Setting up an Acomdata External hard drive

I have a 320GB USB 2.0 external hard drive made by acomdata that I purchased when I still had a PC. Now I have a Mac Book Pro but it will not recognize the hard drive. It opens the 'CD Part' but not the 'HD Part' which is what I need. The Disk Utility will not even recognize it so I can not format it on my MacBook Pro. I plugged in a PC and to try and format it. The PC picks up the Hard drive but will only allow me to Format it using NTFS file system which is useless on my Mac. Do I have to partition the drive and, if so, how do I do that? Any other ideas? I am really hoping to use my external hard drive on my Mac. Thanks!

You say it opens the CD part. What is the CD part?

I have really never had a USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800 external here that would not at least show up under Disk Utility. I have an Acomdata here and it works fine.

Explain the CD part.

The 'CD Part' contains the nomad files and the autorun files (which only seem to work on a PC). However, all of the programs are made for PCs only (.exe for example). I have looked through all folders for any that might work on a mac (.dmg) but there are none. The user guides are also located on that partition but they user guides only say to format it. Even this 'CD Part' does not show up on the Disk Utility. I would guess that this partition contains all the built in software which automatically work when I plug it in a PC. Hope this helps.

If your MBP can open the "CD" portion of the Acomdata drive, then Disk Utility has to "see" the drive. So I'm not sure I completely understand what you're trying to tell us about the drive? You should be able to erase the drive and reformat it for your Mac.

Mount the drive, run Disk Utility, take a screenshot and post it here.

Regards.

chscag said:

If your MBP can open the "CD" portion of the Acomdata drive, then Disk Utility has to "see" the drive. So I'm not sure I completely understand what you're trying to tell us about the drive? You should be able to erase the drive and reformat it for your Mac.

Mount the drive, run Disk Utility, take a screenshot and post it here.

Regards.

Click to expand...

Here is the image with the CD Part on the desktop yet the HD does not show up in the Disk Utility, only the MBP's HD and DVD do.

/Users/Marcel/Desktop/Picture 1.png

Hope this helps,
Thanks

The last one disappeared. Let's try this again.

OK. Thanks for posting the screen shot.

It appears Disk Utility only "sees" the first partition on the drive. For some reason the second partition on that drive is not seen.... it could be because it's "hidden" or the partition table is corrupt. Here's what I suggest:

Hook the drive to your PC. Wipe it completely using Disk Manager (delete the partitions) and then format the entire drive as one partition to NTFS or you can leave the drive unformatted. After that, attach the drive once more to your Mac and open Disk Utility. Disk Utility should then "see" the drive as one 320 GB partition (entire drive). You should now be able to erase the drive and format as HFS+ or FAT-32, your choice.

Regards.

I tried what you suggested using Disk Management on the PC. It does 'see' both partitions, but it will not let me format or delete the 'CD Part'. I did a complete format of the HD using NTFS but my MAC's 'Disk Utility' still does not see it. Looks like I'm stuck again.

Go to the terminal window and type df -k See if the Acomdata shows up at all. Should be something like /Volumes/Acomdata or something similar. I would add that my Acomdata 320GB external has never shown up on any of my Mac's while connected via USB. I must use Firewire for it to be recognized.

I found this one their web site:

Q: I see the locked “CD PART” drive inside “My Computer”, but I’m not finding the “HD PART” drive. How do I make the HD PART show up?

A: You will want to double left click on “CD PART”. It should either open up the Log in window where you will be able to type in the password and get access to the drive, or it might open up the contents of the partition. If it gives you the Log in window, select "Login" on the bottom left and type in the default password (12345). Once you do this you'll be able to see the "HD PART” drive inside the "My Computer" icon.

If it opened up a window showing the contents of the drive, you'll want to double-click on the file called "ONSPCLCK". It is an icon that has a yellow key with a black lock behind it. This is the icon that forces the Log in window to open up. Once it opens repeat the steps up above to log into the drive.

AcomData: USB 2.0 HD Support Page

Interesting info XJ. Also very strange about your Acomdata not showing up on your Mac using USB. I have an older Acomdata USB2.0/FW400 case and it works on my Macs both ways. I wonder what is up.

I hope what you found helps the OP!

It is odd, dtravis. Especially, since when I have both USB and Firewire plugged in, the Acomdata works well as an external HDD and USB hub. Weird stuff to be sure.

XJ-linux said:

Go to the terminal window and type df -k See if the Acomdata shows up at all. Should be something like /Volumes/Acomdata or something similar. I would add that my Acomdata 320GB external has never shown up on any of my Mac's while connected via USB. I must use Firewire for it to be recognized.

Click to expand...

I did what you suggested and I attached what happened in terminal. I really don't know what any of it means.

As for your second suggestion (Double click and choose icon with key to start up login screen) that only works on a PC as that particular file is a '.exe' file thus my Mac does not do anything with it. Thanks for the help.

Last thing I can think of (for now) is to reboot via your start up or retail OS X DVD with the Acomdata attached. Try using disk utility within the start up program. After you select the language, you will see the familiar menu bar along the top of the screen. Scroll through the items until you find Disk Utility and select it. Then see if it finds the Acomdata. If it does, select the Acomdata, click on the partition tab and select 1 partition and HFS+ journaled. Make sure you click the "options" button and select the GUID option. Then click apply and enter a password of prompted. That's all I can think of for now - Google is smarter than me and probably has the answer out there somewhere - we just need to find it.

XJ-linux said:

Last thing I can think of (for now) is to reboot via your start up or retail OS X DVD with the Acomdata attached. Try using disk utility within the start up program. After you select the language, you will see the familiar menu bar along the top of the screen. Scroll through the items until you find Disk Utility and select it. Then see if it finds the Acomdata. If it does, select the Acomdata, click on the partition tab and select 1 partition and HFS+ journaled. Make sure you click the "options" button and select the GUID option. Then click apply and enter a password of prompted. That's all I can think of for now - Google is smarter than me and probably has the answer out there somewhere - we just need to find it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for getting me to dig on google more. After a lot of looking I found the simplest solution ever and maybe it will fix your solution as well instead of having to use a firewire. I had a password set-up on my hard drive when I used it on my PC. All I did was used my PC and disabled the password, unplugged the HD and plugged it in again to finalize the process. My HD shows up on my Mac no problem now. The solution is always to easy. Thanks to everyone for the help.

NewWithMacs said:

Thanks for getting me to dig on google more. After a lot of looking I found the simplest solution ever and maybe it will fix your solution as well instead of having to use a firewire. I had a password set-up on my hard drive when I used it on my PC. All I did was used my PC and disabled the password, unplugged the HD and plugged it in again to finalize the process. My HD shows up on my Mac no problem now. The solution is always to easy. Thanks to everyone for the help.

Click to expand...

You're certainly welcome - but - it would have been an easy fix for most of us to suggest if you had mentioned the fact that you had a password setup on the hard drive to begin with.

Now you know why folks who work in tech support pull their hair out trying to help callers. It's important to include ALL information when asking for help.

Regards.

chscag said:

You're certainly welcome - but - it would have been an easy fix for most of us to suggest if you had mentioned the fact that you had a password setup on the hard drive to begin with.

Now you know why folks who work in tech support pull their hair out trying to help callers. It's important to include ALL information when asking for help.

Regards.

Click to expand...

I agree ... never thought about it. Sorry about that. My bad.

Glad it worked out! Kudos for the fix.