External Hard Drive isn't recognised

Hello all,

Ive just got myself a new Macbook Pro and I'm having some trouble with my Fujitsu HandyDrive 120Gb USB external hard drive.

I used to use it on my old PC and now that I tried to use it on my Mac it doesn't even see the drive in Disk Utility. I had read that I would have to reformat it for use with Macs HFS system so I tried to do it in DIsk Utility and it just doesn't see it.

The light is on on the hard drive so there is power going to it plus you can hear it spinning up. Strangely it alternates between the green light and a green and orange light. I'm not sure what this means but Im sure someone may know.

Ive reformatted the drive on my PC as a NTFS drive and plugged it back in to the Mac and still nothing. Ive also tried it with two different USB cables, still nothing.

I really dont understand why Disk Utility cant pick it up and why its not mounting.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Hey did you ever solve this problem as I have having the same issue.

I've seen a lot of people asking for help on this issue on this forum and other - yet no solutions are posted.... I've found posts even dating back to 2005!

I am having the same issue - Macbook Air with the 10.5.6, won't recognize the Toshiba external/portable HD I've connected to the USB hub - I know the port is working because the power indicator light on the HD is on meaning that at the very least its getting electricity.

I've checked system profiler and it recognizes the hub and the ethernet adapter i have plugged into the hub but not the toshiba HD
Why isn't the Macbook recognizing it? What can I do?

Thanks!

Hey,

I haven't tried this but after reading another forum for another problem I thought this might help. Can but try

You could try formatting the drive on a PC using the Fat32 file system, if the drive is too large (I think over 120gb on XP, but my knowledge on file systems is limited, you can Google it easily) try a program called SwissKnife. Or Google for another program that'll do it. Fat32 can be used on PC or Mac but has restrictions.

Anyway, after the formatting has finished plug it back into your Mac and see if it's recognised. If it is, format it with whichever file system you see fit.

Like I say, just a surggestion, never tried it. Good luck

Gavin