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Mac Mini won't read a portable HDD

mikeymikec

mikeymikec

Lifer
It's an older portable HDD, Maxtor, FAT32 file system, which comes with dual USB port cable. It works with other PCs (with that cable), yet the odd thing is that if I plug in both USB plugs, it powers the drive but the drive does the serial-clicking noise as if it isn't receiving enough power, but if I only plug the power USB cable in, it powers up the drive in a healthy-sounding fashion (the drive isn't detected by the OS, to be expected). Either way, I can't get the Mac Mini to read the data off it. The data access light doesn't flash at all on it, just stays lit.

Any suggestions?
 
The dual-USB powered drives are notoriously unreliable using dual-USB power. Even it works on one machine, it may not on the next.

For this reason, I refuse to buy any external drive unless it either has been specifically built to run off a single USB port, or else has a separate AC adapter port. This means either buying a name brand drive which comes with a single plug USB cable only, or else a third party enclosure which has both a USB port and an AC adapter port.

I don't know if plugging the second USB plug for that drive into an iPhone charging adapter would work, but I'd wonder if that'd be risky to your Mac mini's USB ports.
 
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