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ext hard drive question?
- Thread starter alanhoggard
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No such thing as a USB hardrive. They're either Parallel ATA, Serial ATA or SCSI. External drives have a PATA/SATA/SCSI connector and a USB or Firewire interface.
So long as the external case has the correct internal interface for the hard drive you can use that drive in a Firewire or USB case.
So:
You have (for example) a SATA harddrive in a SATA -> USB 2 external case. You can take the HDD out and put it in a firewire external case so long as that case is a SATA -> Firewire one.
ok
ok, took it out of its usb case and put it into a fire wire case, but now it says "input/output error" any ideas?
ok, took it out of its usb case and put it into a fire wire case, but now it says "input/output error" any ideas?
-alanhoggard
Is it PATA or SATA?
If it is PATA, the older technology, the connector should be big, two rows of about 20 pins. If it is SATA, it's a little "L" shapedconnector.
If I were to venture a guess, you likely have a PATA drive. Check to see that the power and PATA ribbon are connected to the drive, and the ribbon is intact - e.g. no damage. The PATA drive will have an extra little set of about ten pins with one or two little jumpers connects a few pairs. Look at the drive for instructions as to what configuration to put the jumpers in to make the drive a 'Master' drive.
If you have the drive in 'slave' or non-jumped (meaning there are no jumpers, some drives consider non-jumped something called Cable-Select') it may give you this error.
Oh, and be sure the drive is getting power.
??????
Thanks, the drive is showing up in my system profiler and in disk tools, but when i go to partition i get the input output error, should i try jumpering it to be master?
Thanks, the drive is showing up in my system profiler and in disk tools, but when i go to partition i get the input output error, should i try jumpering it to be master?
also
when i turn it on, i get the message "the disc yoiu have inserted is unreadable by this mac"
when i turn it on, i get the message "the disc yoiu have inserted is unreadable by this mac"
also
when i turn it on, i get the message "the disc yoiu have inserted is unreadable by this mac"
when i turn it on, i get the message "the disc yoiu have inserted is unreadable by this mac"
YEs it is formatted, I was using it fine in its original usb case, just very slow, so i am trying to get it to work in a firewire case
thanks
thanks
-alanhoggard
Swapping about HDDs is something I do often, and regardless of USB, Firewire, etc, as long as you have proper ATA connection to the drive, you should be in swap-city.
Ideally, if you pop your drive out of the USB connected case and into a Firewire one, you should be able to see the drive with a Firewire connection and all its creamy goodness - no alterations.
What is happening to you is a bit boggling - you should be able to simply swap.
But there could be things I'm missing - it just occured to me, did you put any mounts screws in yet? You need at least one to ground the case of the drive to the board.
As for the other stuff - can you describe, in detail what you are doing? Have you tried putting the drive back into the USB interface to check its health?
Well, I put the drive back in the usb case and it works, i even partitioned it and renamed it again. Put i back into fire wire case and it tells me the disc is unreadable by this conputer. so i hi partition and it tells me input output error, i am stumped, is it possible that this ext firewire case is only PC compatible?
Thank for all the help
Thank for all the help
-alanhoggard
I suppose it's possible the case is ony PC compatible - but of anything to be incompatible with a Mac anymore, a FireWire device would be at the bottom of the list considering Apple invented Firewire. I would assume it wouldn't be IEEE1394 if it weren't compatible.
Anyway - yes, this is indeed a boggle. Still thinking here. It should work right away. I'm still thinking it's something screwy - like the ribbon cable of the FireWire case is damaged. Have you tried using the ribbon from the USB case with the FireWire one since you know it works?