Firewire 800 not powering OWC 100GB HD

My brother and I recently purchased an OWC 100GB hard drive with firewire 800 and usb 2.0. My hard drive is working perfectly, being bus powered through firewire 800. However his computer isn't powering up the hard drive. We both have the same laptop, powerbook 15' 1.5 ghz w/1gb ram. I plugged his external hd into my laptop and it powered up just fine. It seems the problem lies with his laptop's firewire 800 port. I repaired permission, checked system profile and it shows the firewire 800 port, and reinstalled the os x update 10.4.6. We also plugged in the supplied ac adapter for the external hd and it did work with his laptop. Has anyone had trouble with the firewire 800 port now powering devices? Everyone's help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Try resetting your power management unit (PMU), directions are at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449 That can sometimes fix that type of issue.

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Firewire 800 not running as expected. VERY slow

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Hi,
Are you using an audio Firewire 400 interface (daisy-chained through you external FW800 HDD) ?
I've same problem (mac mini June 2010) so I think it is a compatibility problem between the mac (perhaps only with mini) and some recent Firewire chipsets found in external HDD. I read somewhere that Apple does not support anymore PLX (that acquired Oxford) chipsets for external HDD connected to Mac Pro.
I tried then using the Sonnet Yin Yang adapter (to avoid daisy-chaining), however it is the same :
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=13360117#13360117
The problem does not happen when daisy-chaining through FW400 (from the audio interface to the HDD).
Using the external disk only (FW800), I get up to 60 Mbyte/s sequential write and up to 70 Mbyte/s sequential read (that is using xbench - in memory read, you shouldn't try between two disks as the slower will be the limiting factor). My external HDD is a WD Caviar blue so it also helps.

External firewire drive not powering off????

I have a new G5 Dual core 2.5, running os10.4.3, which is working well apart from the fact that it is not powering off the external lacie drive when the G5 shuts down, any ideas??

Hi
it's a documented small issue on Lacie website FAQ section:
My FireWire d2 does not power off when I shut down the computer.
"Some computers do not cut all power to the FireWire bus when shutdown. If the FireWire bus is providing any power to the d2 it will not shutdown.
To determine if this is the issue with your computer, shut down and disconnect the power cable from the computer (or remove the laptop battery). If the drive then powers off, your computer does not cut all power to the FireWire bus.
You can press the blue button to turn the d2 off manually."
cheers
I

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it would help if you mention the external interface model.
the mbp's firewire is different from the powerbook.
for my Firebox, the only way to go bus, is to start off with it plugged in to an outlet - plug it into the mbp, than you can unplug from the outlet. (needs a jumpstart)
for me this is not an issue, as i am always running off power.

FireWire 800 - Not Mac Compatible?

Hi there,
Recently, my sister's 13" MacBook Pro had some hard drive issues and long story short, she bought a new drive to fit in the MBP. Luckily, I managed to snag a complete image of the drive to copy onto the new, larger drive.
To do this, I was just going to use a FireWire 800 cable and target disk mode to copy the image back to the drive through Disk Utility but I don't own such a cable. Cheapest and simplest one I could find was on eBay here;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIREWIRE-800-to-800-9-Pin-to-9-Pin-Cable-Lead-/2006249 78688?pt=UK_Computing_FireWire_Cables_Adapters&hash=item2eb62e3b00
First thing that struck me is that it mentions "Not Mac Compatible". It's only the sake of a few pounds but I don't want to end up getting this cable, waiting on delivery and finding it not working. I have an older 800 to 400 cable that I never seemed to get working either, so I'd rather not chance it.
I consider myself rather computer savvy but cannot fathom why the cable wouldn't be "Mac compatible"; a cable is a cable, right?
(I understand some cables have circuitry in, ala Thunderbolt, but wasn't aware FW does/did).
Am I being dumb here or is the guy just playing me for a fool?
- Jamie

According to the manufacturer website - "These cables are designed to be 100% compatible with Apple Firewire."
If you really want to know the compatibility of the cables, call the manufacturer - http://homeavcables.com/32033-15.html

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I just got my new MacBook Pro a few weeks ago, and realized that the firewire 400 I have wouldn't work in it... so I got a new one, and was so excited to begin editing some movies - and now my camera won't properly connect. I have a Panasonic, if that matters at all.
I also tried going into iMovie with it to see if it would recognize it, and it doesn't. Every time I try to connect the built in iSight camera comes up instead. Does anyone have any ideas of what to do? I even tried changing up the type that it imports with, but it always says "Unable to initialize video deck. You can still use capture now." but again, it only uses the built in camera.
Does anyone have any suggestions of things to do to fix it...?
Thanks a lot! :]

Ellie Slavnik wrote:
I ordered the new ... cord...
Alternatively, you can use your old FW400 cable if you use a 800 -> 400 adapter
like one of these to connect your new Mac to your existing cables:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw_adapter.html, or
http://tinyurl.com/cgll7o
EZ Jim
G5 DP 1.8GHz w/Mac OS X (10.5.7) PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

Firewire 800 not working

Hello.
I have an old(ish) Sony camera, which uses MiniDV. I just want to upload my videos to my new (2012) Macbook. I purchased the appropriate firewire cable, which seems to have plugged in perfectly to the firewire port on my computer, and into my camera, but my Macbook does not recognize it's existance.
Help!

Is resetting the FireWire bus still a recommended procedure? If so, how?
I've looked at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338 AKA http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151 and don't see any instructions on how to reset the bus. In the section entitled "Check System Profiler for hardware Issues" it says "Also try resetting the FireWire bus" but the link just points back to the same page.
Message was edited by: Prentiss Riddle

Ext HD speed and Bus-Powered Firewire 800

After having gone through various External HD over the years, Firewire 800 (WD Studio with power adapter) is by far proving to be best in terms of connecting speed when handling my 350gb+ library.
However, lately, I was exploring the option of having a portable External HD drive with "bus-powered" port so that I don't have to rely on the power plug whenever I want to listen to iTunes library.
So, here are some questions...
1) Bus-powered Firewire 800 1TB - no experience with this before. all my firewire external drives had required power adapter, but during this search I just found out that such exists.
Can MBP Firewire 800 port provide enough power to spin 1TB external drive w/out a hiccup??
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
2) Obviously for a smaller size drive with bus-powered option, I must go with 2.5" drive, which meant, I have either 1TB @ 5400rpm OR 750gb @ 7200rpm for MAX Storage option. I do want 1TB... BUT would 5400rpm / 7200rpm matter when it comes to iTunes library??
I ened up getting my current Firewire 800 external drive after experiencing lagging iTunes speed via USB 2.0 and Firewire 400. But later I found out that slow connecting (constant beach ball when selecting music) is typically resulted from having many playlists/id tags/etc.
So, I want to be sure before I get a new drive, I choose the right speed drive.
Btw, here is my current set up: MBP 13" (mid-2009), iTunes (10.1.2), 500gb 7200rpm internal drive, 8gb memory
Anyone experience with above set-up that I am thinking about??

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I wonder if there might be a problem with the firewire bridge in the WD? The most reliable Firewire chipset that I know of is the Oxford 924+, but not everybody uses these. You might be able to find out what is actually used on the WD web site.
Since the USB connection works, the WD drive itself is probably fine.
Does your FireWire 800 work properly with other devices? If not, or if you don't know, you could try a SMC reset, which may help if the problem is with the FireWire port on the MBP:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US
Otherwise, you could try the drive in a different enclosure, like the Mercury on the Go from OWC, which has the Oxford 934 chipset. I have WD drives in 3 of these enclosures, and have never had a problem with any of them.
Good luck!

How do I connect my 2nd generation Ipod to a Firewire 800 port? It no longer holds a charge and it doesn't power up with the newer generation USB cable. The only way I can sync my Itunes library onto this Ipod is when it is powered...

How do I connect my 2nd generation Ipod to a Firewire 800 port on a new laptop? It no longer holds a charge and it doesn't power up with the newer generation USB cable. The only way I can sync my Itunes library onto this Ipod is when it is powered and connected simultaneously. Pls help.

Try here:
iOS: Not responding or does not turn on
If not successful then time for an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.

External Firewire 800 500GB WD drive does not mount

Hi-
Here is the problem.
i) Bought a lacie 500GB d2 drive using firewire 800 to connect to the iMAC but did not work. The port was seeing the drive but disconnecting it every 10 secs thinking that I was unmounting it during operations. I returned back the drive to the apple store since i saw that it had way too many problems.
ii) Replaced the Lacie d2 drive with a WD 500 GB external firewire MyBook Pro but the mac does NOT see or mount the drive at all.
iii) Bought a 23" HD cinema display and extended my dekstop over. I did not connect the additional USB/Firewire plugs to the iMAC as I am plugging in the drive to the iMAC and not the cinema display.
I have tried the following:
-Power off the mac and disconnect the power both on the WD and the MAC
-Check/Uncheck the ports through the preferences menu for firewire
-Repaired permission with the disk utility on the internal hard drive
Any ideas as to why the ports do not recognize/mount at all this drive?

I have read elsewhere that the FW 800 port on the iMac 24 can be a bit tricky. You may want to make sure you have a good connection.
I formatted mine out of the box which is just good practice and because I wanted to make a partition bootable/clone.
Powering on/off wont make a difference.
I don't know what you mean by uncheck/check ports for firewire. There are no such prefs in OSX.
Repairing permissions has nothing to do with hardware.
You only plug the FW 800 plug into the FW 800 port on the iMac. You use the other ports on the drive to plug other drives in on a daisy chain.
Go into drive utility and see if it shows up there for formatting. If not, then you have a bad cable. Try the regular FW 400 port and hook up that way. The 400 and 800 share the same bridge. If that doesn't work, and another drive does, then the FW bus on the drive is dead.

Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter not enough power

Warning to those who own G-Technology G-Raid Mini (Gen3) and a Macbook Pro Retina.
I just received my thunderbolt to firewire 800 adapter from apple yesterday. I hooked it up to the rMBP and plugged in my G-Raid Mini, the G-Raid Mini powers up, but then proceeds to make a beeping noise. The G-Raid Mini will not mount over bus-power thunderbolt to firewire 800 adapter. Although when I plug the G-Raid Mini into wall with power supply and then plug in the thunderbolt to firewire 800 adapter, the drive mounts.
It seems there is not enough thunderbolt bus power to mount a G-Raid Mini (Gen3)...
Has anyone heard otherwise? Can they confirm this doesn't work for them either.
Thanks.

Same for me.
Luckily I tested it is advance of playing a gig at the weekend using Serato.
Complete JOKE!
I can't believe that Apple hasn't considered the fact that the majority of creative professionals need high capacity fast mobile storage.
I suppose we now need to wait for 2Tb Thunderboth enabled SSD drives which by my reckoning will cost more than the MacBook Pro!!!!

Bus Powered External Firewire (800) Drives and iPod?

I bought a WD Passport drive, and was pretty upset when i found out that the usb ports on my powerbook cannot power the drive. crap. can the firewire 800 port on my powerbook power these drives:
http://www.kanotechnologies.com/products/SF800-40.cfm
http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVE-mini.cfm#Buy
I really want a bus powered drive. does anyone know if these will work with my 15" powerbook? one better than the other? oh, and i'm getting it to keep my itunes library on...so will my powerbook have any problem with reading the fw800 drive and the ipod in the fw400 port at the same time?

Well the second linked drive says it is bus powered and does not require a external power brick. Usually most of external 2.5 inch notebook drives (in a 2.5 enclosure) can be bus powered. The 3.5 inch ones are generally not bus powered.

Firewire 800 port on new MBP not mounting Lacie rugged 500GB drive

Hi all
I've just purchased the new MBP 17" and my Lacie Rugged 500GB drive will not mount.
It will mount over USB though.
I've tried three different FW800 cables and no result.
There are some posts around 10.5.7 update issues, but I've tried everything listed and no dice.
Any help would be appreciated.

I had a Western Digital My Passport Studio model like that. It has nothing to do with cables or your laptop. It has to do with manufacturers who fail to adhere to the proper power standards for the interface. Basically, if the drive demands more power then the port will give, it is never going to work.
I returned my WD to Apple for a refund, and instead tried a SeaGate FreeAgent Go firewire 800 drive. It has worked flawlessly over Firewire on my MacBook Pro, and it even came with both a Fire 800 cable, a firewire 800-to-400 cable, a USB cable, and a special USB power cable so you could draw additional power off the USB ports if a firewire 800 port wasn't putting out sufficient power. That's why I bought it - figured one way or another it had to be able to work on bus power (even if it had taken both the firewire and USB bus in combo to do it).
Another option I've had good luck with in the past is OWC Mercury on the Go drives (eshop.macsales.com). These have always worked fine on bus power for me, but they also have an optional external power supply too, just in case.

Focusrite Saffire does not show up when connected to Imac by Firewire 800

When I connect my focusrite saffire to my i7 imac 27" via the firewire 800 port, the device does not show up on the computer, however it does light up indicating it is being powered off the firewire. When I click on "about this mac<more info<firewire", all I see is this " Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec", I have checked and my "AppleFWAudio" file is up to date. The Focusrite uses Firewire 400 but I use an adaptor which converts it to 800, I have tried different adapters and cables from a number of companies which were suggested by Focusrite themselves and none of them worked.
Any ideas on what the problem could be?

I too was having problems connecting my Focusrite Saffire to my new iMac 27" i7. It would light up and click several times, but it would never be in a ready state w/ both LINE indicators being green. The Saffire Control software would say the the Saffire DSP didn't load and to unplug it and re-plug and wait for the lights to turn green, but that never happened. I called Sweetwater (where I bought the unit) and they didn't seem to know of any prevailing issues, BUT the tech did suggest to reboot the iMac in 32 bit mode (hold down the '3' and '2' keys during startup). I did that and replugged the Saffire but it exhibited the same problem. I unplugged it and left it for like 3 minutes then reattached the firewire cable and it mounted. I opened up the Sound preferences and was able to select it and get sound out of it. I then opened DP and ran a quick test and it worked as well. The next test was to reboot into 64 bit mode. I did that while the Saffire was still connected and it actually stayed mounted and connected upon reboot. I have my System Sound output running through it right now and its still working. I haven't tried DP yet, but will do that later. I'm not going to reboot again until I hear back from Focusrite. I sent in a help request last night.
Hope this helps someone.

Firewire 800 not powering OWC 100GB HD

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