Just purchased a used portable USB drive which is bus powered USB. I see the drive light go on when connecting USB, but no sign of mounting. Disk Utility doesn't see it either. Any suggestions to get the drive mounted? The drive mounts on my G5 without a hitch, but nothing shows on my Powerbook.
Last edited by csonni; Oct 18th, 2005 at 09:56 AM.
It's a 1.33 ghz. I believe it does. Mactracker states that my USB has 2 ports at 480 MBits/sec. That's USB 2.0- right? I notice that when removing the connection on my G5, I hear the drive quickly spin down. Not so with my PB. I can't even hear the drive spinning when hooked up to the Powerbook, other than a slight ticking. With the G5, I can hear clearly that the drive is spinning. Is there an issue with Powerbook USB ports not fully powered?
Last edited by csonni; Oct 18th, 2005 at 10:16 AM.
Just found this stated at www.macox.com: "The PBG4 does not provide enough power through the built-in USB ports for some external USB hard drives. You will need to connect through a self-powered USB hub. A FireWire case would be a better choice."
Is this right? If I knew that, I would have considered other options for a portable device.
Just found this stated at www.macox.com: "The PBG4 does not provide enough power through the built-in USB ports for some external USB hard drives. You will need to connect through a self-powered USB hub. A FireWire case would be a better choice."
Is this right? If I knew that, I would have considered other options for a portable device.
Well that is a new one on me. Good to know, a little late for you I guess.
Cheers
Went over several procedures with an Apple Tech. Reset vram, reset all and reset Power Management, all with no success in getting USB ports to work with drive. Since it works with apowered hub, he concluded that was my alternative, or send it in to an Apple Service Provider, of which we don't have within 500 air miles.
Update: Since I had a special cable included with the drive (one into two), I tried connecting the 2 USB connections to both ports (1 to each) and sure enough, the drive was able to mount. Unfortunately, I had to use my hub (unpowered) so that the 1 to 2 cable could reach both ports on my PB. Not the best, but it works. Apparently, 1 USB port is not enough to power up this drive. I think I'll go FW.
I had a similar problem a couple of weekends back when I had an opportunity to buy a 60 GB USB 2.0 mini drive at a computer show here in K-W for $100.
On the Saturday, the seller was trusting enough to let me take it to the Carbon K-W booth to give it a try, but it didn't show up on the desktop of their 15" Powerbook which is somewhat newer than mine. The seller thought it might need to be powered to work, but then couldn't get it to mount on his PC either. He said he had more of the same and would bring one back on Sunday, so I agreed to return with my Powerbook the next day.
On Sunday afternoon, his wife told me he'd been too tired when he got home on Saturday night so didn't look. Another booth had the same 60 GB for $5 more so I asked if I could try it with my Powerbook. The light on the little drive was turning green, but it was not showing up on my desktop. I didn't get a chance to try it with a powered USB hub, so I gave up and left it there. Afterward, I wondered if it would have worked if it had been reformatted. It would have been a handy addition to my computer bag.
I plan to buy a 2.5" laptop drive and a 2.5" Firewire enclosure so that I can build my own sometime in the future.
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