External dvd/cd firewire drive disappears

I have a OWC Mercury Pro Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Pioneer DVR-218L External DVD/CD Writer. I have it connected by the firewire 800 port. problem is that it will disappear from the desktop intermittently, i only turn it on when i need to use it and sometimes it never mounts the disc. the only way to bring it back is shut down the drive and computer, unplug the firewire cable from the drive and the power cable from the computer. start up the computer and when it is up i can plug the firewire cable back into the computer and start the drive and presto its back and working. also i can not burn music cds with itunes. i will put in a blank cd and it will mount, itunes will go through the whole burn process and then give the error of "the attempt to burn failed. the device is not accessible, probably because it was removed" it is now gone from the desktop at this point and will not open the tray until i shut it down and power it up, and wont mount on the desk top until i do the unplug procedure. any suggestions?!? Thanks Chris

Hi Chris
Could just be a bad FireWire cable, but it's hard to tell exactly without more testing.
1. Check the drives power supply connections and try another FireWire cable.
2. Still having trouble, test the drive connected to another iMac with FireWire 800.
+(ask your Local Apple Store if you can test it with one of there iMacs)+
3. If it has USB, test it connected up to the iMac USB.
Dennis

Similar Messages

  • IDVD 4.1 burning to an external DVD-R/RW drive

    I have a G4 dual 500 with iDVD 4.1 (5 & 6 require 733 MHz or higher). I just bought an external DVD-R/RW drive and I want to use it with iDVD. I downloaded Patchburn to assist iDVD in seeing the drive. Every time I click Burn, iDVD crashes.
    All of my media is on an external drive (Lacie d2 Firewire). Has anyone had any success with this or do I have to upgrade my processor?

    I'm not sure patchburn works with OS 10.4.x - when iDVD 4 was released, the OS was at 10.2.8
    I suspect you need to update to the iLife '06 applications to get your external drive to work. However, iDVD says it requires at least a 733Mhz G4 or later processor.
    Have you tried to see if patchburn will allow you to write a disk image file out of iDVD? If it does that, you can use Apple's DIsk Utility to burn the image to writable media.

  • Freeagent External Firewire Drive disappears

    I have a "Mac-compatible" 500GB external Firewire Freeagent drive. The drive disappears from the finder when the drive sleeps. When I remove and reseat the drive it returns in the finder. I've used the seagate utility to test the drive - it checks out. Freeagent seems to say that the Mac OS governs the drive sleeping. I've checked for all drives to not sleep in the system settings. What else is necessary to wake a drive in the OS other that yanking and resetting the cable every time. Anyone else having this issue?

    Yup, count me in as well. Probably somewhere in System Preferences. Then go to Energy Saver, then look down where the checkboxes are, one says "put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible." My problem is that this happens and then I don't get an EyeTV recording that I wanted because I set EyeTV to record to the external Firewire Drive. So, guess the solution is to stay with the main drive and copy stuff. Sigh!

  • External DVD burner, Firewire vs. USB 2?

    Do external DVD burners work more efficiently with a Firewire interface or USB 2? I suspect there were problems with some third party photo imaging software (Canon USA) and the use of my Firewire DVD burner Kangaroo (NEC). Perhaps it is time to retire the old one and buy new.
    Please advise.
    PowerMac G4   Mac OS X (10.3)  

    Hi nobrandphoto,
    first of all: WELCOME TO THE DISCUSSIONS!
    Not only are firewire drives faster (even FW400 is faster than USB2 although in theory USB2 should be much faster), they are also bootable while USB is not a bootable interface wwith MacOS X: Don't start up from an external USB device.
    There are a few reports that the new Intel-based Macs can also boot from USB-drives though.

  • Problems with External Seagate GoFlex Firewire Drive Disconnecting on Sleep Mode

    I am Running a 2.8Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 24" iMac running Mac OS X 10.7.3. I run time machine to backup to an external Seagate 3TB, FreeAgent GoFlex Desk, FireWire Drive. When the Mac goes into sleep mode, the Seagate drive un-mounts. When the Mac wakes up, I get an error that the drive was not properly disconnected and the drive is no longer mounted. The only way I can get the drive to remount, is to remove power from the drive for several seconds and then reconnect it.
    I have seen several people talking about this issue in various forums with many various makes and models of FireWire drives, but I see no answers to this issue from Apple. Does anyone have a resolution to this issue, or are we just stuck with this problem? It is terribly frustrating!!!! The lack of response or interest from Apple is even more frustrating!!!

    Wish I had an answer, or even a clue about this one. I have a Western Digital MyBook Studio that I've had for a fair number of years now and finally had to resort to just plugging it it as a USB device. Since it's only used for Time Machine backups and storing things I rarely need, it's not a huge burden, but I'd love to hear from anyone with a suggestion as to how to fix this. I recently upgraded from a 17" late 2006 iMac to a Mid 2011 21.5" iMac and would really like to go back to FireWire if it's not going to be a big-ole-pain in the hind end.

  • PC External DVD/CD-RW Drive To Air

    I have always owned PC's, and buy at least 1 new desktop or laptop per year, having to upgrade by choice or need for 3 people. In the last couple of years I have become interested in Macs, because of the good things I have heard, but was put off by the price difference.
    So having decided to make my next laptop a Mac, and a possibility the Air, I have questions regarding external devices in general, and external USB DVD drive in particular. I bought an external USB DVD/CD-RW drive for a new netbook a week ago, and I may buy a Mac in the next month or so. Can I use the USB DVD drive I bought on a Mac Air, or any Mac for that matter?
    And, can I use my other PC externals (printer, mice, drives, cameras, etc) with any Mac? Going even Further, are any internals like memory or HDD's, WI Fi, compatible?
    Thanks.

    Hi,
    Most of questions are YES!
    HDD are the same but you need to get the right size to fit on laptop hight wise.
    All mac's now have WiFi (bar some macpro can be ordered without, i think).
    Memory is the same but must be to mac spec for the model, crucial.com I always use.
    USB DVD drive will work but it may not not be able to boot macbook air if you need to reinstall OS from 10.5/10.6 DVD's etc. They all should but sometimes they just don't, i found. Fine for DVD burning. note to get most out of any drive Toast is a must buy!
    James.

  • IMac G5 won't boot from an external Seagate Freeagent FireWire drive

    Hi guys,
    So, the internal drive on my sister's iMac G5 finally died a few days ago. On my advice, she stopped in to Best Buy and bought a Seagate Freeagent Xtreme 1tb external drive (with FireWire). I had her connect the Seagate to her MacBook (in Windows Boot Camp mode) and use the Seagate Manager to disable the drive's power-saving mode. I then talked her through using her OS X Leopard DVD to (re)partition the Seagate (using the Apple Partition Map scheme) and format it as Mac OS Extended Journaled, and Leopard installed just fine on the external drive (from the G5, via USB).
    However, now when she tried to boot from the external over FireWire (by holding down "Option" on power-on), it plays dead (no lights), and doesn't show as a viable boot device. When plugged into the laptop (also over firewire) it shows up just fine on the desktop. We would use USB to boot, but her G5 doesn't support booting over USB.
    What am I missing here? We've been working on this for three days, and have gotten so freakin' close to having her iMac up and running again, but the cursed Seagate drive simply refuses to "kick in" at bootup and work on the G5!
    Any ideas would be awesome,
    Huxley

    Honestly, that's exactly what I would do if I had hands-on access to the iMac, but such a swap is a bit beyond my sister's skill-set.
    We never did figure out what the issue was, so I had my sister return the drive and order one from MacSales.com (aka Other World Computing) - if anyone will have a Mac-friendly drive, it's those folks!
    Huxley

  • Problem importing video to MY Book external. Video freezes-Drive disappears

    New Western Digital My Book 320. Formatted and partitioned Mac OS Extended. When importing, video on import window will freeze, then catch up. After a few times of doing this during import... the external drive will disappear and I'll get an error message saying drive disconnected improperly. Geek at Best Buy thought I had a bad drive, but now the replacement doing it. No problem importing to my internal drive.
    I suppose I could import to internal, then move to external, but that kinda defeats the purpose.
    Any help appreciated. Thanks.
    David

    It sounds like you are doing everything right. I can only say it is working for me.
    I currently capture to a Western Digital 1TB MyBook Studio Edition over Firewire 800. It works great for both DV and AVCHD, although AVCHD is not in real time.
    Before that, I captured DV to a Western Digital MyBook 500GB over firewire 400.
    Some random things to try:
    1) Are you at version 7.1.1 (and run Disk Utility/Repair Permissions after the upgrade)?
    2) Are you running Time Machine? Is it kicking off during your capture?
    3) Are you running an AntiVirus Program?
    4) What camera do you have? Some Canons are known for not playing nice with other Firewire Devices.

  • Non Apple external DVD R/W drive (USB)

    Is there any way I can get a Toshiba (TS-L632) DVD R/W external usb drive to work under OS 10.4? I've tried PatchBurn, but the drive isn't seen so that's no good. The drive does work (I've tested it on a PC).

    Hi,
    I think Patchburn was your best bet.
    Depending what you want it for, VLC may work to Play Movies, Toast Titanium or Dragon Burn should work for Burning.

  • Time Machine Failure and Firewire Drive Disappears

    I have been using Time Machine without any problems with a 1TB external drive connected via USB.  I recently changed to a firewire cable to speed things up, and it works great.  UNTIL... I sporatically get errors where the time machine icon is just spinning and spinning.  When I click on the mounted external backup drive, I get no response.  I cannot eject or get any response from it, or find it in Finder.  If I maunally kill the power on the external, I get an error for disconnecting without ejecting.  When I start it back up, all is fine.  I notice the error when waking up the mac, sometimes after other users have been on with their own accounts.
    My guess is that sleep or switching other users somehow interferes with the firewire connected external drive from communicating with the mac?
    Time machine buddy shows:
    Starting standard backup
    Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
    Backup failed with error: 19
    And here is a snippit from console:
    Jul 23 16:48:23 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[475]: Starting standard backup
    Jul 23 16:48:23 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[475]: Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
    Jul 23 16:48:33 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[475]: Backup failed with error: 19
    Jul 23 17:01:59 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[493]: Starting standard backup
    Jul 23 17:01:59 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[493]: Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
    Jul 23 17:02:09 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[493]: Backup failed with error: 19
    Jul 23 17:17:15 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[500]: Starting standard backup
    Jul 23 17:17:15 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[500]: Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
    Jul 23 17:17:25 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[500]: Backup failed with error: 19
    Jul 23 18:17:16 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[607]: Starting standard backup
    Jul 23 18:17:16 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[607]: Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
    Jul 23 18:17:26 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[607]: Backup failed with error: 19
    Jul 23 18:59:51 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[678]: Starting standard backup
    Jul 23 18:59:51 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[678]: Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
    Jul 23 19:00:02 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[678]: Backup failed with error: 19
    Jul 23 19:00:12 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[678]: Starting standard backup
    Jul 23 19:00:12 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[678]: Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
    Jul 23 19:00:22 the-glicks-imac com.apple.backupd[678]: Backup failed with error: 19
    Thanks for the help!

    Some "Eco" or "green" drives are known for this behavior. The following steps may help:
    Select  ▹ System Preferences ▹ Energy Saver ▹ Power Adapter and uncheck the box labeled Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible, if it's checked.
    If the drive is connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port on the computer.
    If a firmware update is available for the drive, apply it.
    Contact the drive manufacturer to see whether there's a firmware setting you can change.
    If you installed vendor software for the drive, uninstall it.
    If none of the above steps resolves the issue, try another drive.

  • Lacie d2 DVD+RW firewire drive isn't showing up on Mac

    I just bought the d2 DVD+RW w/ LightScribe firewire, and connected its firewire to my Mac G5. I put in a data DVD that I had burned on my Superdrive, and it doesn't appear on my desktop. Apple System Profiler sees it just as "FireWire Device" with no details - I think my computer isn't recognizing the drive properly. Do I need some sort of driver?
    Mike Levin

    Hi Michael Levin-
    It should work as a plug and play device.
    What happens if you try a commercially burned DVD like a movie? Will it read a CD?
    Luck-
    -DP

  • Mount external (USB or Firewire) drive BEFORE login?

    It appears that 10.6 is no longer referencing the fstab file (what I would normally expect to modify.)
    I have two external drives that I want mounted for a file backup (rsync cron job) but I do not want the system to have to be logged in to do this.
    Other than using cron to "mount" can I set this to happen at boot?

    Open the Terminal in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and run:
    defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount
    AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin 1
    (49685)

  • Firewire drives disappear for no reason

    I have 2 firewire back up drives that since Leopard keep disconnecting.
    No rhyme or reason that I can tell.
    I will come home and there will be a message saying it was disconnected incorrectly.
    Funny, as one will still be connected.
    They both do it.
    any help would be appreciated. thanks Laura

    thanks for your reply.
    they are daisy chained and they are both on their own brick.
    today I made the decision to go back to tiger. I WANT to like leopard but for a month I have had nothing but troubles-big and small. I partitioned my drive and installed tiger on one and leopard on the other so when there are a few more updates I will try again but for now I just need some stability.
    I will see if it was the os or the drives in some way over the next few days.
    thanks again for your ideas.
    Laura

  • External DVD burner - USB or Firewire?

    when I got my first OS X system - about six years ago - I bought a firewire DVD burner. it worked great for all this time and finally died a few months ago.
    time to get a new one! But I am having a hard time finding an external firewire Drive - all I see is USB.
    can someone recommend a good FW 1394 external DVD / CD burner drive somewhere
    or...
    can someone assure me that USB is now so terrific that I don't need firewire and will be very happy with a new state of the art USB 2.0 drive?
    thanks!
    willfriedwal;d

    Be careful with Other World. They sell DVD burners in two different types of enclosures. The info at the top of the burner page says Oxford 911 chipsets, but the Mercury Value DVD burner they sell for $71.99 uses a different set - the Prolific 3507 set. Google that name and see how many angry people you find. I bought one after being told by a salesman that the only difference between the Mercury Value and the Mercury Pro was cosmetic. Wrong. The Value drive wouldn't mount a disk when plugged into the firewire port on my 20" G5 iMac. It did mount when plugged into the USB port, but my understanding is that you can't boot from a CD in a USB drive (not easily anyway), and you can in Firewire. My internal drive is dead in the water, and estimates I got to replace it were $250 or so, so I'm going external. Gonna buy the Mercury Value Pro with Oxford 911 now that I got my money back (no easy task either, but I finally got it.)
    Just thought I'd pass that along.
    brotone

  • External firewire drive won't mount

    I've got an external Western Digital firewire drive that's been somewhat flaky recently, and today my Mac won't mount it.
    When I open Disk Utilities, I can see the drive (along with the other drives daisy chained together). When I click on "mount," I get a message saying the drive can't be mounted and that I should try running disk repair. I've run both repair disk and verify disk a few, and each time it says that everything is just fine. However, the drive still won't mount.
    Any thoughts about how to get the drive working again?
    For what it's worth, this drive is basically my manual backup drive that I use each day just as a safety backup. I don't think I'm going to lose anything extremely important if this drive is dead or if I have to try erasing the drive, but I'd like to see if I can rescue it first before taking drastic action like that.
    Thanks!

    Dale,
    That sounded like a brilliant thing to try. I took the drive out of the daisy chain and plugged it into the unused firewire port in the computer. I ran the repairs and crossed my fingers, but came up with the same thing
    At least I've eliminated one more option. Wish I could mark your reply helpful, but I'm not seeing that option available . . .maybe I've used my "helpfuls" for one day.
    Although this is PROBABLY duplicate material on this drive, I'm going to hold out for another day or so in case anybody else comes up with another brilliant idea before I take the plunge and reformat the drive.
    Thanks!

Maybe you are looking for