Iomega hard drive problem please help!

stedabee · 18-02-2013 02:02PM #1

Hi i recently got my Iomega to work with my macbook, in doing so i had to totally wipe anything on the hard drive in order to transfer stuff from macbook to it.

So i ended up backing up my macbook and put a few videos and other stuff on it but now when i connect to the tv Iomega comes up on the screen and nothing else happens. The front light keeps blinking as if its going through everything and its telling me to wait, i waited for like 5 mins and still no luck.
Surely having 100gb on a 1.5tb hard drive doesn't expect you to wait that long???

Who ever could help would make me so happy as I've deleted so much stuff from my macbook after transferring to hard drive.

Many Thanks

Torqay · 18-02-2013 02:13PM

stedabee wrote: »

when i connect to the tv Iomega comes up on the screen and nothing else happens.

It doesn't work with the TV, but it still works on the Mac? The drive is probably formatted with an incompatible file system (HFS+?).

stedabee wrote: »

So i ended up backing up my macbook and ... deleted so much stuff from my macbook

This is not exactly a "backup", one copy of a file is not good enough.

stedabee · 18-02-2013 02:21PM

Torqay wrote: »

It doesn't work with the TV, but it still works on the Mac? The drive is probably formatted with an incompatible file system (HFS+?).

Well when i originally connected to macbook it didnt allow me to drag files and then one day i connected it again and it allowed me for some strange reason.
So since wiping and putting stuff on it anytime i try connect to tv im just stuck with the the iomega screen shot and a blinking light????

it always worked perfectly before connecting to macbook! Its really bugging me.

This is not exactly a "backup", one copy of a file is not good enough.

True but see i only have a 250gb on the macbook so need to free up space quickly.

yoyo · 18-02-2013 02:25PM

Your drive needs to be FAT32 formatted to work on the TV. Formatting will require you to wipe it so perhaps buy another hd for additional Mac storage/buy a hard disk upgrade and keep the one for TV content is the best bet

Nick

stedabee · 18-02-2013 02:27PM

yoyo wrote: »

Your drive needs to be FAT32 formatted to work on the TV. Formatting will require you to wipe it so perhaps buy another hd for additional Mac storage/buy a hard disk upgrade and keep the one for TV content is the best bet

Nick

So i right in saying if the hard drive is working with the macbook its basically formatted for the mac and with that wont work with tv unless FAT32?

If so how do i transfer movies to hard drive from macbook so that it will work on tv?? surely theres a way?

Torqay · 18-02-2013 02:40PM

The Mac should support FAT32.

Follow these steps to format your drive:

On your Mac, connect and power the drive
Open Mac HD on your desktop
Open Applications
Open Utilities
Open Disk Utility
On the left you should see the hard drive listed. It should show the drive size with a second indented line beneath it that shows the volume of the drive.
Click "Erase" at the top of the screen.
Select MS DOS(FAT) File System for the volume format option.
Change the name of the drive if desired.
Click "Erase" at the bottom of the screen. You will get a warning and will need to click "Erase" again.

The drive will be formatted as FAT32 when completed.

Save important files back onto your Mac before you do this as everything on the drive will be deleted.

The limitation of FAT32, it does not allow files > 4GB, so DVD/Bluray images are out of the question.

stedabee · 18-02-2013 02:42PM

Torqay wrote: »

The Mac should support FAT32.

K so torqay could you tell me how to format? is this a simple enough process?

Torqay · 18-02-2013 02:45PM

Edited my previous post accordingly

stedabee · 18-02-2013 04:58PM

Torqay wrote: »

Edited my previous post accordingly

Thanks a mill. gonna do this now!

stedabee · 18-02-2013 07:08PM

Torqay wrote: »

The Mac should support FAT32.

Save important files back onto your Mac before you do this as everything on the drive will be deleted.

The limitation of FAT32, it does not allow files > 4GB, so DVD/Bluray images are out of the question.

Well done everything and still no luck, same problem! sooooo annoying.

stedabee · 19-02-2013 05:54PM

Anyone have any more ideas??

Torqay · 19-02-2013 05:58PM

OK, the drive is now FAT32 formatted and works fine on your Mac? Can you try it on some Windows machine? The problem is only with the TV? The drive has been working with the TV before?

stedabee · 19-02-2013 06:17PM

Torqay wrote: »

OK, the drive is now FAT32 formatted and works fine on your Mac? Can you try it on some Windows machine? The problem is only with the TV? The drive has been working with the TV before?

Ye formatted to FAT32 following all the instructions and everything went 100%.
Then put two movies on and tried with the tv and the same thing happened again, tv screen says Iomega screen play and stays like that. Works perfecting on mac......i even enabled file sharing incase that was a reason for not working.

Yes before putting movies on using the mac it worked perfectly. Its deffo not the tv as it doesn't work on my friends either.

i found this on the net and someone else has the same problem but no solution

http://www.fixya.com/support/t13106355-when_connected_tv_iomega_logo_stays_tv

yoyo · 19-02-2013 06:25PM

I wonder did the Mac screw up a vital Iomega system partition? I would try formatting the drive to FAT32 on a windows machine if feasible, it does sound like an issue with the formatting. Mac's also add many hidden folders which may be confusing the hard drive (The .MAC_OS_X finder ones)

Nick

stedabee · 19-02-2013 06:30PM

yoyo wrote: »

I would try formatting the drive to FAT32 on a windows machine if feasible, it does sound like an issue with the formatting. Mac's also add many hidden folders which may be confusing the hard drive (The .MAC_OS_X finder ones)

Nick

I have Parallels on the mac so would it be ok to do it through that ye? shouldn't make a difference i guess?

Now when you say the mac might of added a folder im wondering could this of happen when i backed up the macbook to the hardrive, when i connect to mac and open i have my backup folder and only one other which holds my videos and movies in!

mathepac · 19-02-2013 06:38PM

Some TVs (depending on their firmware) can only access relatively small partitions, so I'd guess "... a 1.5tb hard drive ..." may be your problem.

Torqay · 19-02-2013 06:38PM

yoyo wrote: »

I would try formatting the drive to FAT32 on a windows machine if feasible

Windows won't allow you to to format drives of this size with FAT32, you'll have to do this from a command prompt, using the following command:

format /FS:FAT32 X:

Where X: is the drive letter, you might also add the switch /q for quick format.

If you get this error message: “The volume is too big for FAT32”, you'll need some USB formatting utility such as Rufus.

stedabee · 19-02-2013 06:41PM

mathepac wrote: »

Some TVs (depending on their firmware) can only access relatively small partitions, so I'd guess "... a 1.5tb hard drive ..." may be your problem.

No see it worked perfectly before i connected to mac. Basically in oder for me to put new stuff on it i have to erase everything. See my friend originally put stuff on for me and in order for me to put new videos on with my mac i had to erase all the old data and on with the new....ever since that it just doesn't work???

stedabee · 19-02-2013 06:43PM

Torqay wrote: »
Windows won't allow you to to format drives of this size with FAT32, you'll have to do this from a command prompt, using the following command:
format /FS:FAT32 X:
Where X: is the drive letter, you might also add the switch /q for quick format.

If you get this error message: “The volume is too big for FAT32”, you'll need some USB formatting utility such as Rufus.

i Appreciate ur time to tell me this but honestly i dont know where to start to even get to that point, Not that good with stuff like that!

Torqay · 19-02-2013 06:44PM

can you post the model of the drive?

stedabee · 19-02-2013 06:46PM

Torqay wrote: »

can you post the model of the drive?

Ye sure its
P/n 3184600
Model:spplhd
S/N 0gak4651m6

Screenplay Plus HD

Torqay · 19-02-2013 07:10PM

OK, it's a media player with hard drive. When you deleted "files", you have also deleted the "user interface needed for operating the drive on a TV".

You'll need a Windows computer to reinstall the firmware.

stedabee · 19-02-2013 09:08PM

Torqay wrote: »

OK, it's a media player with hard drive. When you deleted "files", you have also deleted the "user interface needed for operating the drive on a TV".

You'll need a Windows computer to reinstall the firmware.

Brilliant thanks a mill for all your help. gonna try this now.....wish me luck!

stedabee · 19-02-2013 11:33PM

Torqay wrote: »

OK, it's a media player with hard drive. When you deleted "files", you have also deleted the "user interface needed for operating the drive on a TV".

You'll need a Windows computer to reinstall the firmware.

K so the good news is it working and now connects to the tv perfectly and the bad news is that now I can't drag any files from my mac onto the hard drive, this happened before until it asked me to erase everything and then I could! In doing that I obviously deleted that important file that was needed in order to make it work with the tv!

So now my question is it compatible with mac? I have enabled file sharing and all I get is a no enter sign as I hold over the hard drive about to drop??

After all that work I was so happy when it worked with tv and then I go to put files on and the high went to a low once again! I officially hate Iomega !

yoyo · 19-02-2013 11:39PM

I would assume the Mac can write FAT32, although I am not sure about Macs tbh this is a fairly "standard" feature. Make sure you write to the FAT32 partition on the Mac, and not the one containing the video codecs/drives firmware info. Your Mac should not ask you to format the drive, if it does you will be back to square one. This is not an Iomega fault btw, why devices only support the archaic FAT32 format is where the issue lies.

Nick

Torqay · 19-02-2013 11:41PM

Drive format NTFS now?

Do it again, but make sure the drive is formatted with FAT32. Or find some utility that will allow your Mac dealing with NTFS drives.

stedabee wrote: »

I officially hate Iomega !

Don't blame Iomega for the shortcomings of your Mac.

stedabee · 20-02-2013 12:42AM

Torqay wrote: »

Drive format NTFS now?

Do it again, but make sure the drive is formatted with FAT32. Or find some utility that will allow your Mac dealing with NTFS drives.

Don't blame Iomega for the shortcomings of your Mac.

I checked and the hard drive is formatted to FAT32, what do I do to see if my mac will allow NTFS.

Ye I suppose it is the mac and not Iomega!
STUPID MAC!!!

By the way thanks a mill for all the input guys, wouldn't know where I'd be without it......I know either the hard drive or mac would be out the window anyway!

yoyo · 20-02-2013 12:50AM

It looks like you may need to "repair permissions" on the drive, not saying this will help, but have a read here someone having similar issues

Nick

Torqay · 20-02-2013 12:50AM

If I were you, I'd sell the Iomega drive, grab a WD TV Live box instead and be done with it..

stedabee · 20-02-2013 10:45AM

Torqay wrote: »

If I were you, I'd sell the Iomega drive, grab a WD TV Live box instead and be done with it..

Are these things good? Is it a hard drive too or just a streaming device?

stedabee · 20-02-2013 11:04AM

yoyo wrote: »

It looks like you may need to "repair permissions" on the drive, not saying this will help, but have a read here someone having similar issues

Nick

Cheers man, just downloading the WD software now and ill let you know how i get on.

Iomega hard drive problem please help!

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