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    Cant mount or use USB external drive with Mac OSX

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by tyronne, Aug 19, 2008.

  1. tyronne

    tyronne Notebook Evangelist

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    We have external USB hard drive but when we plug it in we cant seem to see it under Diskutility.

    Anyone know why? btw our external hard drive was used on another computer and is formatted with NTFS under WIndows Vista.
     
    tyronne, Aug 19, 2008
    #1
  2. X2P

    X2P COOLING | NBR Super Mod

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    I believe mac osx cannot read ntfs on an external drive
     
    X2P, Aug 19, 2008
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  3. Jurisprudence

    Jurisprudence Notebook Evangelist

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    Jurisprudence, Aug 19, 2008
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  4. tyronne

    tyronne Notebook Evangelist

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    Dude that's why i had to ask here because when i googled i get nothing but fake HOW TO mount ntfs.

    Thanks for those links but they are not what i am looking for....

    I am looking how come Mac os cant see or mount external USB hard drive. I just want to mount the hard drive so i could install stuff i have on that hard drive.
     
    tyronne, Aug 19, 2008
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  5. cdnalsi

    cdnalsi Food for the funky people

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    That's actually weird. You should be able to SEE the external NTFS drive. You're not going to be able to write on it (out of the box) but read it for sure.

    Yeah, get NTFS3G. Works like a charm! :D
     
    cdnalsi, Aug 19, 2008
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  6. tyronne

    tyronne Notebook Evangelist

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    ok thanks i'll download it. I think something might be wrong with my external usb hard drive. It works under vista sometimes but i kept getting a message saying "This device will run faster using usb 2" although all my usb ports are usb 2 lol.
     
    tyronne, Aug 19, 2008
    #6
  7. cdnalsi

    cdnalsi Food for the funky people

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    That message is because of out-dated USB drivers on your Windows machine. I used to have that on XP for some reason, but never on Vista...
     
    cdnalsi, Aug 19, 2008
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  8. tyronne

    tyronne Notebook Evangelist

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    i didnt think usb 2 needed to be updated because it came with Vista Ultimate. How do i update the usb 2 driver?
     
    tyronne, Aug 19, 2008
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  9. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    Yea the enclosure or the drive might be a bit wonky. Maybe getting a new enclosure will fix the problem.

    But there is something wrong with it, if it doesn't show up in disk utility or anything when you plug it in.
     
    sulkorp, Aug 19, 2008
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  10. tyronne

    tyronne Notebook Evangelist

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    Ok thanks folks i will have to buy a new enclosure for sure ithink.

    I have dropped it a few times when i was at work :)
     
    tyronne, Aug 19, 2008
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