"The disk inserted cannot be read by this computer"

Question

"The disk inserted cannot be read by this computer"

I have a LaCie Big Disk Extreme (1TB), which has worked fine for me for a few months now, but after trying to get it to work in Windows, I think I might have accidentally reformatted the drive, but I'm not certain. Right now, Windows is telling me that the partition style is 'GPT' or GUID Partition Table. The drive shows up in Disk Utility, but I am not able to repair it.
I need a way to get the drive to show up in Mac OS X again, without having to reformat the drive.

Message was edited by: Tanner Stevens

24" iMac 2.4 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 27, 2009 7:02 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 27, 2009 7:38 PM in response to Tanner Stevens

What did you do to "try... to get it to work in Windows?"

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Answer 2

Apr 28, 2009 11:08 AM in response to Kappy

I went to the device manager, and then the disk manager (or something like that), and I right clicked the drive, and clicked 'Convert disk to GPT'. When the hard drive still didn't show up in Windows, I kept trying by clicking some of the other options like 'convert disk to dynamc disk' as well as some other options. I think this is where it all went wrong.

Is there anyway I can get Mac OS X or Wndows to read a drive that is GPT formatted?

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Answer 3

Apr 28, 2009 11:58 AM in response to Tanner Stevens

I thought maybe some of this info might be helpful as well:

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Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 28, 2009 1:27 PM in response to Tanner Stevens

Well, the drive is partitioned properly or so it appears but I would suggest you do the following:

Extended Hard Drive Preparation

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

This should assure that the drive will work correctly with OS X. I'm assuming this is the end result you want.

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Answer 5

Apr 28, 2009 1:30 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks for the info, I will give it a try, but will it erase every thing that I have on there now?

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Answer 6

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 28, 2009 1:42 PM in response to Tanner Stevens

Yes, it will. Unless the drive is already properly formatted to be used on the Mac, then you will need to reformat the drive. Macs can read/write a FAT32 formatted volume and can read an NTFS formatted volume. Macs cannot be booted from a FAT32 or NTFS formatted volume, and PCs cannot read or write a Mac formatted volume. There are third-party solutions for Windows as well as for reading and writing NTFS on the Mac.

What you decide to do will have to be determined by your particular needs for this drive. As it is the drive does not appear to have a valid format for OS X. I'm not clear if the drive is still usable on a PC.

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