Can't use USB Flash Drive

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Can't use USB Flash Drive

I have a couple of HP v250w flash drives of 16GB size. And I have the new Macbook Air 13 which I purchased recently. So, heres the problem. When I inser those drives in the USB port, I don't see it appear anywhere in Finder and the Disk Utility. However, when vmware Fusion is running, when I insert the drives, vmware picks it up and asks the usual question of whether I want to connected to mac or to the guest OS that I have in there. I am able to connect and mount into the guest OS in vmware. However, when I connect it to just teh mac, nothing happens. Here is the console logs from when I tried inserting them.

18/09/13 2:34:50.000 AM kernel[0]: USB (XHCI Root Hub USB 2.0 Simulation):Port 1 on bus 0xa connected or disconnected: portSC(0xe0206e1)

18/09/13 2:34:50.000 AM kernel[0]: USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): AA00000000005682 0x3f0 0xae07 0x1100, 2

18/09/13 2:36:42.000 AM kernel[0]: USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): AA00000000023891 0x3f0 0xae07 0x1100, 2

I don't see them appear in the Disk Utility as well. Now the really weird part is that I have another HP flash drive which is an 8GB v220w and it works fine. I see it getting detected without any problems. So, doesn anybody have any idea whats going on and how to solve this problem?

Regards

Anoop

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Sep 17, 2013 2:20 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

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Sep 17, 2013 6:57 PM in response to AnoopKam

Are those USB 3 drives?

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Answer 2

AnoopKam Author

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Sep 17, 2013 11:08 PM in response to Linc Davis

No. They are all USB 2.0. I only have an external hard disk which has USB 3.0. All my flash drives are USB 2.0.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

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Sep 17, 2013 11:26 PM in response to AnoopKam

How are they formatted?

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Answer 4

AnoopKam Author

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Sep 17, 2013 11:37 PM in response to Linc Davis

Quick Update:

1) The problem remains when I am in Safe Boot.

2) The problem doesn't occur when I boot into the Recovery image. I am able to see the drives in Disk Utility and have tried reformatting them.

3) So far, I have tried reformatting them to FAT, exFAT, NTFS and HFS(Mac's Journal FS).

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Answer 5

AnoopKam Author

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Sep 17, 2013 11:38 PM in response to AnoopKam

But both in Safe Boot and the regular boot into OSX, I see the issue still happening.

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Answer 6

Sep 17, 2013 11:42 PM in response to AnoopKam

For $10 Id grab a 16gb Sandisk that I know is reliable and works 😊

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Answer 7

AnoopKam Author

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Sep 17, 2013 11:45 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas

lol... I know. I have a Cruser Edge which works fine 🙂

I also tried spending about 6 hours with apple support online chat team and none of them seem to get this issue. 😟

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Answer 8

Sep 17, 2013 11:52 PM in response to AnoopKam

Eeek, Id have opted for the $10 stick than the 6 hours 😐

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Answer 9

AnoopKam Author

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Sep 17, 2013 11:53 PM in response to AnoopKam

The wierdest part is that from the console logs I posted before, OSX appears to be recognising that a USB device has been plugged in and doesn't take it further. However, in the same machine, I can mount the same USB and use it in my vmware fusion instance, which currently runs Ubuntu. So, if its a hardware incompatibility, how come that happens is what I can't understand.

I did read somewhere in google that macs have some compatibility issues with HP's flash drives. In that case, this behavior doesn't make any sense. Plus, another HP flashdrive of size 8GB(model: v220w) works fine.

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Answer 10

Sep 17, 2013 11:59 PM in response to AnoopKam

Ive seen issues 3 years ago on HP mem sticks, supposedly "Mac compatible" but werent, but showed up upon insertion to USB.

Being the lazy one, I stick with things I know are 100% all the way as I get older, ...Ive repaired so much hardware, my fuse is short for hardware I have to fight with. 😊

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Answer 11

Linc Davis

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209,547 points

Sep 18, 2013 6:34 AM in response to AnoopKam

Volumes in a format other than HFS won't mount in safe mode. However, if you tested with an HFS-formatted drive in safe mode, then the problem isn't caused by VMWare. There have been some reports of problems with Flash drives in 10.8.5, so I think there's some sort of bug, but I don't know what triggers it.

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Answer 12

Oct 14, 2013 9:43 PM in response to AnoopKam

Hi there. Im sigining into an Apple forum just to confirm that indeed, as Linc Davis noted above, Im observing the USB stick issue. Im running a brand new sleek MacbookPro on the latest OSX 10.8.5, I am running Parallels (Windows guest in OSX host), and can confirm an issue with USB devices (tested Sandisk, generic stick, and an Android phone - all of which work on two windows systems). Nothing shows up on Finder, no matter what I do, wehre I plug it, etc. I can cofirm the exact same behaviour that AnoopKam saw, except I dont have VMware I have Parallels. As AnoopKam stated:

" when I insert the drives, [Parallels for me] picks it up and asks the usual question of whether I want to connected to mac or to the guest OS that I have in there. "

I chose MAC, but nothing happens, no USB on Finder, nothing new. End result is that on my fancy new machine I cannot transfer pictures to it, I cannot work on external Media unless I find a workaround. USB devices are not working on my MAC. WHAT IS THIS, Windows 3.1???

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Answer 13

AnoopKam Author

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Oct 14, 2013 9:56 PM in response to goofyziggy

I am begining to wonder if like how apple has a proprietary 3.5mm audio jack for headsets that is different from the rest of the world, whether they have done something similar with the USB 3.0 ports. But, at at the same time, since the console logs seems to have recognised a USB device but OSX doesn't do anythiing about it, I am wondering if its a deliberate blocking of devices made by certain manufacturers, like how they already do with their iOS devices with the so called MFI licensing program.

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Answer 14

Oct 14, 2013 9:58 PM in response to AnoopKam

nothing special on the headset jack, its standard.

USB port is the same as always, but obviously 3.0 faster.

Stay with SANDISK USB sticks and its never an issue .....ever. 😊

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Answer 15

AnoopKam Author

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Oct 14, 2013 10:03 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas

Actually its not the standard one. The position of the area for mic on the jack is different for apple devices. Try using any of the headsets thats designed for apple devices with non-apple ones. For example, try, sennheisser omx 680i on any non-apple device. You'l notice the difference only for headsets. Headphones however will work just fine.

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