using an old USB hard drive?

[Munch]

I just put an old PC laptop hard drive into a USB enclosure and tried plugging it into the mac but it doesn't show up on the OS. I've got nothing on it of importance on the drive, I just want to be able to use it for storage in the future. Preferably it be PC formatted, but mac formatted is fine. Any thoughts on how I can get it to work?

I'm new to all of this, but enjoying my new machine so far!

 

[bokdol]

I just put an old PC laptop hard drive into a USB enclosure and tried plugging it into the mac but it doesn't show up on the OS. I've got nothing on it of importance on the drive, I just want to be able to use it for storage in the future. Preferably it be PC formatted, but mac formatted is fine. Any thoughts on how I can get it to work?

I'm new to all of this, but enjoying my new machine so far!

make sure you have a power supply attatched to it. usb bus power does not work well with some macs. if it came with 2 usb cables (one for the info and one for the power/ make sure both is pluged in separate usb slots.) once you have it fully powered up check disk utility. it's in your utilities folder. you can format the disk there. but if it does nto show up there it is not getting enough power. for most macs you should get a firewire enclosure. those work really well bus powered.

 

[Johnny Rico]

You might try seeing if it comes up in Disk Utility (find it by going to /applications/utilities/ ,or Go menu/utilities/ ,or cmd+shift+u).

edit
Meh. Beat me to it didn't you.

 

[Munch]

It seems like the macbook has trouble reading the drive. If I go int oDisk Utility when the hdd is plugged in, it keeps gathering for info until I unplug the drive. It lists the hard drive on the left of the Disk Utility window, but I can't format it or anything.

This enclosure only has 1 USB cable and no external power supply. I know it works on PCs because I've used it before.

Any thoughts?