not take the risk with buggy NTFS support just now. Hang10, hecker Edited February 16, 2007 by hecker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richtig Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 (edited) The problem relates to the USB controller chip inside the external drive. If you can locate a Mac driver for the chip, it should work. Other than that: replace it with an external drive that works in both Windows and OSX. This "Apricorn EZ-BUS-DT-KIT" unit DOES work (via USB connection) in both OS'es: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=103007 I also own one of these: "AZIO ENC311SU41 3.5in USB 2.0/eSATA" http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=104205 It is NOT recognized when connected via USB in OSX. Even though: the product page indicates that it will. Connection via eSATA does work in both Windows and OSX. Edited February 18, 2007 by richtig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castor Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I also have one WD Passport 120GB USB HDD and it is like yours not recognized. Richtig, the problem with WD is that it is factory sealed and if I change the enclosure to some other I will loose the warranty on both parts - both the drive and the enclosure with PCB. Is there a solution to that bug or not yet? Since the HDD is shown and there are listed specs in the System profiler under the USB section... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac.ro Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 I also have one WD Passport 120GB USB HDD and it is like yours not recognized. Is there a solution to that bug or not yet? Since the HDD is shown and there are listed specs in the System profiler under the USB section... Same here USB Flash Stick 1 Gig, External 250 Gig HD Samsung, External 400 Gig HD Chiligreen, No Name MP3 thingy w. 1 GB RAM on SD Card, all apear in System Profiler as "USB 2.0 Storage Device", but none of them in the Finder or in Disk Utility. All DO work under MacOS on my G5, under VISTA on the Pentium, but none does under MacOSX on the Pentium Box. This happens independently from the format of the Disks - some are FAT32, NTFS, MacOS Journaled. Tried installing some old Cypress Semiconductor drivers: no difference. Any ideas? Do you successfully operate external HDs via USB on your Pentium Macs? Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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