External drive becomes invisible

End of the day yesterday, I shut down my system. Nothing moved overnight. Today I start up, but I cannot see my LaCie External drive. Tried a different FW800 cable, still no change. The drive switches on when it should, ie when it is plugged into the Mac, and I can hear it spin up, but no icon appears on the desktop. I've tried all the permutations of restarting, pulling the plug, re-plugging, to no avail. Anyone know what to do next?
Regards,
John

Hi John Howarth-
I have had this happen more than once.
It is the power supply brick to the drive itself. It is a tough one because the little blue light comes on and the drives spin up but nothing.
LaCie had a batch of bad power supplies a while back. If your drive is under warranty they will send you a replacement brick. If not, they sell them on their site for about $20 US.
As an aside, I bought a spare brick about a year ago as I have several of the drives, and not one of the supplies has failed since. Cheap insurance
Luck-
-DP

Similar Messages

  • Data rescue 3 external drive recovery .Invisible external hard disk 1 tb., I want a refund.

    data rescue 3 external drive recovery .Invisible external hard disk 1 tb., I want a refund.

    I personally would use Disk Warrior before attempting to recover any data for that exact reason.

  • External Drive with invisible files

    I have a MAC OS Extended format hard drive that I am attempting to clean up to make room for transfering some data. I have removed all the visible folder and files, but both finder and Disk Utility show that there are over 173 GB of data (over 2 million files) still on the volume. The drive is a 500 GB LaCie that I partitioned into two equal parts of 250GB. The other Partition was used exclusively for TM Backups.  I want to reformat the drive ( the old back up partition I dont care about). but I am afraid of erasing files that I can't see.
    Is there such a thing as an invisible file?
    How can I find out what they are and why they are taking up so much of the drive?
    I did run DU to Verify the volume and it checks out with no errors.
    It is possible that they could be windows files that we used with Parallels at one time. But we no longer use Parallels. I would think that I would be able to see them even if I can't open the files.
    I am running Lion on an iMac. The external drive is connected with firewire.

    If you want a cleared (erased) unpartitioned 500 GB drive, then do this:
    Drive Partition and Format
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select the hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    Yes, there are invisible files. The OS has thousands of them that are kept invisible to the user.

  • External drive unmountable & invisible after sleep (osx 10.8.1)

    Hello,
    yesterday evening, the lid of my mbp (retina, medio 2012) was closed while it was displaying the screensaver, with an external USB disk plugged in.
    After I opened the lid and logged back in, I saw a dialog mentioning that the disk was removed without being properly unmounted.
    Since then. I have not only been able to mount it; but it doesn't show up at all.
    Not in the finder, not in Disk Utility, not in the Terminal under /Volumes or under /dev/...
    I tried the following, so far without any result:
    restarting the Finder
    rebooting the machine
    resetting the pram & nvram
    trying the disk on another mac
    using either one of the MBP's two USB slots
    I have used this disk in this enclosure to store my photo's and music on, until yesterday without any problems. The only thing that I wondered about was that it did not seem a lot faster than I was used to with USB 2 - but that wasn't really an issue.
    Further details:
    The disk is a 2.5 inch 700 GB disk in a USB 3.0 enclosure. It's formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    The disk has been used only a few months without any prior problems.
    The enclosure is a König CMP-MOBSTOR96, it's about a month old.
    The disk has run fine until now without using an additional power supply. There is, however, a 5 volt input on the enclosure.
    The enclosure is connected to the MBP via the USB 3.0 cable that came with the enclosure.
    I looked in the Console messages, and found that there were a couple of messages apparently related to this issue:
    04-09-12 13:42:55,000 kernel[0]: USBF:
    2540.458
    [0xffffff802ed5ce00] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in.  It will keep retrying.  (Port 2 of Hub at 0x14000000)
    04-09-12 13:42:59,000 kernel[0]: USBF:
    2544.946
    [0xffffff802ed5ce00] The IOUSBFamily was not able to enumerate a device.
    04-09-12 13:43:01,000 kernel[0]: USBF:
    2546.268
    [0xffffff802ed5ce00] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in.  It will keep retrying.  (Port 2 of Hub at 0x14000000)
    04-09-12 13:43:05,000 kernel[0]: USBF:
    2551.148
    [0xffffff802ed5ce00] The IOUSBFamily was not able to enumerate a device.
    04-09-12 13:43:07,000 kernel[0]: USBF:
    2552.470
    [0xffffff802ed5ce00] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in.  It will keep retrying.  (Port 2 of Hub at 0x14000000)
    04-09-12 13:43:08,000 kernel[0]: USBF:
    2553.790
    [0xffffff802ed5ce00] The IOUSBFamily gave up enumerating a USB device after 10 retries.  (Port 2 of Hub at 0x14000000)
    04-09-12 13:43:08,000 kernel[0]: USBF:
    2553.790
    [0xffffff802ed5ce00] The IOUSBFamily was not able to enumerate a device.
    I found some discussions googling for these messages that seemed to suggest that the cause of the problem is either the cable, insufficient power available to the drive, or failure of the enclosure.
    But because this issue happened directly after the "disk not unmounted properly" warning message that followed the closing and opening of the MBP lid, it would be very unlikely that the enclosure or cable would have failed at exactly the same time.
    I can (and will) get another enclosure and try it with that, but I was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions that I could look into? It is in any case a bit awkward that problems if this caliber arise after someone merely shuts the lid of the computer causing it to sleep. Also. it was in all likelyhood not writing to the disk at that time.
    Thanks in advance!

    update
    I had kept the electronics part (with the SATA and USB connectors) of a damaged USB 2.0 enclosure. Using that on the above drive DOES work. Also reversely, putting another (known working) drive in the enclosure also fails to show up on the MBP.
    Apparently, either the enclosure or the USB cable is broken. That's not strange in itself. But what puzzles me a lot is that it broke at the exact time that the lid of the MBP was closed (for a few minutes) and opened again, causing the "disk not unmounted properly" warning.
    I'd really like to know if there is any imaginable way in which the one can have caused the other.
    Of course, it is also possible that it is not truly broken but that it somehow, suddenly found the power supply through the USB cable insufficient. Which would be even weirder.
    The good thing is that my data and disk are fine. Replacing the enclosure isn't a big deal. But I am hugely confused.

  • Cannot access external drive ITS INVISIBLE

    I just control clicked my external hard drive
    and I unintentionally changed something under
    ownership and permissions and now I can not
    see or access the drive.
    -I attempted to use disk warrior to restore and it did nothing.
    -Disk Utility was able to see the drive but told me the following
    -owners enabled: no
    So it seems that I need to r-enable myself to view and edit the drive but
    i am not able to do that so I was hoping that someone could give
    me a hand.
    thanks

    Hi, casey.
    ...but when I look at the disk partition where all my stuff is in disk utility it is just a piece of paper and I cannot access it.
    "Just a piece of paper"? What on earth do you mean by this?
    Do you really not have any idea what you did to foul yourself up so badly? If you could tell us exactly what happened — what option or command you chose, in what window or menu — it might be extremely useful information.

  • Fix for iPhoto lost thumbnails on an external drive

    I've had a few times when iPhoto seems to have lost all my thumbnails and pictures. I finally figured out what caused it and how to solve it. I thought others might be interested.
    The problem occurs because of 2 things:
    1. I store my iPhoto Library on an external drive.
    2. While running iPhoto, the external drive becomes disconnected by mistake (usually because I kick the power cord)
    I found that the problem is that iPhoto still tries to write the library files to the same location as it used to be. In order to fix the problem, you just need to remove the files that were created accidently. Here are the steps I used for iPhoto '06 and Max OS X 10.3.9 on an eMac. I'm guessing they'll work with other versions, but have not tested them.
    0. Quit iPhoto. Make sure you have a current back-up of all your files (don't you always
    1. Write down the name of the drive where you store your iPhoto library on the external drive:
    I'll use <drive> in the remainder of this description. Replace that text with the name you just wrote down.
    2. Open the "Terminal" inside "Applications/Utilities/"
    3. Type "cd /Volumes". This is where Mac connects external drives to your UNIX filesystem. "cd" means "change directory" to the "/Volumes" drive.
    4. Type "ls". You should see the name of your drive there. "ls" means "list" the contents.
    5. Eject the <drive> from you Mac via the Trash Can and turn it off as normal.
    6. Type "ls". Normally your drive should disappear from this listing. However, you'll notice that the drive still appears there. The problem is that there are really 2 directories there, one gets over-written when you attach an external drive. But having 2 causes lots of problems.
    7. With the drive off, you want to move the 2nd directory out of the way. To do this, you will need to become a root user for a moment. This is done with the "sudo" which means "switch user and do something then switch back". The first time you use it in a terminal you will be required to type the administrator password. It's a very powerful command, but keeps you from getting into the wrong mode forever.
    8. Type "sudo mv '<drive>' '<drive>.wrong'". This switches users, "moves" the bad directory to another directory name (ie. rename for UNIX). Make sure to use the single quote (') in case the name of your drive has spaces in it.
    This doesn't remove the bad files, just moves them out of the way. That way if this doesn't work, you can just move it back with the reverse command "sudo mv '<drive>.wrong' '<drive>'".
    9. Now turn your drive back on.
    10. Type "ls". Your <drive> should now re-appear in this listing.
    11. Restart iPhoto. It may ask you to locate the Library again.
    Please note that these instructions are only provided to help other users running into the same problem. Also, I am not responsible for any lost data by following these instructions.
    Also, if anyone finds this doesn't work, or has way to improve these steps, please feel free to post a reply.
    eMac   Mac OS X (10.3.9)   iLife 06

    It would be much easier if you make frequent backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and when you have a disconnect like you did, just replace the damaged file with the backup version. It is important to have a "recent" backup so you can get back where you were. So I've created an Automator application that will copy the file to the Pictures folder, label it orange, any time you click on it. So you can backup after any import, or work on a book, slideshow,etc. You don't need to close iPhoto to do it. Just don't be writing the the database file. You can download the application at Toad's Cellar.
    Do you Twango?
    TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
    I've written an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
    G5 Dual Core 2GHz, 2G RAM, 250G HD; G4 Dual 1Ghz, 1.5G RAM, 80G HD, QT 7.1.3,   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   22 LCD, 250G/200G/160G FW HDs, Canon: SD700IS/i850/LIDE 50, Epson R200, 30G iPod

  • Can a Virus cause an external drive to be invisible

    hi folks,
    i used my mac book pro to shovel some really, really old files I kept on CDs all the time onto my external western digital "my passport" 2.5" drive. I am using the drive already quite a while but after copying a few CDs I was first unable to eject the CD. Then my system got really slow. I forced to restart the finder application. The system nearly crushed and I had to hard reset my machine.
    Once the system had started up again, I could eject the CD but from then on my external drive didn't show anymore on the left hand side of the finder. When I open the disk utility application the external drive is listed. And when I check the file system the following result comes up. (Note: (über)prüfen means to check)
    Volume „My Passport“ überprüfen
    Dateisystem prüfen** /dev/disk1s1
    ** Phase 1 - Preparing FAT
    ** Phase 2 - Checking Directories
    ** Phase 3 - Checking for Orphan Clusters
    221807 files, 49154784 KiB free (1536087 clusters)
    However, the disk utility application is able to find the external disk. Thus, I was wondering if the copied files (mainly mp3's of which I am not totally sure where some of them are from) my contain any virus that I now have put on my mac os x? I have never had these files on my mac before. they are that old, they are still from my time as a windows user, sorry.
    hope anyone has an idea what might be going on here. Is there any chance to check my system for viruses or malware os x internally. As far as I have read, anti virus programs of third parties are not really recommendable for mac users...

    I'm not really understanding entirely what you saw, but I will tell you that it's not a virus. That's just not how malware works on the Mac.
    You say that you saw the external hard drive in Disk Utility and repaired it, but then you said Disk Utility can't find the external drive. Does that mean that it was there, but then disappeared? Or does it mean that you can see the physical drive in Disk Utility, but not the volume?
    If the drive itself no longer shows up in Disk Utility, there's probably a hardware problem. There may be a connection problem (loose cable, etc) or the drive itself may have died.
    If the drive is visible but the volume is missing, it's probably become extremely badly corrupted. You'll want to repartition (erase) the drive, assuming there's nothing on it that isn't backed up somewhere else, and start over.

  • I have my iPhoto set to an external drive yesterday when it was in use the usb disconnected i now have a message saying (your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable) I have tried shutting down and restarting.

    I have my iPhoto set to an external drive, when it was in use the usb disconected as i was moving my mac air, when i re-conected a message said (your photo library is either in use by another application or has become unreadable).
    I have tried shutting it down and then re opening iPhoto but get the same message.
    The reason for the external drive was there was not enough room on my hard drive, I have around 7000 photos on it.
    is there a simple fix?
    Regards
    Dale

    These are your options:
    1. Restore the iPhoto library from the most recent backup that predates the issue.
              Advantages: Always works, if library damage is causing the problem and the backup is intact.
              Disadvantages: Impossible if you don't have a backup. All changes made since the backup are lost.
    2. Repair or rebuild the library. Be sure to back it up first.
              Advantages: May solve the problem with no loss of data.
              Disadvantages: May fail. May take a long time if the library is large.
    3. Scavenge the library with a third-party application called "iPhoto Library Manager," which you can find in a web search. From the application's menu bar (not the iPhoto menu bar), select Library ▹ Rebuild.
              Advantages: All images and albums should be preserved.
              Disadvantages: All books, calendars, and slideshows will be lost.

  • One of My External Drive Icons is invisible how do I get it back

    Hi.
    I have a couple of External (USB and Firewire) drives. Recently my Firewire drive (a WD My Book Studio 1Tb Drive) disappeared from the desktop and finder.
    If I look in Disk Utility it is there and I can reveal it or open it from Disk Utility and all the files etc are there and are fine.
    I have run a disk repair on the drive and also a permissions repair on the main Mac drive. Any all seems OK.
    It does not seem to be locked or anything and as far as I can tell is is working just fine except that because it is invisible in Finder and Desktop it is also invisible to the file open in applications.
    I have also tried disconnecting all other hardware except the keyboard and mouse and starting the iMac and then reconnecting the drive to teh firewire port but it simply does not want to appear.
    MY OSX is fully patched and totally up-to-date as far as I can tell.
    NB I am a relative newbie to the MAC world (and have no Linux/Unix) experience so please make any instructions or advice clear and simple.
    Oh and while I write this I am copying everything of the drive to one of my other USB drives (Oh so slow) but at least I will have a backup and I guess I could repartition etc the Firewire drive.
    Hmm - just had a thought - one thing I didn't try was connecting the drive via USB as that would also be a check on drive health.. Will do that once all the data is copies off..
    Very frustrating. I need to get this icon/drive visible again..
    Please help..
    Steve

    Hi..
    After following the above terminal command instructions (and finishing a copy of the critical data just in case). The device never reapeared bit as I was doing a copy of critical data I didn't wanna reboot just in case.
    before rebooting and while the copy was occurring I reset the missing drive as my Time Machine Backup Drive (which it was a few months back) - yep time machine could see it. When I did the drive magically reappeared on my Desktop.
    It didn't however reappear in Finder.
    I then shut down the iMAC and all devices (which I had also been doing earlier to see if it would come back) and low and behold the device is now showing back in my Finder and on the Desktop.
    I have rebooted a couple of times and it is still there so looks like the issue is resolved.
    Not sure if it was the commands I typed in at terminal or the Time Machine reset but all is OK.
    Not sure if Time Machine has screwed around with the setting or had cleaned up a setting or whether the command line instruction worked. But either way I am happy and so far all is looking great..
    BTW I have reset my Time Machine back to the other external drive (which is what bought it for) and rebooted and the missing one is still there so that is a relief.
    Thanks for the advice...
    S.

  • External drive invisible on network

    We use an I-mac 400DV (10.3.9 server) for emails and to store the images for our website. When I connect an external drive (LaCie 320G internal raid0 ), i can see and use it normally on the Imac but it remains invisible from the other machines on our local network ( ethernet 10/100). Since the Imac runs a server OS, I was wondering if there is a special setting to activate ? This doesn't seem to be a permissions related issue ....
    G4 dual 1.25/ G5 Quad   Mac OS X (10.3.9)  

    By default, only directories on the internal volume are shared, partly because the OS has no idea in advance what external drives (if any) may be attached.
    Since you're running the Server OS, the solution is simple - just run Workgroup Manager and select the Sharing icon. Now you can choose any directory on any volume and make it available via any of the file sharing protocols.

  • Hey guys, i have a one year old Mac desktop which has become incredibly slow over time. Strange thing is that I have not downloaded anything save for install Windows for Mac. Storage wise the bulk of my info is stored on hard external drives. Can someow

    Hey guys, i have a one year old Mac desktop which has become incredibly slow over time. Strange thing is that I have not downloaded anything save for install Windows for Mac. Storage wise the bulk of my info is stored on hard external drives. Can someow

    Hardware Information:
              iMac - model: iMac11,2
              1 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3 CPU: 2 cores
              4 GB RAM
    Video Information:
              ATI Radeon HD 5670 - VRAM: 512 MB
    System Software:
              Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) - Uptime: up 0:2:53:43
    Disk Information:
              WDC WD1001FALS-40Y6A0 disk0 : (931,51 GB)
                        (null) (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 200 MB
                        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 931,19 GB (894,98 GB free)
              OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H 
    USB Information:
              Apple Inc. iPad
              Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
              Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
                        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
              Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
                        Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard
              Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
              Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
    FireWire Information:
    Kernel Extensions:
    Problem System Launch Daemons:
                     [failed] com.apple.suhelperd.plist
                 [not loaded] org.samba.winbindd.plist
    Problem System Launch Agents:
                     [failed] com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist
    Launch Daemons:
                     [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
                     [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist
                     [loaded] com.rim.BBDaemon.plist
                     [loaded] com.zeobit.MacKeeper.AntiVirus.plist
    Launch Agents:
                     [loaded] com.rim.BBAlbumArtCacher.plist
                     [loaded] com.rim.BBLaunchAgent.plist
    User Launch Agents:
                     [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.202f4087f2bbde52e3ac2df389f53a4f123223c9cc56a8fd83a6f7ae.plist
                     [loaded] com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper.plist
    User Login Items:
              iTunesHelper
              BlackBerry Desktop Software
              Bluetooth File Exchange
              Garmin ANT Agent
              Dropbox
    3rd Party Preference Panes:
              Flash Player
    Internet Plug-ins:
              AdobePDFViewer.plugin
              AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin
              Flash Player.plugin
              FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin
              GarminGpsControl.plugin
              iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
              JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
              QuickTime Plugin.plugin
              SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin
    User Internet Plug-ins:
    Bad Fonts:
              None
    Top Processes by CPU:
    Top Processes by Memory:

  • USB External drive has become a storage place in windows 8.1

    I let windows make my Toshiba USB drive become a storage place. Now it's as two different drives, one is called TOSHIBA USB (F:) and one is a storage place, I made it a storage place and now it's full and I tried to remove it from storage, and that's when
    it became a TOSHIBA USB drive again, but, it's located in storage as two different drives and it's also in removable drives list as a Toshiba drive. How do I get it out of being a storage place, it's still got files on it that I don't want to loose I was using
    it as a backup drive and I made it a storage drive. How do I get them both out of storage drive and back where it goes without loosing my files that are on it. I've got a 1TB Seagate external USB drive that is formatted and I may make it a storage drive and
    use it for file history and some back up. Should I do that or should I just let it be a USB drive and use it for file history? Either way how do I remove or detach my Toshiba drive from storage? Please help I've tried everything I know. Thanks, Brad.

    Hello and Thanks MeipoXu, Well it's to late! I got frustrated after searching windows and microsoft websites and forums, so, I chatted with a damg geek squad "agent" and he talked me into doing what I knew I could do four hours before I got them
    and had him do a remote assistance. Well to make a long story short we faut for a while and he led me to believe there was no other way except to reformat the drive and loose all of my files! I got ahold of them thinking they would have a solutiion to the
    problem not reformat and loose everything! I'm very upset with the geek idiots and I've left terrible feedback as I do every time I talk with those idiots. All may not be lost though, I also have a WD MyCloud 3TB network drive and I'm hoping and praying that
    most if not all of my files are on it. I sure wish I'd have waited till I got an answer here before I contacted the geeks. I don't know anything about powershell at all, but, lately I've been trying to learn some of the commands and what you can do with it,
    and it seems like it would be very useful and I hope I can learn it. It seems very complicated right now and I don't understand it all, I even tried some commands I found on the forum to try to dislodge my drive from the storage space and pool and they did
    not work. I typed the command word for word I don't know what I did wrong. I sure want to learn it though it would save me a lot of headaches. Thank you very much for the reply though I just wish I'f have waited to hear from someone on the forum before I contacted
    the geeks. Thanks again! Turbo930.

  • External hard drive becomes "read only" and won't let Time Machine back up

    I have an external hard drive for back up, and it has been working fine until recently.
    There is a version of 10.6.6 loaded on it also.
    The back up will fail every few days. When I do some checking, the back up drive is "read only" but I am not able to switch it to read/write. I cannot repair it with Disk Utility as the repair buttons are grayed out.
    I can run DiskWarrior and it will fix it, but it runs super slow and takes all the memory to do it. I can barely use my e mail while it's running.
    Anyone know what's going on?

    System log says:
    3/27/11 8:01:19 AM com.apple.backupd-auto[1559] Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - time machine destination not resolvable.
    It's read only because:
    A: I cannot do repairs under Disk Utility, the buttons are grayed out.
    B: I right click and "Get Info" and if I click on the lock icon, nothing happens.
    C: The disk is not listed in the Time Machine backups.
    I will try to take better notes the next time it happens and give you the exact messages.
    There is another drive daisy chained to this external drive which holds my music. The music drive does not have a Mac OS installed on it and is only for storage. It works properly.

  • External Firewire drive becomes unresponsive

    I recently purchased a new Mac Mini.  I have a 1TB HD in a Macally case connected via firewire.  I do have the option "put drives to sleep when possible" selected.  After some amount of idle time, the external drive is no longer accessible.  It does show up in the Finder, but I can't access it or eject it.  Only thing I can do is power it off and back on.  Which results in OS X saying a drive was removed improperly.  I can uncheck the "sleep drives when possible" option and everything is fine.  However, I know this worked correctly in the past.  My wife had one of the first Intel Mini's and the external drive always woke up.  Anyone else experience this?  I'm running 10.6.6 on the Mini.  I have the Mini set to never sleep.

    If anyone is interested, I tried swapping the WD drive in the case for a same sized Seagate drive, but it didn't make any difference.  I then connected the external drive to the Mini using USB instead of Firewire.  This seems to have solved the problem.  It's been several days now and the drive wakes up each time it's accessed. 

  • Can I install Tiger on external drive with OS9 on internal?

    I bought and plan to install OS X 10.4.3, but will continue to use OS 9.2.2 about 95% of the time because I can't afford to update all 3rd-party software at this time, so I want to start up in 9.2.2 usually. Can I install 10.4.3 on a partition of my external HD with firewire and leave 9.2.2 on my internal HD, then pick a start-up OS by a key combination or such? How should I do it, and what problems might I encounter? To partition my external HD should I use OS 9.2.2, the original 9.0 CD, or the new 10.4.3 DVD?
    I have a Power Mac G4 (AGB Graphics) with an internal 10 GB HD and an almost-empty external 120 GB firewire HD (Iomega). Thanks.

    Welcome to Apple Discussions!
    Yes you can do that, though I'm not too sure that Iomega's firmware is up to date to do it. Be sure that any data you have on the Iomega is backed up elsewhere before attempting it. Some Firewire drives without up to date firmware from the manufacturer may become invisible and unusable after a software update on Mac OS X 10.3 or later. Also an AGP PowerMac needs its firmware updated while booted from Mac OS 9 before installing Mac OS X 10.2 or later:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
    That said, if after testing you find it does work, you can switch booting between both drives using the Option key booting as described in the Startup Manager article:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106178
    Leave OS 9.2.2 on your internal, and 10.4 on your external. That will be a lot easier than partitioning. Some information I wrote for others which can help you on your migration to Mac OS X is provided in this link below:
    http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html
    If you really want to partition, be aware that only third party software is available to partition without erasing the entire drive, and you'll want to make sure additional partitions that will boot Mac OS 9 have Mac OS 9 drivers installed as my link above states. Whatever you do, be sure you have at least two copies of your data at all times:
    http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
    Disclaimer: Reference to links I make to my Macmaps.com website are a for your information only type reference. I do not get any profit from this page, and it is open to the public.

Maybe you are looking for