Problems setting up an external hard drive- Seagate hard drive and Macally enclosure

I had a much harder time than I should have setting up an external hard drive enclosure.

Macally enclosure
First I had problems getting the Macally enclosure opened and then closed. The opening problem was mostly my fault. On close it is easy to mistake whether you are putting it on backwards. The enclosure gets less than a quarter-inch from closed and then stops. It makes it seem like the reason it is not closing is that you have misjudged the alignment or need to jiggle it.
Once I had everything set up I had trouble connecting the drive. There were colored indicator lights but no explanation as to their meaning.
I called Macally for help during the problems and was happy with their support. Here's the meaning of the lights: "If you are only getting a red light, this mean two things; either the hard drive is defective or there is not enough power going from the power brick."

Seagate jumpers
The sticker showing how to set the jumpers is on the hard drive but is facing the opposite direction from the jumpers. This makes it confusing to set the jumpers correctly.
I also had some problems making sure the cables were all the way in.

Conclusions
I'd say the problems were 70% me. But it would have been easier if

• Seagate reversed the sticker
• Macally had some FAQ saying the meaning of their indicator lights
• Macally had designed the enclosure so the way parts came together was obvious.
  

Panasonic sa-he100 amplifier- using with power strip causes overloar

Occasionally the amp was shutting off with an overloaded message. I would have thought that this would mean it was getting too much audio input. In reality it got better when I plugged the electricity directly into the wall.

Audio recording problems tonight

From the Behringer mixer there is a lot of hiss. If I have any of these above the middle I get it: Gain, level 1, and main mix. I have all the other inputs down.
These results occur whether or not the mic is on or even plugged in. It also does not matter whether I listen through headphone jack or main out.

I wasn't able to use Audacity's monitor function but then suddenly it started working. It may be that you have to start a new project or track.

It wasn't until I started recording that I had these systemuiserver problems.

Unable to record this evening

Recording and any other efforts are shot for the evening. When I tried to record today nothing was showing up. The monitors within the software were showing sound coming in so it was a software issue. I talked to Apple Support an experience which as usual made me never want to deal with Apple again.
I refused to accept the first guy's answer that it was a microphone problem- (Sound could be seen in monitor waveforms and heard in the headphone monitors!).
I talked to a second guy and we did a lot of reboots and cord changes but no preference or system changes and eventually it worked. So neither of knows anything more about what caused it.