I have a Lacie Rugged firewire 800/400/usb HD, and I've tried every possible combination to no avail. My MBP just won't pick up the drive. It does not appear in disk utility either. Even stranger is that when I plug it in via USB, it makes a clicking sound! Surely the sound of a dead drive no? But I've tried it on several other machines and they seem to mount it flawlessly, so I guess the drive works- (for now). So I assume it's a problem with my mac... and I don't know what to do... help!
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MBP won't mount my external HD!
- Thread starter Swift Sketcher
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I had a similar problem with a Lacie 1TB drive with FW800 too ... except my G5 wouldn't recognize it at all and my MBP would. At first neither computer did and it was clicking a lot, so after switching cables, trying every single port, and swithing the entire power supply it started showing up on my MBP. I don't think I ever got the g5 to see it though, but I think you should try plugging it directly into another external drive that yor MBP does recognize and then plugging that into your comp as I think that worked once or twice for me on the G5 (of my memory serves me right). Otherwise I'd just get all the data off that ou can and put it on another drive in case it stops working all together (hence the clicking noise) so you don't lose it.
I had a similar problem with a Lacie 1TB drive with FW800 too ... except my G5 wouldn't recognize it at all and my MBP would. At first neither computer did and it was clicking a lot, so after switching cables, trying every single port, and swithing the entire power supply it started showing up on my MBP. I don't think I ever got the g5 to see it though, but I think you should try plugging it directly into another external drive that yor MBP does recognize and then plugging that into your comp as I think that worked once or twice for me on the G5 (of my memory serves me right). Otherwise I'd just get all the data off that ou can and put it on another drive in case it stops working all together (hence the clicking noise) so you don't lose it.
Well, thankfully I found the solution, in case anyone suffers a similar problem. I tried the hard drive on several other machines to find that it worked fine, so it was just my laptop giving me trouble. I know this also because no other hard drive would hook up via firewire either. So I unplugged my MBP and removed the battery, and let it sit for a while. Upon turning it on and trying the drive again, it worked! So give this a shot if you find yourself scratching your head.
I am having the same problem. I have plugged in two USB hard drives into the new Mac. One of them is plugged into the utility power, and the Mac seems to want to Index the whole drive whenever it's connected. I'm not sure how to turn this off, and I certainly didn't ask for it. I found it running like this, clicking away crazily, after an hour that it was supposed to have been idle. I looked in the OS X Help menu, but the topic wasn't listed, and there's no printed manual that came with the product.
The other drive is also a LaCie version like yours. It starts clicking repetitively and making clunking noises, like the drive mechanism has failed and it won't spin up. Hard drive failure, right? No, because when I plug it into other computers, it spins up just fine. What's going on here? I can't transfer my data if this Mac won't let me into my hard drive!
The other drive is also a LaCie version like yours. It starts clicking repetitively and making clunking noises, like the drive mechanism has failed and it won't spin up. Hard drive failure, right? No, because when I plug it into other computers, it spins up just fine. What's going on here? I can't transfer my data if this Mac won't let me into my hard drive!
Okay, but how do I remove the battery? I turned the laptop over and there is no visible battery ejection switch. I have eight screws on the bottom of the computer, and no instructions on its casing. Help?
Edit:
Okay, I unplugged my printer from the computer and then plugged in the hard drive again. Now it spins up. But, why does that fix it?
I have the pre-unibody MBP, and on those there should be two visible tabs that you can pull down at the same time, and the battery should click out. Don't know if the Unibody ones can do this. As to why it works? No idea. My guess it's some kind of power related problem. It happened to me again, and I think what causes it is removing the drive improperly or setting it to sleep at an odd moment or a combination of the two. But for now, the battery thing seems to work.
Sounds like you have a new unibody with non user replaceable/removable battery. Older unibody's with user replaceable battery have a small lever on the underside that opens up the HDD & battery compartment.
Perhaps both devices are powered via the ports and aren't getting enough power when both are in operation? Not sure about the printer and HDD you have to answer positively.
I figured out the LaCie clicking-drive problem on my end. The USB cable was bad! I threw out the new cable and went back to an old one from five years ago and the drive is working fine now. Of course, the thing that was different when I plugged it into my other computer, but why is this USB cable going bad already?