External Harddrive

Kemik · 1 Jun 2008 at 12:28

Hello,

I have an external harddrive (IcyBox with WD HDD) which I want to format and use for time machine. However, when I plug it in via USB it doesn't show up in the finder, on the desktop or in the disk utility application.

Do you have any suggestions? I can see it if I connect it to my Windows pc but I cannot format it to FAT32 as it's bigger than the 32GB Vista limits FAT32 partitions too.

MagicBoy · 1 Jun 2008 at 13:54

Does system profiler see the USB device attached?

Spyhop · 1 Jun 2008 at 14:08

What state's the drive in now. Unformatted?

theheyes · 1 Jun 2008 at 15:19

^ lol@sig wush

Sounds like it's unformatted. Open up disk utility and see if it shows up in there. I think Time Machine requires HFS but check before you format.

Doug · 1 Jun 2008 at 20:05

Format it to NTFS on your windows box, just to make sure that's not the problem - OS X will at least be able to read NTFS.

I'd say to take it apart and check the connections, but you say it works fine under windows... I've had some bother with USB enclosures in the past, give us some more details of your system and the enclosure/drive model numbers, in case anyone has experience with the same hardware.

Kemik · 1 Jun 2008 at 20:19

Fixed. The problem was that there are two ports inside the case. You can only use either USB or eSata at any one time. If you wish to change it you need to open the case and manually switch the SATA cable to the other port.

Silly design flaw. Think I'll be investing in a small NAT.

Thanks anyway guys.