# WD My Passport Essential is undiscovered by PowerBook G4 with Leopard



## jpj331 (Jul 27, 2008)

I've been trying for 3 days to get a WD My Passport Essential Portable hard drive to work. I've done everything I can think of: change the format, create separate partitions, everything.
More info:
PowerBook G4 - 1GB RAM, 80GB hard drive, 1.25ghz processor
External Hard Drive - 250GB, USB 2.0 interface, USB powered, 5400 rpm.
I'm about to throw this friggin' thing out the window if I can't get it to work.
Thanks for anybody who helps!


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## g/re/p (Jul 27, 2008)

Please explain exactly what you are trying to do with it - "not working" could mean many different things.


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## jpj331 (Jul 27, 2008)

I'm trying to get the drive to mount on my laptop. 
I got it to use for extra storage.
I can't figure out how to get it to mount or how to recognize that I've plugged it in.


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## g/re/p (Jul 28, 2008)

A PowerBook G4 will not boot to an external USB, but the drive should still mount.

What file system is it formatted to? 

Have you opened Disk Utility to see if it shows up as a mounted drive?

Try opening terminal and checking /Volumes (cd /Volumes, then ls -lai)
- does it show up there?


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Jul 28, 2008)

Sometimes older PowerBooks and MacBooks have trouble with bus-powered drives.  A friend of mine has a PowerBook G4 that will not mount a bus-powered WD Passport drive without help from a USB "Y-adaptor"... basically, a USB cord that plugs into _two_ USB ports on his laptop, providing extra power for the drive.


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## jpj331 (Jul 28, 2008)

The Y-adapter worked. Thanks ElDiablo.


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