WD External Hard Drive - Not Enough USB Power?

Hello, I have a Western Digital External Hard Drive that I've had for about 5 years. It plugs in/loads through the USB port. However, it hasn't worked when I plug it in to my MAC anymore. The red light comes on like it is getting power, but the blue light that typically comes on as well blinks a few times, then you hear the external hard drive shutting back down. Needless to say, it isn't loading anymore, and I can't access my files on the drive. I'm thinking/hoping that maybe (for some odd reason) it isn't getting enough power through my MAC's USB port anymore. Is this possible? If so, what can I do to solve this problem. Thanks for any help!

Depends on whether the drive's motor is functional and the drive can be mounted. In that case you could use recovery software if the drive isn't otherwise accessible. If it's dead and inaccessible then you would need to send it to an expensive data recovery service.
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 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.
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.
You could consider getting a power supply for it. They usually aren't very expensive. Or you could try a different enclosure that supported Firewire (if your MB has a FW port.) You could also try it on a different computer.

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WD Legacy External Hard Drive "Draws too much power from USB"

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Contact the manufacturer. I think the power pack for the drive is not functioning properly.

Why is it that my powerbook does not recognize when i insert external hard drives through the USB 2.0 port

when i insert an external harddrive through the usb port, my mac doesnot recognise that its even there but when a flash disk is inserted, it recognises it perfectly.
why does that happen?

Michael is on the right track. Some external hard drives lacking their own power supply simply cannot get enough power from a single USB port. It is most noticeable in the "name brand" drive that the office supply and computer superstores put on sale every other week. Their chipsets seem to be better optimized for Windows than Macs.
Flash drives work because the don't have a power-hugry motor that must turn.
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get a "Y-cable" that let you connect one drive to two of the computers UWB ports. Example:1 Meter USB 2.0 A to 5 Pin Mini B Cable - Auxiliary USB "Y" Power Design for external hard drives.
get a self-powered USB hub. It has a separate power supply that boosts what goes to the drive. Example: Macally TriHub - 4 Port Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Hub for Mac & PC
If you need the computer and drive to work together in an environment lacking a power source for the hub, and the y-cable isn't an option because you have too few available USB ports, then your only option is to replace the current drive with one better optimized for Macs, like these:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
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I have a Maxtor 300gb external hard drive connected via USB to my G5 - it contains all my JPEG and Raw files and is a vital item right now as I'm in the middle of a uni arts degree....
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You could check whether the drivers are up-to-date.
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Hi Jonhnie on the spot
*1. Check the System Profiler and Disk Utility to see if the External HD(s) are seen by the iMac*
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Reset the iMac's System Management Controller > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543
and then restart resetting the PRAM and NVRAM > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
*4. Test some other USB Device(s) on the same port(s) to see if they are working properly.*
Example: Mouse, iPod, Flashdrive, Camera, etc..
*5. Sorry, but I have to ask*
You are connecting the External HD(s) up to a port on the back of the iMac, not the keyboard right!
Let us know how it's going so far and will go from there.
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Will Time Machine work with an external hard drive connected (via usb) to Airport Extreme?

Sorry, but this article is about 4 years old, and was printed based on preliminary information at the time.
The bottom line here is that Apple does not officially support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme.
If it works for you, great.
You might want to review the Apple Support documents below, which are far more recent than the article you reference:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
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This is NOT correct. Please do not post false information on the forums.

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External Hard Drive not Mounting any more

Hi all,
I have noticed since couple of kernel updates, my external hard drive - plugged via USB doesn't get mounted any more. To access the drive I need to reboot the computer with the hard drive switch on.
See below for the dmesg output, regular usb keys get mounted normally, I have check autofs set up and it seems fine compare to the wiki,
Many thanks for taking the time to read my topic,
Looking forward for your replies,
[ 37.753349] usb 2-6: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
[ 38.139340] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[ 38.175765] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[ 38.175829] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 38.175830] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[ 38.240086] scsi8 : usb-storage 2-6:1.0
[ 38.240226] usbcore: registered new interface driver ums-cypress
[ 44.726882] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access ST325082 3A PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 44.727768] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] 488397168 512-byte logical blocks: (250 GB/232 GiB)
[ 44.728724] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
[ 44.728727] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Mode Sense: 33 00 00 00
[ 44.729729] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 44.753026] sde: sde1
[ 75.466677] usb 2-6: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
[ 75.591741] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI disk
[ 2243.446832] usb 2-6: USB disconnect, device number 4
[ 2278.086455] usb 2-6: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci_hcd
[ 2278.211117] scsi9 : usb-storage 2-6:1.0
[ 2285.078375] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access ST325082 3A PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 2285.079220] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] 488397168 512-byte logical blocks: (250 GB/232 GiB)
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[ 2285.080212] sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Mode Sense: 33 00 00 00
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Yes I have checked System Settings -> Removable Devices - but there is no option for an external hard drive.
And yes it is a ntfs drive, but as I said it worked before couples of updates ago, and just to be sure I checked ntfs-3g - it is installed.
Oh, and I should have said, checking /dev/by-label the drive appear there once turn on, but doesn't get mounted, I use to have a line in the fstab file, but I removed it because it tried to mount it during booting process, and it work anyway.
Any other advice?
Last edited by sweetthdevil (2012-01-24 19:03:00)

Portable external hardrive; not enough USB POWER

so i bought a toshiba 320gb portable external hardrive, only to read the small print on arrival stating that 'rarely' there may not be enough usb power to power the hardrive, on some computers. of course that means my g4 powerbook. i know i am supposed to use a mini y usb cable...which i bought, however the stupid thing is not long enough to reach my 2nd usb port on the other side of the laptop...rendering it useless.
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WD External Hard Drive - Not Enough USB Power?

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