My WD Elements Portable Hard drive does not mount or show on my desktop

Hi BDAqua - thanks a lot for the reply and info on the USB hub. I will check it out - not sure If because I fornatted the drive on my brother's laptop that its not mounting on my laptop - on his laptop it works fine and makes no noise at all but on mine its just keeps making a clicking sound - so I was thinking maybe that its locked ? anyway I will look into your suggestion - and will also have a read up on bus powered drives - thank you so much for your help - thanks Jayas.

Hi BDAqua - thanks again for reply - I'll definitely look at the USB hub here in London so fingers crossed that solves the problem - thanks for the advice and help - Jayas.

Hi BDAqua - hope all Ok - I looked into the newertech USB hub and here it works out to around $50 from their distributor but I can buy direct from Newertech and they will ship for $35 so much better deal. I also found these but not sure If they are as good as what you are suggesting - what you think :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plugable-Speed-Power-Adapter-Mains/dp/B009R921SE

http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-DUB-H7-Port-USB-External/dp/product-description/B 0002AFZVM/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=340831031&s=computers

I forgot to mention that I have some old lacie Porsche hard drives bought 2005/6 ( the chunky brick ones ) that I have been using with time machine to back up and recently when I backed up my whole mac to one it took around 5/6 hours to transfer across 76GB and on the other lacie it took about 3 hours just to transfer around 33 MB ! so I'm now starting to think its as you say and its my 2.0 USB port on the powerbook - what do you think?

My powerbook spec is :

Model Name: PowerBook G4 17"

Model Identifier: PowerBook5,9

Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (1.5)

Processor Speed: 1.67 GHz

Number Of CPUs: 1

L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB

Memory: 1.5 GB

Bus Speed: 167 MHz

Boot ROM Version: 4.9.5f3

Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0014512278AC

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

Really appreciate your help - thanks Jayas

Hi BDAqua - thanks a lot for replying - really appreciate your help. I was using Time machine to back up on the old lacie drives that I have - I just backed up on both lacies and they backed up faster for some reason but that might have been because they were very small back ups as I did full back ups on Tuesday night - this is the info under the USB section > hardware > about my mac - it didn't show the speed like the example you gave me though but it still backed none the less :

USB Bus:

Host Controller Location: Built In USB

Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBOHCI

PCI Device ID: 0x0035

PCI Revision ID: 0x0043

PCI Vendor ID: 0x1033

Bus Number: 0x15

Bluetooth USB Host Controller:

Product ID: 0x8207

Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Inc.)

Version: 19.65

Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: Apple Inc.

Location ID: 0x15200000

Current Available (mA): 500

Current Required (mA): 0

I also got a reply back from WD on the hard drive and they said the following - exactly the same as you about it being a problem with the power supplied hence why the disk won't mount - so you were spot on - so I'm thinking I should go ahead and get the newertech 7 USB port 4 amps as you suggested - let me know what you think and then I'll just order it - and thank you - really do appreciate your help on this - thanks Jayas

Dear Jayas

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is James.

If the drive is working fine on one system but failing on another especially with the "clicking" sound this is an issue with the system not being able to supply enough power to power the device.

These devices require power from the machine to make them operate if there isn't enough power supplied the drive will fail to work. This is why you are having no issues with one system but are on another.

Hi BDAqua - thanks for the email and reply. I have ordered the Hub direct from the link you gave me. I'll do as you say and will use the dedicated 2.1 amp port for my hard drive - THANK YOU so much for all your help on solving this - I really appreciate it - have a good weekend - thanks Jayas

Hi BDAqua - I'll let you know as soon as I get the USB hub - should be with me in 14 days max. Thanks again for all your help on this - really much appreciated - Jayas.

Hi BDAqua - hope all Ok - the USB hub is working perfect - picked it up yesterday as it was delayed in customs - tried it out last night and now my hard drive is mounting and also backing up - strangely enough it doesn't work on the 2.1 amp USB hub but on the sync hub - so THANK you for helping me sort this out - did a back up the new WD hard drive and it worked seamlessly - thanks again Jayas

Hi BDAqua - really appreciate your help in sorting this out - forgot to ask do you think the USB port on my powerpc G4 is so weak in terms of power because of the battery on the G4 ? - do you think I ahould replace it ? thanks again for your help again - Jayas.