I just bought a Plugable Sata USB3.0 HDD Docking Station. It’s the new white one–Communicator U3.
After several hours of trying, I have been unable to have ANYTHING register with it on my mac. The installation instructions say that I only need OSX 10.4.8. I’m running a MacBook Pro with Mac OSX 10.6.8. Snow Leopard. It’s only running USB 2.0, and that’s fine, but could someone please offer me a walkthrough on how to set this up?
Hi Adrian,
Thanks for posting! Sorry for the frustration. We’ll be able to help.
Our SATA docking station (http://plugable.com/products/usb3-sat…) will work fine in USB 2.0 mode on a Mac, using the Mac’s built-in USB mass storage class drivers (same as USB flash drives, etc.)
Some of the most common problems are the simple things like AC power and power switch not on. After that, having a drive that’s not formatted for Mac is the next most common. But it could be something more fundamental.
Let’s figure out what’s wrong.
Two quick things to check:
- When you pull up the system information utility (mac icon in upper left corner->about this mac->more information …). Do you see the SATA dock (as a MassStorage device), when you look at attached USB hardware?
!](https://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/587316/mac-system-profiler-usb3-sata-u3_inline.png)](https://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/587316/mac-system-profiler-usb3-sata-u3.png)
- From the Mac’s disk utility, does the drive show on the list, and can the Mac see the partitions?
!](https://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/587318/mac-disk-utility-usb3-sata-u3_inline.png)](https://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/587318/mac-disk-utility-usb3-sata-u3.png)
Thanks for the quick double-check of these things. From that, we’ll be able to figure out next steps.
And thanks for your patience!
Bernie