Swissbit 512Mb USB Swiss Army Knife
I got the above USB storage / swiss army knife for Christmas this year. Always thought they were really cool, always wanted one to replace the two separate knife and USB jump drive items on my keychain. I'm all about streamlining.
However, I've had problems with the USB drive. I returned the first one I got because I experienced problems and got a 2nd one, with exactly the same behavior, so now I'm looking for answers.
I received the package in the mail. When I removed the drive from the box and plugged it in, it works. Yay. It mounted to the desktop as intended. I dumped about 400Mb of files on it for testing purposes. The files copy over, no problem. I can open and manipulate the files on the drive. Seems to be working wonderfully. I select and eject the drive, wait until it's done writing / ejecting, and the LED indicates that it's finished. I remove the drive from the USB port.
I wait a minute and plug the drive back in. Mac OS X tells me I've inserted a disk that it can't read. Do I want to initialize? I say yes, initialize it.
Disk Utility opens, and I erase / initialize the disk. I use the Mac OS X (journaled) file system. It formats and mounts to the desktop, and I can use it again. I copy files to it again, no problem. Seems to work again.
I select / eject the drive, wait, and remove it. I plug it back in after another minute. But this time, what happens? Absolutely nothing. OS X doesn't recognize that it's even a disk I've plugged in. Disk Utility doesn't show a disk is plugged in. I open Apple System Profiler, and it shows I have a USB Mass Storage Device plugged in, but it won't mount the disk.
So I plug it into a Windows XP box to see what happens. WinXP recognizes I've plugged in a USB storage device. I go to My Computer and try to format the drive, but it tells me to insert a disk into the drive. It thinks I've essentially plugged in an empty removable drive. For example, an external zip drive with no zip disk in it (just an analogy). Or something like that.
So I realize that OS X must be thinking the same thing. It thinks I've plugged in an empty drive, which is why it won't mount the disk or allow me to re-initialize it.
So, what do I do? This is the 2nd one that I've had and the 2nd time it's happened. Any suggestions?
PowerMac dual 2.5Ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)
However, I've had problems with the USB drive. I returned the first one I got because I experienced problems and got a 2nd one, with exactly the same behavior, so now I'm looking for answers.
I received the package in the mail. When I removed the drive from the box and plugged it in, it works. Yay. It mounted to the desktop as intended. I dumped about 400Mb of files on it for testing purposes. The files copy over, no problem. I can open and manipulate the files on the drive. Seems to be working wonderfully. I select and eject the drive, wait until it's done writing / ejecting, and the LED indicates that it's finished. I remove the drive from the USB port.
I wait a minute and plug the drive back in. Mac OS X tells me I've inserted a disk that it can't read. Do I want to initialize? I say yes, initialize it.
Disk Utility opens, and I erase / initialize the disk. I use the Mac OS X (journaled) file system. It formats and mounts to the desktop, and I can use it again. I copy files to it again, no problem. Seems to work again.
I select / eject the drive, wait, and remove it. I plug it back in after another minute. But this time, what happens? Absolutely nothing. OS X doesn't recognize that it's even a disk I've plugged in. Disk Utility doesn't show a disk is plugged in. I open Apple System Profiler, and it shows I have a USB Mass Storage Device plugged in, but it won't mount the disk.
So I plug it into a Windows XP box to see what happens. WinXP recognizes I've plugged in a USB storage device. I go to My Computer and try to format the drive, but it tells me to insert a disk into the drive. It thinks I've essentially plugged in an empty removable drive. For example, an external zip drive with no zip disk in it (just an analogy). Or something like that.
So I realize that OS X must be thinking the same thing. It thinks I've plugged in an empty drive, which is why it won't mount the disk or allow me to re-initialize it.
So, what do I do? This is the 2nd one that I've had and the 2nd time it's happened. Any suggestions?
PowerMac dual 2.5Ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)
