Want to buy external harddrive

I have external hard drive billet made by Revoltec, you can insert any 3,5" drive inside it and use it as external. I fucking love it. I currently have 160GB Samsung cos it's so damn reliable. Maybe I'll buy bigger one some day.

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Originally posted by Åscaris

I have external hard drive billet made by Vantec, you can insert any 3,5" drive inside it and use it as external. I fucking love it. I currently have 160GB Samsung cos it's so damn reliable. Maybe I'll buy bigger one some day.

+1.....I have a 90Gb Hitachi inside a Vantec case. I use it for consulting, backups, picture, vids and my cert courses. Works like a champ.

As far as mfgs...I have replaced tons of Maxtors as opposed to WD, Seagate, Fujitsu, Hitachi. As a matter of fact I have been going through a pile of HDD's that I have stashed in one of the datacenters I support and the majority of the U320 SCSI drives I have tested that are dead are the Maxtors.

FYI for the geeks in the house, Seagate bought Maxtor and allegedly it will be another 6 months before the old Maxtor inventory is depleted.

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Originally posted by ev1l0ne

FYI for the geeks in the house, Seagate bought Maxtor and allegedly it will be another 6 months before the old Maxtor inventory is depleted.

AFAIK, Seagate bought Maxtor ages ago. And Maxtor drives are the same shit as before. I know a guy who bought a new Maxtor drive, he had it replaced 3 TIMES because it broke every time he tried to install windows on it! After the 3rd time, he bought another brand.

I got a 160 gig USB powered western digital and the fucker doesnt even work on my power book, but it works on my PC... I brought it for my powerbook.... Im ropable I just dropped 150 NZ dollars on it....

does anyone know what could be the problem... sorry for the thread hijack... but its related....

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Originally posted by [Sic

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I got a 160 gig USB powered western digital and the fucker doesnt even work on my power book, but it works on my PC... I brought it for my powerbook.... Im ropable I just dropped 150 NZ dollars on it....

does anyone know what could be the problem... sorry for the thread hijack... but its related....

Does it not work at all on the PowerBook, or you just can't write to it. It's possible the drive is formatted NTFS, Macs can only read NTFS, not write to it. Check the format when it's hooked up to your PC. Feel free to PM me with the info and maybe we can get it working.

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Originally posted by ArtieLange

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Does it not work at all on the PowerBook, or you just can't write to it. It's possible the drive is formatted NTFS, Macs can only read NTFS, not write to it. Check the format when it's hooked up to your PC. Feel free to PM me with the info and maybe we can get it working.

The drive doesnt mount on my desk top.... It says on the box that it works with OSX.... But Ive tried other mates portable hard drives on here and the same thing happens...

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Originally posted by [Sic

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The drive doesnt mount on my desk top.... It says on the box that it works with OSX.... But Ive tried other mates portable hard drives on here and the same thing happens...

If you are up for an experiment....

If you can safely move the data off the Ext HDD do so. Then try formatting the Ext drive while it is connected to the Mac. Once done see if you can mount and create (touch) a few files and mkdir. I had the same issues with my thumb drives and some RAID BIOS updates I was trying to do on an Itanium 5U running RHEL. Once I created a new FS on it all was good plus I could see it on my XP laptop.

^^I think that's a good idea. ^^

After the drive is hooked up to the PowerBook see if Disk Utility recognizes it. If you can see the drive in Disk Utility then you can format it HFS or HFS+ if you are only planning on using it with your Mac and FAT32 if you want to use with a PC and a Mac.

Quote:

Originally posted by ArtieLange

^^I think that's a good idea. ^^

After the drive is hooked up to the PowerBook see if Disk Utility recognizes it. If you can see the drive in Disk Utility then you can format it HFS or HFS+ if you are only planning on using it with your Mac and FAT32 if you want to use with a PC and a Mac.

cheers guys for you help, but its not showing up at all in disk utility or on the desktop, so cant format it.

Ok apparently 15 and 17 inch powerbooks dont have enough current running through the USB to power the drive (yet a 12 inch can WTF?) but yeah I guess I'll go get a refund or get a powered USB hub...

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Originally posted by [Sic

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Ok apparently 15 and 17 inch powerbooks dont have enough current running through the USB to power the drive (yet a 12 inch can WTF?) but yeah I guess I'll go get a refund or get a powered USB hub...

Sic you are 100% correct. I have a LaCie 120GB Firewire/USB 2.0 mobile drive. I have been using the Firewire interface and it powered the drive by itself. I tried using the USB 2.0 interface and the drive started but then it quit. Upon further investigation I discovered that there is another USB cable that plugs into a single pin power connector on the back of the drive. The manual says (though not stating a specific machine) that some USB 2 ports may not provide enough power so you need to use the supplied power cable also, basically giving the drive power from 2 USB ports or one Firewire and 1 USB port. This is straight from the manual;

2.3. Connecting the Optional Power Sharing Cable
In the event that the Firewire bus or the USB bus on your computer does not provide the necessary power to operate your
drive, there is one power supply adapter cable that is included with your drive that will derive the necessary power to operate
the drive. The USB power supply adapter cable connects to an available USB port on your computer.
In case this option does not work with your specific computer configuration, LaCie offers an optional power supply, sold
separately. Please contact your LaCie reseller or LaCie Customer Service for more information.
USB Power Sharing Cable
The USB ports (either USB 2.0 or USB 1.1) on your computer will help provide power to your LaCie drive in the instance that
your FireWire or USB bus does not supply the necessary power to operate your drive.
Attach the small end of the USB Power Sharing Cable to the back of your LaCie drive.
Attach the USB end of the USB Power Sharing Cable to an available USB port on your computer.1

A powered USB hub should do the trick but unfortunately it kinda defeats the portable thing.

Yeah your telling me... I could of got me at least a 250 gig for the same price... But it doesnt matter, I just really needed to back up my Powerbook, so I can take it in to get fixed and sort out its sleep problem.... but thanks guys for all your help... You guys have been champs....

wd makes good extarnal h.d.d(s).