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USB Thumb drive not recognised

  • 22-02-2009 6:43pm
    #1
    PDD
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,019 ✭✭✭


    Hi Folks,

    I was wondering if anyone here has had a similar problem with USB thumb drives not being recognised by OS-X (10.4). I have a thumb drive that I use to carry stuff around to windows machines (all XP). Sometimes after I plug the ThumbDrive into a windows machine (it works fine) and then try it on my Mac Mini it will not recognise the ThumbDrive even in disk utility (it keeps scanning until I unplug the offending USB ThumbDrive and then it completes). If I then plug the ThumbDrive into windows it sees it no problem (tested it on 4 seperate machines). The only way I can get the ThumbDrive to be recognised is to plug it directly into the back of the Mac Mini or reformat it as FAT-32 under windows.

    Im hoping this is a bit of a known issue and that someone on here has come across this before as I am not sure what the hell is going on and my trouble shooting skills on OS-X are minimal to say the least. So far I have lost three thumb drives to this so any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Regards,

    Dave


Comments

  • #2
    AdrianII
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,488 ✭✭✭AdrianII


    Macs only recognise FAT32 drives. If it is in NTFS then it will not see it


  • #3
    ethernet
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,568 ✭✭✭ethernet


    AdrianII wrote: »
    Macs only recognise FAT32 drives. If it is in NTFS then it will not see it
    Not the case. There is read support for NTFS but not write support, at least not without the use of extra tools/utilities.

    OS X should still "see" the drive and its partition(s) if it's NTFS. It wouldn't be one of those tiny drives that fits in the USB port both ways, would it?


  • #4
    Type 17
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,731 ✭✭✭Type 17


    PDD wrote: »
    ...The only way I can get the ThumbDrive to be recognised is to plug it directly into the back of the Mac Mini...

    Do you mean that if you plug it into the back of the Mini, it is recognised fine, but if you plug it into a keyboard USB port, you have problems?
    If so, this is normal - the USB voltage on keyboard ports is not enough to run flash memory devices.


  • #5
    Passenger
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,150 ✭✭✭Passenger


    Open up Disk Utility, (if you cannot find it just search for it under Spotlight), Put in your USB. The Disk Utility will show the USB if the computer recognises it. There'll be a few option there to rectify the situation.

    :)


  • #6
    Iomega Man
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 523 ✭✭✭Iomega Man


    Type 17 wrote: »
    Do you mean that if you plug it into the back of the Mini, it is recognised fine, but if you plug it into a keyboard USB port, you have problems?
    If so, this is normal - the USB voltage on keyboard ports is not enough to run flash memory devices.

    Are you saying that they won't run at all???


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  • #7
    Type 17
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,731 ✭✭✭Type 17


    Iomega Man wrote: »
    Are you saying that they won't run at all???

    Some flash memory devices and other relatively high energy-consumption devices like USB-powered portable hard drives won't work in the keyboard ports, but they'll work fine if you plug them into the back of the Mac itself (in the keyboard ports, some will work, others you'll get an error message in the Finder about lack of power). The keyboard ports are really only meant for pointing devices like mice, trackballs, etc.


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