Firewire drives connect only rarely

I have two Firewire drives connected through a Belkin hub. Everything used to be hunky dory. Then one would no longer connect, now both will no longer connect. Once in a while, they'll both appear when I turn the computer on - they were both available all last week. Today I can't get either to appear.
Both drives always work fine on other computers. Using the hub or not makes no difference. Both drives work fine via USB. I have zapped the pram many times and reset the SMC per other recommendations, no luck.
Anything else I can try?????? Desperate!

I believe that there is a BIG problem with MBP and FW. Apple is not acknowledging a SERIOUS problem. I have not been able to get my FW drives to work properly and even invested in a FW express card. But still, my MBP is finicky.
good luck

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I have a mid 2007 imac running osx 10.8.2 and it will nit restart with two firewire drives connected if it has been running for sometime. If i disconnecr and restart and then connect the drives and then restart again it will restart.

a brody's guess is a good one. Please also look at what Apple says in Gray screen appears during startup

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My LaCie drive will "spin down" after a short while of not being used. I keep it unplugged when I don't need it. But it does not seem to be a problem to leave the drive connected 24-7 which I have done from time to time...everything works fine...computer sleeps...
DD

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Create an ISO (Encore) or folder on your hard drive (Encore or Premiere Elements) and then use the FREE http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download to write files or folders or ISO to disc for DVD or BluRay (send the author a PayPal donation if you like his program)
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When you write to disc with Imgburn, use the SLOWEST possible speed setting, so your burner has the best chance to create "good, well formed" laser burn holes... since no player is required to read a burned disc, having a "good" one from a high quality blank will help

Freezes when waking up with Firewire drive connected??

When you put your mac to sleep are you supposed to unmount your external drives(firewire)? is this different for firewire vs. usb?
I have a Dual 2GHz G5 and an Iomega "black" 250Gig external hard drive connected through firewire and many times (not always) when i put the computer to sleep or it goes to sleep by itself when it wakes up the computer freezes (spinning ball) but un-freezes if i pull the firewire cable.
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There could be a problem with the FW drive's firmware. Older, non-standards-complying versions have been known to do stuff like this, especially with newer Macs that are more stringent in what they tolerate. Check with the manufacturer for updates.

Mini won't start with firewire drives connected

to all,
please ignore the specs below. the computer i am talking about is the 1.66 Intel Core Duo, 1 GB RAM OS X 10.4.7.
as per the title, the mini will not start up if there is a FW drive connected. my wifes amacom flip 2 disk, the Iomega drive specially deisgned for the mini, or my lacie pocket drive. the screen shows the apple but the cog does not appear. it immediately appears after the drives are removed or powered down.
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Hold down Apple-V right after you hit the power button. That will put you in verbose mode, so you should be able to see whatever is keeping the kernel from loading.

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I have a number of Firewire devices on the G5.
Firewire 800 - Dual ATA 160Gb hard drive enclosure
Firewire 400 - Single ATA 160Gb hard drive
Firewire 400 - Camera
When I am not using the drives, I leave them off. Should they be unplugged from the Firewire ports when they are off? Nothing is daisy-chained. Camera is on the front Firewire, and the drives are on the rear (800 and 400).
Just a thought to see if I can discover the problem with FCE.
Regards, David Eaton
PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 Ghz Mac OS X (10.3.8)

I've hard similar issues at times with video.
I really don't know why this works for me but sometimes when I have issues moving material back to the camera, I close out of FCE and I've even ejected the ext hard drive then restart the ext hard drive, make sure the camera is connected to FW port and reopen FCE the Print to Video works without a problem. I've always assumed there was some memory cache or something similar that needs to be cleared out or reset.
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Can't connect/mount firewire drive wirelessly

My G4 tower has all my firewire drives connected to it. I usually connect to the drives wirelessly from my macbook pro. For some reason, there's one drive that will not mount, although it appears on the G4 desktop just fine. Getting info on the drive reveals that it's a MS-DOS (Fat-32) file system, and for whatever reason, I can't change the ownership/permissions on it as with other drives.
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This program you recommend is fugly and complicated...
You should see the other way to do it!
Most likely...
When the 1st screen comes up, look for the Browse button, select the FAT drive, give it a Share Name, click the Windows (SMB) sharing bar & select Shared , enter your admin PW, click on "Show File System Properties", check Inherit Permissins, give the rights you need...
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I have a small workgroup with a G4/800 server with two FireWire drives connected. One of the drives contains ALL of the organizations files and is shared over the network using the SharePoints software. The other Firewire drive is just a backup drive which is used by Retrospect. What is happening is the users will frequently find the firewire shares mounted over the network on their machines will disconnect and users will receive an alert telling them that the network volume is no longer available or something. When we go to the server we find the Firewire drives are no longer mounted on the desktop. Otherwise, the machine is running normally. Trying to remount the drives usually does not work and I have found that the only surefire way to get them back is to turn the drives off, restart the machine, then turn the drives on. After that, they will mount fine and once again become available to the clients' machines.
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External hard drive spontaneously unmounted? Try these tips:
NEW FIRMWARE: Try updating your external hard drive's firmware, which is available from your drive manufacturers Web site--or just use VersionTracker's (www.versiontracker.com) search function to find it. Be sure to back up your data before applying the update, and carefully follow the manufacturers instructions.
OUT OF iSIGHT: If you're using an iSight camera while you're using a FireWire drive, the camera may be interfering with the drive's ability to stay mounted. Try temporarily disconnecting your iSight and moving it to a separate FireWire port. If you have multiple FireWire devices, try using a FireWire hub.
POWER PROBLEM: A faulty power adapter could be causing your drive to unmount. Your drive may not be getting enough juice to stay on, causing the drive to turn off and thereby unmounting it from your Mac. Alternately, the power adapter may not be providing a steady amount of power, causing your drive to turn on and off. Try replacing the adapter. If you can't get a replacement adapter from the hard drive manufacturer, try your local electronics store. Just make sure the adapter you choose has the same connector and input/output voltage. you can find the input/output voltage on the adapter itself.
Cheers! DALE

Firewire drive not accessible after sleep

I have an external firewire drive connected. The drive works fine until the Mac sleeps.
The Mac sleeps and the drive spins down.
On wake from sleep, the system cannot access the drive. I can hear the drive spin up and it is still mounted on the desktop and in Disk Utility but the system cannot access it (spinning beach ball).
Any apps that were accessing the drive at sleep time are now locked up waiting for the drive eg FCP. The only way I can recover is to switch the drive off and on again and FCP etc has to be force quit. This drive has the Prolific PL3507 chip.
Anyone know how to fix this? I think I should return it to the supplier.
My other drive with Oxford 911 chip works fine, never a problem.
Bruce
imac intel 20 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Couldn't resolve it.
Took the gear back to the shop and finally got a refund. Be careful with Prolific stuff.

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Tom,
Is it just me or is Automator the most dissapointing thing that Apple have done for a while?
I've been attempting to do what you tried and I've wasted hours on this to no benefit. I followed a tutorial from maccreative mag and it simply does not work. The suggestion is to create smart folders and have them copied to an archive and then burn a disc. It sounds easy and sensible, but it does not work. I tried it and the disc only has references to the files not copies.
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I've got a firewire drive connected to my eMac with Time Machine and EyeTV primarily accessing it. Every so often though, both these apps seem to lose the drive. The finder still sees it, I can navigate and open files, but EyeTV will lose its connection and fail to record, and Time Machine will just give errors. The only way to fix it is to eject the drive and reconnect it manually, or restart the whole mac.
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Couldn't resolve it.
Took the gear back to the shop and finally got a refund. Be careful with Prolific stuff.

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I have a Maxtor Firewire drive connected to my Power Mac G5. I have it powered up and mounted but I just wonder if it is ok to leave it on for indefinite periods. The alternative is to keep disconnecting, but when I have it on and mounted I can sometimes hear it spinning when I am using the Mac, and I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. I would appreciate some advice as to the best way to use these external drives

Hello! Don't worry just leave it on. A drive is gonna fail when it fails and it has little to do with leaving it on. I personally think it does more harm than good to turn stuff off. I leave everything running 24/7/365. I rarely have any problems whatsoever. I've got external drives that have been running for 4-5 years with no problems and internals running for the last 3-5 yrs. Tom

Time Machine on FireWire drive not recognized

Got an iMac with a FireWire drive set up as a TimeMachine volume.
In addition, I have a MBP, connected to the network via Wifi (Airport Extreme).
Under Snow Leopard, both Macs were able to do TimeMachine updates to the FireWire drive connected to the iMac.
Now, under Lion, the TimeMachine volume is still recognized and functional (i.e. successful backup) for the iMac, but not visible anymore for the MBP.
The MBP can't see the TimeMachine volume, let alone back up to it.
What gives ?
Is this perhaps a network or access authorization issue ?
Thanks.

Ok, so here some more information.
iMac (Lion) with connected FW HD, thus hosts the TimeMachine volumes, connected via Ethernet to AirportExtreme
MBP (Lion), connected via WLAN to AirportExtreme
Connecting FROM iMac to MBP:
Sidebar - Shared computers: OK
Terminal SSH: OK
Finder - Go - Connect to Server: OK
Connecting FROM MBP to iMac:
Sidebar - Shared computers: Error "Connection failed"
Terminal SSH: OK
Finder - Go - Connect to Server: Error "There was a problem connecting to the server"
I'm really beginning to think my MBP Lion install is borked.

Mounting Firewire drives

If I have two external Firewire drives connected in series, one to another, and eject the first drive, will the second drive stay mounted and show on the desktop?

This is the FW info, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2952
Repeater function
The built-in repeater functionality on Apple computers with two or more ports allows FireWire data to pass between external devices through the computer. This repeater functionality is available even when the computer is in sleep mode or turned off, provided that it is connected to AC power. On a portable computer running on battery, in sleep mode, or powered off, the repeater functionality is provided if at least one FireWire device supplies power to the computer via the FireWire cable.

Firewire drives connect only rarely

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