I have an old Lacie HD that I’d like to keep using for Time Machine with a new MacBook Air. My MacBook wont recognize the external drive with using the eSATA to USB C cable adapter I bought. It’s supposed to be plug & play. Would erasing and reformatting the TM drive make a difference? Wondering why it doesn’t even show up?
Current Macbooks may not be able to properly power up a spinning hard disk drive as most times, they require more power than the MacBook can provide through it's USB ports. In this case, you can use a powered USB hub which you connect to an external USB power brick, then plug the hub into the MacBook's USB port and your external hard drive into the USB hub. The hub passes power to the drive to adequately power it as well as connects it to the MacBook. The below link is an example of what I use successfully with external USB optical drives as well as spinning hard drives. There are many others out there that perform the same function. Just be sure it's a powered USB-C hub and not just an adapter.
Current Macbooks may not be able to properly power up a spinning hard disk drive as most times, they require more power than the MacBook can provide through it's USB ports. In this case, you can use a powered USB hub which you connect to an external USB power brick, then plug the hub into the MacBook's USB port and your external hard drive into the USB hub. The hub passes power to the drive to adequately power it as well as connects it to the MacBook. The below link is an example of what I use successfully with external USB optical drives as well as spinning hard drives. There are many others out there that perform the same function. Just be sure it's a powered USB-C hub and not just an adapter.
Does your Lacie HD have a power adapter? Most of the external HDs usually have more than 1 interfaces (given USBs are the most common one). If so, why not use the USB connection and try again.
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MacBook Air not recognizing Lacie HD for Time Machine with eSATA adapter.
