New iMac not recognizing external hard drive

[justroth]

Hey guys,

I have had my new 21.5'' iMac for a week and I love it. However I have encountered a problem with my external hard drive. It is a Firelite smart disk 160GB model number FWFL160-N. I used this drive on my old macbook pro before it bit the dust(RIP). As i'm sure you all know the new iMacs have firewire 800 ports, and my macbook had a firewire 400 port. So I bought a firewire 400 to 800 adapter and plugged the hard drive into the back of my computer. The drive is getting power, but it is not appearing on my desktop. ANyone have suggestions on what i might be able to do?

 

[jav6454]

Your adapter might be bad.

 

[justroth]

I bought it brand new like 20 mins ago...But I guess that could be it. Could it have anything to do with downloading a new driver or anything?

 

[jav6454]

I bought it brand new like 20 mins ago...But I guess that could be it. Could it have anything to do with downloading a new driver or anything?

Adapters don't require any type of driver. Just plug and play.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I bought a firewire 400 to 800 adapter and plugged the hard drive into the back of my computer. The drive is getting power, but it is not appearing on my desktop. ANyone have suggestions on what i might be able to do?"

Open Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder).

Does it see the "presence" of the new firewire drive on the firewire bus?

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
Do NOT do the following unless you don't care about data which is on the Firelite drive:
Can you reinitialize the drive using Disk Utility's "erase" button?

 

[VanNess]

"I bought a firewire 400 to 800 adapter and plugged the hard drive into the back of my computer. The drive is getting power, but it is not appearing on my desktop. ANyone have suggestions on what i might be able to do?"

Open Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder).

Does it see the "presence" of the new firewire drive on the firewire bus?

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
Do NOT do the following unless you don't care about data which is on the Firelite drive:
Can you reinitialize the drive using Disk Utility's "erase" button?

Befor you go there try unplugging the power cord from the back of your iMac and unplug anything you might have hooked up via USB/FW. Let the computer sit for about ten minutes, then plug the power back in and boot. Then try to hook up the drive and see if it mounts.