iBook harddrive won't mount from external usb 2.0

[jap4n]

Hi, can anyone please help...

I have just recently bought an 80gb 2.5" harddrive and taken the old 30gb harddrive out.

The installation of the 80 was a bit tricky but i managed to get it done. I've loaded 10.4 on to it and it works great.

but i've put the original 30gb harddrive into an external USB 2.0 enclosure, and won't mount. The power on the enclosure goes on, and you can feel the disk spinning.. But it won't show on my desktop..

Does apple prevent people from using their harddrives in external enclosures? or have i done something wrong.

I have iBook G4 12" 1gHz

cheers,
j

 

[840quadra]

Hi, can anyone please help...

I have just recently bought an 80gb 2.5" harddrive and taken the old 30gb harddrive out.

The installation of the 80 was a bit tricky but i managed to get it done. I've loaded 10.4 on to it and it works great.

but i've put the original 30gb harddrive into an external USB 2.0 enclosure, and won't mount. The power on the enclosure goes on, and you can feel the disk spinning.. But it won't show on my desktop..

Does apple prevent people from using their harddrives in external enclosures? or have i done something wrong.

I have iBook G4 12" 1gHz

cheers,
j

does this drive come with switches or otherwise to change settings on how it is connected via USB ?

Anyway, have you tried "disk utility" perhaps you can mount it from there?

Applications > Utilities > Disk Utilities.

 

[Eniregnat]

...
but i've put the original 30gb harddrive into an external USB 2.0 enclosure, and won't mount. The power on the enclosure goes on, and you can feel the disk spinning.. But it won't show on my desktop..

Does apple prevent people from using their harddrives in external enclosures? ...j

No Apple dosn't provent people form using their hardware in other machines. I would go with what was noted above. Something else to try is to make sure that the cable is snuggle attached and that you havn't bent or broken any pins.

 

[yenko]

Hi, can anyone please help...

I have just recently bought an 80gb 2.5" harddrive and taken the old 30gb harddrive out.

The installation of the 80 was a bit tricky but i managed to get it done. I've loaded 10.4 on to it and it works great.

but i've put the original 30gb harddrive into an external USB 2.0 enclosure, and won't mount. The power on the enclosure goes on, and you can feel the disk spinning.. But it won't show on my desktop..

Does apple prevent people from using their harddrives in external enclosures? or have i done something wrong.

I have iBook G4 12" 1gHz

cheers,
j

Assuming that you put it together correctly, my guess is there's not enough power from the USB port/hub for that drive. If an external power supply is available, I would consider purchasing one.

 

[jtown]

Assuming that you put it together correctly, my guess is there's not enough power from the USB port/hub for that drive. If an external power supply is available, I would consider purchasing one.

I'll second this. Not all 2.5" hard drives can be powered by the USB port. They may start spinning but they won't always initialize properly because of the voltage drop that occurs when the drive is getting up to speed. I used to use one of those enclosures and only one of my old laptop drives was able to spin up reliably using just the power from the USB port.

 

[jap4n]

hi, thanks for your replies..

i have previously (for the last week) had the 80gb drive in the enclosure, which doesnt require external power -just uses the power over usb 2.0... and used to mount fine.

nope, no switches on the enclosure.. once i connect the drive to the ibook.. the light turns on, and can hear it spin up.. so, power is going to the device.. But its like, OS X won't recognise the drive at all.. doesn't even ask to initialise it.

i've checked the pins and they seem alright.

perhaps it wont recognise an external drive if osx.4 is on it?

 

[jtown]

nope, no switches on the enclosure.. once i connect the drive to the ibook.. the light turns on, and can hear it spin up.. so, power is going to the device.. But its like, OS X won't recognise the drive at all.. doesn't even ask to initialise it.

As I said,

I'll second this. Not all 2.5" hard drives can be powered by the USB port. They may start spinning but they won't always initialize properly because of the voltage drop that occurs when the drive is getting up to speed. I used to use one of those enclosures and only one of my old laptop drives was able to spin up reliably using just the power from the USB port.

As yenko said,

Assuming that you put it together correctly, my guess is there's not enough power from the USB port/hub for that drive. If an external power supply is available, I would consider purchasing one.

It's pretty straightforward. It appears that the old, 30 gig drive needs more power than the newer 80 gig drive did. The drive may be spinning but that doesn't mean it (or the enclosure) was able to initialize properly.

 

[jap4n]

cool thanks a lot

i'll plug some power into it and see if that helps.

cheers,
JAP4N

As I said,



As yenko said,



It's pretty straightforward. It appears that the old, 30 gig drive needs more power than the newer 80 gig drive did. The drive may be spinning but that doesn't mean it (or the enclosure) was able to initialize properly.

 

[jap4n]

hey everyone

thanks for all your help. The problem WAS not enought power!

i bought a 6v PS (even tho the drive is rated at 5v) - the 5v PS wouldnt work..

all my data is now safe! Thanks again, im a very happy mac user right now.