Can't Locate new External Hard Drive

[confused.mac]

I just bought a Hitachi USB 2.0 XL1000 external hard drive. The first time I plugged it in, it showed up and opened with time machine. But then Time Machine suddenly quit, so I unplugged the drive and now it won't show up when I connect it-the drive makes the sound that it is working, but then after a while it just turns off again. I am new to this, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jolly Giant]

does disk utility see the drive ?

 

[confused.mac]

No, I went to disk utility and it didn't show up.

 

[Jolly Giant]

are you connecting the drive to your Mac directly or via a USB hub ? have you tried a different USB port and/or cable ?

is the drive showing up in system profiler ?

 

[confused.mac]

Yes, I'm using a usb port and a usb cable. I have not checked in system profiler.

 

[Nameci]

What specific machine are you using? a powermac?

 

[Jolly Giant]

Yes, I'm using a usb port and a usb cable.

have you tried a different cable ? have you tried another USB port ?

 

[confused.mac]

I checked in system profiler, it says there is no devices in the computer.

 

[cube]

Try resetting the PRAM.

 

[Jolly Giant]

additional troubleshooting steps can be found in this support article: USB and FireWire Quick Assist.

also here: If a USB device isn’t working

 

[cocacolakid]

Make sure it's plugged in and restart the computer, see if it shows up again.