Help a noobie

I've got a Mac laptop running OS X 10.4.1.1. Today I ran over to Costco to load up on presents (for myself and the family hehe).

So, I picked up a SimpleTech 160 gb hard drive, a digital picture frame, and a new Sony DCR-SR46 camcorder.

I can't get a single one of them to work. I've been reading and found that there are issues with the camcorder and imovie, as the camcorder doesn't have a firewire port. Any workarounds at all? Even if I can't use imovie, can I at least get the movies over to the computer?

As far as the hard drive and picture frame go, they aren't recognized at all when I connect the usb port. Any ideas at all? I'm ready to take them all back and get my money back, but that's not the answer I want.

Thanks in advance for any help.

What model Mac are you using? Firewire is the go for pre Intel models as PowerPC machines cannot boot external drives from USB2. Has the drive been formatted to Mac OS Extended via Disk Utility as most drives are PC formatted when purchased?

Not a good day it seems.

As for the Simple Tech 160 GB drive, I bought the same one at Costco and am using it right now. You need to re-format the drive as it comes pre-formatted to NTFS. Follow the instructions to do the erase and format as given in the Mac portion of the Simple Tech instructions. Once re-formatted to either HFS+ or FAT-32 it'll be recognized.

I can't give you much help with the Sony Cam Corder except to say that it should work via the USB connection. Are you saying that iMovie can not import video from the Sony?

Regards.

I have a Sony camera as well. I never could get it to hook up through the USB connection. Had to use a Firewire connection. I'm pretty much a Mac nOOB, though. Some of the gargantubrains around here may know how....