TechTools Plat won't optomize ext FW HD

No matter what I try, TechTools Platinum won't recognize my external FW or USB2 drives for optimization. Click on Tests, then Drives and it's there to test but I can not optimize the drives. Any thoughts? Any better programs to use to optimize the drives and why doesn't APPLE provide this with the disk utility?

No, not literally. "Dump" is a command, and is used to backup a volume.
a backup. And, if you use SuperDuper, the copy or the restore would be faster
Translation: use SuperDuper.
1. Backup should always be done, I've seen failure no matter what program, not just Norton SpeedDisk fail.
2. Now that you have the files on backup, boot from backup if it is boot volume. Make sure it works. Run Disk Utility AND Disk Warrior.
3. Erase your drive. Once a year zero erase the drive.
4. Restore.
SuperDuper has a good organization scheme and is more reliable than 90% of the programs out there for backing up and cloning a system.
"tape" was common, most IT shops are moving to SATA which look to be reliable (and $400 for 1TB, plus you don't have to scan an entire tape for a file). We would actually run a backup to two tapes at once (more efficient) and in case one copy went bad. You should also have two backups of any drive.

Similar Messages

I need some advice on replacing my ipod touch 4th generation screen. The silver plate won't go back into it's original place and i can't put the screws back in. I really need help i don't want my ipod to be broken!!!

I started to replace my ipod 4g screen but the silver plate that goes on top of the battery won't go back into place. It's not lining up with the screw holes so i can't finish the repair. Please I'm begging you all to help me with some advice and tips!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will be greatly appreeciated. ASAP

Your best bet is to email the company that sold you the screen for advice. Or you could search on YouTube for repair instructions. Hopefully, you will see where you went wrong. Apple will not do an out-of-warranty replacement on an iPod that has been opened.

Disk Utility won't partition ext. drive

Hi everyone,
I would like to split my external MyBook Pro drive in two so I can keep Time machine B/ups separate, but Disk utility keeps informing me that there is not enough space! I only want approx 80gb of the remaining 105gb. Where am I going wrong. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Are you willing to erase the contents on the external hard drive? Disk utility won't subdivide existing space, you have to do the entire drive at once. However, there are utilities (I believe they are purchase/commercial only) that will sub partition an existing disk partition.

K8N Neo2 Plat won't switch on

My K8N Neo2 Platinum won't boot anymore
I originally thorugh the problem was that the power supply had died, but I've just bought a new case with an ANTEC power supply and it still won't turn on. I've tried:
- disconnecting everything that's connected to the board except for the RAM and the CPU
- removing the battery
- clearing the BIOS using the jumper
Does anyone else have any suggestions? I'm desperate here and getting behind on my work

My 1st Neo 2 I had the same issue and I tried everthing including new PSU (@600) and no joy . I returned and got another one, it worked for a few hours then died killing a new PSU also . So I returned it and got a 3rd Neo 2, it worked great for a week or so then it started "NOT" assigning IRQs to anything in the PCI slots for some crazy reason so I have RMA'd it back to MSI Now get this I was not OCing anything oh well if MSI can't fix it then DFI's new NF3 ultra MB will be getting shipped to my house quick It's been a week and no word from MSI oh well

I know this has been said BUT K8N plat won't post

I am at my wits end with this damn thing. I have installed a ton of PCs and never as much trouble as I have with this AMD64 3000. First I ordered it with the Chaintech 150 board after reading great reviews on it. That was my mistake for not looking at the forums to see what the real users say.
OK after RMAing the board back and forth and getting jack I gave up on it, set it aside and got the MSI K8N. Installed it with the things below only and actually got the power to stay on only to lock on keyboard and not post.
I then read everything I could find in forums and tried everything that was suggested on top of what is the usual steps and got squat. I am wondering now if the board is bad and I need to RMA it. Has anyone found a fix to this post problem as I see a lot of people have had it. I can tell you that my board is not shorted out, I tried other ram and am convinced that is not the problem. Went and bought a new USB keyboard I did not need and still crapo. God what I would not do to see a bios screen or even a post!
Any other suggestions? If I RMA this and get the same damn problem I swear I am going to start looking for my chainsaw!
2 months and counting while Doom3 sits unopen!

OK I tried moving the SATA connect to all the other 3 plus I moved the mem. I think now I have tried about every combo with the mem and have had no luck.
One thing that I didn't mention as I thought it was part of how this mobo sets up, but as soon as I plug in the power cable and turn on the PS the PC powers up. I then can control it via the power switch., but if I unplug it then it will repower as soon as the plug is reinserted.
I let iit sit in this error state for quite some time also and it doesnt appear to be a heat issue. There has to be something simple that I either did wrong or am missing. I have read a lot of post of people with this exact same problem and now I am getting emails of more having the problem and asking me to let them know what worked. It would have to have been a really bad Monday at MSI for this many boards to be faulty(and that is humor as I think it has to be something I am missing).
Oh and the Chaintech board would powerup for a split second then shut off. It never made it near a post . Read someplace that Corsair mem would not work with the Chaintech (plus many others) and decided to switch to the mobo choice most forum people were suggesting for a AMD64.
I appreciate all the suggestions.

K8N Neo2 Plat. won't power up

Situation: Assembled the PC last night, booted up, installed XP and SP2. When I rebooted after SP2 I noticed the boot drive was set to I: instead of C:. I figured I'd reinstall today, so I shut down the pc last night. Once I got home today, I pressed the power button, got 1 second of power..if that..then nothing.
I've taken the board out of the chassis and tried powering it with minimum components, same thing. The power comes on, then shuts off immediately.
System specs:
K8N Neo2 Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
1 GB Corsair XMS
Antec TruePower 430
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Quote from: kevin_ on 17-February-05, 14:45:41
Situation: Assembled the PC last night, booted up, installed XP and SP2. When I rebooted after SP2 I noticed the boot drive was set to I: instead of C:. I figured I'd reinstall today, so I shut down the pc last night. Once I got home today, I pressed the power button, got 1 second of power..if that..then nothing.
I've taken the board out of the chassis and tried powering it with minimum components, same thing. The power comes on, then shuts off immediately.
System specs:
K8N Neo2 Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
1 GB Corsair XMS
Antec TruePower 430
Any help is greatly appreciated.
===========================
I faced the same prob with the same system, the only difference is I use adata RAM, after a few times, clear BIOS, turn off the power supply, I could boot and then I updated the latest BIOS version via MSI Live monitor and win flash, It now seems to run properly. however rarely the prob still exists, turn off the power supply and wait for a few minutes, and then turn on, it would boot.

AppleCare: TechTool Deluxe crashed during test...

Hi Everyone! Has anyone experienced the AppleCare TechTool Deluxe crashing during testing? After installing Leopard on my MacBook, I tested each application to find out if it runs fine. And I came up up to TechTool Deluxe, and I get a popup window saying, "TechTool Deluxe has not been fully tested with Mac OS X 10.5 or later. Application will continue" with the continue button available. I clicked continue and ran a test and it froze up my macbook. It was stuck for a long time and I forced it to restart with the power button. Is there going to be a fix or update of TechTool Deluxe to properly run on Leopard? thanks for your help...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25186
http://search.info.apple.com/index.html?q=applecare%20techtool%20deluxe&lr=lang_ en&search=Go&type=
https://support.apple.com/techtooldeluxe/main?id=dl
+"TechTool Deluxe is an abridged version of the TechTool Pro diagnostic utility made by MicroMat. TechTool Deluxe is available only through Apple by purchasing the Apple Protection Plan for your Macintosh computer. Through the AppleCare Protection Plan, Apple provides technical support for TechTool Deluxe."+
As far as I know, Micromat has not yet updated TechTool Pro for Leopard compatibility and I would assume that until Micromat does, AppleCare TechTool Deluxe won't be compatible either. You should never use a disk or system utility with a system upgrade like leopard unless you know that it's compatible. Bad things can happen. Hopefully you haven't hosed your system. You can probably go to Micromat's website and see what their timeline is for upgrading TechTool Pro.
Cloudhr

External Drive Failure

Hi all excuse me if I'm in the wrong place but whilst running Techtool Pro my perfectly running Ext Firewire hard drive has failed to display a desktop icon, is not recognised anywhere and now runs at full speed from power on, I have tried all the usual tricks of disconnecting to no avail.
Have I lost all my access and is the data on the Hard drive recoverable?

johnnol1:
Here are the possibilities as I see them:
*Most obvious is the FW cable. Try different ports, and a different cable, if available.
*Check the Firewire port on your computer. Go to Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > Hardware > Firewire. If Firewire is working it should list something likeFireWire Bus:
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/secIf it is reading your external FW HDD you should see something similar to mine which looks like this:FireWire Bus:
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
OWC Neptune:
Manufacturer: Other World Computing
Model: 0x0
GUID: 0x1D2020066013B
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec*If the drive is spinning it might well be that the drive itself is sound and you have a failed Firewire Bridge. You can purchase a Firewire encosure like one of these from OWC. Whatever enclosure you get make sure you get one with the more reliable Oxford 911 chipset.
*Remove the Drive from the old enclosure and place in the the new enclosure.
Please post back with an update or further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius

Sudo whoami says I do not exist

Acrobat X updates want load, and TechTool 7 won't load, ran sudo whoami and it states I do not exist,
so does that mean there is an issue with the root directory, how do I fix it? I am writing form MB Pro the
error is on my iMac.

How to maintain a Mac
1. Make redundant backups, keeping at least one off site at all times. One backup is not enough. Don’t back up your backups; make them independent of each other. Don’t rely completely on any single backup method, such as Time Machine. If you get an indication that a backup has failed, don't ignore it.
2. Keep your software up to date. In the Software Update preference pane, you can configure automatic notifications of updates to OS X and other Mac App Store products. Some third-party applications from other sources have a similar feature, if you don’t mind letting them phone home. Otherwise you have to check yourself on a regular basis. This is especially important for complex software that modifies the operating system, such as device drivers. Before installing any Apple update, you must check that all such modifications that you use are compatible.
3. Don't install crapware, such as “themes,” "haxies," “add-ons,” “toolbars,” “enhancers," “optimizers,” “accelerators,” "boosters," “extenders,” “cleaners,” "doctors," "tune-ups," “defragmenters,” “firewalls,” "barriers," “guardians,” “defenders,” “protectors,” most “plugins,” commercial "virus scanners,” "disk tools," or "utilities." With very few exceptions, this stuff is useless, or worse than useless. Above all, avoid any software that purports to change the look and feel of the user interface.
The more actively promoted the product, the more likely it is to be garbage. The most extreme example is the “MacKeeper” scam.
As a rule, the only software you should install is that which directly enables you to do the things you use a computer for — such as creating, communicating, and playing — and does not modify the way other software works. Use your computer; don't fuss with it.
Safari extensions, and perhaps the equivalent for other web browsers, are a partial exception to the above rule. Most are safe, and they're easy to get rid of if they don't work. Some may cause the browser to crash or otherwise malfunction. Some are malicious. Use with caution, and install only well-known extensions from relatively trustworthy sources, such as the Safari Extensions Gallery.
Never install any third-party software unless you know how to uninstall it. Otherwise you may create problems that are very hard to solve.
4. Beware of trojans. A trojan is malicious software (“malware”) that the user is duped into installing voluntarily. Such attacks were rare on the Mac platform until sometime in 2011, but are now increasingly common, and increasingly dangerous.
There is some built-in protection against downloading malware, but you can’t rely on it — the attackers are always at least one day ahead of the defense. You can’t rely on third-party protection either. What you can rely on is common-sense awareness — not paranoia, which only makes you more vulnerable.
Never install software from an untrustworthy or unknown source. If in doubt, do some research. Any website that prompts you to install a “codec” or “plugin” that comes from the same site, or an unknown site, is untrustworthy. Software with a corporate brand, such as Adobe Flash Player, must be acquired directly from the developer. No intermediary is acceptable, and don’t trust links unless you know how to parse them. Any file that is automatically downloaded from a web page without your having requested it should go straight into the Trash. A website that claims you have a “virus,” or that anything else is wrong with your computer, is rogue.
In OS X 10.7.5 or later, downloaded applications and Installer packages that have not been digitally signed by a developer registered with Apple are blocked from loading by default. The block can be overridden, but think carefully before you do so.
Because of recurring security issues in Java, it’s best to disable it in your web browsers, if it’s installed. Few websites have Java content nowadays, so you won’t be missing much. This action is mandatory if you’re running any version of OS X older than 10.6.8 with the latest Java update. Note: Java has nothing to do with JavaScript, despite the similar names. Don't install Java unless you're sure you need it. Most people don't.
5. Don't fill up your boot volume. A common mistake is adding more and more large files to your home folder until you start to get warnings that you're out of space, which may be followed in short order by a boot failure. This is more prone to happen on the newer Macs that come with an internal SSD instead of the traditional hard drive. The drive can be very nearly full before you become aware of the problem. While it's not true that you should or must keep any particular percentage of space free, you should monitor your storage consumption and make sure you're not in immediate danger of using it up. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of free space on the startup volume for normal operation.
If storage space is running low, use a tool such as the free application OmniDiskSweeper to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the most space. Move rarely-used large files to secondary storage.
6. Relax, don’t do it. Besides the above, no routine maintenance is necessary or beneficial for the vast majority of users; specifically not “cleaning caches,” “zapping the PRAM,” "resetting the SMC," “rebuilding the directory,” "defragmenting the drive," “running periodic scripts,” “dumping logs,” "deleting temp files," “scanning for viruses,” "purging memory," "checking for bad blocks," "testing the hardware," or “repairing permissions.” Such measures are either completely pointless or are useful only for solving problems, not for prevention.
The very height of futility is running an expensive third-party application called “Disk Warrior” when nothing is wrong, or even when something is wrong and you have backups, which you must have. Disk Warrior is a data-salvage tool, not a maintenance tool, and you will never need it if your backups are adequate. Don’t waste money on it or anything like it.

Disk First Aid Not Repairing Drive

I need to fix an issue with my external firewire drive and I need to know why Disk First aid won't repair the problem.
I have an IMac CoreDuo 20" 2GB RAM, 250GB Internal drive and 250GB External firewire drive (this one has the issue)
I executed a restart on my Mac tonight and when it came back up I recieved an Invalid B-tree node size on both partitions on the external firewire drive. Can your software fix this problem? The volumes won't mount, but Disk First Aid will see them.
Disk First Aid reports:
Verifying volume “disk2s3”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Invalid B-tree node size
The volume needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
Verifying volume “disk2s4”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Invalid B-tree node size
The volume needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
Ran disk first aid. Results above. TechTool Deluxe won' t look at the external drive. The Pro version of the software repairs external drives, but their site doesn't state whether you can fix Invalid B-tree node size errors. Formatting and starting over is not an option. I have data on their in which I captured last week on a business trip and was going to back it up tonight and ironically, this happened before I could.
I can't figure it out though. The drive didn't go through any crash or serious outage. I simply told my Mac to restart and this error appeared on reboot. I just switched to Mac as my main system about 8 months back. I have been using PC's for 20 years and never ran into a problem like this. It really concerns me that Mac file systems aren't reliable and if can't repair this, I will need to rethink whether I want to keep a Mac as my main system.
Can someone help me with this? I sure like using Mac and hope there is a simple solution to this.
I have tried booting from the Mac OS X cd as per Apples recomendations, but with no luck. I did use a trial copy of Data Rescue II just to see if it could see my data and it can, so I do have hope that this should be resolvable.

You won't believe what I had to do to get back some of my files, but here goes the explanation.
As I mentioned earlier, I used TechTool Pro 4.5.1 with no succes. I also used a tool called Drive Genius from Prosoft Engineering and it was not successful either. I did get some more error information when trying to repair the partitions with Drive Genius. Here are the messages I received:
Error : Invalid HFS+ signature found in the volume header (0000 - (n).
Error : Invalid HFS+ version number in the volume header (0).
Error : Invalid HFS+ total block count found in the volume header (0).
Error : Invalid HFS+ resource fork clump size found in the volume header (0).
Error : Invalid HFS+ data fork clump size found in the volume header (0).
Error : Unable to get the HFS+ volume header.
My only other option was to purchase Data Rescue II from ProSoft Engineering and attempt to recover the files I needed. I had a bunch of recordings I had made with ProTools that I had not had a chance to backup to another location yet.
It took a couple hours for the scanning processes and then the files were listed to recover. I selected the session folders and told it to recover. The file s were copied to my local hard drive and I was getting excited, until I tried to open one of the files. The wave files would not play and the PorTools session files wouldn't open. I was very frustrated since the file sizes seemed to be in line with the files were on the original drive.
What I ended up doing was, using Text Edit, I opened a known good .wav file that was created with ProTools and one of the recovered files that wouldn't play and compared the headers. It appeared that the recovered file had the data portion, but not the header. I copied the header from the good file and pasted it into the recovered file and saved it.
Was I surprised when the file played. Now, most of the .wav files I have done this with work with no problems at all. A few of the files have bad spots (bits) that added distortion to the clip, but I was able to import the files into ProTools and edit them out. It appears that the bad spots were additions to the file and did not overwrite any thing. So I just cut them bad spots out and I am going about my business again.
The bad new is I will be spending most of this weekend manually restoring these files. The good new is that I will get them all back. There has to be an easier way to do this though.
In Summary, the problem is not with the physical drive as a thourough drive scan says that the hardware and drive is okay. The problem lies in the Apple file system (HFS+) itself.
I sure hope this information helps someone out there. If anyone finds an easier way to fix this, please post it here and let everyone know.

Restore turns 60 gig ipod into 16 gig

I received the corrupted message, resetting did nothing, and I hit restore. Now the settings show that the 60 gig ipod photo has only 16 gig total. How can I get the iPod to show its true capacity? I have the latest version of iTunes installed, and followed the directions to the letter.
Thanks in advance for any suggestion.

My thoughts exactly.
There is something going on here that has nothing to do with individual ipod units, it's a hardware addressing or software problem.
For me, this also happened after an iTunes upgrade, so that may be part of the problem.
This unit is like new, less than 4 months old from Apple, and has maybe a few hours of play time on it.
Other things I have tried: iPod resets, iTunes resets, downgrading iTunes iPod updater to previous versions (2 older versions), reinstall of iPod software from original 60GB iPod disk, new battery, the battery and hard drive disconnect trick, re-initializing with Disk Utility in both Mac and PC (fat 32) formats, TechTool repair (won't show up as either FW or USB drive), Disk Utility repair from OSX boot CD, re-partitioning as 1 and 2 partitions (no change possible), security erase with 0's (failed first 3 attempts), and ipod internal diagnostics.
All report the disk is OK, but are adamant that it is a 15.97 to 16.1GB disk (various results with various attempts). No formatting can change that.
I saw someone had success with a reset button on the drive itself. My drive does not have such a button, unless it is hidden under a label somewhere.
But I have looked at the pinout diagram for the drive, and there is a pin for "reset".
If you short the ground pin and the reset pin, might it activate a reset routine with the drive?
I've done all I can, so am hoping for some inspired, or authorized (dare I hope?) advice.
Thanks!

Superdrive, external DVD drive, ext HD won't mount

Blank & commercial discs are rejected by the internal Superdrive and an external LaCie DVDRW.
In addition two USB & one firewire ext HD won't mount.
I have fixed permissions, zapped PRAM and run TechTool Pro V 4 and Disk Utility
The above are recognized by System Profiler but not by Disk Utility
Help!

Whoever you are, thanks for your concern and willingness to help.
I followed your advice. I overcame my fear of cracking the big aluminum can, discovered the logic board and the reset button. The button appears stuck, there was no "give" when mashing on it ( as we say down here) so I reinstalled and all missing functions are back.
And I thought the **** ext HDs were broken. WHen I accumulated three with the same problem, including one brand new I began to suspect something was fishy.
Thanks again.
woodhen16
Williamsburg, VA

My external HD won't mount anymore on Mac OS, Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro, but appears as "media" on Disk Utility. What do I do?

I have this 1 TB Caviar Black drive from WD, I've installed it on an external HD case and have been using to store large files like HD movies and old archive things. Its file system is Mac OS Journaled.
Last year, all of a sudden, it gave me the following error while trying to plug it in: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"
I was mad and left it for dead while looking for a way to fix it.
Then, again all of a sudden, it started working again, flawlessly and without any problems.
It worked well for at least 5 more months and then BAM... same error again!
I've tried DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro, Disk Utility and nothing... The disk won't show up on any of these apps, except on Disk Utility as a "Media" drive with 0 bytes used and unformatted partition.
What do I do?
Could it be the external HD case?

It could be a problem with enclosure, but it also could be a problem with the drive itself or the drive is possibly corrupted. I would start by contacting WD tech support.
It may be possible to recover files from the drive using file recovery software:
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as MAC Data Recovery, Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads. Recovery software usually provide trial versions that enable you to determine if the software would help before actually paying for it. Beyond this or if the drive has completely failed, then you would need to send the drive to a recovery service which is very expensive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.
Otherwise, unless the drive fixes itself like before you should try repartitioning and reformatting to determine if the drive has failed or is now working properly.

Volume error on 20" C2D which TechTool won't repair

My iMac was working absolutely fine last night, but when I went to boot up this morning, the blue "Starting Mac OSX" bar absolutely crawled across (it usually flies across) then, when it got to the right hand side, the boot hangs and won't go any further.
I tried zapping the PRAM - no change - so then I booted from the TechTool Deluxe CD. I ran all the tests except Surface Scan and it only failed on the Volume Structure test.
So I got TechTool to do the repair but, after a few seconds, it just defaults back to the entry "what language do you want to default to?" screen.
Running TechTool Deluxe again, it still fails the Volume Structure test and, when I try and boot the Mac, the same problem still occurs - it won't get past the blue "Starting Mc OSX" bit.
I haven't changed anything since last night, I haven't plugged any peripheral in or unplugged any.
I don't know what to do! Please help!
20" iMac C2D Mac OS X (10.4.9) 3Gb RAM, 500Mb HD, 2.33GHz processor

You will probably need a more industrial strength utility. I believe that you can upgrade to Tech Tool Pro. Many folks here in the Discussions swear by Disk Warrior. Some feel that if DW can't repair the problem, it cannot be repaired.
To be on the safe side, do you have important files on a back up?
Although you do not sound like the techy type I found this explanation of the issue;
http://computing.net/mac/wwwboard/forum/2584.html
<<To explain sibling links, first you need to
understand that most directory
information on Macintosh disks is stored
in data structures that are technically
known as B*-trees. Examples of B*-trees
on a Macintosh disk include the Catalog
File, the Extents Overflow File, the
Desktop Database, the Users & Groups
File, and several others.
Each tree has a number of data records;
for example, each record within the
Catalog tree describes one file or one
folder. The records are sorted and
indexed for fast searching. But for
efficiency, the records are also grouped
into fixed-length blocks called nodes;
because these nodes can be physically
scattered around the B*-tree file, they
need pointers to indicate their logical
ordering. So a given node has a "forward
link", which points to the node containing
records that are logically immediately
after the records in the current node;
likewise, a node has a "backward link",
pointing to the node containing logically
preceding records.
If these linkages are pointing to the wrong
place, some files or folders might be
inaccessible. Or the OS could even hang
up trying to find some. This makes the
link invalid.
In any case, Norton Disk Doctor reports
forward link and backward link problems
separately, whereas Disk First Aid just
refers to them collectively as sibling links.
Try DiskWarrior to build a new directory.
May fix the problem without having to
initialize the disk.

Ext HD recognized but won't mount

Trying to use my firewire/usb ext HD. It is recognized in disc utility and system profiler, but won't mount. I honestly can't remember whether the HD was disconnected or turned off before unmounting, but that's my suspicion. Tried connecting through usb---nothing. I've tried repairing with disc utility, but still nothing. I even had my neighbor plug it into his pc which wasn't any help (but nevermind that). Any advice?

Hi, Jason. Is the drive powered by its own AC adapter, or is it a bus-powered unit? If the latter, its power requirements may exceed what the bus can provide, and the solution will be to power it externally (or if there's no place on it to plug in an AC adapter, replace its enclosure with one that can be powered externally).
Spinning up but failing to mount is classic behavior for a bus-powered drive that exceeds the bus's power budget. That your drive won't mount when connected either through a FW or a USB port strongly indicates that it isn't your connecting cable(s) at fault, since the likelihood that both types of cable are bad is very small.
You don't say whether the drive was recognized by the PC you connected it to. Was it?
Has this drive ever mounted properly on your Mac's desktop, or is it a new drive that has never been formatted on a Mac? Is Disk Utility able to format it (as Mac OS Extended) or not?

TechTools Plat won't optomize ext FW HD

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for