Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Hard drive not recognized - Macbook or Powerbook - Internal or External

J

jwillgoesfast

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 16, 2009
22
0
I have tried troubleshooting, searching this forum, & googling to no avail. I'm hoping someone smarter than me can figure this out.

Short Version:
Purchased this hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148073
and purchased this external enclosure:
http://www.meritline.com/usb-hard-disk-enclosure-black-25---p-22596.aspx

when I plug it into my macbook, PC, or a powerbook, the disk is not recgonized, I can not get Disk Utility to even recognize that the hard drive exists. I thought it may be a bad drive, so I sent it in to Seagate Warrenty, they sent me a new one and I'm still having the same problem. Does anyone know how I can format the drive or any way I can get it to be recognized?

Longer Version:
My powerbook crashed, so I purchased this HD to replace it. I installed the 1st seagate and when i went to install OSX and said select destination drive, there was none there to select. I was able to repair the original HD so I reinstalled it and went to install OSX and it DID show the drive to install it on, so I don't think that it is the computer/motherboard. Then I sent in for the 2nd seagate, tried getting it to work with the external enclosure and installing internally in the powerbook, etc. nothing seemed to work.

I am wanting to install the new drive in the powerbook as the old drive is on its last leg (but currently works). Every thread i have searched for that was similar, there was no solution that I could use.

Thank you for any help.
 
As you might have noticed, the drive you bought is an S-ATA drive (kind of connection), but the PowerBook and HDD enclosure use an P-ATA (IDE) connection.

So those are incompatible with each other.



IDE vs SATA

sata-ide-laptop-hard-drive.jpg
 
That may explain why it doesnt work in the external enclosure. I will try that jumper configuration w/ the external when I get home. As for when it is installed internally, The plug on the laptop actually covers the jumper pins, I assume this is for "Cable Select", which I would also assume would "select" it to master...

thanks
 
also, if i run the command in terminal to view all drives, it doesn't show up there either.
 
So it didn't work setting the Jumpers either to Master, Cable Select or Slave?

Do you have a digital camera at hand (no mobile)?

If so, are you willing to make some shots of the drive (where the cables go to), the PowerBook (where the drive sits, but with out the drive) and then again with the drive?

I'm at wits end.
 
sure, I'll try to get some pictures posted by tonight. Like i said before, every other thread i find similar to this problem, the thread just dies, no resolution to the problem, or they just go back to the old drive or they just stop posting and i guess just give up.
 
Perhaps you could find a friend who would loan you another drive which he/she is sure works. Then if you can't get it to work anywhere we know it's either the way you are connecting the drives or somehow the drive controllers are fried in your computer and your external enclosure.

If you can afford it you could also go to Newegg and buy the least expensive drive to test. It is very rare, but it can happen that you would get two bad drives in a row.

Mooch
 
Try your current drive in external. Boot from optical cd to see if disk utility can see it.

Probably bad external enclosure.

jwillgoesfast said:
sure, I'll try to get some pictures posted by tonight. Like i said before, every other thread i find similar to this problem, the thread just dies, no resolution to the problem, or they just go back to the old drive or they just stop posting and i guess just give up.
Click to expand...

They are almost always just some basic problem that is overlooked by hardware newbies.
 
Moocher said:
Perhaps you could find a friend who would loan you another drive which he/she is sure works. Then if you can't get it to work anywhere we know it's either the way you are connecting the drives or somehow the drive controllers are fried in your computer and your external enclosure.

If you can afford it you could also go to Newegg and buy the least expensive drive to test. It is very rare, but it can happen that you would get two bad drives in a row.

Mooch
Click to expand...

I was able to repair the old drive through disk utility, and when I put it in the external case and plug it into my macbook, it recognizes it and I can read/write to it like normal. the same when i plug the original drive into the powerbook internally. I am not doing anything different from the original drive to the new one when trying it either internally or externally. It would stink if it is just bad luck that I got 2 drives in a row that were faulty. Is there any way to force a format of a drive?
 
Consultant said:
Try your current drive in external. Boot from optical cd to see if disk utility can see it.

Probably bad external enclosure.



They are almost always just some basic problem that is overlooked by hardware newbies.
Click to expand...

I think I tried this before and it showed up (the old drive externally). Is there a way to "hack" into the drive on a PC/windows. I have never been able to view the drive to make any changes/format it, but could it have come from the "factory" with some sort of format that mac wouldn't recognize that maybe PC would?

thanks for the help guys.
 
Well, still no luck. ended up installing the old hard drive, hopefully it still has a year or so of service left. don't know what to do with the new hard drive, should i ebay it and say i can't get it to work in a mac?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back