WD My passport not showing up on desktop when plug in

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Level 1

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WD My passport not showing up on desktop when plug in

I've just brought a 500GB WD portable hard drive but when i plug it into my mac it isn't coming up on the desktop. The hard drive itself is making a noise when its plugged in, but nothing else is happening. How can i get my mac to recognise this drive?

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 7, 2011 10:42 AM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

726,707 points

Jan 7, 2011 10:45 AM in response to hannahpants

Check the settings in the Finder's preferences, and whether the Disk Utility is able to see or repair the drive. If it still won't show up and doesn't need repair, click here and follow the instructions.

(56020)

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Answer 2

BGreg

Level 6

17,552 points

Jan 7, 2011 1:22 PM in response to hannahpants

Assume you are trying to connect via USB? Powerbooks don't put out enough juice on USB to power many devices. So, some won't even power up, and some may power up and still not be recognized. There are a few solutions:

1) Get a power supply for the external hard drive
2) Get a powered USB hub that your hard drive would plug into
3) Get a special USB cable that has two plugs to use both Powerbook USB ports
4) Connect via Firewire. With a Powerbook, this is preferred, because you can boot from a Firewire device, which you cannot do with a USB-only device.

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