I have an external USB 2.0 HD. If i mount it and try to double click on the HD icon too quickly, the spinning beachball will come up and the whole computer will freeze, and I have to manually shut it off and restart. If i wait a minute it will usually be ok to open and use. I don't think it's right that an external HD would crash a system, any ideas anyone? thanks folks.
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external HD crashes iMac
- Thread starter Scenicroadways
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I've had the same issue in the past...
I've had the same issue, but not to the point where the whole machine would freeze. I'd get the spinning ball, but could kill it by just removing the HD (Which can be a bad thing if it was in the middle of reading/writing data).
Anyway, my HD was formatted in Windows using Fat32 I believe, so it should have worked. I solved the problem by removing the partitions using a linux booted "Live CD", and then popping it into the Mac and re-creating the partitions.
Not sure if your situations allows that or not...
I've had the same issue, but not to the point where the whole machine would freeze. I'd get the spinning ball, but could kill it by just removing the HD (Which can be a bad thing if it was in the middle of reading/writing data).
Anyway, my HD was formatted in Windows using Fat32 I believe, so it should have worked. I solved the problem by removing the partitions using a linux booted "Live CD", and then popping it into the Mac and re-creating the partitions.
Not sure if your situations allows that or not...
I had this happen when a USB HD wasn't getting enough power from the USB chain. Are you plugging it directly into your computers USB ports, or are your running it off the keyboard or a non powered hub?
The computer locks up, i cant even access force quit sometimes. It is actually an internal drive I made into an external using a kit. It is plugged into the regular USB port on the back of the computer so it should work. It is formatted as Mac os extended journaled.
usually when i have had that problem it is the hard drive going bad. i have had a few laptop hd that just died on me after putting it in a external case. usually it would give me the spinning ball for like 5 to 10 minutes. after which you could get to it. but sometime you try to open the folder then it would to the same.. spinning ball. i did many extensive test running disk utilities. but even after a full reformat the bad blocks kept coming back and having the same problem. there was nothing to solve the issue we jsut bought new drive to replace those that went bad. hope your not having the same problem.
yea, that could be it, although the drive is pretty new. I was also thinking it could be the connection with the USB. It seems really loose, as well as the power connector on the drive kit. Never buy an ADS drive kit, they are terrible.
I'm actually having a similar issue with an HD. I bought an internal HD that i made into an external witha kit. It shouldk work but, problem is windows or mac wont even let me format or partition the dirve. When i boot teh computer and the HD is plugged intpoa usb 2 port my macbook simply wont startup untill the HD is disconnected. When I put it on my PC it will boot, but the HD still cannot be formated or partitioned. Anyone know the issue? this is very frustrating...:-/.