Problem with my portable Maxtor One Touch 3 Mini Edition

[bacchus_3]

Hi guys,

I'd just want to ask if anyone here has a similar problem with me using my portable hard drive (had searched for this in the net but I can't find anything...yet).

I am a recent switcher to a Macbook. I had my Maxtor One Touch 3 Mini for almost a year now in NTFS format. I reformated it to HFS+ with two partitions for my data and itunes library.

It's strange that when my portable HDD is connected for so long with my Macbook (a few hours or even a few minutes recently), it hangs (sort-of). Finder seems to stop working, iTunes won't display it's window unless I switch using Expose and everything slows down.

The only way I could recover is to unplug my portable HDD (I know, I know...it's a major NO NO, but I can't eject it either). This has happened many times and stranger still the HDD doesn't break with unplugging (maybe I'm just lucky?!).

Do I need to reformat the disk? Is Maxtor One Touch 3 Mini not that fully compatible with a macbook (I know it should be from the specs and reviews)?

I'm planning to get me a Lacie mini hub soon to transfer all my files in my portable hdd there, but I'd still need this one to work.

[lamski]

Try using a powered USB hub or a different USB port. If your USB cable has the extra port, you can also try plugging it in at the same time. Your macbook might not be delivering enough electricity through its ports to power your drive that's why it hangs.

[Bronski]

Compatibility is not the issue as all hard disks in the market suit a Mac. Like what lamski said, it might be a power problem on your usb port, or better yet, transfer the files from that disk and do a clean start by reformatting. Hope this helps.

[bacchus_3]

Hmmm...it would probably make sense. I haven't tried this out because I always had my 2 USB ports filled up (portable HDD and HSDPA modem). I'll try this one and see if it's a power input issue.