External Hard Drive

[teapot]

Hi Guys and Gals
Ive just bought a new WD 500GB USB2 hard drive for storage. Before I send it back could anyone tell me if I am missing something stupid?

I have followed the instructions (such as they are)
1.plugged in power supply and connected
2.Plug in USB lead and connected
3. switch on
4.nothing hapened
now even I could follow those rules they're too Mac
I have replaced the USB lead with a NEW one,good job I live next door to a computer shop.
I get a green light for power The disk is spinning (Ican hear it just)
Am I doing something stupid???
No it is not showing in either System profile or disk utility and I am connecting to a working USB port

Cheers all
Teapot
10.4.6
dual 2.5 powermac
2G RAM

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

no you're not missing anything, should have just 'popped up' on to the desktop !

Have you tried rebooting whilst the drive is plugged in, to see if it catches it on boot !

regards

Ric

 

[teapot]

Hi Ric
Yep I tried yjat I just it's going to have to go back
Thanks anyway
Teapot

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

no problem, when you get the new one, after you have plugged it in, and hopefully it mounts as it should...

Go to disk utility and reformat it as "Mac OS Extended Journaled", most drives come formatted as NFS or Fat32, always best to reformat first.

regards

Ric

 

[searay345]

Hey teapot, I had the same problem on a Mac running on Panther. But the same drive works fine in tiger. I see you have a western digital drive. In my opinion, WD's are not the greatest drive in the world. All my computer friends (Both mac and PC) are in agreement on that. WD's have a hard time mounting, even on PC's. They also tend to have short life spans. I had a WD and it exploded. My friend's drive did as well. I have a 300 GB Seagate external drive, and it works fine on my Mac. It's even formated in NTFS. Remember, I am just telling you my experiences with WD HD's. I hope I don't sound too naggy/bossy.

 

[teapot]

Hi Searay
Thanks for your input. I think I am not going to have a happy relationship with WB. My other external is a Formac and I had a few tewthing troubles with that.
Teapot

 

[rpphoto]

I'd agree with others on the WD problem. I have five backup drives, and the only one that has a hard time mounting in Tiger is the WD; it randomly disconnects and disappears from the desktop. Western Digital tech support told me to disconnect the power and usb or FireWire cord, wait 20 seconds, then reconnect the usb or FireWire cord, then wait 20 seconds and reconnect the power supply. A major pain to keep it working. My other drives are a variety of other brands, and I've never had a problem with any of them.

 

[teapot]

Thanks for all you interest guys. I have decided as it is almost impossible to get in touch with DABS.com I have demanded a fiull refund and shall get another Formac.
This just seemed to fit nicely on the desktop
Teapot

 

[searay345]

Hey Teapot, I have never heard of Formac before. It looks like it is a UK compnay/brand. Do you know if this is something you can buy in the States? Is it reliable? I need another storage device. I don't know anything about this.

Thanks Teapot!

 

[teapot]

Hi Searay
I think Formac ies ither Dutch or German [SIZE=-1]www.formac.com
I have a 300GB firewire disk. Apart from the first 4 or 5 months when I had a noisy fan it has been absolutely fine. At first I thought the fan had stopped but if I put my a bit nearer I could hear it. My only real critisism is they are a little in the large side. 11inches by8inches but only just over an inch deep. I see no reason why they should be available Stateside, their monitors are really quite good too.
Teapot

[/SIZE]

 

[searay345]

Thank you for the info Teapot!

Searay