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JTreehorn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 15, 2011
17
0
Chicago, IL
Yesterday, I am happy to say that I picked up a new mini (2.3GHz i7, 1TB). Prior to this, I used a Mac Pro as my desktop computer. I sold my Mac Pro about 8 months ago, but I kept the second hard drive I had loaded into the Mac Pro. This drive held some media and documents. Now I would like to connect this hard drive to my new mini and transfer some of the files over.

I have a sata to usb cable, I tried connecting the drive to the mini and I could hear it spinning up, but I could not get the drive to mount. Based on some reading, I am wondering if the problem was that I did not have the drive's jumpers set to master?

Do I need a different type of setup to get the drive to mount so I can transfer some data?

I am really not sure, this type of problem is far outside of my area of expertise, but if anyone has any advice, I would really appreciate it! Thank you.
 

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,741
153
If you have an external enclosure you can easily use that. They're rather inexpensive and that's the route I'd go anyway.
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
How were you powering the old drive? A desktop drive will draw more power than the USB port can deliver, and the port will shut down.

Get a cheap powered external enclosure for your old drive and you should have no problem connecting it to your Mini through the USB port.

Oh ... and the SATA interface does not have "master / slave" jumpers like the old parallel drives did.


Good luck and enjoy your new Mini ...
 

poloponies

Suspended
May 3, 2010
2,661
1,366
Yesterday, I am happy to say that I picked up a new mini (2.3GHz i7, 1TB). Prior to this, I used a Mac Pro as my desktop computer. I sold my Mac Pro about 8 months ago, but I kept the second hard drive I had loaded into the Mac Pro. This drive held some media and documents. Now I would like to connect this hard drive to my new mini and transfer some of the files over.

I have a sata to usb cable, I tried connecting the drive to the mini and I could hear it spinning up, but I could not get the drive to mount. Based on some reading, I am wondering if the problem was that I did not have the drive's jumpers set to master?

Do I need a different type of setup to get the drive to mount so I can transfer some data?

I am really not sure, this type of problem is far outside of my area of expertise, but if anyone has any advice, I would really appreciate it! Thank you.

You need a power cable also. A 3.5" disk won't run off USB power alone.
 

JTreehorn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 15, 2011
17
0
Chicago, IL
Thanks for your responses everyone. The cable I was using included a separate wall plug power connection to power the drive. It seems I will end up having to buy an enclosure. I was trying to avoid buying one because I was able to borrow the cabling from my job and didn't want to buy an enclosure for a one-off transfer, though I suppose it doesn't hurt to have an extra external hard drive, and I could always sell it when I'm done.
 

motrek

macrumors 68030
Sep 14, 2012
2,613
305
Thanks for your responses everyone. The cable I was using included a separate wall plug power connection to power the drive. It seems I will end up having to buy an enclosure. I was trying to avoid buying one because I was able to borrow the cabling from my job and didn't want to buy an enclosure for a one-off transfer, though I suppose it doesn't hurt to have an extra external hard drive, and I could always sell it when I'm done.

Before you do that, try rebooting the Mini.

I was having the same problem a couple weeks ago. I also have a SATA-to-USB adapter, probably very similar to yours, and no sequence of plugging, unplugging, and/or turning on would get it to mount on my Mac. But it showed up fine after rebooting. Maybe something in the firmware of the chip in the adapter, which is probably the same.
 

JTreehorn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 15, 2011
17
0
Chicago, IL
I did try rebooting the mac, as well as unplugging and replugging in the hard drive in various orders, to no avail unfortunately, though maybe I need to experiment more.
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
What is the output voltage and current rating on the wall power supply? It may be sized to power only 2.5" drives and is way overloaded with the 3.5" desktop drive.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,240
12,388
"Thanks for your responses everyone. The cable I was using included a separate wall plug power connection to power the drive. It seems I will end up having to buy an enclosure"

The older drive you have "in your hand" -- is it a SATA drive?
Can you afford to spend $20-25?

Then, get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ords=usb3+sata+dock&rh=i:aps,k:usb3+sata+dock
(Many items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)

Amazingly easy to hook up and use.
And once you've transferred the files, it can become your backup drive, as well.
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
+1 on the bare drive docks ... they are very useful if you have several old bare drives laying around that you want to use for temporary backup, storage, testing, etc. Most of them will take either 3.5" or 2.5" SATA drives (hard disk or SSD).

I like the OWC Voyager docks (you can get them "0GB enclosure only") and they are available with several interface options. I use the quad-interface as it will connect to any computer I own at the fastest speed possible.

These are the latest models, but I think they still have the older ones too:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTech/Voyager/Hard_Drive_Dock



-howard
 
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