Help with an External Harddrive

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zanyzach37

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Hey guys, I'm new here. My name is Zach.

I'm a photographer and I need extra storage space, so today I purchased a Maxtor Diamondmax 200GB harddrive and a Silver River R3.5 Enclosure for it. I think I set it up correctly, and I hooked it into my computer, but nothing's being detected. The driver they gave me is on a CD that's one of those really tiny CD's. So I don't think I can even use it with my Mac because I'd have to insert and remove it with a tweezer or something. And I don't want to do that on my brand new Macbook (that I spent all of my savings on, haha).

So.... Do you guys have any ideas? I don't even know if I hooked up the thing right. I attached two different cables from the harddrive to the case. I feel it running and it seems OK but my computer isn't detecting anything.

I'm running v. 10.4.7 on a 2GHz Intel Core Duo, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM Mac Harddrive.

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
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You are correct in thinking that the CD included is a no-go. Plus, it would be more or less useless anyway as most 'driver CD's' are intended for Windows based computers.
What kind of cables did you use and how exactly are you connecting it to the MacBook?
 
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zanyzach37

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D3v1L80Y said:
You are correct in thinking that the CD included is a no-go. Plus, it would be more or less useless anyway as most 'driver CD's' are intended for Windows based computers.
What kind of cables did you use and how exactly are you connecting it to the MacBook?


Well, there were two things that I attached from the Maxtor Harddrive to the Thermaltake case. One was a grey, thin "ribbon-like" cable that had something like 12 or sixteen pin connectors. The other was a smaller cable, which also went directly from the Thermaltake to the Maxtor harddrive.

I've got the whole thing plugged in, and it's attached to my computer via a USB2.0 cord.
 
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Well, from the sounds of it and not being able to see them firsthand, it would sound like you have a serial cable and a power cable hooked into the drive, which would be needed. Both of them can only be hooked up one way, so unless you really had to force them in you should have it correct.
If you have the USB 2.0 cable hooking the drive to the MacBook, try opening Disk Utility and see if you can see the harddrive that way. If you can, you may just need to format it.
 
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zanyzach37

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Hey. First of all, thanks so much for your help.

About Disk Utility... I opened it, and it's not detecting the harddrive. So formatting it isn't even an option. I've powercycled three times, so it's just not showing up.

And the instruction manuals for both devices are completely useless.

*sigh*
 
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Try:

1- A different USB port
2- Restarting your Mac.
 
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zanyzach37

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baggss said:
Try:

1- A different USB port
2- Restarting your Mac.


Did both of those. I've also:

(a) Turned off the external harddrive, restarted the computer, and when it loaded turned the external on to see if it would pop up.

(b) Turned off the computer, turned the external on and then turned the computer back on to see if it would load at startup.

(c) Done both of those tasks using both USB ports.


I really have no idea what the problem would be. Is there an issue with these types of devices and the Macbook, or the new intel core?
 
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zanyzach37

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Okay, I rechecked the connections and now It's showing up in Disk Utility.

But I think I have to format it because it said the drive wasn't readable by the Mac.

Do you know how to do that?

P.S. THANK YOU SO MUCH! :)
 
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Select the disk in Disk Utility and select erase, then select MacOS Extended (Journaled) and click Erase....
 
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zanyzach37

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It worked!

You guys are so awesome!

Thanks so much for all your help! This is a great website and you guys are so incredibly nice and tolerant of dummies like myself, hahaha.

Seriously though, thank you again. I was sweating bullets for a while, hehe.
 
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zanyzach37 said:
It worked!

You guys are so awesome!

Thanks so much for all your help! This is a great website and you guys are so incredibly nice and tolerant of dummies like myself, hahaha.

Seriously though, thank you again. I was sweating bullets for a while, hehe.

I second that "Thank you!".. you all just helped me out too. :)
 

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