Firewire drive startup problems

Question

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?

Answer 1

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.