My Maxtor 200GB external HD is not showing up on my Mac G4. I've tried USB & Firewire connections. Restarted the Maxtor then computer. Restarted computer, then Maxtor No good. Thanks for your help!!!

FORMAT AND CONNECT TO PC IF NOT RECOGNIZED MAY BE BAD HARD DRIVE . OR NOT COMPATIBLE

Find your product hare and download drivers

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/

Start "Device Manager".
Make sure that the USB devices are "ready" and "enabled".
Then, connect the external USB device.

Can you try the Maxtor external device in some *OTHER* notebook?
If it does not work, then the Maxtor device has a problem.

Easy, FireWire.
Connect the 2 with a firewire cable. If reading off the laptop, for example, reboot it & hold the T key down while it boots up. A large firewire symbol shows on the screen indicating FireWire Target Mode. The laptop should be showing up as a firewire drive on the other Mac.

Connect the 2 with a firewire cable. Reboot the Mac you want to read from & hold the T key down while it boots up. A large firewire symbol shows on the screen indicating FireWire Target Mode. The other Mac should be showing up as a firewire drive on the other Mac.

I would disconnect it and connect it again.You probably will be asked to assign it a drive name like G-Drive or E-Drive.

I’m happy to help further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/phillip_293d34ebcf028794

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO OPERATE ON THE SAME HARD DISK
YOU HAVE TO FORMAT THIS HD FIRST AS FAT 32 AND THEN PROCEED FOR A NEW SETUP OF MAC VERSION .
SO BACK UP DATA IF YOU ARE DOING SO..

Are you connecting Drive via a USB hub or direct into two separate USB sockets on PC?

If files you are trying to restore are encrypted you will have to use same software to retrieve them.. If not, any file in the external hard drive should be viewable with your windows explorer.

And U do not need drivers for external hard drives. They just plug into your usb port and work with modern OS after the unit is recognized.

sounds like the USb Port is burned out, might as well chuck it