Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

[nslater]

I purchased the Runcore 1.8" SATA II LIF enclosure for an SSD drive I rescued from a relatively new MacBook Air. When I plugged the drive in via the USB ports, nothing happened. I tried plugging the LIF cable in and out, and swapping the two USB cables around. A few times, when I tried, I would see this message in the syslog:

Non-smartcard device launched pcscd [Vendor: 0X13FD, Product: 0X1618]

I have tried everything I know to see if I can find out more about what is going on here. Disk Utility shows nothing, nothing in /Volumes, nothing interesting in /dev and no other log entries that look related. USB Prober fails with a very strange message though:

USB Prober: GetUSBDeviceInformation() for device @ 6610000 failed

Eventually I decided that I may have a faulty unit. So I purchased a second unit of the same kind. Exactly the same symptoms show up. I plug it in, I see the little green light flash on once, and maybe see that weird pcscd log entry. Nothing else.

Can anybody help?

[nslater]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

Bump?

Could someone from Runcore comment?

I purchased two units, and neither of them seem to work.

How would I know if the HD was broken itself?

[ktula]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

I would think that even without putting any drive in the USB enclosure, your Mac will recognize it when connected.

I would give that a try when i get home and let you know what i find.

Bump?

Could someone from Runcore comment?

I purchased two units, and neither of them seem to work.

How would I know if the HD was broken itself?

[ktula]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

You should see a message similar to this in Console when you connect the USB enclosure:

10/12/10 10:37:49 PM kernel USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 5331544A4A31365A35303032 0x13fd 0x1840 0x104

[nslater]

[nslater]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

You should see a message similar to this in Console when you connect the USB enclosure:

10/12/10 10:37:49 PM kernel USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 5331544A4A31365A35303032 0x13fd 0x1840 0x104

I just tried, with no drive attached. I get this message:

Oct 15 18:48:23 Noah-Slaters-MacBook-Pro pcscd[6828]: Non-smartcard device launched pcscd [Vendor: 0X13FD, Product: 0X1618]

Looks like my mac isn't recognising it at all.

I have tried two of these devices, and on two different macs.

Any idea?

[ktula]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

I believe that i got that message without the SSD in the enclosure.

[ktula]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

Another way to figure out if your enclosure is seen by your Mac is to run System Profiler. Select "USB" under Hardware. If the enclosure is recognized, it should show up under USB High-Speed Bus.

[ktula]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

Without the SSD connected to the enclosure, i get this message in system.log (similar to what you got):

Oct 15 21:21:10 mango pcscd[1131]: Non-smartcard device launched pcscd [Vendor: 0X13FD, Product: 0X1618]


With a HDD connected (the original HDD from my MBA) to the USB enclosure, i get this message in kernel.log:

Oct 15 21:23:05 mango kernel[0]: USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 5331544A4A31365A35303032 0x13fd 0x1840 0x104

[nslater]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

Without the SSD connected to the enclosure, i get this message in system.log (similar to what you got):

Oct 15 21:21:10 mango pcscd[1131]: Non-smartcard device launched pcscd [Vendor: 0X13FD, Product: 0X1618]


With a HDD connected (the original HDD from my MBA) to the USB enclosure, i get this message in kernel.log:

Oct 15 21:23:05 mango kernel[0]: USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 5331544A4A31365A35303032 0x13fd 0x1840 0x104

What does this imply?

The hard drive was taken from my old MacBook Air. I believe it overheated one night. In the morning, it no longer turned on. I figured the power board blew, but I never took it in for a proper servicing. It has occurred to me that the HD might have over-heated. Is that possible?

How would I tell if it's the USB unit, or the HD, to blame?

Is there any alternative to Runcore for connecting an external MacBook Air HD?

[ktula]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

The SSD that you rescued, was it a RunCore SSD or the factory SSD (probably a samsung)? When you connected the rescued SSD to the enclosure, did you use the cable from the MBA or the cable that came with RunCore SSD? Do you mind taking a picture showing your connection, on both ends, of the enclosure and the SSD, and include that picture in your response?

[nslater]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

The SSD that you rescued, was it a RunCore SSD or the factory SSD (probably a samsung)? When you connected the rescued SSD to the enclosure, did you use the cable from the MBA or the cable that came with RunCore SSD? Do you mind taking a picture showing your connection, on both ends, of the enclosure and the SSD, and include that picture in your response?

It was the one from the MBA. I used the cable that came with the RunCore SSD case. Note that I did not buy a RunCore SDD. I only purchased the case. All I want to do here is rescue the data from my old hard drive. The actual computer the hard drive is from is broken, so I don't want to put a new drive in. Does this affect things?

I have taken three pictures:







Do you have any idea what's going wrong here?

I tried connecting it both sides up, and neither way around work.

[ktula]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

You should really be using the MBA ribbon cable to connect to the RunCore enclosure. I had problem initially getting the MBA HDD recognized too when i was using RunCore's cable. After switching to the MBA cable, problem solved. I'll take a few pictures of how i have connected the MBA HDD to RunCore's enclosure when i get home tonight.

[nslater]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

Hmm.

Okay, thanks.

If this works I will be SO happy.

Really appreciate all the help you're giving!

[nslater]

Re: Runcore SSD USB enclosure not recognised on OS X

You should really be using the MBA ribbon cable to connect to the RunCore enclosure. I had problem initially getting the MBA HDD recognized too when i was using RunCore's cable. After switching to the MBA cable, problem solved. I'll take a few pictures of how i have connected the MBA HDD to RunCore's enclosure when i get home tonight.

Just tried this, but nothing happened. :(