# HELP! USB Drive not Mounting



## showngo (Apr 9, 2004)

I recently was given an MPIO HS100 usb flash drive as a gift. It is a 1.5gb pen drive, its a pretty nice little unit. USB 2.0 compatible. It works perfectly with Windows (after installed a bunch of drivers) but i can not get my mac to detect or mount the drive. I have never used a USB drive with a Mac before so maybe i am missing something. Please help me i would like to be able to use this drive. The wite for the drive says that it will work with Mac OS 8 and later.

Equipment: 12" Powerbook G4 1ghz, 40gig, 256mb. Mac OS X 10.3

Thank you in advance!


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## DeltaMac (Apr 10, 2004)

Things to check:
Is the device seen in your System Profiler?
Do you see the drive listed in Disk Utility? - The hard drive in this device comes formatted as Fat32, which SHOULD work in Panther, but if it is seen in Disk Utility, and will not mount, then you could try formatting, either as a MS-DOS drive, which would make it FAT16, I think. OR - if you are NOT going to use it in a PC, it could be formatted as a MacOS Extended volume.

If not seen at all by the Mac, try plugging directly into the Mac (no hub), OR try a good USB 2.0 hub, such as one from d-link.


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## showngo (Apr 10, 2004)

Thank you for your reply. Ii checked what you siad to, it is seen in the system profiler under the USB and it registers the correct name for the device. It is NOT seen in the disk utility however. Also it does not make any difference when i tried it with a USB hub. Any other thoughts?

Thank you.



			
				DeltaMac said:
			
		

> Things to check:
> Is the device seen in your System Profiler?
> Do you see the drive listed in Disk Utility? - The hard drive in this device comes formatted as Fat32, which SHOULD work in Panther, but if it is seen in Disk Utility, and will not mount, then you could try formatting, either as a MS-DOS drive, which would make it FAT16, I think. OR - if you are NOT going to use it in a PC, it could be formatted as a MacOS Extended volume.
> 
> If not seen at all by the Mac, try plugging directly into the Mac (no hub), OR try a good USB 2.0 hub, such as one from d-link.


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## DeltaMac (Apr 10, 2004)

Boot to your OS X installer (DVD?) that came with your system. Leave the MPIO device plugged in. At the first screen, go to the Installer menu, and choose Disk Utility. Does the MPIO drive show up there? If so, then something about your software is not allowing mounting of the device. You can try formatting the drive there. If still nothing, then the device is just not compatible (regardless of what the manufacturer says), but try contacting the manufacturer...


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## showngo (Apr 10, 2004)

Just tried doing it that way, did not show up there on the disk utility. I guess that means that it is not compatible. Oh Well. Thanks for all your help DeltaMac. If you think of anything else let me know, ill try just about anything....



			
				DeltaMac said:
			
		

> Boot to your OS X installer (DVD?) that came with your system. Leave the MPIO device plugged in. At the first screen, go to the Installer menu, and choose Disk Utility. Does the MPIO drive show up there? If so, then something about your software is not allowing mounting of the device. You can try formatting the drive there. If still nothing, then the device is just not compatible (regardless of what the manufacturer says), but try contacting the manufacturer...


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## brianh (Apr 10, 2004)

showngo said:
			
		

> Just tried doing it that way, did not show up there on the disk utility. I guess that means that it is not compatible. Oh Well. Thanks for all your help DeltaMac. If you think of anything else let me know, ill try just about anything....


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## brianh (Apr 10, 2004)

I have the same problem with an external usb hard drive. I was using it for backup on an old G3 iMac. I bought a new G5 1.8 and tried to transfer files from the old to the new. The drive doesn't  show-up on the desktop but is in the system profiler. The Apple tech suggested trashing some extensions and eventually re-installing OSX. The drive still won't mount. 
I guess I will have to go to plan b and backup to a cd instead of using the usb drive.


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## scottygish (Apr 12, 2004)

I had trouble with this as well and after a little playing around found the easy fix.  The key drive I had would not work through the keyboard USB, (apparently not enough power), but works fine plugged into the back of the computer.  Hopefully this easy fix works for you...

Scott


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## showngo (Apr 12, 2004)

Since i am using a powerbook i do not have a keyboard port that i am pluging the device into, only the two ports on my powerbook. Could it be that there is not enough power to these ports?



			
				scottygish said:
			
		

> I had trouble with this as well and after a little playing around found the easy fix.  The key drive I had would not work through the keyboard USB, (apparently not enough power), but works fine plugged into the back of the computer.  Hopefully this easy fix works for you...
> 
> Scott


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 12, 2004)

Quick question: have you ever installed any AVID programs?


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## showngo (Apr 12, 2004)

No i havent.



			
				ElDiabloConCaca said:
			
		

> Quick question: have you ever installed any AVID programs?


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## btoth (Apr 16, 2004)

If you can, try going to a store than sells Apple computers and try it on different models.  I can't use my FireLite external USB drive on my 15" PowerBook without the optional AC adapter, however it works on all other Apple models just fine, the 15" doesn't put out the required power for some stupid reason.  By trying it on other models you'd be able to see if it's just not compatible with Apple computers or if it's just your computer.

You can also check Apple's discussion boards.... there's a lot of discussion about poor USB on the PowerBooks.  I haven't had any luck with Apple tech support, they know less than I do.  Anyone here know where/who to send a letter?  I seem to get further with writing.


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## Paul Derby (May 11, 2005)

I'm having trouble getting USB Flash Drive Media to moun, too, under Tiger.  The flash drives I have worked flawlessly under Panther.   If I fire up Disk Utility the USB drive shows up just fine and passes the "repair disk" tests.  If I click on "MountPoint" I can get to the drive and the drive contents.  Under Tiger, the drive just doesn't show up in the Finder as a mounted drive anymore.  My Flas Drives are USB 2.0 formatted with FAT16.


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