Thread: Computer Doesn't Detect Jump Drive

My school lent me an iBook G3 for the week and when I tried to get my files on to my jump drive the stupid thing didn't even recognize it. It didn't appear on the screen or anything. I tried cleaning off the contacts but it still didn't detect it. Please help.

That's a pretty old laptop. I'd say that maybe the drivers need updating, but since it's Apple, I don't know too much about their back support on older models.

From my experience, they're typically proprietary and I'm afraid you're stuck with what hardware you've got on board. :/

So to put it short, the software won't recognize your USB stick because it's too old.

Whats weird is that it only detects one of my jump drives and not the other. Oh well, I'll just use the one it can detect.

If you use os 9, be sure the PC exchange extension is enabled. It should appear on the desktop of the Finder as a PC formatted disk. Don't delete the hidden folders it leaves either, or those will fuxxor your data.

My flash drives work perfectly fine with my BW G3 on OS 9.2.2 though. They even worked when my beige PCI mac still worked. It might be a bad USB port too.

Originally Posted by Gligar13

If you use os 9, be sure the PC exchange extension is enabled. It should appear on the desktop of the Finder as a PC formatted disk. Don't delete the hidden folders it leaves either, or those will fuxxor your data.

My flash drives work perfectly fine with my BW G3 on OS 9.2.2 though. They even worked when my beige PCI mac still worked. It might be a bad USB port too.

The computer is Mac OS X panther.

If it's OS X, it should be reading it then. Try plugging both drives into different ports. A port might be busted.

If it is busted, tell the school tech staff, so they can give you another iBook. If your flash drive works in another computer, but not in a working usb port on your mac, then the flash drive might just not be compatable for some reason (which is pretty odd).

It could be that your jumpdrive is corrupted as well. It's like an old floppy disk; Sometimes they just glitch out for no reason.

My jump drive that doesn't connect, connects onto other iBook G3's,and I tried it on both ports. The one that does connect I've also tried on both ports and it connects to other iBook G3's too. The one that does connect has a capacity of 128 megabytes and the one that doesn't is 4 gigabytes. Maybe it's because the jump drive has too much memory or something... Both of them are empty, by the way.

The only thing I could think of then is either the other iBooks are running a newer OS version, or a newer USB driver/kext. Try switching your iBook for another iBook, then.

Then again, my BW g3 reads my 4gb flash drive on OS 9.2.2