External drive and snow leopard

Hello,
My macbook's internal optical drive doesn't work anymore but I have an external drive that I use. Does anyone know if i'll be able to install snow leopard using this? I know that if i tried to format the disk and reinstall leopard it wouldn't work because the USB drivers wouldn't be installed. But...will upgrading work this way too?

Why wouldn't the USB drivers be installed?

Similar Messages

Can I have mavericks time machine on one partition of a WD external hard drive and snow leopard data on another

can I have mavericks time machine on one partition of a WD external hard drive and snow leopard data on another

If you want to and it is so large that it has room (350% is a good estimate for TimeMachine), then use a partition(s) to hold system restore images or bootable clones. Or VM images.
Using SSDs most Mac Pro models can easily hold 6 or more storage devices inside, except the nMP cylinder 6,1's; which do need external Thunderbolt and USB3.
System drive / data / scratch / backup data / backups of system / ....
I recommend a couple system backups, especially when faced with dual boot situations as well as an OS that is still undergoing updates and changes.

External Hard drives and Snow leopard

Many of us here have huge files of images - and many of us store them on external hard drives using eSATA drves.
I have 15 TB of files on external drives, with tens of thousands of clients images.
And, now, it turns out that Snow Leopard cannot work with the Silicon Image drivers that run my external drives.
So, if I update to Snow Leopard, I will not be able to read from or write to my 15 external drives.
That boggles my mind! How can these companies fail to get their acts together and fail to make their systems work with 10.6?
I am afraid that Apple is becoming marginalized in the graphic workplace. CS4 runs faster on PCs - and CS5 is only in the future. And, now, I cannot even see my files if I update to Snow Leopard.
I need a driver that will support fifteen (15) 1 TB hard drives in 3 DATA Opitic enclosure while using Snow Leopard ... anyone else facing this problem?
Dick

Dick, Snow Leopard has only been out for 3 days. It's a little early to decry Silcon Image for not having a driver available. The sad reality is that eSATA support for both windows and mac has always been poor. I've tried MANY times with both systems to convert to eSATA and every time have foudn it unreliable. SI was the best, IMHO, but even that seemed to have problems for me over the long run. It's no excuse but the blame does not lie with Adobe or Apple. Further SI doesn't to my knowedge only makes chips and doesn't market directly to end users, so someone else is responsible for your support, who marketed your eSATA card?
You're posting to an Adobe Photoshop forum about what you know to be an Silcon Image problem.... I know you're looking for other to commiserate with, but you really need to contact SI or the manufacturer of the card.

New Hard Drive and Snow Leopard Upgrade

I'm getting ready to install a larger hard drive in my MacBook Pro. I am also going to install Snow Leopard. I assume that I just boot from the Snow Leopard disk after I install the new hard drive and it will walk me through the installation. Sorry if this is a dumb question. I'm new to Mac.
Also, I have copied my files to an external hard drive. However, will I be able to access my old hard drive if I put it in an enclosure. This will give me access in case I missed something.
Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
Dave

I am doing the same thing... an Apple Authorized Repair facility installed my new drive yesterday. They were supposed to create 2 partitions for me, but failed to do so. Instead, they just cloned my old hard drive over to the new one. This really *****, because Spotlight and System Profiler say that my disk capacity is only 200GB and available disk space 40GB (same as original drive).
What do I need to do to create 2 partitions, one with FAT32 that is 25GB (for both Windows and Chrome OS/Ubuntu) and the other 615GB partition for OS X 10.6?
The important caveat is that my Samsung Superdrive is dysfunctional, as discussed in this long thread.
When I now try to use Disk Utility to Partition the drive, I get the error:
"PARTION FAILED Partition failed with the error: Could not modify partition map because filesystem verification failed"
And when I try to use Bootcamp Assistant to partition the drive, I get this error:
"THE DISK CANNOT BE PARTITIONED BECAUSE SOME FILES CANNOT BE MOVED. Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
Does this mean that Apple Computer has totally screwed me over? First they gave me a faulty Super drive, and then they install a hard drive without properly formatting the partition? What should I do now?

Will Time Machine with Leopard Sync With New Hard Drive and Snow Leopard?

My computer is a 20" iMac that I bought in late 2008. The hard drive had trouble so Apple repaired with disk utility. Week later, more trouble so they did full hard drive erase. Data was backed up on Time Machine, 500GB also bought in 2008. After full hard drive erase, and reinstall of basic software, upon reboot, computer would power on then immediately off. It doesn't get past white screen. They advised a new hard drive install is needed.
A computer friend can install a hard drive just fine for me. However, I do not have the Leopard install disc. He could do it with Snow Leopard but I am scared. I'm afraid because my Time Machine last backup was with Leopard, not snow Leopard. I do not have my application discs with me, they are in storage in another state. Thus, if upon adding replacing hard drive and installing Snow Leopard my computer won't be able to sync FILES and APPLICATIONS from Time Machine because its on Leopard I will have a problem.
How can I either 1)Get a Leopard install disc and do that with the new hard drive install OR 2)make sure that a Snow Leopard install with new hard drive won't prevent my Time Machine from being able to install the saved FILES and APPLICATIONS if I don't have original APPLICATION (ie Aperture, Photoshop) with me? Thanks for any help you can provide.

thetrudz wrote:
A computer friend can install a hard drive just fine for me. However, I do not have the Leopard install disc.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
That Mac should have come with Leopard. If so, call AppleCare. They'll send you replacement discs for a nominal fee.
Once this is sorted out, make a 8-10 GB partition on an external HD or your internal HD, and use the Restore tab of Disk Utility to copy the Install disc to that partition. Then you can boot and run from it instead of the physical disc. It will boot and run much faster, too.
He could do it with Snow Leopard but I am scared.
If he does, and doesn't provide a retail Snow Leopard disc, you must buy one ($29). It's a violation of the license to share software, and you'll need a SL disc to do things like restore a Snow Leopard backup, or the Snow Leopard Apple apps, or repair the internal HD.
Your best bet is to stay with Leopard, at least until you have access to your 3rd-party software discs.
What you can do, however, is borrow his Snow Leopard Install disc (assuming it's a white Retail disc, not a gray one that came with his Mac), and use it to do a full system restore from your backups. That's not a violation of the license, since you don't install or use OSX from that disc; you just use the Installer utility on it to restore the Leopard OSX and all your data from your backups.
See #14 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for details.

Possible to Boot from External Drive with Snow Leopard??

I have a new iMac that came with Mountain Lion installed. My previous Mac had Snow Leopard. I kept that OS drive with all my applications. I've already transferred 99.9% of my stuff from the old Mac to the new one and everything is working fine BUT....
There is one little thing from one of my apps that I need and to get it I need to launch that app from the previous install (on the old Mac). Since I have that old system drive, is it possible connect it via USB and boot from it? I've been trying but haven't had any luck
Can anyone help out?

If the app in question was written strictly for the PowerPC you would need to boot from the Snow Leopard volume as you suggest. Generally speaking you can't run an OS X version that predated the one installed on your Mac when it was built, but there is no harm in trying to boot that OS X version installed on a separate partition.
You may be able to run the app with that HD mounted and available to your iMac as long as it is not strictly for the PowerPC.
I've been trying but haven't had any luck
What have you tried so far?

Installing New Hard Drive and Snow Leopard

I bought a used MacBook Pro with a 100GB drive running Tiger. There's nothing on the drive I want to keep. I have a new 500GB drive that I want to put in the machine and install Snow Leopard. I have no problems physically installing the drive. My question is, when I put the new drive in the computer, do I insert the SL disk before turning on the computer? And will it be an easy install from there? I've done this with Windows, but wasn't sure if the Macs work the same way.

Just insert the disk shortly after you power up. You may not need to, but hold down c while you are starting. You need to make sure that your disk uses the GUID partition table. After you select your language, look at the menus at the top; select Utilities; and start Disk Utility. Select your drive and make sure it uses GUID. If not, go to Partition and change the partition to GUID. Doing so will format the drive Mac Extended (journaled) (recommended). If not, then you can format again. Just use the quick format option if you need to format. After all of this, quit Disk Utility and continue your installation.
Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

Install Leopard and Snow Leopard from an external drive?

Hey guys,
I have a 120GB ext drive and was curious as to if its possible to install Leopard and Snow Leopard from it if I have the DMG's. I guess my main question is how would I setup formatting in Disk Utility?
Thanks!

Set up two 10GB partitions and a third partition for the rest of the drive on the external drive, use Disk Utility to "Restore" the mounted installer DVD to a 10GB partition on the drive.
Plug the drive into a Mac and hold the option key down during boot. Select the installer you wish to use.

I have just upgraded to Mavericks and have been using Time Machine on an external disk with Snow Leopard. Can I continue to backup with Time Machine on the same external disk or do I need a new disk since the operating system has changed?

I have just upgraded to Mavericks and have been using Time Machine on an external disk with Snow Leopard. Can I continue to backup with Time Machine on the same external disk or do I need a new disk since the operating system has changed?

Hi there,
I found that Time Machine in Mavericks will sort it all out for you. You shouldn't need to buy another backup drive, unless you have insufficient space left and can't afford to delete whats on there. It should just work fine.

Using USB drive between Leopard and Snow Leopard

I have 2 USB drives that were formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) on a Leopard Macbook Pro. I have had no troubles when using these drives between Leopard OS machines however when i try to copy files to them from a Snow Leopard machine an error message appears.
Secondly when i tried to copy files from the USB onto the Snow Leopard (Macbook Pro) only the folders were visible and not their content. When I "Got Info" on the USB via Snow Leopard it showed that data space was being used.
Can anyone tell me if Mac OS Extended is the standard Mac format type then why this might occur and hopefully a solution? I would like to upgrade to Snow Leopard but do not want to lose the data on my external drives formatted on Leopard.
I appreciate the brains trust!!

Was the computer that didn't work logged on to the "owner' of the images own account, or were you using a 'guest" log-in, kicks?
If the different computers were set up in a different fashion for such things then it might explain the different behaviour.
Another thing that could prevent a Mac writing to an external drive would be if the external drive itself is formatted with the NTFS file system (common on many windows drives). Unless the mac concerned has additional software installed then it can't write to an NTFS drive. Perhaps the ones that could write have the necessary patches installed?
A final issue may be power. Was this a self powered drive or a bus powered drive? Computers that follow very closely the official USB specs often have trouble powering a "bus powered" drive effectively from a single port. In this case trying a "Y" cable, letting you connect to two USB ports on the same computer, will usually get things working. Some Macs seem better than others in this situation, and even the actual USB port used may make some difference.
Cheers
Rod
Message was edited by: Rod Hagen

I tried to install a new hard drive using Snow Leopard to back up with Time Machine. When I installed the new HD I installed Leopard (10.5) on it and tried to use time machine to restore the backup I had made using 10.6. Kernel panic screen occurred.

I backed up my system using 10.6 Snow Leopard's Time Machine to an external hard drive. I did this because I purchased a new internal hard drive to upgrade my 2007 White Macbook from 80GB to 320GB. When I installed the new hard drive, I installed 10.4 (Tiger) and then 10.5 (Leopard) and once Leopard was in I tried to use Time Machine to restore my backup from 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and received a kernal panic screen directly after the bootup.
The screen had code asking for 10.6, so does this mean that the computer is searching for Snow Leopard? If so, how can I do this? Will a bootable drive with Snow Leopard on it be able to solve the issue or will I somehow need to find a way to wipe out this new hard drive?
-Steve

Booting From Snow Leopard Installer Disc
1. Insert Snow Leopard Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Drive Preparation and Installation
1. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. After formatting is complete quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

Can I have both Lion and Snow Leopard on One Hard Drive?

My problem is I need to run a PowerPC game on Lion which Lion no longer supports. So i thought i could download Snow Leopard back to my Mac and partiition my hard drive in the process as that is the only way i know of to have both Lion and Snow Leopard. I went through the Boot Camp Asistant process and it seems it will only partition Windows 7 to my Mac when i need Snow Leopard. If anyone has any idea how to help me have both Lion and Snow Leopard at the same time on just one hard drive or figure out how to run the PowerPC programs on my Mac (if there is a way around it). The help will be well appreciated!

How To Run Snow Leopard On A New Mac
This does not apply to new Mac Minis or MacBook Airs. When newer models are introduced that also require Lion for hardware support, the techniques described below will no longer work with the possible exception of using Parallels 7.
What has to be done:
Create a new partition on the hard drive.
Get a clone of a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard system. Put the cloned Snow Leopard system onto the new partition.
Step One: Create a new partition on the hard drive
To resize the drive and create a new partition do the following:
1.    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
       After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2.   You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3.    In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4.   Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.
Step Two: Obtain a clone of a Snow Leopard system:
You will need access to a Mac already running Snow Leopard. You will need a 16 GB USB flash drive or an external hard drive to which you can clone the Snow Leopard system from the Mac that has Snow Leopard installed. Alternatives are:
Option One:
Install a new Snow Leopard system onto a USB flash drive. Boot the Mac used for installing with the USB flash drive. Update the flash drive system to 10.6.8 using the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard. Verify that you can boot the Mac with the USB flash drive.
Take the USB flash drive to your new Mac and try booting from it. If it works then clone the system from the flash drive to the newly made partition:
          Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
          Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the USB flash drive.
Option Two:
If you have a large enough external drive you can erase and use, then it would be easier to just clone the entire Snow Leopard system from the source Mac computer to the external drive.
          Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
          Destination means the external drive. Source means the Snow Leopard Mac's internal drive.
After cloning verify that it will boot the source Mac. If so then take the external drive to your new Mac boot with it. If all is well then restore the clone to the new partition on your new Mac:
          Restore the clone using Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
          Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the external drive.
If the above seems too daunting then you might consider running Snow Leopard inside an emulator such as Parallels 7. You are permitted to install a single copy of Snow Leopard inside a virtual machine. You will need to first purchase a copy of Parallels 7 and install it on your new Mac. Create a new virtual machine configured for Mac OS X. You may then install Snow Leopard in the virtual machine then download Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 and update to 10.6.8. Be sure to include Rosetta in your initial Snow Leopard installation. Rosetta is not installed by default rather it's an optional install.

Dual boot drive - Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard - Correct order to load software /apps?

Hi
I want to create a dual boot drive for Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard as some of my hardware (is not supported in Mountain Lion).
I am happy how to do this, I just want to know if there is a correct way to install software and apps.
My plan was to do a clean install of both using two partitions, the larger going to ML and smaller one for SL. I was going to install SL from the DVD and then after updating from 10.6. to 10.6.8 and download ML from the app store and install on the larger partition.
Do I install all the software I use like Final Cut, Aperture, iLife (for Garageband) etc on the ML or SL partition or on both. Also, is there a better way / practise of the order software updates / apps and boxed software should be installed when doing a clean machine install.
Thanks in advance.
Matt

Thanks mende1
So, if I have software I need to use on both ML and SL - for example Final Cut as I have a Canopus AVDC box which is not supported in ML but only SL, do I need to install the same software in both OS?
I usually open apps using spotlight and didn't know if it would software / apps would open if already installed on the other partition?
Thanks again
Matt

I have Lion as my current and main OS. Is it possible to partition part of my hard drive for Snow Leopard?

I have Lion as my current and main OS. Is it possible to partition part of my hard drive for Snow Leopard? I'm good on partitioning but when I insert the Snow Leopard install disk a message tells me I can't run the install program because I currently have Lion installed... obviously. Have I gone about this the wrong way? Do I need to boot the computer using the Snow Leopard install disk instead of my main HD?

Apple will never update that as for the most part it is true, and the fact that they really don't want you to run older OS X versions (for whatever reason).
Now this probably won't work with the next line of MBPs and MBAs that come out. But it is for the current builds.
But as I stated you need one of the lastest builds of SL for it to even boot the system.
It won't work with the retail 10.6.3 DVD disc. That version does not have the correct drivers for the newest Mac's.

I'd love some help trying to figure out why my 2008 MacBook no longer recognizes my external drive and now is not downloading photos from my iphone....?

After many years of having no problems at all on my Macbook, I recently figured I should finally upgrade my OS. I did that about three weeks ago, updating to Snow Leopard (10.6.8). I used Time Machine at least once after the OS upgrade but now Time Machine no longer recognizes the external drive I have used for all these years to back up. The MacBook does not "see" it. (Disk Utility does however.) The computer then also stopped recognizing another La Cie back-up that I have and now... my iPhone cannot download photos? Yikes.
I have, of course, shut down numerous times, used different cables (that worked for some) and the two USB drives. I even used a firewire. Nothing worked. I also tried to "Repair disk" on Disk Utility. It didn't work either, giving me an error (that I didn't save, sorry).
I read many other discussions on the file format of the external drive and of course I'd be happy to reformat the external drives--however, it is obviously a tad nerve-wracking to reformat drives before having an accessible back-up. Suggestions? I do not remember what file format they have but am pretty sure it's not the Mac file system someone mentioned. The drives are a 2009 WD "My Passport Elite" and La Cie 2007 d2 Quadra,
In terms of other hardware available, we do have another MacBook Air but it has started rejecting both drives as well (without the Snow Leopard upgrade). We have an old Dell but it wouldn't have the disk space to help out much.
Any thoughts on the process involved would be welcome. Any ideas on the iPhone rejection would be helpful as well! It is a 30gig iPhone 4 that has 20 or so gigs free (not clear as iTunes says that there are abour 18 Gigs on the phone but 24 free gigs? I may be bad at math but that's 40 gigs...).
I am checking out iCloud but apparently there are only 55 gigs available?
Will be glad to hear any thoughts. Thanks!

Good afternoon Lyssa,
Phew. First of all, thanks in advance...these blogs are always comforting help!
So, to answer your questions: For the age of the hard drive.Well, I added memory a couple of years ago (RAM and hard drive). Being a mom leads me to eat up a fair amount of gigs with photos of my kids and, in fact, I think I entirely replaced the original drive, so it is a couple years younger than 2008 since I did that in March 2010. If there is some way to verify that (whether or not I replaced the entire drive), I'm all ears. I have 311 Gigs free, so it is not a space issue. I verified the startup disk on Disk Utilityand nothing showed up.
Question 1- What formats...
The La Cie is format Windows NT Filesystem 3G ....At the time that I bought it I was still using a PC as well as a Mac and was told by afriend to use this format...
The WD is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I again tried to repair the WD last night and this is the error message: "Error: DiskUtility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
Also, Time Machine tried again to back-up and gave me this error: "Files can't becopied onto the backup disk because it appears to be 'read only'. You may needto repair or reformat the disk using Disk Utility. If the disk can't berepaired, you must use a different disk for backups. Open Time Machinepreferences to select a different backup disk."
Question 2. Other cables...
I used two other cables with the WD and that didn't change anything.
Question 3... Fire Wire from the La Cie
Yes, I used the Firewire cable from the La Cie and it is indeed present, though still not visible in Finder. Since it is not Mac OSExtended I know that I can't use Time Machine with it.
So, in summary...
I can plug in the La Cie and it is functional on the MacBook, visible on Disk Utility but not visible in Finder. The WD drive is not visible and not functional. So we can think it is indeed the WD that is not working.... Also, the iphone photos did, in the end, get downloaded, so it is not something more general.
Causes...
I forgot to mention that there is a "lost+found" file on the WD which apparently points to a UNIX /OS issue?
Some kind of "insurance"?....
I'm curious about how people avoid this kind of issue. You just regularly replace back-up drives and hard drives before problems come up? Time Machine is great and saves many of us from disasters, however, knowing that your Time Machine back-ups are vulnerable makes the whole system insecure. No way to have alarms ring before the drive goes out?
As for ways ahead...
It seems that I ought to be able to copy off of the WD to the MacBook then erase it and reformat it and start over again. However, I haven’t been able to see its contents except on random occasions. If you have any ideas on how to copy the Time Machineback-ups from the WD, again, I'm all ears!
Good afternoon Lyssa,
Phew. First of all, thanks in advance...
So, to answer your questions:
For the age of the hard drive. Well, I added memory a coupleof years ago (RAM and hard drive). Being a mom leads me to eat up a fair amountof gigs with photos of my kids ….and, in fact, I think I entirely replaced theoriginal drive, so it is a couple years younger than 2008 since I did that inMarch 2010. If there is some way to verify that, I'm all ears. I have 311 Gigfree, so it is not a space issue. I verified the startup disk on Disk Utilityand nothing showed up.
Question 1- What formats...
The La Cie is format Windows NT Filesystem 3G ....At thetime that I bought it I was still using a PC as well as a Mac and was told by afriend to use this format...
The WD is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I again tried torepair the WD last night and this is the error message: "Error: DiskUtility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible,reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
Also, Time Machine tried again to back-up and gave me thiserror: "Files can't be copied onto the backup disk because it appearsto be 'read only'. You may need to repair or reformat the disk using DiskUtility. If the disk can't be repaired, you must use a different disk forbackups. Open Time Machine preferences to select a different backup disk."
Question 2. Other cables...
I used two other cables with the WD and that didn't changeanything.
Question 3... Fire Wire from the La Cie
Yes, I used the Firewire cable from the La Cie and it isindeed accessible, though still not visible in Finder. Since it is not Mac OSExtended I know that I can't use Time Machine with it.
FYI...
So, in summary... I can plug in the La Cie and it is “functional” on theMacBook but not visible in Finder. The WD drive is not visible and notfunctional. So we can think it is indeed the WD that is not working.... ALSO,the iphone photos did, in the end get downloaded.
As for ways ahead…
It seems that I ought to be able to copy off of the WD tothe MacBook then erase it and reformat it and start over again. However, Ihaven’t been able to “see” its contents except on random occasions…
Any further thoughts are welcome!

External drive and snow leopard

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