highfructose
Registered
I'm in process of switching from using my mac mini as secondary to my PC to using it as my primary computer - so I'm setting up an external HDD, dvd burner, etc. My problem has to do with my external USB HDD.
It was previously in my PC and is formatted NTFS. I've set it up in a USB 2.0 enclosure and it gets recognized properly when I connect it to my mini. I can read the files leftover on it, so it's experiencing no problems in that sense (save for being read-only
. My problem is trying to erase it and reparition it. I've tried multiple times using Disk Utility to erase and reformat it, and each time, Disk Utility hangs after a few minutes. I'll see the HDD being accessed (via LED) when I first initiate the Erase, but the LED eventually goes back into "no activity" color, and I'm left with the 'spinning rainbow pinwheel of death' in Disk Utility. I can only halt it via Force Quit, and it displays "(not responding)" in the program list.
I've tried resetting the external enclosure, restarting my mini with the USB turned both on and off, restarting Disk Utility and attempting to erase again. Nothing works. When I Force Quit Disk Utility and launch it again, I see the external HDD listed without any volumes (when viewing Disk Utility and the drive is NTFS, it shows 1 single volume exists, which is correct). So obviously SOMETHING is happening when I hit Erase.
I've reconnected it to my PC and reformatted it as NTFS, then reconnected to my mini. Once again, it shows up fine as an NTFS disk, and attempting to erase turns the LED into 'active' mode for a minute or so, then back into 'no activity' and Disk Utility hangs again. The same behaviour occurs when I attempt to paritition the disk. I basically don't seem to be able to do anything except mount it as an NTFS Read Only volume
The HDD is 250G in size (er, 233.8 in true GB), and I wasn't aware of any disk size limitations (for external HDDs) in Tiger or on a mini. Am I correct in assuming I should be able to partition this external HDD as 1 single 200+ GB partition?
Another point to make, is that I generally give up and Force Quit after as much as 30 mins of 'no activity' LED display on the external enclosure. Is this a false assumption? Does Disk Utility need to do some sort of preprocessing, or something, for a disk this large, and it's correct in not accessing the HDD for an extended period of time like this? This doesn't seem normal to me, but as this is my first experience with an external drive on my mini, I figured it was worth giving thought to.
Has anyone experienced this kind of 'unable to erase/parition/etc' behaviour? Any clues as to what might be going on here?
It was previously in my PC and is formatted NTFS. I've set it up in a USB 2.0 enclosure and it gets recognized properly when I connect it to my mini. I can read the files leftover on it, so it's experiencing no problems in that sense (save for being read-only
. My problem is trying to erase it and reparition it. I've tried multiple times using Disk Utility to erase and reformat it, and each time, Disk Utility hangs after a few minutes. I'll see the HDD being accessed (via LED) when I first initiate the Erase, but the LED eventually goes back into "no activity" color, and I'm left with the 'spinning rainbow pinwheel of death' in Disk Utility. I can only halt it via Force Quit, and it displays "(not responding)" in the program list.I've tried resetting the external enclosure, restarting my mini with the USB turned both on and off, restarting Disk Utility and attempting to erase again. Nothing works. When I Force Quit Disk Utility and launch it again, I see the external HDD listed without any volumes (when viewing Disk Utility and the drive is NTFS, it shows 1 single volume exists, which is correct). So obviously SOMETHING is happening when I hit Erase.
I've reconnected it to my PC and reformatted it as NTFS, then reconnected to my mini. Once again, it shows up fine as an NTFS disk, and attempting to erase turns the LED into 'active' mode for a minute or so, then back into 'no activity' and Disk Utility hangs again. The same behaviour occurs when I attempt to paritition the disk. I basically don't seem to be able to do anything except mount it as an NTFS Read Only volume
The HDD is 250G in size (er, 233.8 in true GB), and I wasn't aware of any disk size limitations (for external HDDs) in Tiger or on a mini. Am I correct in assuming I should be able to partition this external HDD as 1 single 200+ GB partition?
Another point to make, is that I generally give up and Force Quit after as much as 30 mins of 'no activity' LED display on the external enclosure. Is this a false assumption? Does Disk Utility need to do some sort of preprocessing, or something, for a disk this large, and it's correct in not accessing the HDD for an extended period of time like this? This doesn't seem normal to me, but as this is my first experience with an external drive on my mini, I figured it was worth giving thought to.
Has anyone experienced this kind of 'unable to erase/parition/etc' behaviour? Any clues as to what might be going on here?
