Firewire drive problems

My school is trying to use a western digital My Book 250gb hard drive connected via firewire to several macbooks at different times. The Macbooks are running 10.4.11. The drive rarely shows up on any of them and when it does it disappears after waking from sleep.
Any ideas? I tried it on my MacBook and it showed up immediately. It also caused issues with an iMac running Leopard.

Wake from sleep is a power problem with ports not getting enough power when the machine wakes from sleep. Any vendor that doesn't support the standard Apple has set for wake from sleep, will have difficulty with this. Usually this problem has appeared on USB items, but a few cases it has been known to happen with Firewire. You may find though one of the solutions on my FAQ* below may help:
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Similar Messages

  • External Firewire Drive Problems

    I have a firewire drive that all of a sudden stopped appearing on my desktop when I booted up each day ... BUT, after about an hour or so if I shut down, turned off the the FW drive, turned the drive back on and re-booted the FW drive appears. Hmmmm? When I would run disk repair on the drive in question the report came back "Drive Ok - No Repairs Necessary". THEN - when I started copying from the FW drive ./ moving files on it after a few days it started to hang up the computer. Next, re-running Disk Repair turned up "Invalid Node." I succesfully rebuilt the FW disk with Disk Warrior last night rebooted and ran disk repair on the FW drive and all was well. Shut everything down and called it a night. Today my computer will not see the FW drive, it doesn't show up in the Finder, Disk Uttility or even in System Profiler where under "firewire" it lists "unknow device."
    Ok, any ideas anyone. Thanks much.

    I have six 300gig Seagate hard drives chained together that all worked fine with Tiger on my MacBook Pro. All drives have been fully reformatted to Mac format and I do not use any One-Touch software.
    As soon as I upgraded to Leopard, I found that I could only mount 2 of these drives at a time. If I attempted to mount a third drive (in ANY order of startup or wiring configuration) either that drive doesn't mount, the System locks up... or both, usually. The only way out is to hold the Power button to kill the computer
    I have tried everything. I've repaired every drive with Disk Utility AND with Disk Warrior. I've tried every wiring order, but the results are the same. I restarted with a clone of my former (pre-Leopard) Tiger drive, and all the Seagate drives worked fine, but as soon as I restarted with Leopard, the same problem occurred. I've started up in "Safe" mode - same problem. The computer works fine when not connected to Firewire; and it seems to work fine with only one or two WD drives connected; but the minute I connect too many drives (any drive, any order of wiring, different Firewire cables, etc) everything freezes again.
    After all the usual troubleshooting with Apple, the only thing they had left to suggest was an Archive and Install of Leopard which I've done, but the problem still persists.
    An Apple product specialist is investigating this problem in depth; but since all my drives are Seagate, I'm wondering if anyone has gotten any feedback about specific Seagate problems with Leopard.
    THE PROBLEM ALSO OCCURS WHEN RUNNING DISK UTILITY FROM THE LEOPARD INSTALL DISK - ONLY 3 OF THE SIX DRIVES WILL MOUNT AT ANY ONE TIME, The order of connection makes no difference. This seems to be a Leopard problem, but I'm wondering if it's also specific to just Seagate drives.
    Anyone got any ideas?

  • Firewire drive problems since 10.5.6

    Ever since the 10.5.6 update my iMac locks up. Often the Firewire drive will not connect. I have tried reinstalling the complete 10.5.6 Combo Update. I tried a PRAM reset. All to no avail. The problem with restarts and lockups go away if the drive is not plugged in. The problem comes back if the drive is plugged in even if it is off. Help, my Mac is acting like a M$ machine!

    i’m having the same problems with my firewire devices. I’m using time machine with a external disc using firewire and my data is on a firewire disk. Sometimes (not always!!) these disks do not mount. When i plug in with usb2 it works fine! What the f@#&* is wrong!!

  • Linux 2.6.9-42 EL Firewire driver problem in building a dual node RAC-10g

    Hi,
    I have tried everything I can to resolve this Linux Firewire driver/module (sbp2+ohci1394+sd_mod)issue to no avail; will someone please help?
    I have followed all procedures in Jeff Hunter's paper to get Linux on my x86_64 Compaq PC to work and I get stalled where Firewire disk drive does not get recognized by the installed Linux system (USB port does see the drive). I have tried both Cenots 4.2 (complains it does not see the native hard drive during installation and aborts the installation process), and Centos 4.4 (does not have sbp2 and ohci1394 anywhere to be found -- even after I find where they are and copy them to the appropriate directory the system fails to incorporate them).
    I need to get past this hurdle. Please let me know what URLs I should use to get a working Linux version along with the appropriate patches… The following are the URL's to the white papers in which I have been following the procedures:
    http://www.rampant-books.com/art_hunter_rac_linux_kernel_firewire_modules.htm
    and
    http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/hunter_rac10gr2.html
    I am now trying RHL 2.6.9.-42.EL (RHEL AS 4.0 Update 4 x86_64 GA) and don't get it to load the appropriate modules to recognize the Firewire Drive either. I get sbp2 and ohci1394 "FATAL: Module sbp2/ohci1394 not found" error when I do: "modprobe sbp2/ohci1394" and “modprobe –r sd_mod” complains about device being in use, "modprobe sd_mode" seems to work.
    Once again, thanks for any pointers/directions you may be able to provide me.
    Vil

    THe downloaded firewire module must match the kernel version
    linux1:/lib/modules> uname -a
    Linux linux1 2.6.9-42.EL #1 Wed Jul 12 23:16:43 EDT 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
    This is latest version you can download from oss.oracle.com
    oracle-firewire-modules-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL-1286-1.i686.rpm
    But it doesn't match ! I can't find kernel 2.6.9-42.0.3.EL in Redhat website. I have same problem.
    Firewire drivers are installed at:
    linux1:/lib/modules> ll /lib/modules/2.6.9-42.0.3.EL/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/
    total 2200
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1268199 Oct 23 14:08 ieee1394.ko
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 263853 Oct 23 14:08 ohci1394.ko
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 187653 Oct 23 14:08 pcilynx.ko
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 288357 Oct 23 14:08 raw1394.ko
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 217082 Oct 23 14:08 sbp2.ko
    But my OS can't find the ieee1394 drivers because it looks at this path only:
    linux1:/root> ls /lib/modules/2.6.9-42.EL/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/
    No such file or directory
    If I can't find 2.6.9-42.0.3.EL release I will downgrade to RHEL update 2.
    Shawn Qiu

  • Acomdata External Firewire Drive Problem?

    Just purchased a new Acomdata E5 320 GB Firewire external hard drive.
    Drive will simply will not mount onto desktop. Checked connections, turned on/off, unplugged cables, etc. Nothing has worked so far.
    I ran System Profiler and it states "Unknown Device" on Firewire.
    I'm relatively new to Mac OS X, having converted from years of Windows, so I'm looking for suggestions / solutions to get this drive to mount properly.
    Thanks....RF
    Imac Intel Core 2 Duo   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   2GB Ram

    Thanks.
    Unfortunately, Disk Utility does not see / recognize the drive.
    I am awaiting a reply from Acomdata Technical Support, but it does not sound very hopeful.
    Bought this from a Compusa store closing, so not certain that I can return it to the store. I will try though.
    I will see if I can get it to work with Windows (and then perhaps I can sell it on eBay!!??)
    Imac Intel Core 2 Duo   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   2GB Ram
    Imac Intel Core 2 Duo   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   2GB Ram

  • Recording to external hard drives - Firewire 800 problems

    Ok so i did post a similar thread on this in the "mac mini" part of the website so im very sorry for double posting but I thought since this problems pertains mostly to recording and specifically recording on garageband, that I would try posting here as well. Heres my deal:
    I am a musician working with garageband and I have always been recording to my internal drive until recently. I was unaware until I read some posts here from the good people like you guys, that that is not a good idea to record to your internal drive. So, I got an external firewire 800 drive (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DGZ05A) and this cable (http://www.amazon.com/2M-Firewire-800-9PIN-Cable/dp/B000XQILWK/ref=pdbxgy_e_imgb). When I received it, I first used disk utility and reformatted it for Mac OS Extended Journaled. Then I proceeded to move a couple sample libraries and my entire "Garageband" folder (with my saved songs in it) to the external. I instantly knew something was wrong. The files were taking forever to get written over. It took about 15 mins for a 5GB folder to be moved over. I was already discouraged. Anyway, I plugged in the USB cable that came with the external (the drive has hook ups for both USB 2 and firewire 400/800) and tried moving the same files and it was MUCH faster. The same 5GB file was moved over in a matter of minutes.
    I then tried recording to the drive (using firewire again) and it would hardly even PLAY the song without stopping every couple seconds (too many effects error, and yes ALL the tracks were locked). Tried to record as well and i'd get even less time before garageband would stop the song with the same error. So I disconnected firewire and went USB. Thru USB the song didnt stop once, not on playback OR recording. Then I moved the songs back to my internal and played them (and recorded) with no problem either.
    I ran a couple tests on the drive using AJA system test and came back with these results:
    Basic test of read/write speed using firewire 800:
    write - 14/mb sec
    read - 21/mb sec
    then, using usb 2.0
    write - 18/mb sec
    read - 37/mb sec
    both these connections seemed to be running slower then they should ..but at least the USB connection would actually let me play a song and record to it without stopping
    I manually copied over a 2.04GB file and via firewire 800 connection it took 2 mins and 20 secs. Via the USB 2 connection it was 55 seconds! ..also, while i transfered the files i noticed that the USB transfer was nice and steady with tiny increments of the file being transferred. Firewire, however, was speedy then slow, speedy then slow. Very inconsistant transfer speed throughout the process. kind of choppy
    So what gives? I cant figure out if I'm doing something wrong, or if my external HD is bad? Or the cable is bad? Or maybe the firewire port on my mac mini is bad (i've never used it before for anything other than this external drive). Or i'm thinking maybe my processor isnt strong/fast enough to record to the external firewire drive? Im working with a mac mini 120GB internal HD and the 2ghz intel core 2 duo with only 2GB ram (i know thats not ideal for recording and im planning to upgrade at some point, but i have been recording to the internal just fine with the RAM i have now and never had a problem until trying to record to the firewire drive). I was going to go out today and get a new cable and see if that was the cause of it. Anyway sorry for the book-length post! But PLEASE SOMEBODY help me here! ..as i said, im not very computer literate and only just started producing music using computers so please use dummy terms lol ..thanks in advance

    Strictly my opinion, and more than happy to be educated with facts and convinced otherwise... but, there are no dangers.
    Bottom line is this... does your specific computer setup encounter ANY problems during recording or editing with your chosen software and current workflow? If not, then there is nothing wrong. Simple as that. Further, if you are having problems, then its more than likely dealt with by upgrading RAM amount and internal HDD speed and size. If you have a slightly older machine that is pre FW800, you will find by bench marking your HDD's that an upgraded internal system HDD will significantly outperform any external HDD read/write spec's. Even with FW800, comparing apples with apples, your system HDD will more than likely have better spec's. Please however, do not take my word for this, but try it out for yourself. Make sure you have facts about your own system rather than believing my claims or anyone else's claims. I used Intech's Quickbench http://www.speedtools.com/QuickBench.html to get some facts about my machine.
    There will be an argument made that you will be putting strain on your hard drive by recording to the system drive because it not only has to deal with this function but also with other functions related to your audio programs and OS. Apparently you may be working it on the 'hard' side and shorten its life span. Probably technically correct but practically speaking you will more than likely never even notice any such strain. If you are worried about a system HDD crash or death because you are working it too hard then the answer to this is a well planned back up regime. You should have one anyway, regardless of setup.

  • Firewire Drive/Camcorder Problems with FCP

    I seem to have a recurring problem connecting a DV camcorder and a firewire hard drive simultaneously. Most recently I was trying to set up FCP to output to a camcorder I had connected - and during the configuration, my hard drive (a western digital MyBook) un-mounted while FC was running. I couldn't get it back for awhile and thought I'd lost my client's project and all the rest I had on that drive. Luckily it returned. But I've had this problem in the past with Avid system on a PC, in that case a Seagate drive...it makes me think I'm doing something wrong here. I'm not the savviest when it comes to technical issues with hardware & such, I really just want to edit.
    Also, twice within the year my logic board on my powerbook g4 has been replaced due to a bad firewire, another issue that happened in mid-project. I don't know if the camera did it, or the drive. The tech at Apple said I hadn't done anything to cause it...but it happened twice.
    I guess what I'm asking is, is there a method or a sequence for connecting a deck or camera to my system when working with external firewire drives? Are these issues with the hard drive manufacturer, my system, or my own error? Are there any major DO's and DONT's in this area and what am I doing wrong?

    So, from what I understand...supposing nothing external is connected to my machine...power down, plug in my firewire drive and the camera, then power up, then run FCP? At what point do I turn the camera on, while the computer is still off?
    I'm sorry I'm not sure I understand the BUS concept? As of now I'm using the rear fw400 port for a hard drive and the front for the camera.
    Why did the drive crash when I was in easy setup on FCP?

  • Post-Install Problem with External Firewire drive

    I just installed Tiger 10.4.3 and the computer would not reboot. It would stop prior to the Starting Mac OS X progress bar and gray out letting me know that the computer needs to restart.
    I finally got it to boot successfully by unplugging or turning orr my external Maxtor Firewire drive. The external drive was plugged during the install process (mistake?)
    Via Software upgrade, I upgraded to 10.4.6 in the hopes that this would solve the issue. No luck and when turning the drive on, it immediately goes right to the gray screen and lets me know it will need to reboot.
    Is this a known problem with a known solution? Did I FUBAR my drive somehow? Any suggestions for righting to ship?
    Thanks!
    Rob P

    OK, last one before dinner. I found the panic log. here is what it says:
    Description: Panic (system crashes) log
    Size: 12.39 KB
    Last Modified: 5/25/06 6:39 PM
    Location: /Library/Logs/panic.log
    Recent Contents: ...
    panic(cpu 0): 0x400 - Inst access
    Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
    Backtrace:
    0x000857F4 0x00085C24 0x000287B4 0x0008F6A8 0x000927B8
    Proceeding back via exception chain:
    Exception state (sv=0x24051780)
    PC=0x00000020; MSR=0x40009030; DAR=0x11F23B98; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x16FE0DEC; R1=0x1227BB90; XCP=0x00000010 (0x400 - Inst access)
    Backtrace:
    0x16FE0C58 0x16FE08DC 0x16FE043C 0x0021FFAC 0x0021FDA8 0x002206F8 0x00220D54 0x002111D0
    0x00211194
    Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
    com.maxtor.iokit.IOFireWireMxBt(2.0d1)@0x16fdf000
    dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily(1.4.0)@0x233d3000
    Exception state (sv=0x22F58A00)
    PC=0x00000000; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0x00000000; DSISR=0x00000000; LR=0x00000000; R1=0x00000000; XCP=0x00000000 (Unknown)
    Kernel version:
    Darwin Kernel Version 6.8:
    Wed Sep 10 15:20:55 PDT 2003; root:xnu/xnu-344.49.obj~2/RELEASE_PPC
    Does this help anyone???
    Rob P

  • Firewire drive startup problems

    Gang,
    There's been a lot of talk regarding issues with Firewire drives and Leopard. I've tried reading through these posts in an effort to solve a problem I've been having. I haven't found any posts that match what I've been experiencing; however, I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere.
    All right, here's what's happening. I've been using a Neptune external firewire drive from OWC for the past couple of years. I've experienced flawless operation until last week when I upgraded to Leopard. Things were OK for a few days, but now this particular drive hangs upon startup -- I get the spinning beachball. When I turn this drive on, everything stops: the finder, and programs I try to open, etc. Sometimes it shows up on the desktop, sometimes it does not. Sometimes it shows up in Disk Utility, sometimes it does not. Once I turn the drive off, the Finder regains its composure and continues along its merry way.
    Any attempts to repair the drive using Disk Utility (when it shows up) have been unsuccessful, because the program freezes before too long. I've also tried the "unplug your machine for 15 minutes" trick, but this doesn't resolve the problems either. Doing this allows the drive to show up on the desktop, but it still hangs after a few moments.
    From what I can tell, the FW drive is attempting to do something, I just don't know what. I hear lots of crunching going on inside the enclosure. I don't think it's a Spotlight issue, because there is no dot inside the spotlight icon.
    Anyone have any suggestions? Am I just not being patient enough?

    Hey i had the same problem with one of my external drives as well but it was a drive that i just got so i was able to have Lacie help me track down the problem. I am not sure if my problem was the same one you are having if you have had the drive for 2 years and use it allot it may just be getting ready to die but here is what they said so give this a try.
    Make absolutely sure that the drive has a direct connection to the computer, and is the only external drive connected if you have more than one. Do not connect through a hub, or a port replicator, as those are things which could possibly be contributing to the problem. And, use ports on the rear of a desktop machine, as front ports are always hubbed. If you have any other external hard drives aside from this one, make absolutely sure they're disconnected, for troubleshooting.
    The method for correcting corruption, which also is our next hardware troubleshooting step, involves repartitioning and erasing the drive in the Disk Utility. This is a process which does erase the drive entirely, including the corruption.
    Disk Utility is accessed by opening the Macintosh HD, then the Applications folder, and then the Utilities folder. Within that, Disk Utility has an icon of a hard drive with a stethoscope on it.
    - Highlight the GB hardware line- in your case, the approximately 465GB disk line.
    - Click the Partition tab which becomes available up top.
    - There should be an Options button at the bottom. Click it, and on the following window, make sure that the dot is next to ‘Apple Partition.’ Click OK through the window.
    - Volume Scheme must be changed from 'Current' to '1 Partition'.
    - Format is ideal to leave default Mac OS Extended Journaling.
    - Uncheck the option for ‘Install Mac OS 9 Drivers.’
    - Change the volume name 'Untitled 1' to whatever you prefer, alpha numeric only, and it is very important to give it a name that is new to it.
    - Hit the Options button at the bottom of the window, and make sure the dot is in Apple Partition, then click OK through.
    - Hit the Partition button in the lower right. Then click the Partition button through the warning window that comes up.
    - The process is finished, when you see the name you gave it, indented under the GB hardware line you highlighted at the beginning.
    If complications occur during or shortly after the format, that's when we're leaning towards isolating a physical problem to the drive. I recommend changing USB cords, trying a different power supply, and if possible another computer, to see if it makes things better. If it completes, I advise copying some data to it manually, to make sure it works. If it does, you should be all set.
    If you find that your computer does not properly dismount the drive when it goes to sleep, you might want to consider changing this setting so that the computer does not go to sleep when the drive is attached. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the drive that can be changed to affect the way the computer dismounts the drive when it enters sleep mode.

  • Problem with external FireWire drive

    Two weeks ago I purchased a 1 tb Iomega ultra drive with FireWire 800/Firewire 400/USB 2/ESATA to use for back ups. I plugged it in the Firewire 800 port of my iMac. It worked fine until early this morning. I noticed there was a problem first because it was taking forever to log off or restart the computer with the drive connected and second that Time Machine had stopped doing backups a few hours previously and the drive was no longer recognized by OSX. I can plug it into a USB 2 port and it works fine. I have two Lacie drives daisy chained from the same Firewire 800 port - so the port is just fine. Thus it appears that the problem is with the Firewire 800 connection on the Iomega drive. Time Machine works with USB but I bought the drive for its flexibility. In future I might want use it as a bootable drive plus Firewire 800 is faster than USB 2. Any idea if this could be a software problem? I hate to return this drive since a) I would need to securely erase it first; b) I would have no time machine backup until I received a replacement (though I am doing less frequent conventional backups on 3 other drives (ie subsets of my files since none of the other drives are large enough for a single time machine backup plus I like redundancy); c) it is a pain to pack up and return.
    So my question is: should I bother or just live with USB 2 and hope that the FireWire problem does not mean the drive is a piece of junk and should not be trusted for anything?

    I called the store where I bought the drive and was told I have up to 30 days to return it. So I tried plugging it into the firewire 800 daisy chain (at the end) and now it's working again. So I will watch it closely over the next few days to see if this happens again within the 30 day return period. Also by registering online at the Iomega website, I now have 3 year warranty.
    Also from reading other threads about firewire issues, it appears that intermittent firewire problems may be more prevalent than I would expect (based on previous experience with a variety of firewire drives from many vendors).

  • Problems backing up then booting from a firewire drive on Intel Macs

    Hi
    I wanted to help a friend back up his Macbook and then install Bootcamp.
    I took over my trusty external firewire drive (Makeytec MHD-25 Combo enclosure + Samsung 80Gb HDD).
    So... I ran Disk Utility
    Highlighted the firewire drive, clicked Partitions, named it "Backup". Clicked Options -> GUID -> Partition
    I backed up his computer with SuperDuper onto Backup. SuperDuper automatically makes the drive bootable. At the end Backup was mounted on the desktop and all files are there.
    But Backup wouldn't boot the computer. Instead I got a grey screen for a long time, then the Apple logo with the spinning cog, then after a few more minutes a circle with a bar through it (like a no smoking sign minus the cigarette)
    Things I tried after this....
    Partitioned the drive again, double checking that I had selected GUID
    Erased the drive zeroing out all the data
    Backing up using CCC (with make drive bootable option checked) instead of SuperDuper
    Could not get this drive to boot his computer.
    Then took the drive back home. Tried doing it with my MacMini (same problem)
    Then plugged it into my Powerbook, Partitioned it as Apple Partition Map, ran SuperDuper, rebooted from it fine.
    My conclusion: The drive will boot a G4 just fine, but not an Intel based Mac.
    Does anyone have any suggestions?

    A workaround:
    The drive enclosure also has support for USB "1.1/2.0", including the ever important cable.
    I reconnected it to the Macbook, partitioned the drive back to GUID, then I used super duper to back the Macbook drive (again!). I used firewire (only because it was much quicker - 6Mb/s vs 2.8Mb/s)
    Once I did the backup, I ejected the external drive, disconnected it, then plugged it back in with USB, then selected it as the start up disk, then hit restart. Machine rebooted just fine although very slowly.
    Still doesn't answer the question of why booting via the firewire port works fine with a G4 mac but not Intel.
    Tim

  • I just added two external firewire drives and they keep going to sleep.  I did not have this problem when USB.  I have turned off "put disks to sleep" in power preference.

    I just added two external firewire drives and they keep going to sleep.  I did not have this problem when using USB external drives.  I have turned off "put disks to sleep" in power preference.

    It is not clear if these are the same drives, just connected
    differently, or different drives?
    One thing that may be happening is that the drives firmware
    itself is putting it to sleep when inactive.  Many drives on
    the market have ths feature and it is turned on by default
    and require a drive utility from the manufacturer to disable it.

  • Firewire drives, project problems

    I'm trying to open a fairly large project file, with media spread out over 9 firewire drives, and I keep having problems with the system choking up.
    Most importantly, at least one of the drives failes to be recognized by the system, and it appears that the clips on it are offline. It's happened on different drives, so I know it's not a drive specific issue, and when I search for the drive name it turns out the icon for it is buried inside of another firewire drives directory. Even once I've found the icon, I'm unable to access any of the contents, which I know are safe and sound on the drive.
    Is there a way to avoid this? I've trashed my project preferences, repaired permissions, and I can't think what else to do. This problem only started once the project got bloated with a lot of sequences.
    I'm using FCP 3, with OSX 10.2 on a G4 400mhz with maxed out RAM. All the firewire cases are Oxford911 chips.

    Hi Shane--
    Do you have any experience with SPINDOWNFIX 1.1 on an OSX version later than 10.2.3? I'm hesitating to install it just because it hasn't been tested any further than that OS. I'm on 10.3.9 on a MDD G4 and I'm pretty much maxed out on storage as well.
    The difference is that I normally edit from my internal drives (500 GB RAID and additonal 250 GB Storage) and try to use the FW drives as backup for the projects once I'm done. FCP doesn't have any problems reconnecting files unless you're changing the filenames quite a bit.
    I have ~900 GB on 4 Lacie Ext. FW drives, 3 are for A/V storage, and 1 is a company drive for project files, Images, DVDSP stuff, Word docs, etc. The first 3 drives I have daisy chained via the machines only FW800 port. The chain looks like this:
    G4-->FW800-->FW800-->FW400. The other 'company' FW drive has it's own dediacated FW400 port from the G4. The other FW400 port is dedicated for my capture deck only.
    My suggestion for the original poster is to rearrange ALL your hard drives (int AND ext.), so that you are working off of internal drives as much as possible (whatsize will be an invaluable tool for doing this). Then, if you truly DO have NINE drives daisy-chained, and you're done capturing (on to an INTERNAL drive, I assume), at least spread out the Daisy-chains over all of your FW ports. And as mentioned before, try to leave the drives you don't need OFF.
    Thanks!
    chris

  • 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.

  • Weird Problem with Firewire Drive on 17" MBP

    I have an external firewire drive that worked great on my 15" MBP and with any other computer I have never had any problems. The problem occurs when I plug the drive into my 17" MBP with the magsafe connected, it just wont mount, but as soon as I unplug the magsafe the drive mounts. Really weird. Anyone have a similar problem? I am going to the Apple Store and see if I can duplicate the problem.

    I'd backup your files if you can. If the drive is failing then the advise you've gotten is good advise. You can try software recovery if you are unable to use the drive:
    Basics of File Recovery
    Files in Trash
    If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
    If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
    General File Recovery
    If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten with recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
    The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
    Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.
    If the above is not possible then sending the drive to a data recovery service may be your only option, and they are very expensive.

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