MAC OSX Driver Download needed for SATA docking station.

December 11, 2013 6:48 PM

Because the cd driver for my SATA docking station does not fit into my iMac (Mac OS X Version 10.7.5), I am on the lookout for the correct driver download. I cannot find one for MAC. Here are links to the unit I own: http://www.amazon.com/AGPtek-Function-Docking-Station-Offline/dp/B00C4TQJM8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZMzKJqWK8Q

When I plug the unit into the Mac, it does not recognize the files; the options to initialize or ignore the drive are available. I have a 2TB drive I want to sequence, but obviously, I cannot wipe the drive.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

posted by captainsohler to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

What filesystem is the drive?

I doubt you need a driver for that dock, but it sounds like you've got an NTFS drive, which the mac won't like.
posted by pompomtom at 6:56 PM on December 11, 2013

Where did the drive come from? If your Mac recognizes that the drive exists when you plug it in, you don't need drivers for the dock. It sounds like the drive has an unsupported filesystem on the drive. Depending on which filesystem it is, you may be able to use additional software to access the data on the drive.
posted by strangecargo at 6:58 PM on December 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

What format is the drive? I've never, ever seen one of these docks need a driver on a mac. I own a couple, and both have worked with every mac i've owned for the past few years plug and play. I'm willing to bet you can't find a mac driver because it doesn't include one and there never was one, and it just isn't needed. The driver is likely just for the card reader and stuff, if that.

I'd be willing to bet if you plug the drive into another USB interface that's known to work with the mac, and connect it, that it will still say it wants to initialize.

Can you copy the data to a local drive or another drive, format it with the mac(make sure it's MBR partition table!) as Exfat or something, and then try again? For some reason macs are just assholes about certain drives that were formatted by certain systems. It's an intermittent problem i've had for years.(which a couple times has resulted in me having to use data recovery tools because i had no other system around to get at the files, ugh)

Oh, and are you COMPLETELY sure the dock plays nice with >1tb drives? not all do. the fact that it supports sata II and not 3 is concerning there, as it might be using an old controller.
posted by emptythought at 6:59 PM on December 11, 2013

A Mac will read & write to FAT 32, but there is a file size limit. A Mac should recognize an NTFS drive, but as read-only, which shouldn't be a big deal since you want to read from the drive. There are 3rd party utilities out there that will allow you to write from a Mac to NTFS, but that's probably not what you need, though trying a free one couldn't hurt. I agree with emptythought - it's one of two things-- either the drive is not a standard Windows format, or it's not playing nicely with the dock. If you're sure it's either FAT 32 or NTFS, I would go somewhere like Fry's and buy a cheapo USB 2.0 enclosure. They can be had for 20-ish bucks these days.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:40 PM on December 11, 2013

Response by poster: The drive is a Western Digital 2.0TB SATA/64MB Cache
WD20EARS
posted by captainsohler at 9:02 PM on December 11, 2013

Response by poster: The files on it are mostly RAW image files.
posted by captainsohler at 9:02 PM on December 11, 2013

Different operating systems use different formatting schemes - that drive should normally work fine with a Mac, provided it was formatted with a file system that Macs can recognize. Have you opened Disk Utility on the Mac to see if it offers any info about the format?

Do you know what operating system (Windows? Linux?) the drive used with when the files were copied on to it? Is there a Windows computer nearby that you can plug it in to? If so, you should be able to at least see how the drive was formatted if Disk Utility can't tell you.

It will also be a troubleshooting step -- if the dock/drive combo doesn't work with Windows either, then it's likely the two devices are incompatible.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:21 PM on December 11, 2013

Response by poster: http://www.storagereview.com/western_digital_caviar_green_2tb_review_wd20ears
Here are the specs for the drive.
posted by captainsohler at 9:21 PM on December 11, 2013

Response by poster: The drive was copied with Windows. The format disk utility denotes is exFAT
posted by captainsohler at 9:38 PM on December 11, 2013

I've definitely used WD20EARS drives in external enclosures with my Macbook Pro. I'm seconding the suggestion that you get a cheap enclosure and check it out with that - Newegg's store brand sells a very nice one for a good price.
posted by fifthrider at 9:49 PM on December 11, 2013

Some people have very outdated notions of what OS X supports. If the drive is exFAT and your computer is running OS X 10.7.5, then the operating system can read and write to it. If the dock is a SATA device, you may need a driver, but the hard drive itself is fine. Visit AGPtek's website and see if they have anything for your dock and OS X. If it still doesn't work, return the dock and get something else.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:53 PM on December 11, 2013

I've used several WD Caviar Green series drives over the years and have never had problems with the computer recognizing them.

I think emptythought has it. When the drive is known-good and has a format the Mac can read, but the protocol adaptor (ATA or SATA to USB or Firewire) doesn't support the drive capacity, you'll get the "Can't read disk: reformat or ignore?" alertbox.

See if you can borrow an external case that explicitly supports your drive's protocol and capacity, and try the drive in that. If you get the same result you at least have a good reason for ruling out the AGPtek dock as part of the problem.
posted by ardgedee at 4:34 AM on December 12, 2013