Can't see external HDs

[razbox]

Hello,

I just got my NC10 – and very impressive it is so far!

However, no matter which external HD I use, I can’t see it in My Computer=, although I can in Hardware Devices (showing as OK) and in Safely Remove Hardware (showing as OK).

I have tried 3 external HDs in each of the 3 USB ports, both single USB powered, dual USB powered and externally powered and can’t see anything.

Am I doing something wrong?

thanks

[adatay92]

If the hard disks are not formatted then they will not show up in My Computer (but they will show up in Device Manager, etc),

If this is the case you need to go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management and format the drive from there.

Having said that… it would seem unlikely that all 3 of the external hd’s you plugged in are unformatted!

[hef]

you have to initialize the drives in disk managment snap-in before they will show up.
again, that is only the case if the drive is yet to be formatted.

i’ll get back to you if i think of another reason…

[razbox]

The disks are all fine with my other laptop, and yes they are formatted and contain data that I’m trying to move.
Thanks

[WilliamYZF]

Can you try the Disk Management suggestion and see if they are detected by that? If so try assigning a drive letter as also suggested

[razbox]

Thanks. This is what I see with two of my drives attached. Both have info on them and work perfectly with my other XP laptop and iMac

Admin Edit: Resized picture

[razbox]

OK, I have formatted one of the drives in the NC10 and it worked but then not on my iMac. So I reformatted it on the iMac as MS-DOS FAT disk (rather than the MacOS Extended format it was) and it now works fine on both.

Did the same with the other external HD and it now also works in both.

Not sure what the problem is with Mac formatted external drives!

Thanks for you help

[Richard T]

Oh yes i’v had that issue you can use a program called Macdrive,
But as far as i know Windows will not recognize the Mac formatted drives and vice versa..

[hef]

yup, mac formatting would stop you seeig them.

[quote1228562803=Richard T]
But as far as i know Windows will not recognize the Mac formatted drives and vice versa..
[/quote1228562803]

no. windows won’t recognise a mac formatted drive because the file system is neither fat (16/32) or ntffs, but the mac however recognises both those filesystems.

this is macs fault for being proprietarians.

[razbox]

[quote1228584791=hef]
yup, mac formatting would stop you seeig them.

[quote1228562803=Richard T]
But as far as i know Windows will not recognize the Mac formatted drives and vice versa..
[/quote1228562803]

no. windows won’t recognise a mac formatted drive because the file system is neither fat (16/32) or ntffs, but the mac however recognises both those filesystems.

this is macs fault for being proprietarians.
[/quote1228584791]

By formatting as a FAT drive using my iMac, I can now use it in the Mac and the NC10

thanks

[hef]

you should keep an eye on it and always make sure you use the mac eject drive button as when you don’t and reconnect the drive macs have a tendancy to “auto-reformat” usb drives, thus deleting all your data. it wont even warn you, it will just do it.

bad os feature.

[Author]

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