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320 WD External Hardrive not recognized!

J

jamesstewart

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 6, 2009
5
0
Nova Scotia
Hey Guys,
I recently (tonight) bought an external hard drive off some guy tonight, he plugged it into his PC and the lights on the hard drive came on and the computer recognized it.
When I got home, I plugged it into the USB drive on my Macbook, and nothing happens, the hard drive wont turn on, and my disk utility does not recognize the drive. What do I need to do to fix this problem, anybody out there know??
Do I need to formatt this drive? If so, How do I find the drive?
Thanks alot,
 
I am assuming that you have to plug in this drive because it is large, so make sure that it is plugged in.

if your computer does not detect is by just plugging it in, turn of your computer plug in the drive then turn on the computer. this worked for me just last week

once you get it working format it to HFS+ instead of some *****ty microsoft format
 
the drive only has a usb cable, no power supply cable,
i just unplugged it, turned off my computer, plugged it in then turned on the laptop, still nothing...

I heard that since it was being used on a PC I have to go to a pc and reformatt it for a mac? is this true? I am getting frustrated with this shittt!
 
jamesstewart said:
the drive only has a usb cable, no power supply cable,
Click to expand...

Does it have a port for a supply cable? If so, you're missing a cable. That's the most likely explanation.

jamesstewart said:
I heard that since it was being used on a PC I have to go to a pc and reformatt it for a mac? is this true? I am getting frustrated with this shittt!
Click to expand...

No, you have to reformat for Mac using Disk Utility. Once it starts working.
 
jamesstewart said:
I heard that since it was being used on a PC I have to go to a pc and reformatt it for a mac? is this true? I am getting frustrated with this shittt!
Click to expand...

No, it should still be recognizable as read-only even if it's NTFS.

So I take it the drive is supposed to be bus-powered? What are the exact models of the drive and your laptop?

It it's a USB bus powered drive, your USB port may not be supplying enough power. If you have one of the plastic MacBooks (I don't know about the aluminium MacBooks), the rear USB port may not be able to power it since that USB bus is shared among several internal components. Try connecting to the other USB port.
 
Recommend popping on to western digital t register the drive. If you can't get it working you might be able to RMA it.
 
plinden said:
No, it should still be recognizable as read-only even if it's NTFS.

So I take it the drive is supposed to be bus-powered? What are the exact models of the drive and your laptop?

It it's a USB bus powered drive, your USB port may not be supplying enough power. If you have one of the plastic MacBooks (I don't know about the aluminium MacBooks), the rear USB port may not be able to power it since that USB bus is shared among several internal components. Try connecting to the other USB port.
Click to expand...

yes, its supposed to be bus powered. The model of my external is A Western Digital 320 gb passport drive. and yeah i have a plastic macbook haha, OS X version 10.4.11

-still cannot get this working
 
Does the drive come with a Y-cable? Your MacBook should provide enough power to run on only the data cable, but you could try it with the power cable connected as well.
 
jamesstewart said:
yes, its supposed to be bus powered. The model of my external is A Western Digital 320 gb passport drive. and yeah i have a plastic macbook haha, OS X version 10.4.11

-still cannot get this working
Click to expand...

As BlueRevolution mentioned, Western Digital portables often require more power than a single USB port is capable of providing, particularly on MacBooks. Trivia note: I have found that some revisions of MacBooks seem to have more current available at the front-most USB port in comparison to the one behind it, so make sure you are trying both of course.

In the documentation that comes with the drives when they are new it details that-- and that if you do have the problem, you just need to call them and they will provide you with a Y USB cable for attaching the drive to two USB ports. So it sounds like a phone call to Western Digital is in order and they should be able to get you fixed up pretty quickly.
 
Hey Guys, Yes ive tried both USB ports, with still no luck. Ill have to try and find my self a "Y" shaped cable to try it, Thanks.
 
BlueRevolution said:
My Seagate FreeAgent Go drive came with a Y cable (and nothing else). I'd be a little surprised if the WD drive wasn't the same.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is surprising. I bought several WDs since they were on sale and buying them in the enclosures was cheaper than buying the raw Scorpio series drives :)eek:) and the WD drives do only come with a single port connection cable. Like I mentioned, in little tiny type in the owner's manual they mention just calling them if you wind up needing a Y cable and they will send it along.

To the OP, you will probably do fine just calling WD- since the original owner never had need of the Y cable I'm sure they will just log the serial number of the drive and send one along. They are pretty easy about sending them out from my experience.
 
Hey,
so I actually found out my problem, It was a bad cord! even though I've tried 2 different cords, I tried another one today and it fired up, weird sometimes that one day it works the next doesn't.., anyways thanks for all the input.
 
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