Does this portable external hard drive work with Mac Powerbook G4? I am about to get an external hard drive... but I wonder if this works well with PowerBook G4? Thanks.
1733248
The single USB cable was not able to draw enough power to spin up the drive when attached to my c.2005 G4 Powerbook. I have not yet tried the recommended powered USB cable which uses one USB port for data and a second for power.
1733249
MauraSorry, no. I haven't had any replies... and I haven't purchased it yet. May be I will visit the Apple store to ask one of the Geniuses behind the counter.
1733250
This drive will only work if you purchase a USB "Y" cable. These are the most inexpensive SATA drives on the market, I have MANY of them working with my PowerBook and MacBook. Mission critical stuff I keep on the more versatile and durable ("Drop Shock" protected) portable Iomega FireWire/ USB drives which luckily for me came with USB "Y" cables. The Iomega dual interface portables are much more expensive though (but well worth it for me, my data is important).
1733251
Just started using it on my 2006 PowerBook G4. Works fine, so far...btw, Good technical review at: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/wd-passport-250gb.htmlAlso, cables are available on eBay for $5-10
135685
I am an idiot- specifically, how do you format this for a Mac? Also, is it fine to do this, or should I buy a specific hard drive already formated or designed for Macs?
1363110
No, the G-Drive didn't work for us with Mac OS 10.6.8 when connected with FireWire. The G-Drive Mobile didn't have a problem with FireWire, though. (We use it with Time Machine to back up.)
2202176
Yes you can use it with a macbook. If it doesn't work by just plugging it in, you can format it to work with your mac.http://www.wikihow.com/Format-a-Hard-Drive-on-Mac-to-Work-on-Mac-and-PC
677288
I've been using this Plugable USB hub with my MacBook Pro (late 2011 Intel Core i7 running Lion) for about 7 weeks. My experience so far is that external USB3.0 hard drives, USB2.0 thumb drives, a corded Apple aluminum keyboard, a corded Apple Mighty Mouse, a Logitech 2.4GHz wireless mouse adapter, an iPhone5, and iPod Touch (3rd gen.) all work flawlessly.
448603
after further investigation you may need a easy transfer cable from mac to mac. usb cable is good for mac to external hard drive.
257500
Yes, I have a black version with my Macbook Pro. Before you use it, you have to format the drive using disk utility on your mac. Format the drive as ExFat file system and it works perfectly.
556684
For me I found external hard disks worked, but I would get short term disconnects. I replaced my hub with a Anker hub and haven't looked back:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GSLMTQ8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc;=1
1577066
Initially it worked great with my Toshiba portable hard drive (Toshiba Canvio Basics Portable Hard Drive 320 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive) but after about two weeks, for some reason I started getting errors when I plugged my hard drive into to it. It has worked fine for other devices though - speakers, my wired keyboard, mouse. And it has no problem reading my smaller flash drives. My 8G Sandisk flash drive works fine when plugged in directly. Hope that helps a little. Thanks-
156385
I installed the 500 G into my 2008 MacBook Pro on 3/28/12. It's quiet, fast, and has been excellent. Zero problems. I use the MBP every day running the battery (replaced once) down to 6-15% watching a movie in the evening. AC during the day for full recharge. Does the HD run all the time? I really don't know. I can't hear it. I have four 500 G externals that are used for backups (but not often enough :-( ). They are WD devices and I've have no problems with them either. I like the 500 size over any T sizes for reasons of redundancy. I double info onto the 500s, i.e. two 500s for the same back-up, thus if one goes down, I have a dupe. More than you wanted to know.
904713
I've only used it as a standalone hard drive copy device, but I believe you can use it as an external hard drive unit too. I'm using Mac OSX
1056930
No they do not. I am considering buying one myself. I will not buy the Mac external drive. I have heard that Samsung sells a much better one but it's ten dollars higher. There are cheaper ones that I am told that are as good as Mac's. I love Mac computers but I am not a fanatic.
1638897
Yes, firewire works perfectly (on Macs at least, I'm fortunate not to have a windows machine to be able to test this on). Enough power is supplied via the firewire cable to run the drive. USB is a different matter ... a single USB cable from a Belkin hub attached to my Mac Mini will NOT spin the drive up. The light goes on, but the drive never mounts and it remains invisible on 'Disk Utility'. I was worried this would be the same story on my laptop ... however, a single USB cable works just fine with a 2 year old MacBook Pro. I suspect that it depends how much power the USB delivers, and that newer machines may deliver sufficient. So, USB doesn't suck ... it just depends what you attach it to. I've tried this on a Belkin hub attached to my Mac Mini and on a 15" MacBook Pro.
1955091
No. There IS, however, an external portable drive from WD that DOES work with the Mac. It's called My Passport for Mac and is available 500 GB to 2 TB. Just go to the WD web site. They offer other portable backup drives for the Mac.
1557639
I'm assuming there's a typo here... The MacBook Pro was not released until 2006. Prior to that, Apple made a similar laptop called the PowerBook G4... which would not be compatible with this drive. All MacBook Pros, excluding the "Retina" models, will work with this drive.
401160
It comes come with a USB 3.0 cord which is backwards compatible also. I don't have a Mac so I would assume you plug it in and ur Mac would recognize it. So far it's been a great hard and ultra portable! The end going into the drive is a special one not a regular USB male end.
2019224
The box states Portable USB Drive for Apple MacBook. There is a website mentioned on the box g-technology.com/support for help on this product.