External firewire devices stopped mounting on my Xserve

I have two external Firewire 800 Lacie hard drives that I connect to my Xserve alternately to act as backup drives (and use an Applescript to copy over important files daily).
But this week, after having worked fine for a couple of years, the drives are refusing to mount on the Xserve desktop.
They both mount fine if connected to my G5 tower and work fine, but just won't show on the Xserve.
Nothing on the Xserve has changed, it hasn't crashed recently or had any upgrades done, they've just stopped working. I've tried different cables but nothing.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance of any replies.
John

Those LaCie drives can be funky. The external AC power supply bricks tend to fail prematurely. The symptom can be hard to troubleshoot since the drive will attempt to and can pull the juice it needs from the firewire bus. If the drive in question is under warranty LaCie will replace the brick at no charge. Otherwise they sell them for around $20 US. I keep a spare around because I have a lot of LaCie drives.

Similar Messages

External FireWire Drive Stops Mounting

Friends,
I did quite a bit of searching on this, and didn't find any answers. I have a 160 GB external FireWire that suddenly won't mount on my eMac, running the latest OS X. I store all my music and all my photos and videos on the drive. I can see it in Disk Utility still, but can't Repair or Verify (those buttons are grayed out). I can also see it in the System Profiler. The only thing I can't do, is mount it, or read it from my eMac.
Any suggestions?
Many thanks in advance,
Greg

Hello Andy,
Thank you for your help.
1. The drive just stopped working one day. I didn't do any upgrades, it just stopped working.
2. I don't remember the brand of the drive, or the enclosure. I could probaby find it in my records, but I bought them separate. From what I understand, the enclosure does have an Oxford chipset.
3. I have never updated the drivers/firmware. I saw there is an Oxford 922 update on VersionTracker.com, but I am not sure if I should try it. Should I?
One more development. I bought DiskWarrior in hopes of using it on the drive, but it doesn't see the FireWire hard drive at all. According to their text support, the partition is not showing, which is why the DiskWarrior can't see it. Does that many a difference in what I am dealing with here?
Thanks again,
Greg

External FireWire Drive Stopped Mounting

My OWC Mercury Elite 400GB external hard drive no longer mounts. Disk utility sees the drive by the factory default name (not the name i have given the drive). Attempts to repair in disk utility First aid yields a message of "Checking Non-journaled HFS Plus volume." "invalid key length volume check failed." "Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed."
Does anyone have any tips I can use to try to mount and recover the data. I am aware of Prosoft Data Rescue but would prefer to use that as a last resort.
Thanks in advance for advice

Do you have DiskWarrior? Or TechToolPro? Either one will check the Directory, which seems to have become corrupted.

Cannot preview on external firewire device

I just recently upgraded from Premiere Pro CS3 to CS4. Since doing so I cannot seem to get my video to display on my external firewire device. I have a Sony GV-D900 deck that I use for preview while I'm editing.
Has something changed in CS4 that would cause this not to work? If I bring up a project in CS3 the video appears instantly on the firewire deck but with CS4 I get nothing. I've checked the preferences and the two applications appear to be setup with the same options.
Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Everything seems to be setup correctly. I forgot to mention that I can capture and manipulate the deck from the Capture window so it is communicating with the deck. I just cannot see the video on the deck when previewing the timeline. If I open a project in CS3 it shows up right away.
My main purpose for previewing on the deck is I have a TV attached to the A/V outputs of the deck and it allows me to view my project on the TV while I'm working on it. Very handy. I've used it in this manor since Premiere 6.0.
The fact that I can control and capture the GV-D900 from within Premiere CS4 seems to indicate everything is set ok. I just can't figure out why I cannot see the preview.

External firewire MyBook not mounting

Post-Mavericks upgrade, this external firewire MyBook is not recognised. Previously it ran OK under Snow Leopard (and still works fine if I boot up into SL). I am not nor have I ever run any of the WD software that caused data loss. So am perplexed.
Is this a WD issue or a Mavericks issue?

Here's the strange thing. Boot up Mavericks....not mountable. Not visible in Disk Utility.
Boot up Snow Leopard. It mounts and (obviously) visible in Disk Utility.
I've tried a slightly different MyBook and that works fine and so it looks like some WD problem perhaps?

External Firewire Drive not Mounting

Hi, I've been searching these forums but can't find an aswer to my question. I just got a new 27" iMac, and purchased a Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adapter. I have 3 external Firewire drives, two of which are DC powered (the third, I understand, might be a lost cause, as it's bus powered, and I gather the bus power from TB won't power Firewire drives). At any rate, I'm not seeing either of the DC powered drives showing up, which is a big concern as I have about 5TB of stuff on them!
Any reason these wouldn't show up, either in the Finder or Disk Utility? Much thanks for any help!

Hi - did you ever resolve the dropouts? I have a new iMac purchased in Q1 2014 and connect my G-Grive to it via the Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter. My iMac runs 24x7 and this connection drops out on a regular basis - I'd say maybe once every week or so. I have a slightly newer USB3 G-Drive which is connected by the USB socket next to the TB socket on my iMac.
I cannot tell if it is a software issue or a physical (cable movement issue), the plug has never been out and I can't deliberately disconnect it at will by wobbling the cable/plug. So, evidence and experimentation suggests the physical connection is not the issue. This problem has only come about after switching from a physical FW800 connection (my old iMac) to working via a TB adaptor (my new iMac).

External Firewire drive not Mounting/Appearing!

I have a White macbook core duo and when I plug in the External Firewire Drive it doesn't appear anymore! The Drive draws power from the computer still yet the computer cannot detect the drive. I addition the when i ran Disk Utility the program did not load completely till i removed the firewire drive. I have a SmartDisk "FireLite" FireWire Drive (40gb.) Help PLEASE!!!!
Message was edited by: slverice

I had this problem too with my G5 (PPC) and brand new Mac Book.
Both of my computers were given the same local subnet address. To change this go to System Preferences > Sharing > Computer Name, you'll see an "Edit" button, click on it and change the name or add a "2" to the end of the name before ".local"
I guess what is happening is both computers are using the same local subnet and your macbook isn't being recognized.
Mine works fine now, hope this has helped you!
Jay

After updating to 10.4.6, external firewire drives wont mount consistantly

I have a swappable external hard drive casing that has two slots. Since updating to 10.4.6, the drives will randomly dissapear from the desktop, then will not remount. It takes a lot of swapping firewire cables around, usually ending up with the same configuration and multiple reboots to get them back. Even then, I can't depend on them to stay mounted. I have had this problem infrequently in the past, though not recently. This last update seems to have resurrected the ailment. Any guesses?
Thanks mac people.
-justin!
Dual 2.5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I'd find out if the Firewire bridge needs a firmware update. I'd also try changing Firewire cables. See this FAQ:
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.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.

Problems reading my external firewire devices

It seems my 400 firewire port on my PB is fried or shorted. i cant read any device through it. my 800 port is fine, reads my 800 external drive fine, but when i try to route a 400 device either a drive or a camera through the 800 device and through the 800 port, the 800 drive ejects/removes itself from the system automatically...
any ideas on what to do or wh6y this happens?
rerally need a solution, hopefull not replacing the logic board would be good
thanks
eric

It may be you need to reset the 'FireWire' port.
1) Turn off your PB remove battery, go and make a nice cup of tea. Replace battery after about 20 mins or so and start it up, does it work now? No then try:
2) Reset PRAM and here are the instructions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Does it work? No then try:
3) Reset PMU here are the instructions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449#faq10
I have now run out of suggestions sadly so it may be time to contact Apple.
Hope you get it working!
Phil

External Firewire Drives not mounting but shown in Disk utlilty

Well the title says it all!
I can see my ibook in target mode on my new macbook in disk utlity but not in finder!
I want to copy over my documents folders (I have tried migration assistant but it can't see the mounted drive either!).
It works fine the other way (i.e viewing the macbook in target mode on the ibook)
Details:
Macbook 2.2GHz (new model) 10.5.1
Help!

Is the Mount or Unmount button greyed out in DU when you highlight the Firewire icon? If you can click the Mount one, do so. If you can click the Unmount one, check the Prefs in the Finder menu to make sure that you are showing attached drives.

Quad stopped mounting firewire devices.

After recognizing my new FW800 hard drive, MOTU 828 and iSight camera, yesterday when I booted up my new Quad G5 stopped mounting these devices and a System Profile showed no firewire ports even present. A simple "disconnect all peripherals and zap the PRAM" fixed it.
Today the same thing happened again so I did the rest again, but nothing happened. I then reset the NVRAM as well -- still nothing.
My relationship with Apple has been love-hate for the last 12 years; right now, after dropping major $$ on a new Quad G5 (against my better judgment because we allllll know that the first round of new computers that Apple puts out is always chock-full of lemons) I am in "hate" mode. 6 Apple computers in 12 years, and all 6 (I'm not kidding) were broken right out of the box.
Can anyone recommend something that I might be missing?

Hey ds,
Thanks for the tips. I actually tried those, along with all of the troubleshooting tips that the phone tech support folks gave me. The only thing that has worked is unplugging the power cord from the CPU, then plugging it back in, and zapping the pRAM on startup -- then the firewire devices will mount.
Because tech support couldn't figure out why that's happening, they've declared it a hardware problem and said that I got a lemon... and I'm off to the Apple Store first thing in the morning to drop off my Quad.
6 lemons out of 6 purchased over 12 years.... ouch.

G5 xserve: How do I boot from a FireWire device ?

Hi.
I have a PowerPC G5 server WITHOUT a keyboard/display and have just installed Leopard 10.5.1.
After setting up Leopard, I made a backup copy of the server HD onto a Lacie FireWire hard-drive device connected to the FireWire 400 port on the front-panel using Carbon Copy Cloner v3.
The backup appeared to work fine.
However, when I tried to boot from the FireWire device by holding down the system identified button at the same time as the on/standby button and then selecting Light 4 (to quote page 65 of the G5 User Guide… “bypass the current startup disk and start up from any other available startup disk”) nothing happened. Instead, the fans just got louder and louder and louder and louder, with the occasional flash of FireWire device and HD lights. I switched it off after 10 minutes and re-booted as normal from the HD device.
Any suggestions ?
Thanks in advance,
john

Tony,
Having thought about this and read Apple's article "how to use FireWire target disk mode" (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583), let me play back what I think have to do...
Assumptions...
a) A working Leopard system.
b) I want to go back to yesterday's backup.
c) I can't use Time Machine as it's an "Advanced" install.
d) My backup is done via Carbon Copy Clone onto my external FireWire device.
Is this what I would do... ?
1) Get my PowerBook G4 laptop, which is also running Leopard !
2) Switch off the Xserve G5.
3) Connect the FireWire backup to THE LAPTOP !
4) Connect the laptop to the Xserve using a FireWire cable.
5) Switch on the G5 and hold down the system identifier button.
6) When the lights rotate select Light 5 "Begin target disk mode".
7) On the laptop an icon would appear which is the Xserve HD.
8) Using the laptop, I then copy from the FireWire backup to the Xserve HD icon.
(I guess, as the fans may be running flat out at this point !)
9) After the backup then eject the Xserve HD icon.
10) Disconnect FireWire cable.
11) Re-boot Xserve
12) Should be running yesterday's backup.
13) Relax !
Blimey !
john

External FW 400 G-Drive stopped mounting

Suddenly, one of my external G-Drives stopped mounting. Shows up in Disk utility as unmounted. Shows up in system profiler, but won't show up in Tech Tools Pro4. Has it died?
Boe

If the drive is connected via USB and is "bus-powered" (does not have its own power brick), the USB port on the computer may not be providing enough power. That can cause the drive to be inaccessible even though its electronics show up in DU.
If you don't wish to replace the drive with one that brings its own power brick to the party, you can usually overcome this by getting an inexpensive powered hub, again, one with its own power supply.
On the surface, the above recommendation seems ludicrous in that a bus-powered device that once worked stopped working later. However, some electronic devices can demand more power as they age.

Please help... External Hard Drive not mounting

Hello, Please help me if you can:
I have all of my data backed up onto a Seagate External Hard Drive, purchased just a few months ago. I just got a new laptop (MacBook Air) and need to get my data off of my hard drive, but it isn't showing up on my Desktop or Finder. It shows up in Disk Utility, but when I ask it to "repair" it says:
"Invalid B-tree node size
The volume could not be verified completely.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
The problem started after I added some data to it - I accidentally unplugged the Drive without Ejecting first. The next time I plugged it in it allowed me to view my files but not add anything else to the Drive, and now when I plug it in it doesn't even appear. I am running Lion.
I would be happy to back up the files as it says, but as it doesn't show up anywhere I can't find the files to access. Can anyone help me find a way to get the files off of the disk, or fix the disk so that it is readable?

Hi, Brian, and welcome to the Discussions!
You might perhaps launch System Profiler (from Applications/Utilities) and see if the device is listed there under the FireWire heading in Hardware Overview.
Can you hear the LaCie spin up when powered on?
You might download the free trial version of Data Rescue II and launch it to see if it recognizes the drive. This software often does when DW or Disk Utility won't. If it does, run a scan with it to see if the data on the volume is viewable.
You can test the FireWire port with another Firewire device, or by hooking up to another Mac via a FW cable and trying to boot into FW Target Disk Mode. Visibly check the port at the Mac end first to insure that there are no bent pins at the connector (so you won't damage another device).
You can try resetting a "dead" FireWire port by shutting down, unplugging the external FireWire devices, and disconnecting the Mac's power cord for thirty minutes or so. Before doing this, run Disk Utility's Repair Permissions process on the startup volume first, to see if that corrects it.
Gary
1GHz DP G4 Quicksilver 2002, 400MHz B&W rev.2 G3, Mac SE30 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 5G iPod, Epson 2200 & R300 & LW Select 360 Printers, Epson 3200 Scanner

FireWire Bus: Warning:Unable to list FireWire devices. Maximum Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

I'm unable to connect my external Firewire devices to my MacBook Pro 7.1 (mid 2010) Mavericks.

FireWire Device not Working
FireWire/USB - Quick Assist

External firewire devices stopped mounting on my Xserve

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for