LaCie external firewire drive w/IOGear card + IBM Thinkpad

**Adichter** · August 25th, 2004, 04:22 PM

I've got a new LaCie 160 GB external hard drive (which, not surprisingly, works flawlessly on my wife's iBook) that I'm trying to get to work with my IBM Thinkpad T23, Windows XP Professional. Since it's a firewire drive, I bought an IOGear PCMCIA USB 2.0 / firewire card (I also don't have USB 2.0 on this laptop). I've installed the IOGear card without a hitch and, in my hardware profile, I'm told that the LaCie drive is working and installed properly. However, I'm not actually able to access the drive (via Explore, clicking on My Computer, etc.).

I went to the LaCie homepage in hopes of updating the driver (I didn't use the one from the CD, just plugged and played in Windows XP, apparently with no problem) but I couldn't find anything there. My driver date is from 2001, which I assume is based upon my XP system(??). Should I try using the install CD that came with the hard drive?

In any case, I don't even know where to begin on this problem since, according to my system, there's no problem!!! But I can't access this drive!

Help!

**NooNoo** · August 26th, 2004, 06:35 AM

Welcome to Windrivers Adichter

Did you format the drive with the ibook?

**Adichter** · August 26th, 2004, 10:38 AM

Thanks for the welcome.

Hmm, I don't remember being asked to format it, but it was a brand new drive and the first computer I plugged it in to was the iBook, so maybe I did.

Of course now it's filled with photos, etc., so wiping it clean would be a real headache.

Originally Posted by NooNoo

Welcome to Windrivers Adichter

Did you format the drive with the ibook?

**NooNoo** · August 26th, 2004, 11:39 AM

not sure if the ibook file system is compatible with windows....

**Adichter** · August 26th, 2004, 11:42 AM

Is this to say that you think that I can't use the hard drive with both a windows and a mac computer?

How would I go about finding out if this is the problem? And would this explain the fact that I can't even see the hard drive on my windows machine?

Originally Posted by NooNoo

not sure if the ibook file system is compatible with windows....

**NooNoo** · August 26th, 2004, 11:50 AM

need a mac user to answer you...
I'll pm one and see.

**Radical Dreamer** · August 26th, 2004, 03:33 PM

The mac filesystem is not natively supported by windows, there are programs that will allow you to read the mac filesystem, but they tend to be flakey. From my experience LaCie makes makes alot of Mac specific products and the drive is likely formatted for your mac. Mac OS9 and 10 both support Fat32 as does every version of windows since 98. My recommendation would be to throw it on your windows box and format for FAT32.

If running OSX (10.3.5 anyway) and NT based OS's you may want to use NTFS as its more reliable and secure. NTFS support on Macs is a joke until 10.3.5 (newest release) so if you arent using that on every machine you want to use the drive on, stick with FAT32.

Sorry for the hard to read post, I've been pretty sick and this medicine they have me on makes me feel weird

**Radical Dreamer** · August 26th, 2004, 03:37 PM

If you are hell bent on leaving the drive formatted the way it is (likely HFS) then try one of these to read it on your windows machine

http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~f96-bet/hfsutils/
http://www.macwindows.com/disks2.html
http://www.macdisk.com/mden.php3

**Adichter** · August 30th, 2004, 11:53 AM

Radical dreamer - thanks for the reply and the help. Before I go down this path (and let's just be up front here--this is certainly something I shouldn't be undertaking given my technical capabilities), what's the other option? You mention formating it as FAT32 on the Windows machine. But how can I do that since I can't get my Windows machine to recognize it?

Conversely, is there a way to use the Mac to wipe the drive clean / unformat it?

Thanks!

**Adichter** · August 30th, 2004, 03:35 PM

Just an update if anyone else is interested. I finally got through to LaCie Support and basically they suggested if you want to use the drive on both MAC and Windows PC, the best way would be to acquire a third party software such as Mac Drive 5 (www.mediafour.com.) There is a free trial offer so I'm going to check that out before springing for the $50 for the product. As far as formatting the drive to FAT32, they said that it will work but that you will run into problems because there are file size limitations and file name issues when trying to read a FAT32 drive with a Mac.

Anyone out there know if I'll come up against major issues with a FAT32 formatted drive on a Mac? I'd rather save the $50 if I could.

Originally Posted by Adichter

Radical dreamer - thanks for the reply and the help. Before I go down this path (and let's just be up front here--this is certainly something I shouldn't be undertaking given my technical capabilities), what's the other option? You mention formating it as FAT32 on the Windows machine. But how can I do that since I can't get my Windows machine to recognize it?

Conversely, is there a way to use the Mac to wipe the drive clean / unformat it?

Thanks!