Unmountable Lacie 60GB USB Drive

UAEMac · May 11th, 2005, 02:09 PM

I have recently purchased a 60GB Lacie USB drive to use with my PB 1.25 Ghz laptop. When I plug the drive into my laptop it won't mount! It is powered, I just can't see it.

I have tried the drive on my office Windows machine and my office PC sees the drive, no problem. (Therefore there is no problem with the USB cable) I have plugged my memory stick into the same USB port on my laptop and my computer can see the memory stick without a problem. Hence, I have confirmed that the USB port is working.

Does anyone know what the problem could be??? Frankly, I'm pretty stumped.... Does anyone have any ideas for me?

Thanks,
Brent

Vexel · May 11th, 2005, 02:13 PM

Have you tried looking in Disk Copy? To see if the drive shows up there to be formatted? Also, Make sure you're plugging it into the USB2 Port, have you tried both?

UAEMac · May 11th, 2005, 02:18 PM

I've tried to find the drive using disk utility... No go... System profiler doesn't see it either.

I am definately plugged into the USB 2.0 port.

Vexel · May 11th, 2005, 02:21 PM

Very Odd indeed. Have you tried it on any other Mac's?

Bighead · May 11th, 2005, 03:41 PM

Just a thought...are you using a USB hub on this computer?

Craig · May 11th, 2005, 05:21 PM

Hi Guys,

I am having a similar problem with a Maxtor 80gb external drive. It has been working fine, showing up on the desktop everytime it gets plugged into my G4.

Last week, when the upgrade to OS10.3.9 came out, I installed it, and since then, when I plug the Maxtor drive either into the USB hub, or directly into the USB port on the back of the G4, it won't show up. It does, however, show up on the System Profiler>Hardware>USB.

It works on my Windows machine fine, so I know it is not a problem with the device or the cable.

If anyone figures this one out...please let me know...

Thanks,

Craig

Owning a Mac is like owning a Bently...now if only I could afford the Mac!

Vexel · May 11th, 2005, 09:39 PM

I think there is a serious bug with USB2 devices in 10.3.9, My iPod wouldn't work, it even gave me the "unhappy ipod" sign. But.. when I upgraded to Tiger, the damn thing worked perfectly. I don't know the root of the problem, but it seems to be happening to quite a few, and not for all. I don't know that it would be an easy problem to fix either. I even clean installed 10.3.4 and it still wouldn't recognize the iPod. However, when I installed Tiger, everything was like it never happened. I would see if you can take it to another Mac, with Tiger and format it. If you have the option to do so. Otherwise.. I don't know what to tell you.

Thom · May 11th, 2005, 10:31 PM

Download the LaCie Update Tool v1.3.2 from
http://www.lacie.com/support/drivers. It permits you to determine whether
drive is up-to-date.

UAEMac · May 12th, 2005, 12:04 AM

I am not using a USB hub, however I'm starting to think that I should give one a try! Who knows what might make this thing work!

I have tried to use the Lacie updater, but it won't work as my laptop won't even see the hard drive. As a result, the updater can't see it either.

I'm planning to upgrade to Tiger on the weekend. Maybe this will solve my problem.

Strange, strange, strange.....

UAEMac · May 12th, 2005, 01:58 AM

I've finally found some information on this problem from the Apple support site. Evidently the AL PB USB bus is a little low on power. Therefore, many, many USB 2.0 devices are not working on the PowerBook. Looks like I'll have to invest in a powered USB hub to make this drive work. I wish I had known about this before buying the drive -- if I had, I'd have purchased a FW drive...

Quick question... If I purchase a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card, will this card be sufficiently powered to run the drive? The PCMCIA card is a little easier to work with (ie: on an airplane) than a hub.

Thanks,
Brent