Storage

[LeoG]

Just bought 1TB DriveStation external USB drive for my Mac Mini running OSX.  I followed the instructions to install TurboUSB and the installation seemed to go ok, followed by a restart.   However, after re-starting the icon for the DriveStation on the Mac desktop still looks the same.   The instructions included with the drive say that the way you can tell that TurboUSB is installed is that the drive icon changes and includes a little TurboUSB logo on it.   This did not happen, so I can only assume that the software did not install correctly.

I thought to uninstall and reinstall, but when I ran the uninstall file, it seemed to install the software again.  And again after restarting the drive icon was unchanged.

Would appreciate advice on how to check if the TurboUSB is installed and working OR if not, how to get it to install properly.   Everything else on my little Mac mini works perfectly.

Thanks 

[Paul]

What file format is the drive in?

Also you can download another copy of the turbo software from buffalotech.com

[LeoG]

The drive is as formatted when purchased, which I guess is FAT32.  I did not reformat.  I used the install file that was on the drive when purchased, but I will try to download a new install file as you suggest and see if it makes a difference.

[Paul]

Also formatt the drive with your Mac.

[LeoG]

OK - I assume this advice meant format the drive using the Mac OS file format system.   I was not able to format the drive using any of the Mac OS file formats (error msg "file formatter failed").   The drive then failed all attempts to verify or repair.   I was able to reformat it on the Mac using FAT file format - so I guess that I am back where I started.    When I have time I will re-install the turboUSB software again and if that fails, I will give up.

Looks like this drive is not really Mac compatible, if it cannot even be formatted to use the Mac OS file system. 

It is likely that my next disk drive purchase will be from a different manufacturer. 

[LeoG]

Well from doing a search on the forum, I found out that can only have a max 700MB partition if format in Mac file format.   So was able to format OK using two partitions.

Tried to download another version of the turbousb software again from the US web site.  It will not accept my serial number (it is an EU version of HD-CE1.0TU2), so tried the EU web site but could not find any  turbousb utility on that site.    Will try yet again with the version that came on the HD and see what happens.   Spending hours on this, so much for plug and play.

[Colin137]

The trouble you're having with formatting the drive is common with large size drives. Our drives have their partition created using MBR (Master Boot Record) but most MACS have a limitiation in the size of a MBR partition they can modify. To fix this go into disk utility and do the following:

Leopard's Disk Utility offers three types of Partition Map Schemes: APM (Apple Partition Map- bootable on PPC Macs), GUID Partition Table (bootable on Intel Macs) and MBR (Master Boot Record (as it would be formatted from a Windows machine, and often the partition map that comes on new drives).

You can see what your drive is currently by selecting the drive in the left column of Disk Utility and looking at the info at the bottom of the page. Look at the "Partition Map Scheme:" entry for the answer.

If that is the case go create a new partition scheme creating one large partition, and then you should see "Options" which will allow you to change it from MBR to GUID(most likely) or to APM(less likely). You will want to use GUID. From here proceed normally to format the drive.

[LeoG]

Well thanks to Colin's advice, I was finally able to format the drive with a 1TB single partion, in Mac OS native format.

Had one last attempt to install the turbousb, but still no change.  I took a look at my login items, and could not see a relevant start up process.   Should there be one and if so, what should it be called?