PowerBook G4 and combo drives

On Sep 20, 2007, at 12:21 PM, Rick Taft wrote:

> I own a PowerBook G4 (1.67GHz). I am using the latest version of
> Tiger, I have 1GB of RAM and this model was one of the first to
> have the backlit keys. I have purchased an external hard drive case
> for another PowerBook drive. When I plug it into either the USB
> (2.0) or the Firewire drive, it never shows up on the desktop. If I
> take it to my "Sawtooth" G4 tower, it shows up. Anybody have any
> ideas? I thought I read something about an issue like this, but I
> can't find it. If someone could point the way, I would be grateful!

Do you have Finder set to show hard disks on the desktop?

> Do you have Finder set to show hard disks on the desktop? Yes I do have it set up to show hard disks on the desktop. Rick Taft

I experienced a similar problem with an external FireWire drive not showing up on the desktop. After some trial and error, my problem resolved itself after installing all available sotware updates, running Disk Warrior, and replacing the FireWire cable. You can use Apple's Disk Utility (or System Profiler) to verify if the drive is visible to your system. If the drive appears in disk utility but no volumes can be mounted, try running a disk repair utility.

I've had a similar problem with my PowerBook G4 12" and an external FireWire/USB hard drive case. Sometimes the drive would mount, sometimes it would take a long time and sometimes it would not mount at all. With USB the situation seems to be worse than with FireWire.

My case came with a separate power adapter. When I connect that BEFORE connecting the FireWire or USB cable to the Mac, the drive mounts OK. Not sure why that solves the problem, perhaps the power to the FireWire/USB-bus is limited on laptops? Whatever, you can always give it a try.

Hope this helps.

am 23.10.2007 11:09 Uhr schrieb tidbits-talktidbits.com unter
tidbits-talktidbits.com:

> I've had a similar problem with my PowerBook G4 12" and an external
> FireWire/USB hard drive case. Sometimes the drive would mount, sometimes it
> would take a long time and sometimes it would not mount at all. With USB the
> situation seems to be worse than with FireWire.
>
> My case came with a separate power adapter. When I connect that BEFORE
> connecting the FireWire or USB cable to the Mac, the drive mounts OK. Not sure
> why that solves the problem, perhaps the power to the FireWire/USB-bus is
> limited on laptops? Whatever, you can always give it a try.

The aluminium PowerBooks G4 DO have a problem with connecting external USB
or FireWire drives. The ports don't deliver enough power to satisfy the
power needs of the drives. I bought a USB drive enclosure which had a split
USB cable so I could connect the drive to the two USB ports simultaneously
(one only for power, the other for power and data).

I owned an IBM Travelstar drive, which wouldn't work this way either.
Apparently it needs too much power. Connecting the IBM Travelstar to just
one USB port on a MacBook Pro worked like a charm - but no chance to get it
to run on a aluminium PowerBook G4.

Regards,

Udo

On 10/26/07 5:54 AM, "Udo Huth" wrote:

> am 23.10.2007 11:09 Uhr schrieb tidbits-talktidbits.com unter
> tidbits-talktidbits.com:
>
>> I've had a similar problem with my PowerBook G4 12" and an external
>> FireWire/USB hard drive case. Sometimes the drive would mount, sometimes it
>> would take a long time and sometimes it would not mount at all. With USB the
>> situation seems to be worse than with FireWire.
>
> I owned an IBM Travelstar drive, which wouldn't work this way either.
> Apparently it needs too much power. Connecting the IBM Travelstar to just
> one USB port on a MacBook Pro worked like a charm - but no chance to get it
> to run on a aluminium PowerBook G4.

Umm, I have a G4 Aluminum and haven't had any issues powering a LaCie
portable FW drive. Nor a 7200 RPM 2.5" Hitachi in a third party enclosure.
I've been using both for years and have never had the issues mentioned here.

Adam

On 26/10/2007 10:54, "Udo Huth" <u.hutht-online.de> wrote:
>
> The aluminium PowerBooks G4 DO have a problem with connecting external USB
> or FireWire drives. The ports don't deliver enough power to satisfy the
> power needs of the drives. I bought a USB drive enclosure which had a split
> USB cable so I could connect the drive to the two USB ports simultaneously
> (one only for power, the other for power and data).
>
> I owned an IBM Travelstar drive, which wouldn't work this way either.
> Apparently it needs too much power. Connecting the IBM Travelstar to just
> one USB port on a MacBook Pro worked like a charm - but no chance to get it
> to run on a aluminium PowerBook G4.

Not my experience - I have had three different USB and forewre drives work
perfectly on a AlBook (G41.33GHz)

am 28.10.2007 10:08 Uhr schrieb tidbits-talktidbits.com unter
tidbits-talktidbits.com:

>> The aluminium PowerBooks G4 DO have a problem with connecting external USB
>> or FireWire drives. The ports don't deliver enough power to satisfy the
>> power needs of the drives. ...
>>
>> I owned an IBM Travelstar drive, which wouldn't work this way either.
>> Apparently it needs too much power. Connecting the IBM Travelstar to just
>> one USB port on a MacBook Pro worked like a charm - but no chance to get it
>> to run on a aluminium PowerBook G4.
>
> Not my experience - I have had three different USB and forewre drives work
> perfectly on a AlBook (G41.33GHz)

Hm, interesting...

I tried it this very moment with an Aluminium 15" PowerBook5,4 1.33 GHz.
Connecting the drive to only one USB port, did mount it, however, I could
not access it. Double-clicking on the icon resulted in the spinning
beachball and I had to restart the PowerBook with the three-fingered-salute.
Connecting the drive with the split cable to both USB ports, resulted in
flawless behaviour.

Another PowerBook I tried this with, is a 15" PowerBook5,6 1.5 GHZ. There
the drive connected to only one USB port doesn't show up at all. Connecting
it to both USB ports again results in flawless behaviour. Another 15"
PowerBook5,6 1.67 GHz shows the exact same symptoms.

Several Aluminium 15" PowerBooks which were tried on a meeting showed either
of the above mentioned symptoms.

I spoke with an Apple technician on that said meeting about those problems
and he said the the Aluminium PowerBooks have the problem with the USB bus.
As this was quite some time ago, I can't recall whether he meant only 15"
PowerBooks to have this problem or the whole range. Maybe only Aluminium
PowerBooks sold in Germany/Europe show this kind of problem.

Regards,

Udo

-On October 27, 2007 8:13:22 AM -0700 Adam King <akingraxon.com> wrote:

>> I owned an IBM Travelstar drive, which wouldn't work this way either.
>> Apparently it needs too much power. Connecting the IBM Travelstar to just
>> one USB port on a MacBook Pro worked like a charm - but no chance to get
>> it to run on a aluminium PowerBook G4.
>
> Umm, I have a G4 Aluminum and haven't had any issues powering a LaCie
> portable FW drive. Nor a 7200 RPM 2.5" Hitachi in a third party enclosure.
> I've been using both for years and have never had the issues mentioned
> here.

I've run into the issue. I think if the drive can slow itself down to run
with available power it works, but some enclosures don't work that way and
need full power.

I've had 2 external usb drives that worked with my old PowerBook G4
(titanium), and 2 that didn't.

I believe it is power issue. I have a PowerBook 17", 1.33mz and just bought an external usb drive 500gb. When I try to connect it directly to the usb drives left or right on power book it does not mount. Nor does the disk utility recognize it. Then I have a usb wired key board. I connect this keyboard to my PowerBook then connect the usb hard drive to the key board and the hard drive shows up on finder. This is my solution.