# Simpletech external drive



## sarah__kate (Dec 31, 2008)

I just got the black cherry hard drive, and I moved my itunes library, and everything was working fine. I figured I had a day to back it up to dvd. When I came back thismorning, it's not being recognized by the computer. I ran a repair on the disk utility, and it says there's an error at the end and I just don't know what to do. The tech support is closed for the holiday and I'm going crazy. Please help!


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## Natobasso (Jan 1, 2009)

A few questions: 

1. How did you format the drive? It's recommended to format it Mac OS Journaled for best mac usage.
2. Is your computer fully updated? Don't go to OS X 10.5.6, it's awfully buggy still, but update as high as you can before that, 10.5.5 if possible to ensure your computer has the necessary drivers for this new hard drive you have.

It's hard to tell what drive you have. Is it this one?
http://www.simpletech.com/site_cms/parts/fsu25320h.htm

If so, check out the user manual on simpletech's site to see if it's compatible with Mac OS X. Let me know which one you have and I'll help look.


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## Satcomer (Jan 1, 2009)

Disconnect the hard drive and then Reset Your PRAM. Turn off the external hard drive while the Mac reboots. Once the Mac boots up turn the external on and connect it to the Mac to see if it will mount, hopefully. If it mounts immediately go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and use Disk Utility to repair the external disk and fix it's permissions.

Good Luck and Happy New Year.


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## DeltaMac (Jan 1, 2009)

sarah__kate said:


> I ran a repair on the disk utility, and it says there's an error at the end and I just don't know what to do.



Can you come back with the exact text of that error, when running Disk Utility on your external hard drive?


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## sarah__kate (Jan 1, 2009)

I formatted it as Mac OS X...not journaled? because I didn't know what that was, and the default was without it. 

My OS X is 10.4.11 right now, and yes, that is the hard drive i have. It's mac compatible, and came with instructions on formatting it. 

the error i receive says " The underlying task reported failure on exit." ..more specifically :

Verify and Repair disk bianca
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Invalid node structure
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid node structure
Invalid node structure
Volume check failed.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


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## DeltaMac (Jan 1, 2009)

That's bad luck with a new drive! I hope you didn't remove your iTunes library from your internal drive!
If you have data that you would like to keep, you may need to try a more powerful disk repair software, such as DiskWarrior.
Otherwise, - New Drive, failing quickly (those are major errors!) - get a replacement/refund. Or, you get to use the warranty on that drive


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## sarah__kate (Jan 1, 2009)

well that's the problem; my library was so large, I had to remove it from my internal drive..the computer was so slow! I just ran out of time when I was moving files to back them up to a dvd. So those errors are gigantic and not something I can fix on my own?


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## Natobasso (Jan 1, 2009)

Try the "PRAM Zapping" Satcomer gave to see if that fixes the problem:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379


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## sarah__kate (Jan 1, 2009)

done, and nothing changed.


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## Natobasso (Jan 1, 2009)

Have you tried hitting the Mount button in disk utility to force mount the drive to your desktop? Might work...


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## sarah__kate (Jan 1, 2009)

I've tried it, and I've tried it again, and again. and again.


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## Natobasso (Jan 1, 2009)

Possible answer here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2313304

Read down to the reference to replacing GeneIOUSBIDE.kext with GeneIOUSBIDE230.kext.

Can you please post EXACTLY which drive you have and let us know if you've downloaded the latest drivers, if any, for it?


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## sarah__kate (Jan 1, 2009)

it's a SimpleTech Signature Mini Black Cherry 320 GB
USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive. 

and I'm not exactly sure what a driver is? Or how I would download one. So I can't really answer that question.


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## Natobasso (Jan 2, 2009)

Found drivers here, but only for Windows98. Guess Mac OS X and Windows OS past 98 don't need a driver: http://www.simpletech.com/site_cms/content/support-drivers-software

Strange, I've read your usb drive is compatible with mac os x. I don't know how to fix this. Did the drive come with an installation cd? Sometimes drivers are loaded onto the cd that comes with a product...


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## Natobasso (Jan 2, 2009)

The Quickstart PDF guide for your drive, says no driver required for MacOS X. Read through this and see if you missed anything:
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache...s+x&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=nz&client=firefox-a

Read through the doc and found this: "Avoid using the USB port on Macintosh computer keyboards. This port may not have enough power to power the drive". Do you have your drive plugged into a usb port on your keyboard? Might be the issue.


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## sarah__kate (Jan 3, 2009)

I don't think I missed anything...I'm on my laptop, so it was plugged into the side of the computer...
I finally was able to call the tech support today, as they were open, but I was only hold for an hour and had to leave for work.


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## Natobasso (Jan 3, 2009)

Did you replace the .kext file as I suggested?


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## sarah__kate (Jan 4, 2009)

yes, I did.


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## Natobasso (Jan 4, 2009)

You could try mounting the usb drive using terminal commands. More info here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1813321&


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## Natobasso (Jan 4, 2009)

Or this "Launch USB Prober" idea:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070628092633507


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