10.5.8 brings support for cheap, no-name USB enclosures!

I have a couple of cheap, no-name 2.5″ hard disk USB enclosures with me that haven’t worked with any of my Macs since time immemorial. They made weird noises and flashed lights when I plugged them into either my Powerbook or the 20″ Intel iMac. I also shrugged it off thinking “oh these Macs are under powered” ¹ and grabbed the nearest Dell to transfer the data.²

Until this morning. I upgraded to 10.5.8 and later when I was going through the release notes I saw this innocent looking line:

Improves compatibility with some external USB hard drives.

Immediately I popped in my cheap, no-name hard disk enclosure (with the hard disk in it, of course!) and yes, the iMac detected it. I am still running Tiger on the Powerbook so have no way of verifying if it works likewise.

Macs have truly broken the final frontier as far as I am concerned!

1. I do remember having some success getting my Powerbook to recognize the disk by using one of the 2×1 USB cables and inserting both of the connectors at one end into the Powerbook [↩]
2. no need to rub it in, I am embarrassed enough admitting it in public! [↩]

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