G4 can't see my WD USB drive

skatam1 · skatam1 #1 (**permalink**)

10-10-2008, 08:47 AM

I have a WD Passport 160GB USB hard drive I have been using for almost a year to transfer music from my Mac to my PC. When I origanly partitioned the HD (FAT32) I made a 40GB partition that I was using. Well that was not enough space so instead on moving all of my data to my PC hard drive (increadabily slow to move 40GB on USB2) and re partitioning, I used Acronis disk director suite software to resize my current partition without moving my data. Now I can see and access every thing when connected to my PC but not my Mac. I did run disk utility when connected to my Mac, and it did see the drive, recognized the new 149GB size, let me verify and repair. But it still won't mount. Even after rebooting several times, and removing while powered down and connecting after booted.

Any sugestions???

Thanks

chscag · chscag #2 (**permalink**)

10-10-2008, 02:23 PM

The Acronis Disk Director like Partition Magic edits the drive's partition table when it moves or makes changes to partition size. Something else it does is change cluster size depending on the partition size. It's possible that OS X no longer wants to mount the drive because of that.

May not be a easy fix except to copy all the data off the drive and then use disk utility to erase and reformat the drive to DOS (FAT-32).

Just a caveat here and my opinion... I have used Acronis True Image for years and rely on it for imaging and backups for my PCs and for Linux, but I'm very wary of their other utilities. I'm not saying Acronis zapped your drive's partition table, but it's something to think about.

Regards.

Luminosity · Luminosity #3 (**permalink**)

10-10-2008, 04:32 PM

Try doing this-
Unplug power supply to HDD
Unplug Usb cable From HDD
Restart Mac
Plug in Power Supply
Plug in Usb to HDD

If you pay close attention to the exact way i described it should work. its a problem with WD HDD.

skatam1 · skatam1 #4 (**permalink**)

10-12-2008, 08:49 AM

Thanks for the feedback!

I moved all of the files to another drive. Re-formated drive as FAT32 via Acronis disk director suite software (didn't want the 32G limit). My PC sees it fine, and in disk utility on my Mac sees it but it won't mount

I have tried restarting my Mac but it still doesn't mount. Also for some reason there is no MS-DOS format option in my Mac's disk utility.

????

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skatam1 #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Oct 10, 2008 Posts: 2 Mac Specs: G4 PowerPC OSX 10.2.8	10-10-2008, 08:47 AM I have a WD Passport 160GB USB hard drive I have been using for almost a year to transfer music from my Mac to my PC. When I origanly partitioned the HD (FAT32) I made a 40GB partition that I was using. Well that was not enough space so instead on moving all of my data to my PC hard drive (increadabily slow to move 40GB on USB2) and re partitioning, I used Acronis disk director suite software to resize my current partition without moving my data. Now I can see and access every thing when connected to my PC but not my Mac. I did run disk utility when connected to my Mac, and it did see the drive, recognized the new 149GB size, let me verify and repair. But it still won't mount. Even after rebooting several times, and removing while powered down and connecting after booted. Any sugestions??? Thanks
	QUOTE Thanks

chscag #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Jan 23, 2008 Location: Fort Worth, Texas Posts: 31,974 Mac Specs: 21.5" iMac 2.5 GHz i5, iPad 3rd Gen., 3 iPods	10-10-2008, 02:23 PM The Acronis Disk Director like Partition Magic edits the drive's partition table when it moves or makes changes to partition size. Something else it does is change cluster size depending on the partition size. It's possible that OS X no longer wants to mount the drive because of that. May not be a easy fix except to copy all the data off the drive and then use disk utility to erase and reformat the drive to DOS (FAT-32). Just a caveat here and my opinion... I have used Acronis True Image for years and rely on it for imaging and backups for my PCs and for Linux, but I'm very wary of their other utilities. I'm not saying Acronis zapped your drive's partition table, but it's something to think about. Regards.
	QUOTE Thanks

skatam1 #4 (permalink)
Member Since: Oct 10, 2008 Posts: 2 Mac Specs: G4 PowerPC OSX 10.2.8	10-12-2008, 08:49 AM Thanks for the feedback! I moved all of the files to another drive. Re-formated drive as FAT32 via Acronis disk director suite software (didn't want the 32G limit). My PC sees it fine, and in disk utility on my Mac sees it but it won't mount I have tried restarting my Mac but it still doesn't mount. Also for some reason there is no MS-DOS format option in my Mac's disk utility. ????
	QUOTE Thanks

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