Hard Drive Enclosure Issue

[DavoteK]

I've got a media player that doubles up as an external hard drive (2.5" hard drive inside it). This is the media player/enclosure - http://www.futeko.com/products/MP00024.php

When connected to a PC, detected no problem.

When connected to a Mac, not detected and doesn't show up in Disk Utility.

I've done various searches and the majority of them either don't end up checking on a PC or do and get no joy due to the drive being dead.

I know for a fact this drive is fine and I've also got an NTFS driver installed on one of the Macs, even thought it should still detect an NTFS drive even if it can't write to it, so thats a moot point.

Any ideas?

 

[Makosuke]

If it doesn't show up in Disk Utility, the MacOS doesn't think it's an external drive. In case nobody has an answer more specific to your hardware:

1) Does it require any drivers on Windows, or does it just load as a mass storage device?

2) If you open System Profiler with it connected and go to the USB section, what does the drive show up as there? That will at least tell you what the OS thinks it is.

 

[DavoteK]

1) Does it require any drivers on Windows, or does it just load as a mass storage device?

Loads up as Mass Storage.

2) If you open System Profiler with it connected and go to the USB section, what does the drive show up as there? That will at least tell you what the OS thinks it is.

Cheers, will try that after work today and report back.

 

[DavoteK]

Tried looking at the USB option under System Profiler > System Report and nothing. Tried plugging it in and unplugging it, no joy.

Not sure what the next move is

 

[Makosuke]

Well, if it does not show up in the USB tree in System Profiler, the Mac isn't seeing it, period. It's not as simple as missing drivers--even something completely unsupported will show up in that list with at least a product and vendor ID.

Normally that would mean dead hardware, since it's not responding at all, but apparently Windows is seeing it, which is something of a mystery. Are you sure that that particular USB port on the Mac is functioning properly? Does it work with something else plugged into it?

The only other theory I have is that there's some kind of physical incompatibility with the Mac's USB port--maybe it's overdrawing current or something (but even then, I'd expect an error message and for it to show up). Do you have access to more than one Mac to test it on?