FireWire 400 External Hard Drive problem with Macbook

I have been using the firewire 400 connection of my macbook (2 ghz Intel Core Duo, OS X 10.4.11) with a LaCie 320 GB 7200 RPM with no trouble for over a year now. Suddenly, the drive is really slow to mount. Sometimes only one of the 2 partitions mount (which never happened before). And it takes considerably longer to access files, let alone load one up.
I tried the external drive with the same fw 400 connection on a G4 running 10.3.9 and a PC running XP and both mounted fine (with, as expected, only the windows compatible partition loading in the latter case). Data was quickly accessed and loaded on both machines.
So, thinking it was a problem with my macbook's fw port, I tried another fw external drive, which mounted very quickly and was quick to access and load data.
What is going on?

Hi George,
Have you had a look in the system.log file in the Console application? It sometimes a good start to check to see if its reporting any errors when you plug the drive in. Note the exact time that you plug in the drive. This will make it easier to find the part of the log you should be looking at.
Another thing you can do is run a disk utility such as Disk Warrior on the drive and optimize the directory. Directory problems can also cause drives to mount slowly. On the other hand it doesn't really make sense that the drive will mount quicker on other machines. Hope this helps.

Similar Messages

External hard drive compatible with macbook pro 10.5.8

external hard drive compatible with macbook pro 10.5.8, i need a hard drive that will work with 10.5.8 to back everything up before upgrading to 10.6. a hard drive that is compatable with 10.5.8 has been impossible to find, a hard drive that works with both opperating systems is what i am looking for, any information that can help is appreciated

You can buy just about any USB2.0 hard drive and use it with your MacBook Pro. Many older external drives come pre-partitioned and formatted FAT32 for use on Windows. Your Mac can use that file system as well, but it has limitations on file sizes. You can always re-partition your external drive and re-format it as HFS+ (MacOS Extended Journaled) then your old Mac OS version and your new one should both be able to access it just fine. One thing to keep in mind is that many older OSes don't really handle drives larger than 2TB well, so you would probably want to try to keep your external drive to something smaller than 2TB...

Best (Reliable for the Price) Firewire 400 External Hard Drive for iMac G5?

Howdy,
I have an iMac G5 2.0 GHz (non iSight) running OS 10.4.4. I am looking for an external hard drive with around 250 GB in capacity with a Firewire 400 connection.
I am looking at the Lacie FA Porsche 250 GB, Lacie d2 250 GB and the Maxtor One Touch II 300 GB.
I have read reviews and it is a mixed bag; FA Porsche gets hot and all three don't mount at times.
Nevertheless, anyone have any first hand experience that can give recommendations (positive or negative)?
Anyone with an iMac G5 have success with a different external hard drive than mentioned here?
Anyone have any intel on the new Maxtor OneTouch III?
Cheers,
Chuck

I have heard mixed things about all those drives, but I suppose that will be the case with anything. Someone always gets a good one while others gets a bad one - LOL!
I have used drives from OWC for my Mac and PC for a while now and never had a mounting issue with them under either platform. I never have had to update firmware or drivers either when I updated the OS. Nice drives and not bad prices either.
You can save a little money by buying their enclosures and adding your own ATA drive to it. There are some great deals out there on bare drives from lots of places, and these kits are very easy to assemble.

External Hard Drive problems with iTunes and iPod

I recently purchased a 320 gig external hard drive for my computer, hoping in part to load my iTunes library onto it. Obviously I'd have much more room on disc than my actual iPod, so I was going to manually manage my music (an option I didn't have selected on my iPod before).
I followed all the online help topics which have all been helpful so far. I organized my music files, changed my directory, consolidated my library, and now everything is on the external hard drive and is working just fine.
The problem comes when I connect my iPod. iTunes barely even seems to recognize my iPod all of a sudden, saying that it has been corrupted and needs to be restored. When I try restoring it, nothing happens, and I can't seem to do a thing about it through iTunes. Of course, there's actually nothing wrong with the iPod at all, since it still works fine and plays music exactly the same as before. It simply won't update or do anything at all when hooked up to my computer.
I know this has something to do with the new hard drive, since everything was just fine a few hours ago, I just can't figure out why I can't get my iPod to sync all of a sudden. Like I said, my iPod is working fine otherwise, iTunes is playing music through the external hard drive without any issues, and I haven't touched any files other than music files (I haven't even deleted them off my original hard drive yet, so all the original fines remain unchanged, even though I switched the directory).
To the best of my knowledge, all my software is up to date, and the iPod is a 30 gig photo. Any ideas?
pc Windows XP

Yeah, I gave the new drive the letter Z, so there shouldn't have been any conflicts there. I also tried your other suggestion, and while the computer recognized my external hard drive, it didn't seem to make any difference once I plugged in the iPod again.
I've been wrestling with this for days now. I've tried changing the drive letters for both the external hard drive and my iPod several times (but no matter what, the iPod always seems to take F when it's unplugged and then plugged back in). I've tried restoring the iPod on multiple occasions. I've tried reinstalling all my USB drivers. I've consolidated my music library on several occasions (I now have two identical libraries on my external hard drive), yet annoyingly, iTunes seems to keep switching file paths away from the external hard drive and back to their original locations on the C drive. I'm trying to free up internal hard drive space, not house 30 gigs of media on it. That's what this new external hard drive is for.
Somehow, I was able to get them both to be recognized at the same time, but it never lasts long. I'll start iTunes with the external hard drive disconnected, plug in my iPod, wait for the iPod screen to come up in iTunes, then plug my external hard drive back in. Then, I can miraculously start to transfer music back onto my iPod, but iTunes doesn't seem to want this to happen for some reason, and will usually cut off the transfer. So far I've managed to put three whole songs on my iPod.
So now I'm trying to do two things. One, the same as before, get my computer and iTunes to recognize both my iPod and my external hard dive at the same time. And two, get iTunes to stop changing the file paths back to the C drive. These files are already on my external hard drive and don't need to change.
(As a side note, I should comment on how helpful people are on this discussion board. The Apple representitives I called on several occasions seemed totally unwilling to help, acting more like pushy salesmen than anything, while people here seem to be much more friendly and knowledgeable. Just thought it needed to be said.)
pc Windows XP

External Hard Drive Problem with OSX

I bought an external hard drive so I could put all my old files on it and clean up my computer. I've put files on the external hard drive but now I try to drag and drop files onto the "external harddrive icon" and I get the following message:
The item "Folder" could not be moved because "External Harddrive" cannot be modified.
How do I correct this so I can Drag and drop Files onto the "External hardrive" icon??

Hello! Do a "get info" on the hard drive and see if the ownership and permissions are set so you can copy to it. Check the "ignore ownership" and set to read/write. Tom

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ISSUES WITH MACBOOK PRO 13"

My new macbook pro 13" is unable to read my new Toshiba Canvio 3.0 plus 1 TB hard drive. I have the new OS Lion that came with the computer. The computer is up to date. I am not sure what is causing this issue. Is this problem caused by a software issues or is my new Macbook deffective. Please some one help me or give me some advice. I am thinking about turning my MacBook in for a new one.
Clem

Did you format the external drive for use with OS X?
Open Disk Utility. Does Disk utility see the connected drive?
Format it to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

External Hard Drive Problem with latest Upgrade

Since my lastest software update on my mac mini (the most recent, only a few days ago), my external hardrive has been reading (loudly, this is the problem) a chunk of data, about a MB or so, to the processor every 60-90 seconds. none of it is being written. there's no CPU usage (i just watched the activity monitor for a while). It happens even more frequently when I'm using itunes (stored on the Ex HD).
My hard drive is a LaCie with firewire connection.
Any ideas, anyone?
Thanks.

JOrdan,
You write that everything functions as normal with the external drive disconnected.
Then (if I am surmising correctly) when you reconnect the external drive., the problem returns.
From this, I infer that your computer, without the external drive, is perfectly able to perform all of its functions.
But there is something on the external drive that requires some of these functions to be performed on it - a file of some sort that is set to be regularly checked and updated in some way.
So it sounds to me as if you might want to take a look at everything you have on the external drive, and try to pin down that one thing that is asking the computer to do work on it.

External hard drive problems with Time Machine

My external Samsung G3 back Up hard drive disappears off the desktop when my imac sleeps and I have to unplug and reconnect the USB for time machine to see it again. The initial back up is fine and the drive re-formatted and partitioned OK. Any thoughts?
www.mtbmitch.co.nz

Hi Nick,
Avoid the WD files completely, not needed & often a problem.
You need to erase the Drive, & to use it on both Format it MS-DOS/FAT32, on the Mac or PC, but will have a 4 GB filesize limit, as well as other limitations.
One option not mentioned yet is MacDrive for your PCs... allows them to Read/Write & Format HFS+, so no need to reformat it...
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

Possible hard drive problem with MacBook Pro? PLEASE HELP!!!

MacBook Pro loads to login screen with my personal account (which shows a grey silhouette) my student account(shows custom pic) and guest account(same grey silhouette) there is no feedback when I click on anything. I have restarted it multiple times & don't get anywhere with it. I just updated stuff on the macbook prior to this incident. I need help because I have all of my business, school, and personal things on this machine. What could be the cause of this? Why is it happening? I need it fixed ASAP as I have work that needs to be completed
P.S. I am unsure of the exact operating system but it was the Mountain Lion that it came with. I was planning on upgrading to Mavericks tonight until this problem arose

"Any drive can fail at any time."
Don't update anything until you have a large-ish external drive and Time Machine or other backup working.
You dodged a bullet this time. Next time, maybe you will not be so lucky.

Iomega eGo portable External Hard Drive problem with imovie09

I have an eGo portable HD Mac edition Firewire800/Firewire400/USB 2.0 Iomega HD and a Macbook OS X ver 10.5.8 with imovie09.
I have moved all my imovie09 files to the iomega hd. When i open imovie09 to work on the files that are on the iomega hd, you can see in the Event Library that the iomega hd shows up but when I click on it there are no files in it. Since there was no step by step manual on how to transfer files from the Mac to the iomega hd, i'm wondering what I did wrong.
Thanks for any help you can give me!!

Some things to check...
1) Is the iomega formatted as Mac OX Extended (journaled)? If it is FAT32, it will not work with iMovie. I'm guessing that it is properly formatted since you can see it in iMovie.
2) Have you used the Events to make Projects? If so, did you move the Events and/or Projects to the external drive from within iMovie? If you move them in the Finder, it will break the links to the projects. The solution is to move them back where they were, and then to move them to the external drive using iMovie. To move an Event in iMovie, you hold the Command Key down while dragging the file and dropping it on that icon for the external drive that you saw in the Event Library. Projects can be moved similarly.
3) If you have not used any of the events in Projects, it is possible to move them using the Finder. iMovie will expect to find your Event Folders in a Folder at the top level of the external drive. The Folder must be named "iMovie Events". (Or imovie Projects, for projects.) If they are not in these folders, iMovie will not see them.

External Hard Drive & Problems With Pro Tools LE

Alright... my friend has the same computer as me, Powerbook G4, with the same specs and everything (OSX 10.3.9), and has a Digi 002 Rack with Pro Tools LE 6.2.2 He can record and playback everything perfectly through his Lacie 150 GB external HD. However, when i installed the software on my laptop and tried to load the same files he was working on, i get an error message that tells me that the audio files are "unsuitable for playback" and that the Lacie HD is "not an audio playback volume", which it really is!! The only way to get the songs to play, is to copy all the files onto my internal HD... then it all works fine. (besides the fact that is uses up all my memory!!!) Is there any way to fix this problem?? Some update or driver that i'm missing?? I'm assuming it has something to do with my laptop software/hardware??? ALSO, i run Final Cut Pro, and it won't let me set my external HD as the target disk, because it is, again, unsuitable for playback!!! I have to import tapes to the internal, then send them to the external after the fact! really annoying....
ANY help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!

How big is the drive? It's possible that Spotlight indexing is running and slowing things down. If you are unplugging the drive when you run into problems, the indexing will never complete and will start again the next time you plug in the drive. You can exclude the external drive from being indexed in the Spotlight system preferences:
You might also want to use Disk Utility to check the disk for errors, especially if you've been unplugging it while activity has been going on.

Is a WD My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive bootable with my Powerbook G4 12" PPC 10.5.8?

Sirs or madams,
Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
Thank you very much.

Mr. BGreg,
Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components.
My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer. Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
So, anyway, thanks very much for your information.

I have a Firewire 800 external hard drive and need to connect to my new MacBook Air. Where can I get the correct cable?

I have a Firewire 800 external hard drive and need to connect to my new MacBook Air. Where can I get the correct cable?

Apple has announced a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter, but not yet given a release date.

Something has gone wrong with my external hard drive after my macbook battery went off.. now i cannot paste or create new folder. Does anyone know how to fix this?

something has gone wrong with my external hard drive after my macbook battery went off.. now i cannot paste or create new folder. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Bus powered external drive?
Backups?
Does Disk Utility can see and repair the drive or not?
Also try here in future: MacBook Pro

WD My Book Studio FireWire 800 External Hard Drive & Mountain Lion

I just recently purchase a 2 TB WD My Book Studio FireWire 800 External Hard Drive (model #WDBC3G0020HAL-NESN) to perform backups of my 1TB iMac which currently is running OS X Lion 10.7.5. The packaging says the external hard drive is compatible with Lion, but I was curious to find out if I upgrade to Mountain Lion in the near future will that cause issues with the external drive or is it still compatible with Mountain Lion?

That is actually the thread that I was looking at earlier that caused my concern.
Is there any way to 100% verify with apple that there are no firewire problems with external hard drives and Mountain Lion before I hook up my new drive and possibly upgrade in the near future.
Also, I have heard good things about both SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner.
I basically want to be able to boot from my external hard drive partition if I have a major hard drive issue.
Will both of those programs do that for me and will I really go wrong with either one of them?
Thanks again for you repsonses, they have been a big help!

FireWire 400 External Hard Drive problem with Macbook

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for