iMac won't recognise portable drive

#1 kuching77

Newbie

Group: New Members
Posts: 3
Joined: 23-February 13

Posted 24 February 2013 - 02:17 AM

Good Day All,

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex portable drive, works fine with the PC but when I connect to the iMac it is not recognised and goes "tick tick tick tick........" ad nauseum at 4 ticks per second.

I've tried various software download solutions from Seagate but of course can't do these via the Mac, as the drive must be connected while the software is downloaded.

The drive continues to function fine with the PC (Windows XP).

I'd like to end up with a pocket sized portable drive on which to do manual folder backups from the iMac (I've a separate drive for Time Machine), which is still at least readable from a PC.

Anyone see any reason why I shouldn't reformat it from the PC in, (correct me if I'm wrong) MS-DOS so as to be used on PC and iMac, or is the iMac's behaviour when the drive is connected a sign of some other issue which reformatting won't solve?

Many thanks - all advice appreciated.

kuching77

#2 bastion

Power User

Group: Members
Posts: 9,114
Joined: 14-October 04

Posted 24 February 2013 - 03:14 PM

Most bus-powered hard drives require more power than is guaranteed by the USB spec. Only some Macs provide the overage needed, and even then it can depend on what else is plugged into it. Based on your description, I think that's the issue. It's not getting enough juice to spin up.

#3 kuching77

Newbie

Group: New Members
Posts: 3
Joined: 23-February 13

Posted 25 February 2013 - 01:35 AM

A revelation!

Many thanks, bastion, evidently I had always plugged the drive into the "aux" port on the keyboard. Plugged into the back of the monitor, the drive runs fine, and I even seem to be able to save to it!

Very much appreciated.

kuching77