Toshiba 1Tb USB won't work as external HD

[varxx]

The Toshiba USB external hard drive described below is apparently not a good fit for a Mac using Time Machine. It goes into sleep mode on its own and will not wake up for its regular backup duties. I tried every configuration setting I could find, without success. It's no doubt a great hard drive otherwise, but not for use with Time Machine.

Here's the drive that didn't work well with Time Machine:

Toshiba Canvio 1.0 TB USB 3.0 Basics Portable Hard Drive - HDTB110XK3BA

I sent back the Toshiba drive and got a comparable Seagate external drive. It works without any problems.

I have a Mac Mini (late 2012) running Mountain Lion 10.8.2.

 

[tevion5]

Have you formatted it to HFS?

 

[varxx]

Have you formatted it to HFS?

Yes. The drive let Time Machine do a full backup. The problem is that it goes to sleep after a while and TM can't wake it up. As I say, I've tweaked the configuration from the Mac end -- making it so that nothing ever sleeps, for example, just for testing -- but the Toshiba USB hd keeps taking naps.

I think it must be built in to its firmware or something. Others have reported the same thing.

 

[tevion5]

Well then that was one useless piece of tech.