Snow Leopard and new external HD

I attached a new sata 500 GB HD in a firewire enclosure, with an 800/400 adaptor wire to my new mac mini 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GB 1067 Mhz DDR3 running Snow Leopard 10.6.4. All updates were done yesterday before attaching the unformatted HD to the mini. It just keeps reading the disk, but there's nothing there. I can't get an image to click on for Disk Utility to format it. It read for a half hour last night, and again this morning, it's been 10 minutes and nothing's happening. I tried shutting it off and turning it back on after opening Disk Utility, but still nothing.

I wanted to use this as my backup disk. Ain't a whole heck of a lot of good ATM.

Are you sure you're using the correct 800/400 FW adapter? Also, you might try formatting the drive using USB instead (if the carrier supports it).

chscag said:

Are you sure you're using the correct 800/400 FW adapter? Also, you might try formatting the drive using USB instead (if the carrier supports it).

Click to expand...

firewire 800/400 adaptor worked fine when I moved my old mac HD to the new mini. will try the USB.

ok, trying the USB and it is doing the same thing. does not show as a drive on the desktop, the red red light is on constant, no flicker at all.

That indicates either a bad drive or bad enclosure. I'll guess that it's the enclosure that's messed up. If possible, return it for another and let's see what happens.

I think it is the drive, enclosure worked this morning with my old HD. Figures, I bought this HD new last year and only finally got to try to use it. Probably cheaper just to buy another one than to try to call and ask the supplier to exchange it, ship or drive over there, etc.

Cable adaptors, software, now a hard drive. no rest for the wicked.

If you're sure it's the drive, contact the manufacturer. Most drives are warranted for at least 2 years and some 3 years. Ask them for a RMA and get a new drive. But first, make sure that enclosure is really OK. I've run across too many enclosures that were cheaply made and didn't work right.