Weird USB Hard Drive probem -HELP

Just upgraded from a macbook to a brand new macbook pro. My USB 2.0 hard drive would work fine on the macbook. Now, on my MBP, I plug it in and nothing shows up on the computer... HOWEVER... If I plug it into my Apple external keyboard, which has 2 USB ports on it, it does work (only USB 1.1 though)...
ANY IDEAS? Thanks!

I'm having a similar issue. I've ruled out bad ports and incompatibility...I've been trying everything! I've seen the same type of question in at least 5 different threads, yet there doesn't seem to be a clear answer. The problem alot of us seem to be facing is that the external drive connected via USB are not even showing up in disk utility or system profiler (except one post I saw!) so we're unable to even SELECT the drive to view it or format it, or whatever.
Can someone help with this? I have a ton of photos I'd like to access via external drive as opposed to storing on my Mac. The external drive worked beautifully on my PC, and now I've made the change to Mac. Like I said, I tried many USB ports, since I attached a USB hub to my AirPort. My printer is connected to my new hub and working perfectly. I can't get the external drive to show up in my Mac whether it's plugged directly into my laptop, directly into the AirPort, or into the hub. HELP PLEASE!
Many thanks!
SeagirlX
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Lost write privileges to external USB hard drive- please help!

Hi,
I've got an external Western Digital 250GB USB hard drive that has been chugging along just fine until about a month ago, when somehow I seemed to have lost write privileges to the top level directory. I"m not sure if this happened when I installed an Mac OS update, or what, as I use the drive as backup and didn't notice it for a while.
The drive appears in the sidebar with a tiny lock icon, and when I try to copy a file from my internal HD to the external (top level directory, or drag the items right onto the icon), the following things happen:
Dialog box says "The item "foo" cannot be moved because "External HD" cannot be modified", with an authenticate button, which I then click.
After I authenticate, I get the error msg "The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for some of the items."
But I *CAN** copy files directly into a folder that already exists on the external drive, but I cannot create new folders in the top level directory.
I have tried the following, to no avail:
1) "get info" on the external drive, checkign the permissions. In the Ownership and Permissions section, it says "You can Read & Write", and under details:
Owner: my account (dimmed) and access level is "read & write".
Group: my account (dimmed) Access: Read only
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Ignore ownership on this volume (unchecked).
The fact that my account was named both as owner and group seemed odd, since in Group the access was "read only". I clicked on the little lock icon next to Owner, authenticated, and was allowed to change the Group settings. I changed the Group access to "read & Write", but it's not "sticking" -- when I close teh details field and reopen it, or close the get info window and reopen, the Group access settings go back to "read only".
2) I've also, of course, tried repairing permissions on my internal startup drive, which did not help the matter. Also in Disk Utility, I verified/repaired the offendin external USB drive (no problems), Verify/Repair permissions were dimmed for this drive (I assume becuase it doesn't have MacOS X installed on it?)
3) Searched the forums, Western Digital support, etc. and I cannot seem to figure out what has gone wrong.
4) When I connect the drive to another computer (my iBook) the situation is the same. Also, when I create a new admin user account and try to access the drive from that account, I still cannot write to the drive.
Thanks, I appreciate any tips or pointers.

The drive appears in the sidebar with a tiny lock icon, and when I try to copy a file from my internal HD to the external (top level directory, or drag the items right onto the icon), the following things happen:
Open the Terminal in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and enter the following:
chflags nouchg
followed by a space; next, drag the disk into the Terminal window and press Enter. The lock should now be gone.
The fact that my account was named both as owner and group seemed odd, since in Group the access was "read only".
Recent versions of Mac OS X create a group with the same name whenever you create an account from the Setup Assistant or System Preferences. The Group permissions don't apply in this case.
I changed the Group access to "read & Write", but it's not "sticking" -- when I close teh details field and reopen it, or close the get info window and reopen, the Group access settings go back to "read only".
Did you get an error message after doing this?
Verify/Repair permissions were dimmed for this drive (I assume becuase it doesn't have MacOS X installed on it?)
That is correct. The Repair Permissions mechanism uses data from the /Library/Receipts/ folder on a disk to function, and this data is only present on disks which have Mac OS X installed.
(12377)

Weird USB Hard Drive issue

So I recently purchased a c2d macbook.
For some reason my external usb hd wont spin down after x minutes like it did with my iMac.
Hard drives are set to spin down when not in use.
Anyone have any ideas?

I'm having a similar issue. I've ruled out bad ports and incompatibility...I've been trying everything! I've seen the same type of question in at least 5 different threads, yet there doesn't seem to be a clear answer. The problem alot of us seem to be facing is that the external drive connected via USB are not even showing up in disk utility or system profiler (except one post I saw!) so we're unable to even SELECT the drive to view it or format it, or whatever.
Can someone help with this? I have a ton of photos I'd like to access via external drive as opposed to storing on my Mac. The external drive worked beautifully on my PC, and now I've made the change to Mac. Like I said, I tried many USB ports, since I attached a USB hub to my AirPort. My printer is connected to my new hub and working perfectly. I can't get the external drive to show up in my Mac whether it's plugged directly into my laptop, directly into the AirPort, or into the hub. HELP PLEASE!
Many thanks!
SeagirlX
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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So i download the Airport software (4.2?) and it tells me to use the latest software, so I download the update and it tells me that it can't update this version...i gotta tell ya, I am ready to take this thing back if i can't use it, the mac works so simple, but winblows makes everything so **** difficult...what am i missing? Where is the correct software to download?

When i was installing bootcamp, it deleted my coursework on my 1TB usb hard drive?? why is this?? can someone help??

When i was installing bootcamp, it deleted my coursework on my 1TB usb hard drive?? why is this?? can someone help??

You did something wrong. Why was your usb hard drive connected? Did you somehow format the external hard drive? If so, your files are gone.

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i have a simple drive 375GB USB hard drive that already has data from my xp computer. however, it is only compatible with my mac if i erase all of the data to make it into FAT32. is there a way i can do this without needing to erase the data that is on the drive?

Hi shultzie445, and a warm welcome to the forums!
I think there are better tools in Windows for doing that, like Partition Magic.
A few options...
You could format that HDD as Fat32/MS-DOS, but you'd be limited to 4 GB Filesizes.
NTFS-3G Stable Read/Write Driver...
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
MacFUSE: Full Read-Write NTFS for Mac OS X, Among Others...
http://www.osnews.com/story/16930
MacDrive for the PCs... allows them to Read/Write HFS+...
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

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Thanks!

Do an SMC reset using this slightly-modified procedure:
Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve
1.Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
[2a. Press the power-on button to discharge the power capacitors.]
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer's power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
in all cases, the stated times are recommended minimums, and there are no maximums.
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) - Apple Support

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I just did a software update on my MacBook Pro and now I am experiencing a weird Airport Extreme usb hard drive issue. I can see the name of my airport extreme in the Shared section of my finder window. However when I click on it, the finder indicates the it's connecting, but it stops immediately and displays the 'Not Connected' message. When I click on the 'Connect As' button, I am prompted to enter my password and if I click 'Connect', it just spins out endlessly. However, when I re-enter the password and press Connect, my usb drive mounts. I can view, access and use the drive's contents, but if I close the finder window, the connection drops and I have to re-connect. What else is weird, is that once I see my drives, the finder indicates that I am connected as another user(not a user native to this computer). This issue did not exist before my software update.
My software log update indicates that the following items have been installed:
Canon Printer Software Update 2.3 and Security Update 2010-003.
I suspect it has something to do with the Security Update. Is there a way I can revert to the previous security version? Or is there any other solution that could help me avoid re-connecting to my airport extreme usb hard drives?
I will really appreciate any feedback.

Free Solution:
Sure there's a »fix« with Apple software. You'll need to install the Developer Tools (Xcode) from the Snow Leopard Install DVD, though.
After you've done that, you can use "SetFile" to clear the Alias bit from the misbehaving Volume:
/usr/bin/SetFile -a a /Volumes/<YourExternalDriveName>
Please keep in mind that using this command might be dangerous, so don't try this solution unless you feel confident on the command line. (See http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/m an1/SetFile.1.html or invoke /usr/bin/SetFile without arguments for more info on the SetFile command.)
...a similar discussion and answer can be found at: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2131824&start=45&tstart=0

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http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrateLion.html
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Hello! I'm sure this has been posted before, but excuse my naivety with this sort of thing...
I have a mac mini 10.5.6 (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) and I run the Time Machine function to an external usb hard drive. The hard drive worked fine (plugged into the usb port on an older keyboard), but I went out and bought a new aluminum apple keyboard (because they look so cool ^_^ ) - I plugged the external usb drive into the keyboard and it wasn't recognized, so I tried plugging the external drive directly into the mac mini, but it is still not recognized. It is not showing up in Disk Utility or in System Profiler
Help? I'd hate to have to give up this fancy keyboard...
Thank you!
Dr. E

I believe I had my external drive plugged into the (old) keyboard because with the old mac that I had didn't have a free usb port for it - so when I got the mini I just plugged things back in where they were. But I have always had the Time Machine back up to this drive (connected to the keyboard) though it has been slow (another reason I thought the new keyboard was a good idea).
I tried restarting the computer without the alu keyboard plugged in, but same problem of no drive showing up.
Here is what System Profiler has to say about my drive:
USB2.0 Storage Device:
Capacity: 93.16 GB
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
Product ID: 0x6830
Vendor ID: 0x04b4 (Cypress Semiconductor)
Version: 0.01
Serial Number: DEF107920F07
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Cypress Semiconductor
Location ID: 0x3d130000
Current Available (mA): 100
Current Required (mA): 0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
USB:
Capacity: 92.84 GB
Available: 53.14 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s2
Mount Point: /Volumes/USB
I don't know the brand or model as it has 'always' been in the case that in which it currently resides and I didn't physically buy the thing :\ I do know that no software was installed with the drive as I assumed that when I put all the old info from the original mac to the mini that it was the sort of thing that would carry over.
Sorry I'm not terribly helpful - Thank you!
Dr. E

USB hard drive not detected on reboot

I am running Windows 7 Ulitmate 64-bit on my 2011 15" Macbook Pro. I have a USB Hard Drive (WD My Passport SE - USB 3.0/2.0 - 1 TB).
The hard drive is formatted for HFS+ and I am running Mac Drive 8 to detect it in Windows.
For some reason when I reboot (in Windows), the hard drive won't be there until I unplug it and plug it back in.
This is really annoying! Can anybody help me? I'm pretty good with things like this but I can't think of any reason this shouldn't be working right.
HELP =T
Message was edited by: PTHEOFYL
Message was edited by: PTHEOFYL

I am having the exact same problem. WD 1TB Passport. USB 3.0 drive. Running on Windows 7 Pro 64 via Bootcamp.
My 1TB Passport is formatted with FAT32 and works with Windows and Mac OS.
I was getting the same problem when I was running Windows XP Pro on the same MacBook Pro. I was hoping the upgrade to Windows 7 would remidy the issue but it did not.
The drive light is on in a steady state when I boot and I have the same symptoms as reported by everyone else above.
In my research, I am leaning towards thinking that it is a power issue related to the cable used to connect the USB 3.0 Drive or something to do with the USB driver for Bootcamp, but researching the WD site suggests it's a power issue, not a faulty or failing drive.
I have a 500GB WD Passport USB 2.0 also attached to my computer, also running FAT32 and it starts up no problem. It's just the USB 3.0 drive that is having this issue.
Also worth noting; the drive is detected properly when I boot in Mac OS X. It's only the Windows side I have to unplug and plug back in to access the drive.

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Hi,
I just attached a new USB hard drive to my iMac. I would like to make it so only I can have write access to the drive; I want my kids to be able to see the files but not modify or delete.
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Hello Asopos,
I have difficulty in reading the screenshots, you can post in the corresponding forum or add some comments.
Set your Country/Region and Language Preferences
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/SelectLocale?fromPage=http%253a%252f%252ftechnet.microsoft.com%252fen-us%252f
If my understanding is right, in the USB-hard-drive(NTFS), all folders in the USB drive have the unknown account and the root of the drive don’t have the account.
It is a SID. Possible that this account was removed and permission has not been removed.
Please take ownership of the folder and check if we can normally deleted the account.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753659.aspx
Best regards,
Fangzhou CHEN
Fangzhou CHEN
TechNet Community Support

I have received an error message from an attached USB hard drive (not Time Capsule) stating "Disk Name" cannot be repaired. Back up your data and reformat. I opened the Disk Utility in an attempt to repair the disk but am advised that the disk "could not

I have received an error message relating to an attached USB hard drive (not a back up and not Time Capsule) advising that "disk name" cannot be repaired. Back up your data and reformat. When I attempted to verify the disk with Disk Utility, I was advised that the disk could not be unmounted. What can I do to repair the disk?
Write Status is Read/Write
SMART Status is Not Supported
Partition Map Scheme is Master Boot Record
HELP!
timothy7712

You need something stronger, such as DiskWarrior, TechTools Pro, or Data Rescue.

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yosemite won't work with ntfs drives for some reason, i've had the same issue with my toshiba. i thought ok lemme buy another one, and transfer it over maybe it's a driver issue which i've tried over and over, apple support can't figure it out.
here's a simple fix, but the problem is i have an external where all my photography and video files are stored, so i can't access them right now and it's making my life ****.
http://guides.macrumors.com/Formatting_an_External_Device
that does work and make the drive mountable now, but problem being i can't obviously reformat the old drive and lose everything. once the new drive is formatted for mac i can't plug it into a pc to transfer the files from. which is the only problem now. but formatting the drive for mac only DOES work. but you're just screwed and not able to use it ntfs. hope the link helps SOME people.

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I just purchased the airport extreme base station. I have a usb hard drive connected to the base station. Is it possible to view this hard drive on my ipad 2? I have been unable to do it. Any help would be appreciated.

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Weird USB Hard Drive probem -HELP

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