Turn USB Drive into External Hard Drive

I have an aging iBook G3 with a 20 GB HDD. I'm running low on space and was wondering if I could turn an usb drive into an external hard drive (I plan to install applications to it). I have several 32 GB sticks that I bought for other uses but it would be nice if I could use one as an hard drive. How would I do it if it's even possible?
Thanks.

Probably the best answer is yes and yes.
The internal hard drive is getting very old, and, as with all things mechanical, it will die one day. While you should be able to use the USB drive for extra storage (I'm not sure about running applications from it, though), I would strongly recommend getting an external FireWire drive so that you can back up your hard drive with SuperDuper! so as not to lose anything when the internal hard drive bites the dust.
Good luck.

Similar Messages

USB 3.0 External hard drive working only as USB 2.0

Hello all.
I have a MacBook Pro mid 2012 (specs below) which has two USB 3.0 ports. I have a Kingston USB 3.0 stick and a Toshiba 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive. With Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks, both stick and hard drive worked fine, but since I updated to OS X 10.10 Yosemite, both work as USB 2.0 devices, with slow transfer speed and, in the case of the hard drive, it has a blue/white LED that indicates the mode (blue = USB 3.0 / white = USB 2.0) and it only lights up with white color.
It's not a device problem, because both work on Windows 8.x machines. I was guessing that it was some kind of firmware or motherboard's usb driver problem but I looked for firmware updates and found nothing.
Is anyone having issues with USB 3.0 ports? Can you help me with this? Any advice would help.
Thanks a lot for your patience and help.

Hi jesusbet,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like the USB 3 ports on your MacBook Pro are not operating at the expected speed.
The first troubleshooting step I'd suggest in this case is to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your MacBook Pro using these instructions:
Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.
From:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
If the symptom continues, you can also reset the PRAM:
OS X Yosemite: Reset your computer’s PRAM
These two hardware resets can resolve many unexpected behaviors that affect hardware on a Mac.
All the best,
Jeremy

Lacie 500GB Porsche USB 2.0 external hard drive will not sleep

Hi there,
I bought a Lacie 500GB Porsche USB 2.0 external hard drive that shipped along with my new iMac. I have noticed that even though I check to "put hard drives to sleep" when not in use under system preferences, this hard drive will never sleep. I have to eject it and then turn the hard drive off. Anyone know how to fix it or know if it is a Leopard or Lacie issue that might be fixed with a driver or firmware update?

Hi,
I just got the same drive and was wondering the same thing. I inquired with LaCie about it and here is the response that the support people gave me:
"That particular unit does not sleep. We changed the bridge to the newer controller, which is faster and better for data transfer, but that feature was dropped from the design. I'm sorry."
Hope this helps.

I have a Seagate Slim Portable 500 GB USB 3.0 external hard drive that worked great with my Macbook Pro 13" Retina but gets ejected and won't show files on any iMac.

I have a Seagate Slim Portable 500 GB USB 3.0 external hard drive that worked great with my Macbook Pro 13" Retina but gets ejected and won't show files on any iMac. My Macbook Pro and the two different iMacs I tried it on were all using Mountain Lion, so the only difference was the iMac versus Macbook Pro.

I just tried this, no luck...
I connected a different USB cable, still the same problem. Tried both cables with the problematic hard drive on two different computers, still the same problem.
At this point I assume I'll probably need professional help in saving the files, thanks for the assistance.

Montan Lion "kick out" My usb memory sticks, external Hard drive, external DVD /cd drive and give me an error message "PowerPC applications are no longer supported."

Montan Lion "kick out" My usb memory sticks, external Hard drives, external DVD /cd drive and give me an error message "PowerPC applications are no longer supported."

It does not matter what I plug in to the USB post, the results is the same ...
U use external hard drives, memory sticks (new and my old memory sticks), I also use an external cd / dvd writer LG Portable Super Multy Drive
They all run for ± 1 min then it loose contact and I get error messages like, error code -8062 or PowerPC applications are no longer supported..... etc

Hard Drive and External Hard drive filled up instantly?

While using my Mac today, I came up with a dialogue box saying my hard drive (and external hard drive) are both full. This is strange because this morning I had over 30GB on my internal hard drive, and between 100GB and 300GB on my external hard drive.
How can both of these fill up at once?
I had uploaded approximately 100 photos to my external hard drive this morning, but there was still plenty room then.
What is going on?

HI Matt,
Get Disk Inventory so you can see exact sizes of files and folders.
*"I came up with a dialogue box saying my hard drive (and external hard drive) are both full. This is strange because this morning I had over 30GB on my internal hard drive, and between 100GB and 300GB on my external hard drive."*
Not sure what's going on but it would be a good time to boot from your install disk and check the hard drive.
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
*(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)*
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart
Carolyn

If I move the oldest 2/3 of my iPhoto library to an external hard drive, will I still be able to access those older photos? I assume that I will be able to select the source (internal hard drive or external hard drive)?

If I move the oldest 2/3 of my iPhoto library to an external hard drive, will I still be able to access those older photos? I assume that I will be able to select the source (internal hard drive or external hard drive)?

Yes, if you have a second library.
Here's one way to do what you want:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

Low power on USB port for external hard drive

Hi all!
I'm new here and I have some question about my brand new hybrid - HP Envy x2.
Couple days ago i found an issue that usb ports are powered by from motherboard even when tablet with dock is turned off or in hibernation mode. This is problematic when I leave device with plugged usb hub, external HD, speakers (powered from usb port) and mouse. After 8 hours in work when I go back home I saw that battery is about 10-15% lower than before leaving Envy x2. I disabled USB charge mode in BIOS, but after that I have problem with working of my external HD.
When I try to attach hard drive to computer and then I try to turn it on nothing happens - looks like system (Windows 8.1) can't boot. But after immediate unplugging HDD from USB system goes to procedure of starting. I also tried to plug Toshiba HD after turning on my Envy x2 and being in desktop, but nothing happens. Light on HD is blinking, I can hear from it sound like clicking (trying to start?). Also HD is visible in Device Manager but not in My Computer (as additional partition).
I have tried to change boot options in BIOS by positioning of devices (priority to boot from CD ROM, HDD, OS etc.) but did not fixed problem.
After couple of tests provided to found why my HD did not work properely in disabled USB charge mode I know that USB port did not give minimum value of power from supply. I found cable with one plug on one side, and with two plugs on other side (like "Y" type). Then i plugged one end into first USB port, then second end in second USB port and finally - last end of cable to m HD and booooom! It works!
Here is my question: Is there any ability to change that kind of power supply on USB ports? I want to power mu external hard drive from one USB port, not from two. I have USB hub but don't want to use two USB ports (on the opposite positions of docking station) and additional USB cable. I have the most recent BIOS (F12) and all fresh drivers installed on my computer.
Any solutions?

I am not going to take credit for this. I had a similar problem, but all of my USB ports stopped working for EVERYTHING! You were right on track, and here is the final bit of information that you needed: Microsoft Surface tablet External USB hard drives auto-sleep in Windows 8.1 Posted on November 4, 2013 After upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 Pro, my SeaGate Expansion 2TB hard drive always runs to sleep mode automatically and then disappears if no file transfers occur. when I try to access its stored files, the File Explorer will be unresponsive. Changing the power options is not working. In Windows 8.1 the external USB hard drives and USB flash drives are configured with a low power state by default. That causes USB massstorage devices auto-sleep or file transfers stop unexpectedly. You could change the hardware ID of USB storage device in the registry to resolve the problem. * Updated to the latest firmware for the device to check if it is fine. * From Start screen, open the Search charm, type regedit, right-click the regedit icon from result, and select “Run as administrator“. * In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\usbstor * Right-click the “usbstor” and create a key with the following key name: apricorn (aegis padlock) 09840315 buffalo external hdd 500gb 04110105 cavalry dual bay dock 152d2352 diskgenie usb device 09840092 hitachi touro 3.0 4tb usb 3.0 49711015 kingston datatraveler hyperx 3.0 usb device 256gb (dthx30/256gb) 0951162b lacie 2tb usb drive 059f1018 mediasonic h82-su3s2 probox 152d0539 multi-drive enclosure connected 15200551 seagate expansion 2tb 0bc23320 seagate expansion desk 3tb 0bc23312 seagate fa goflex desk 2tb 0bc25071 verbatim store ‘n’ save superspeed 3tb 18a50400 western digital elements desktop 2tb 10581021 western digital my book 2to 10581140 * Now right-click the new key, create a DWORD entry named DeviceHackFlags with 400 hexadecimal value. * Make a reconnection for the device. RELATED POSTS How to Disable SkyDrive Integration in Windows 8.1 Install Windows 8.1 from USB flash drive Error Code 0xc1900104 Windows 8 gps receiver for Surface Pro Fix Stylus/Pen not working bug on Surface Pro Windows 8 app not sync with Google Apps calendar Create Windows 8.1 Bootable USB Flash Drive This entry was posted in Windows 8 and tagged issues, USB, Windows 8.1 by Windows 8 rt/pro. Bookmark the permalink.

Input/Output Error USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

I recently started having problems with an external hard drive setup that I did not have prior to trying to setup the drive to be compatible with Time Machine.
The hard drive enclosure that I have has 2 bays for two SATA drives. I have used this enclosure without any problems until I tried to get 1 drive to act as the backup drive for Time Machine and the other to be storage. I formatted them using Drive Genius. I used the option for GUILD or GUIL which it said was the better format for using with Time Machine.
The first problem I ran into since reformatting the drives is I got an "input/output" error the first couple times I connected the drive via USB to my Mac. I could still use the drives but I got weird errors every once in a while like "input/output error" or "device was not ejected properly" even though the device had not been unplugged.
Now the drives will not mount using OS 10.5.5. The drives show up when I open Disk Utility, but I cannot get them to mount. I have ran Disk Utility First Aid, and it says the drives are fine. There is one error that shows up when I run the "Repair Disk" feature. It reads "Invalid content in Journal". But Disk Utility also says "The volume was repaired successfully".
I have seen some posts when I do a search in google about this issue and it seems this is a known issue. Every suggestion I see says to insert your Tiger DVD and reformat the drive using that and the problem will be solved. The only problem with that is I have a lot of important files on the drive that I cannot lose. I had the files backed up until I moved them to the new drive a while back. Now I do not have a backup because I was in the process of switching to bigger drives and erased the old drives after doing so because everything was working fine.
I am hoping someone out there may have some suggestions (other than erasing the drive) to get my dives to mount so I can transfer the data off to another drive and reformat after.
Thanks,
Paul Rugg

I have similar problems with my USB external HD. Reformatting or repartitioning will not solve your problem. I've tried that 2 times already. The problem will reappear. My HD was running great until last month, when it suddenly without warning disappears from disk utility and the mac altogether. It not only dismounts itself, but also ejects itself, while still physically connected and the power is still on. The HD has its own power supply of course and is directly connected to one of the iMac USB ports. I have erased, repartitioned, disk verified, rebuild spotlight indexes, cleared PRAM and NVRAM, but nothing has solved the problem.
It is application independent, and not related to like iTunes as another post had suggested. Nothing to do with Mac applications. It seems to be USB related.
Messages in the Console seem to indicate something wrong with 'USB transactions passed their expiration point' and 'USB cannot enumerate something', but these statements are a bit cryptic to me. Perhaps an Apple system engineer can someday shed some light here.
thanks much for any assistance.

OS X Mavericks doesn't read my usb, sd and external hard drive

Hi all,
I am using Macbook pro (Mid 2010) and recently upgraded to OSX 10.9.3. Since switching to Mavericks, I have problems with using USB, SD Card and External hard drive (Freecom Classic II). The outcome is random. Sometimes, I am able to use it for a while and then it suddenly goes away (from the finder) or it mounts and fades into grey and then disappears.
I did read through the forum and followed PRAM resetting. However, it works for the moment and when I restart or try to use these devices again (days later) I end-up facing the same issues with USB, SD and EHD.
I checked all these devices in my PC and Ubuntu. All of them works fine.
Any directions?
regards,
Martin

Might be corrupted Finder preferences ...
Open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder
Type or copy paste the following:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
Click Go then move the com.apple.finder.plist file to the Trash
Restart your Mac then go to Finder > Preferences > General
Make sure External disks is selected.

Can't drag or drop into external hard drive anymore. Worked perfectly before.

I bought a Seagate external hard drive about a year ago. I reformatted it the moment I took it out of the box, plugged it into my laptop, and everything worked perfectly. I dragged and dropped as I liked, and nothing went wrong with it at all. Then I decided to restore my laptop to do a bit of spring cleaning, and suddenly, I can't drag anything INTO the hard drive or open any programs either. It shows up on my desktop and Finder. And I can take things OUT of it, thankfully, but I can't put anything into it, which is extremely frustrating because I use my hard drive as storage and backup.
I did a bit of looking around online, and people are saying that I'll need to reformat it (which I already did), but it'll erase everything in it. Because my hard drive holds almost 300 GB, I'm not too keen on doing that, because it will take AGES, and there's no confirmation that that will actually work. If you have any solutions, please help! And please go step by step as well--I'm absolutely no good with the tech language.

1. verify same on another Mac if possible.
2. Go to disk utility and check verify and repair on the drive and see if it checks out
3. You never should again even consider having a single external copy of you data, at any time for any reason, HD are too cheap to endanger your data like that.
4. Likely dead SATA bridge card, however I cant recall an instance in which communication was one way on an external with a dead SATA bridge card.
verify 1 and 2, and SMC reset your Mac and verify again
SMC reset
Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.
Then I decided to restore my laptop to do a bit of spring cleaning,
Define what you did in your "restore" and spring cleaning.

Powerbook G4 won't detect USB 2.0 external hard drive

I recently purchased a Toshiba USB 2.0 portable external hard drive. I have both 15' and a 17' Powerbook G4s that are running on OS X 10.4.11. When I attempted to connect the new hardware to each of the computers neither recognizes that anything has been connected. The external drive does not appear on the desktop, in disk utilities, or TechTool. Both computers have 2.0 USB ports and the external hard drive is compatible to a Mac, but I cannot figure out why it will not show up. I have tried all of the suggestions I could find in forums discussing similar problems such as trying to repair the permissions with the Disk Utility First Aid feature, resetting the PRAM, as well as resetting the PMU, but to no avail. When I connect the device to a Windows based PC it shows up immediately; however, when I try to see it using the Virtual PC side of my Mac I am still unable to visualize the drive. This problem is only occurring with external hard drives and not particularly just this brand--I have tried others and had the same problem. All of my other USB devices that I connect to these computers work fine. Can someone please help and tell me why my Powerbooks will not detect USB external hard drives. Thanks!

External hard drive enclosures can be connected to computers in any of several ways. USB is one; FireWire is another. Some enclosures offer several different connection options: they may have any combination of USB2, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and eSATA ports. All G4 And G5 Macs have FireWire 400 ports, and can start up from an external hard drive that is connected to one of those ports. No G$ or G% Mac can be depended upon to start up from any external drive that is connected to a USB port, though it may happen in a few cases. Because a FireWire-capable drive is bootable, it's much more useful than a USB-only drive in any situation where a primary hard drive has failed or has become temporarily unbootable because of file or directory corruption.
Bare hard drives nowadays come in two platter sizes: 2.5" for notebook computers and 3.5" for desktop computers. The sizes and shapes of their outside casings are tightly standardized to make them highly interchangeable. They also come in two types: Parallel ATA, also called IDE, PATA, or ATA-5, ATA-6 or ATA-7; and the newer Serial ATA, or SATA drives.
External enclosures are made to accept either PATA or SATA drives — rarely both types. If you have an external drive with only a USB2 port, and you can see how to open the drive enclosure to reveal the bare drive inside, it may be to your advantage to order an empty FireWire enclosure and "transplant" your bare hard drive into it to get the benefits of higher speed, bootability, and adequate power that come with FireWire.
External hard drive enclosures are designed to hold standard-sized bare hard drive units — the same units that can be mounted inside a desktop or notebook computer. An enclosure contains a place to mount the drive, a circuit board or two that mediates between the drive and the port to which you'll connect a USB or FireWire cable, and in the case of a 3.5" drive, sometimes a fan for cooling.
Portable FireWire-connectable external hard drives seldom or never have the problem of insufficient power that plagues so many portable USB hard drives when they're used with Powerbooks. For whatever reason, Powerbooks' USB ports just can't put out enough juice to run most portable USB drives, while their FireWire ports are able to do so comfortably.

File transfer from MacBook Pro into external hard drive

I can't copy files from the MacBook into an external hard drive.
In the 'Get Info' section, it says read-only. However, the hard drive have just been recently bought.
I had the same problem with our previous hard drive. Although the previous hard drive was 'read-only' I was able to copy and paste files in our old HP laptop.
What can I do in order to copy and paste files from the MacBook into the hard drive?
Hard drive = Toshiba
Capacity = 1TB

In my last paragraph, I said
"Note that Windows PCs cannot write natively to an HFS drive, so if you need to exchange files between Mac and PC, we need to talk about different options."
Windows cannot read Mac Extended (HFS) formatted drives; the Mac cannot write to Windows (NTFS) formatted drives.
The only formats fully compatible between Mac and PC are FAT32 (largely deprecated) and exFAT. If you need full read-write compatibility between Windows and Mac, and you can erase the drive (ie, it's a new drive or you have confirmed backups), reformat to exFAT using Disk Utility.
If you have a drive with files on it and you cannot erase them at the moment:
- if the drive is formatted for the Mac, you can purchase MacDrive for the PC
- if the drive is formatted for Windows (NTFS), you can purchase Paragon NTFS for the Mac.
Matt

Airport Extreme, Belkin USB Hub, and external hard drive

I'm having a serious meltdown. I've been at this all day long and I've reviewed SEVERAL, if not all, discussion threads. I've seen my question many times on many threads, but yet to find a solution!
Just got the hub, and I tried today to connect the Belkin USB hub so I could get my external hard drive accessible from my Mac. My external drive worked fine on my PC. I recently moved to Mac.
Printer works with no issue at all, but my external drive does not even list in either the Disk Utility or System Profiler. It just doesn't get recognized. I've tried EVERYTHING...switching ports, connecting directly to my Macbook, restarting, etc., etc., etc. NOTHING.
Anyone have any insight to this? I'm ready to throw in the towel.

Ok I'll try that! Uh oh...now I can't even see the external drive on my PC! I also spent some time looking at the manufacturer's website to see if there's any software I may have downloaded before using the hard drive, but the website is not helpful in that capacity (www.cavalrystorage.com). I don't remember having software when I first started using it. Furthermore, I just looked at paperwork I received when I got the drive back in Nov.06 and it says not to use "the CD if you have Windows", (to install a driver, perhaps?) which of course, I did. But now I can't find what disc I may have gotten with the drive. It also had no specific instructions for a Mac. Although the external drive has wonderful reviews, and says you can use it with a PC or Mac. I hope this helps. I certainly appreciate your help!
I'm starting to think something has gone awry with the external hard drive? I've tried connecting through the hub (my printer works at least!), direct to AirPort, and direct to laptop and nothing.

With the original ATV is there a way to use the usb port with external hard drive?

Is there a way to use the usb with ATV1 and external hard drive?

I have the same question and refuse to beleive that Apple would put the USB port there for a HD and not be able to use it for that purpose.

Turn USB Drive into External Hard Drive

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