MacPro will not recognize external drive

Light Horse · Jun 22nd, 2009, 11:28 AM

I bought an external drive - Simpletech "espresso" 500 GB - one with a Y USB cable.

I thought it would be plug & play, but my MacPro says "does not recognize" drive. Can't get it to show on list of drives.

Am I missing something? Shouldn't these things just plug and go?

CanadaRAM · Jun 22nd, 2009, 11:32 AM

More into needed

Do the lights come on on the drive enclosure when it is plugged in and turned on?

In Disk Utility, can you select the drive and Partition (format) it?

Did you plug in both USB connectors?

Are you using the USB connectors on a keyboard? (A no-no for drives)

eMacMan · Jun 22nd, 2009, 12:31 PM

Beyond what CR said I have really come to hate USB external drives. FireWire connections seem to be much more reliable.

Y cable means that a single cable is insufficient to power the drive so as CR said plugging one cable into the Keyboard is a no-no. Partly because the KB is already using the available power and partly because the KB port is not powered.

Also you need to test the USB ports on your computer it is always possible one or more of them is dead.

EvanPitts · Jun 22nd, 2009, 12:34 PM

It's won't be "plug & pray", since most devices like this are formatted for NTFS. As CanadaRAM says, go into Disk Utility and see if it shows up there. If so, you will have to delete the existing proprietary Windoze only partition, and replace it with an HFS+ partition, and format it. Then it will be ready for the Mac.

If you need it on both Mac and Windoze - then you can either format it FAT32 (on which there will be file size limitations), or you can create two partitions, and have half for Mac and the other hanf for Windoze...

Some MacBooks have underpowered USB ports, so you will either have to run the enclosure off a wall wart, or use the special Y cable to plug into both USB ports. Normally, if power is a problem, you will get a USB Over Power error box on your screen. So I think the problem is more likely to be formatting...