USB3 drive makes my Mac Pro crash

[Loa]

Hello,

My friend brought his USB3 external HD (formatted to NTFS) to my house. When I plugged it into my Mac's USB 2 port, it froze and crashed instantly.

Why?

I have NTFS drivers on my Mac, and already mounted a PC drive before. I thought USB 3 was backward compatible...

Loa

 

[fuzzypickle]

What kind of drive? Have you tried other devices on the same USB port?

 

[Loa]

Hello,

This kind of drive.

The other ports work fine with anything else.

Loa

 

[fuzzypickle]

What about that same port specifically?? Could be a bad port, or could just be a compatibility issue with the drive. USB 3 is backwards compatible, but I have a USB 3 drive (which runs fine on my USB 2 ports) that has crashed a friend's pc when plugged in (but it would run fine if the drive was plugged in prior to boot)

 

[Loa]

Hello,

Sorry, my sentence was badly worded: all my USB 2 ports work well, and I tried three with the drive: they all crashed my Mac.

Loa

 

[DoctorCrap]

Your USB 3.0 port must be gone, dead, totally *********.

 

[Loa]

Your USB 3.0 port must be gone, dead, totally *********.

What USB3 port?? I have none on my Mac Pro...

Loa

 

[fuzzypickle]

Probably the drive or the cable then (I never bothered to figure out which it was in my case). Your ports are probably fine

 

[Loa]

Hello,

His drive works fine on his PC.

Loa

 

[fuzzypickle]

Could still be the drive (or cable). Again, I had one that would nuke a friend's PC (but runs fine on my mac) and another identical drive that didn't nuke that same PC.

If you really want to narrow it down you could test the same drive on another mac pro (ideally close to the same as yours as possible), or maybe better yet just try another usb 3 drive on your mac.

Only other thing I can think of is that it might be power-related on your end (a short or an overdraw or something, but now I'm just spitballing and I'm sure there's someone who knows more knitty-gritty detail about here that then me).