External HDs "drawing too much power"
 

Two external hard drives, previously used for back-ups, are apparently too powerful for my macbook. I've had Snow Leopard installed, and this is the first time I've tried to back up. Before this I had Tiger, but Tiger died...:(

Anyway, not being able to back up is scary. Anyone got any ideas?

I'm guessing those drives are using bus power - connected only through the USB cable, and no external power supply for those drives. You would need to add a power supply to those, or plug in through an external USB hub, which should also have its own separate power supply.

If these drives are powered from the USB bus (i.e. they don't have an AC power plug that connects them to AC power) then you should plug them into a powered USB hub instead of directly into the Mac.

Power supply
 

Each hard drive was plugged into a wall socket - checked again, in case I had neglected to turn it on, but no, each was definitely turned on. The HDs were humming. Is that what you mean?

What other USB devices do you have plugged in to your MacBook?

A mouse, that's all.

Googling for that error message shows other people who found that the problem was either a bad USB cable or a hardware fault in the drive enclosure.

You should definitely try it with no mouse (or anything else) attached and with only one drive at a time.

By the way, what do you mean by "Tiger died"?
Maybe something in the history of this Mac will give us a clue.

One day, I turned the MacBook on and it clicked away, but wouldn't load. The drive had failed. So I had Snow Leopard installed.

Fyi, I tried the externals one at a time. Haven't done it with no mouse though, so I'll try that now.

Ah, no dice. Same message.

Sorry but you aren't being explicit enough about your situation.
Please give full details.
Do you mean that you had a new hard drive installed in this Mac?

And which precise MacBook model do you have?

And which precise MacBook model do you have?

Version 10.6.6 with 1.83 Intel processor, 1GB ram.

I had Snow Leopard installed in this MacBook. It's white plastic - which the man who installed SL told me was inclined to get a bit hotter than was ideal.

You still didn't make it clear whether a new hard drive was installed in this MacBook.

Snow Leopard was installed in the same white plastic MacBook that had the now-dead Tiger in it.

There was more RAM put in as well.

So that would make it a MacBook from 2006 according to MacTracker.

Maybe you don't know, but you still are failing to tell us in precise terms that there was (or was not) a new hard drive installed.

Sorry, I guess I don't know. Tiger was removed from this MacBook when it failed. Snow Leopard was installed in the same machine. Does that answer your question?
"That would make it a MacBook from 2006...."
Yes, I suppose it would. I must have had it about four or five years.

I'd recommend taking it back to the repair shop that installed the new hard drive and see what they say about the problem with your external hard drives.
It may be that the new hard drive they installed is not fully compatible with this model of MacBook and is causing the problem with the external drives.

Thanks for the info (and the attention!)

1GB is the minimum required for Snow Leopard, and was not a good upgrade. That small amount will leave you with poor performance. Any decent tech would have tried to convince you to spend that small amount upgrading to 2GB to get a good working system after that upgrade.

You also haven't answered about the hard drive. Was that replaced, too?

Just a test -
Leave the USB ports empty. Shut down (not just a simple restart), then plug in one hard drive to your MacBook USB port. Make sure the power supply is plugged in to that hard drive, and the drive is turned on. Now, press and release the power button.
After you get to the desktop, can you access the external drive now?

Success
 

Tried your test - sorry, it's next morning here in New Zealand - and it worked. I got one of the HDs running.

Also, I think I may have said it's the first time I've tried to use the HDs. I'm wrong. When I got the new hard drive, I used the backup to renew all my files. So they have worked in the past.

Oh, and on reflection - yes, the hard drive was replaced....my apologies - I was so intent on the programme that was installed when the hard drive failed, I didn't answer the question and couldn't see that I hadn't....duh!

I believe that the hard drive installed on the Macbook is a new one so its having newer technology and is not compatible with the 2006 Mac System. Go through the user guide of the Hard drive you have purchased if you still have that with you else Google it and find whether the hard is compatible with your machine or not.

Ah sorry I did not saw the conversation continuing over to the next page and made my comments which is I think not related anymore. :o