Mac OS X - Problem with FireWire Hard Drive Recognition

Hoping for some help:
My computer is misrecognizing one of the partitions on my FireWire external hard drive (LaCie Porsche 250GB). Two partitions appear correctly on the desktop but the one I have reserved for Time Machine is showing as a 1G iPod. I'm baffled and can't figure out how to fix this. Any ideas? iTunes 7 even put it in the source list with that icon, but it hasn't done it since. How do I force the computer to see it as a FW hard drive partition and not an iPod? If a screenshot will help, let me know.
Thanks!

Thank you, I appreciate the well wishes. I'm hoping for same!
Here's a screen capture if that helps anyone. You can see the "Time Machine" label with an iPod logo above it right under the other two partitions.
As for iPod links possibly causing this, I suppose it's possible. I have a black iPod video almost always connected (as you can see in the capture) and at times will have a 2G iPod mini connected as well. The thing with the partition just now happened, though, after a couple months of my current set-up.

Similar Messages

Problem with FireWire Hard Drive and JVC MiniDV Video Cam

I've been running my iMac with a 1 TB WD MyBook Firewire drive and it has been working fine.
I just purchased a JVC GR D850 miniDV camera. I hooked the camera up to the second FireWire port on my iMac and, initially, the import of the video from the camera into iMovie was ok (video being saved to the external firewire drive). After a couple of minutes, I got a warning that a device had been disconnected improperly, apparently the firewire drive just disconnected itself from the machine. I rebooted everything and once again, as soon as I turned on the video camera the drive disconnected.
After that, the iMac won't even recognize that the video camera is connected, and when I checked the little bit of video that had been saved on the drive it was unusable. Completely choppy.
Am I dealing with a problem of too little power/memory on this G5 iMac?

You don't specify which model iMac you have, but 2 GB should be enough to handle a video download. Can you try connecting the camera to another computer to see if it is faulty?
Also, have you tried connecting the camera to the port that you have the MyBook in?
Try resetting the SMU and see if that helps. Please post back with results,

Mac Pro Early 2008 problems with firewire 400 drives

I am having some sporadic problems with firewire 400 drives and am trying to figure out my best options going forward. System 10.5.2 has hung on me twice in the first week of use, and each time I noticed from console there were some problems accessing one or more of these drives (even though I wasn't doing any reads/writes to/from them). Just before one of the crashes, Disk Utility also had problems "seeing" these drives. My external firewire drives are:
Maxtor OneTouch III 750GB
Acomdata enclosure/Seagate 400GB
LaCie d2/160GB
LaCie w/Lightscribe DVD
I have this "cobbled" arrangement because I just upgraded from an eMac and needed these drives to manage video files, audio files, photos, etc. While I'd love to go out and buy new internals to install in my spare bays, and migrate the data to them, I will have to do that in stages as my budget is tapped out at the moment. My MacPro is the base version of the early 2008 units, with 300GB internal.
In the interim, is it worth troubleshooting firmware updates for these externals, or am I destined to continue to have firewire problems? Is there a straight-forward/inexpensive way to remove these drives from enclosures/install in drive bays with an adaptor? I believe the external hard drives are all ATA type drives.
Thanks in advance for any counsel.

I would assume that the Maxtor may be SATA. Does it have an eSATA port? Also, there were a lot of threads (in OS X Leopard forum) about those OneTouch units. Same can be said for LaCie problems.
Yes, check for firmware and configuration. In some cases, and what I do with any new OS, is to reformat all drives - gradually. Given the age of the eMac I'd guess firmware is out of date, and that the drives are formatted some time ago. While you don't have to use GUID, it is a good idea eventually, or just reformat a drive.
Don't forget to test your drives with Disk Warrior (4.1) also.
750GB WD Caviar is $139 SATA.
http://eshop.macsales.com/Specials/XLR8YourMac.cfm?Criteria=&sort=&man=Western%2 0Digital
Are you using daisy chains? you have one FW bus shared by front and back ports. Do you have any on FW800 or using FW400 to FW800 adapter cable? PCI Express FW400 card might even help a little.
Never had trouble with OWC enclosures:
http://www.macsales.com/firewire/

InDesign CS2 has problems with multiple hard drives

I have a mac pro that has two external hard drives attached to it. One is connected through usb and the other firewire. When ever I try to open an inDesign file on the hard drive that mounted second I get an error message. However I the hard drive that mounted first works just fine.
The error message is: "Cannot open the document xxx. You may not have permission or the document may be open already. For multi-user access, close the file and then lock it using the File > Get Info command in the Finder."
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've not had any such problem. It's been a while since I used CS2, but I definitely used it on computers with more than one disk attached. I don't think I had a mix of FireWire and USB drives though.
Dave

Problem with External Hard Drive - Firewire

I have a problem with a *300GB Venus DS3 Hard Disk* / USB 2.0 - Firewire 400 (not sure if 400).
I have a +Mac G4 (1GHz Power PC G4 / 1GB DDR SDRAM)+ running +Mac OS 10.3.9.+
I connect Venus hard disk through USB cable and no problem. But when I want to connect it via Firewire it doesn´t appear in the desktop.
If I go to *System Profile* it says that there is a device connected to the FireWire port but i can´t see it in the desktop and if a open *Disk Utility*, there is no other hard disk besides the internal, so I can´t mount the Venus DS3 Hard Drive.
I looked in the internet and found this page -> http://american-media.com/support/downloadDDDS2316CBK.html
I was about to download the *Firmware Update* but i read this:
AMS is not held responsible for any damage caused by misusage of this utility! Use at your own risk and be aware that your warranty might be void! DO NOT CHANGE
ANY SETTINGS WITHOUT CONSULTING TECHSUPPORT. Do not distribute or post these files on the internet!
I searched in Internet and found that many persons had issues connecting Hard Drives using Firewire port and read some tips (like unplugging all the usb firewire devices unless mouse and keyboard, disconnect AC cable, wait 15 minutes, ...) but couldn´t fix the problem.
I also wrote several emails to the manufacturer of Venus hard drives (American-Media) but so far no answer.
I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how to connect the Venus DS3 to a Mac G4 (OS 10.3.9) via FireWire.
Thank you very much

I suspect the problem is in the size of the drive. You say the drive was formatted for Mac and Windows. How did you do that? With older Macs, there is a 128 gB limit on drive size.
Here is a link to a third party disk utility that claims it gets around the size limit:
http://www.SpeedTools2.com/
Another possibility is to connect the drive to a Windows machine and re-format it into 3 volumes, each less than 128 gB. The Mac should be able to see the partitions.
Sidebar comments:
• The way I read the information on the AMS web page that you cited, you do not need a driver. And that is consistent with my experience with firewire enclosures.
• Inside the AMS enclosure, the drive is a standard ATA/IDE drive. That you can use the drive with a USB connection is proof the drive itself is working.
• The "bridge" is a key component in FW conectivity. (That is a piece of circuitry that sits between the IDE drive and the FW connection. It is inside the enclosure.) It appears your enclosure has the Oxford 911 chipset on the bridge. That is good.

Backup problems with external hard drive

I bought a WD passport external hard drive and copied my itunes library onto a file there. I re-set the location of the library on itunes to the drive on the external hard drive. So far I have not deleted anything from my computer hard drive. However, when I am in itunes and click onto a song, nothing comes out of my speakers. Everything looks normal, as if the track is playing, but nothing is happening. I tried buying a new track off of itunes online, downloaded it, and installed it on my ipod; it plays fine, on my ipod, but will not play on the computer. Something is obviously wrong, but I can't figure out what has happened. Any help out there?
Thanks!
Delany

It sounds to me like your iMac is on it's last legs....at least the internal hard drive. If you can't make a new Time Machine backup I would advise you replace your iMac as soon as possible.
Assuming your three-week old backup is sound you should have no problems moving everything over to a new Mac. I would recommend you use the Setup Assistant that appears when you start up the new Mac (and note: It only appears the first time you start the new Mac; you can move everything over later on via Migration Assistant, but you may see issues with accounts if you opt for that route).
I don't think you need the Genius Desk for Setup Assistant. You only have to power up the new iMac, answer a few questions....select "....From Another Disk..." When it asks how you want to move everything over....connect up your Iomega external drive...and wait for it to finish. (Could take several hours depending on the amount of data you're moving).
A couple of notes:
1. If your Iomega is a Firewire drive you'll need a Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter to connect it to your new iMac.
2. If you need to load CDs or DVDs remember the new iMacs don't contain an optical drive. You would need to get an Apple SuperDrive or third part external burner if you need that functionality.
I'm puzzled by the comment made in Seventy One's post questioning the reliability of the new iMacs. I upgraded from a 24" early 2008 model to a 27" model and everything works flawlessly. I hardly ever see the beachball anymore.

Problems with second hard drive

I bought my PowerMac G5 new in 2005 and about two years after I got it, I installed a second internal hard drive. I didn't have any problems with the drive until about six months ago (which was when I moved, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it). Around that point, I started hearing a single, loud click followed by a slight winding down noise. Then, my computer would almost completely freeze. After a few moments, I would hear a bunch of soft clicks and my computer would go back to normal. I figured that it was a problem with one of the hard drives, but I wasn't sure what to do.
Later on, the problem got more severe, lasting more like 30 seconds. When my second drive unmounted during one of these episodes, I shut my computer down, opened the case, took both plugs out of the second hard drive, put them back in, and started up my computer again. After that, my computer was running great again. But, a few weeks later, the symptoms started up again.
So, I've gone through the same cable un-plug and re-plug process whenever the drive unmounts. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't seem to help at all. Altogether, I think that the second drive has unmounted about five or six times. I haven't had this problem at all with the original hard drive and I haven't noticed any other problems with my computer. (Well, okay, there's the rare occasion when, instead of going to sleep, it turns the screen black and puts the fans on full blast.)
Could the drive itself be going bad and it has nothing to do with the cables? I have a utility installed that always monitors the SMART status and it hasn't reported any problems. Are there any other troubleshooting steps I should take? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Before I bought DiskWarrior, I thought I'd try some troubleshooting with the software I have on hand. But while I was doing that, the problem got worse. Now, I'm having major problems just getting the computer to boot. I'll give you the rundown on what's happened. It goes through a few boneheaded twists and turns and goes on at great length, but I thought I'd relate it all in the hopes that someone can see a likely pattern.
My first thought was the Apple hardware test, which I had thought was on the Mac OS 10.5 install DVD. So naturally, I didn't see the hardware test listed under Utilities. But while I had it up, I used Disk Utility to do repairs on both hard drives (checking both the disk and permissions). It found no problems on the 2nd hard drive, but found a few errors with "leaves" on the booting drive. It also found a bunch of issues with the permissions, but I don't think it was anything out of the ordinary.
Just for the heck of it, I asked it to run the repairs again. Not long into that, I got what I think is a kernel panic (overlaid message saying I needed to restart my computer in a few languages). It also sped up the fans.
I pushed the power button to shut it down, then started it up again. I heard the startup chime, then nothing but a black screen and the ol' hyperactive fans. I went through that several times before I was finally able to boot from the DVD again. Then, I changed the startup disk back to my usual boot volume and restarted. I had to go through the black screen and insane fans several more times before I could boot normally.
Next, I thought I'd try OnyX to see what it could do. Which might not be much, but I had it repair the disks again and also had it run the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts.
I checked into the black screen & hyperactive fans booting problem elsewhere in the forums, and saw that it was recommended to run the Apple hardware test and also found the correct procedure for doing so, which was to insert the PowerMac G5 install disc (not the Mac OS X upgrade DVD) and press Option when booting. I loaded the disc, restarted, and held down the Option key, but before I could get anything to actually load, I had several more sessions with the black screen of fans.
Regarding that boot problem, I've sometimes seen the red light inside the case turn on almost immediately after I turn on the computer. Other times, it will not light up by itself. But, when I hold the power button in to shut it down, the red light briefly turns on before the unit shuts down. I've also noticed that the light on the Caps Lock button is coming on and staying on when I'm trying to start the computer.
So, after several tries, I checked my G5 User's Guide and it said to disconnect any external devices before trying the hardware test. I had a USB thumb drive plugged in and a FireWire drive hooked up for Time Machine backups, so I took both of them out. Once again, I tried starting up with Option held down and this time, it worked. The fans started running at full blast after I selected the hardware test, which I hoped was normal. So, I asked it to run the extended test and it found no problems. I restarted my computer without reconnecting anything and, at least for now, it's working normally.
Any new thoughts?

Problem with upgrading hard drive in 2009 Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard

Current drive is 320gb with fresh install of OS SL updated with some other programs installed. New drive is Seagate Momentus 750, same brand and model as the old, just bigger.
I install the new drive, boot off the OS SL CD and go into disk utility. Partition and format with GUID and Journaled. Install starts and ultimately fails every time.
Tried to clone the 320 by putting it in the macbook, use the 750 via usb/sata. Drive restores, but it is unreliable in loading and stability. When it gets to the grey screen, it alternately flickers the Apple, Folder and NO sign. Sometimes it loads, sometimes it just keeps spinning. When it does load, it's slow and programs that take more power crash.
Brought it to Apple. They said it was a problem in the SMART section, so I got a new drive under warranty. This is the THIRD drive i've gotten from Seagate. Still doesn't work.
I've countlessly repaired and verified the drive. Helps to load sometimes, but not all the time.
If I put the 320 back in, everything works great.
Thanks.
-Ben

Is there a quality external enclosure to put the large drive in, one that has its own power supply and not rely on the port power in the MacBook/Pro? If it is a viable drive and can actually run a bootable OS X version, I'd begin to wonder after all that.
{I'd also looked up your computer in MacTracker to see what if any limits on hardware upgrade may exist. Nothing said of direct interest to the HDD. Also in everymac.com, so there should be no surprises. Yet to have those problems is troublesome and a surprise. New drives can fail. Maybe in batches?}
And a clone of a working system for backup could be made with a utility such as CarbonCopy cloner or superduper, etc then tested as a bootable clone, with the hard disk drive tested thoroughly before use. It also is odd that a drive of that size would act up, I see drives of even larger size offered online by reputible resellers and Mac specialist companies who have been around awhile, such as OWC. I just looked to see if there was a ceiling on support of larger size HDD capacities, and 750GB is not the largest. Maybe the series you chose could be among a troublesome batch or brand.
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=302 has a variety of stuff, including RAM, HDD, SSD, etc. And their staff has people who know what they sell. Well, some of them do. I had called them on a topic several years ago and they didn't really have an answer (I was given an OWC dual HDD external drive & it had issues, but had never been used. It still is sitting as-new, w/o support; now obsolete.)
I'd try a different brand and put it into an enclosure that has its own power supply, ports for USB2.0/3.0 and FW400/800, and so on. Perhaps even an OWC line item, not that I've had any valid experience with them here in AK. And ask their people about their products, get names, finger prints, mug shots...! LOL
Good luck & happy computing!

Permission problems with external hard drive

Hello there, I'm writting you from Paris but my french is just not good enough to really explain my problem. I'm no computer expert so i might not use the right name for stuff but i will try to be as clear as possible.
I have a macbook pro 13" from early 2012 and I'm currently running Mountain lion.
At home i use an internet modem that has an internal hard drive of 250gb. and it also gives you the possibility to conect other usb hard drives on it so you can access them through wifi.
I currently have to usb hd of 1tb each, one i use it for Time Machine and so far it works fine and i haven't had a problem with it, all back ups have been done ok. In the other one i have all my films and tv shows and stuff like that and it is in this one that i have the problem. In certen files and folders i'm not able to do anything with them, i tried to rename them but it says i don't have the permission to do it, i tried to delet another one and it said pretty much the same thing, some other time i tried to move the file to a diferent folder it it would ask me for my password and after type it and press enter it would just not move them, no error messager or anything it just didn't do it. Most of the times i have a messager saying stuff about permission or things like i can't read the file. The thing i can't understand is that as soon as i plug the HD on my mac it works fine i can rename and change stuff, I noticed that some of the files and folders have a little lock on the corner, but they aren't the ones i tried to move or rename before and i tried already unlocking all of them but eventhough i manage to unlock them when i plug the HD back to the modem it keeps the same, can't rename or move, not even to the trash.
Can anyone help me out here? I'll be really thankful
Cheers!

Drive was shot and could not rescue the information

Permissions problem with External Hard drive.

Hi,
I've been using my external hard drive for almost a year now and out of the blue last night I ran into a interesting problem. For some reason I couldn't transfer any files to a thumb drive and shortly after I realized I didn't have Read and write permissions for any files on my mac, and everything required my password to get to. I went into disk utility and repaired the permissions and the list went on forever. Upon completion of that nothing was resolved.
SO! I popped in my Snow leopard disk and did a repair of the permissions and system through there hoping that would fix it. I than booted up the main drive and got stabbed in the face with a HUGE error message upon the apple loading screen with a "MISSING DRIVER" "KERNAL ERROR" "CORRUPT FILE" etc.
I went back and did a restore from my external harddrive hoping that would work, and it did. I can access my time machine backups from my external harddrive but cannot do so through my own control.
What should I do? Should I reformat my external harddrive? Which would suck because I'm a paranoid freak and if something would happen during the reformatting I will lose literally over a year of work that is crucial.
error message upon opening my backup
http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k302/nomhak/?action=view&current=Screenshot201 0-03-01atMarch1-201061.png
error message upon trying to backup
http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k302/nomhak/?action=view&current=Screenshot201 0-03-01atMarch1-201-1.png
icon of backup drive
http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k302/nomhak/?action=view&current=Screenshot201 0-03-01atMarch1-201062.png
Can anyone shed some light?

nomhak wrote:
I went back and did a restore from my external harddrive hoping that would work, and it did. I can access my time machine backups from my external harddrive but cannot do so through my own control.
What is that, a "clone?" What do you mean by "cannot do so through my own control."?
What should I do? Should I reformat my external harddrive? Which would suck because I'm a paranoid freak and if something would happen during the reformatting I will lose literally over a year of work that is crucial.
Again, what's on that drive? Do you have a clone and TM backups on the same external? If so, are they in the same partition?
error message upon trying to backup
http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k302/nomhak/?action=view&current=Screenshot201 0-03-01atMarch1-201-1.png
This one says you need to repair or reformat the disk; that means your backups are corrupted.
Try to do a +*Repair Disk+* (not permissions) on it.
If there are errors that Disk Utility can't fix, or the +*Repair Disk+* option is grayed out (meaning OSX has already determined that it can't fix it), post back.

Problem with External Hard Drive

Hi,
I'm having trouble with my External Hard Drive, a 300GB Iomega USB. Everytime i use it with my iMac G4 it disconnects by itself and i get the "Device Removal" message after 20 minutes or so. This occurs even though the Mac hasn't moved, the Hard Drive and its wire wasn't moved and even when I'm not doing anything on my Mac. This occurrs in all three of the USB ports even though other devices plugged into them work fine.
It's a problem with your External Hard Drive and/or its wire i hear you say. However, the External works fine when plugged into my Windows Laptop.
Any help would be much apreciated as all my music, movies and work are on my External.
Thanks in advance,
K

Hi there:
You may have to use a Mac disk utility on the external USB hard disk drive, since the error
you see is likely caused by some defect. And the symptom is in how the drive fails to mount.
Perhaps a tool like Disk Utility could see what kind of errors, but not fix them; if this is the
case, a more specific tool such as DiskWarrior (for the Mac OS your machine has) may help.
Depending on the level this problem exists, the drive may be repairable through use of one
of the disk utility type of tools; or it may need to be erased, reformatted, etc. So, if there is
some kind of error in the directory or other portion, DiskWarrior could probably fix it and not
interfere with the data on the drive... Or, that's the hoped-for outcome.
And that direction is likely one to pursue. For the sake of discussion, you - do - have extra
USB cords, just in case you have one that does not like Macs? A diabolical PC infiltrator?!
Good luck & happy computing!

Problems with new Hard Drive

I've just fitted a 250Gb Samsung hard drive to my MacBook Pro. I'm trying to do a clean install of OS X from the DVDs. I've partitioned the new drive to a single partition using disk utility and whenever I verify it or try to install OS X it gets stuck on "Checking Volume Bitmap".
Any ideas?

New drives often need extended preparation:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disk. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.)
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. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
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, if supported.) Click on the Options 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 will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
If you continue to have problems then either the drive is defective or it is not properly installed or it is not compatible with the MBP.

When is Apple going to fix the problem with external hard drive not working on Lion?

As for everyone else external hard drive does not work with Lion.
When will Apple fix this problem. Do they just ignore the customer : (

Copy off all your data off the NTFS formatted drive to another drive
Open Disk Utility in the Applications>Utilities folder
Select your external NTFS drive on the far left, should have the drive makers name, a ID perhaps plus the word "media"
Click the Partition Tab, click the big box and click 1 Partition
If you want a Mac only drive > Option: GUID >format OS X Extended (Journaled)
If you want a Mac/PC drive (for over 4GB sized files) > Option: MBR > format exFAT
If you want a Mac/PC drive (for the most compatibility with other devices, Win XP, but only under 4GB sized files) > Option: MBR > format MSDOS (FAT or FAT32)
Give it a name and click Apply.
You can also search Microsoft for a free exFAT download if you have Win XP.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

Aperture 3 problems with external hard-drives

Because of an external drive failure I had to move my Aperture Library 350+gb to another external hard-drive (iMac only has 500 gb internal drive). It is working; however, about 2500 photos are referenced, the rest are managed masters. No problem apparently with masters. But cannot reconnect with referenced files because the external drive is now deceased and cannot be dismounted. (Please continue reading before firing off an answer telling me to repair the database with Opt Command at start up. That did not solve my problem.)
I know how to individually reconnect files which were located on a (now) offline (permanently) volume. But is there no easier way to get Aperture to recognize that a drive no longer exists and a new drive has taken its place? (Yes. I have read about using SQLite Database Browser to change the UUID of the drive to the new drive. But this seems bizarre that a high end program like Aperture 3 requires users to tweak the database to get Aperture to recognize a new drive.) I have installed the most recent Aperture update. There was one today I believe. No help.
Thanks for your input.

paulfresh wrote:
it also appears to be mavericks... I don't have any software programs installed for both my OWC and lacie drives and they still wont eject properly under Mavericks
No, it doesn't appear to be Mavericks. All good here on the five Macs in my studios and all attached drives. But blame Apple if it makes you feel better.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/05/western_digital_fesses_up_to_mavericks_d ata_loss_mess/
Cheers
Pete

Restoring backup problems with new hard drive

Recently had to replace my hard drive (OS X Tiger 10.4.10). I had backed up iLife, iTunes and documents using the Backup utility (saving to external hard drive) and iDisk, so thought all would be well. My new hard drive has the updated OS (Leopard 10.5.5) and I cannot work out how to retrieve my stuff.
The Time Machine application obviously has no memory of my backup plans, and 'Backup' doesn't seem to exist, so I can't follow the restore instructions on that application. I can see that iLife and iTunes have been backed up on my external hard drive - I just can't see how to put the contents back. I have re-installed iLife and the iTunes application is ready and waiting.
My iDisk is completely empty - which means something is wrong or I completely misunderstood the point of it...
Any help gratefully received
Ross

Hi Lupe!
If you post the exact model number of the Seagate drive, I'll give the jumper setting a look to see it there is a limitation on setting to "slave." I wasn't aware anyone was doing that.
As near as I can tell, the basic problem is that the first-gen 733 QuickSilver does not have support for "large hard drives." That means that 128G is the maximum it can deal with. You can use the 160G drive, however, by using Disk Utility to create a partition of under 128G, say 125G, leaving the rest of the drive unformatted. Then it should work. Select the partition format as Mac Extended HFS+ Journaled.
Your G4 is older than the ones that this forum covers, thus the difference in hard drive capacities and also how hard drives are jumpered. You may want to make friends with folks in the forums for older G4s here:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=113
Some of the same people haunt both forums so it's not a big deal if you decide to stay here. We're glad to have you either way!

Mac OS X - Problem with FireWire Hard Drive Recognition

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for