Firewire drives fail to detect

I have this pesky blue-and-white G3 tower. When I'm booted off the installation media for Tiger, firewire drives show up and mount. When I'm booted off a Mac OS 9 partition, firewire drives show up and mount.
When I'm booted off the otherwise flawlessly performing for a while now 10.4.3 partition I've been using for a while now, firewire drives fail to show up in either System Profiler or Disk Utility.
Any help is sincerely appreciated.

Okay, good idea ... I had checked all the logs ...
sudo egrep -ri "firewire|1394|seagate" /Library/Logs /var/log
... returned two instances of sudo logging me running this command, and one instance of IOFireWireLib mentioned in a non-pertinent SystemUIServer crash log from September 2004, when I had 10.3.5 on the partition.
However, I had not booted in single-user or in verbose mode. Verbose mode shows no evidence of a firewire device being detected. Single-user mode usually turns up a disk device /dev/disk? for firewire drives (I've fsck'ed more than a few) ... but this instance turns up none.
If I boot off the Tiger installation media into single-user mode, the firewire bus becomes active ...
FireWire (LYNX) built-in rev 2 now active, GUID 0050e4ff fe6e4808; max speed s400.
... and drivers get loaded:
Extension "com.apple.driver.Oxford_Semi" has no kernel dependency.
Extension "com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport" has no kernel dependency.
Extension "com.apple.driver.LSIFW500" has no kernel dependency.
Extension "com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport" has no kernel dependency.
Extension "com.apple.driver.initioFWBridge" has no kernel dependency.
Extension "com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport" has no kernel dependency.
Extension "com.apple.driver.StorageLynx" has no kernel dependency.
Extension "com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport" has no kernel dependency.
... and the drive is addressable and accessible via a /dev/disk?s? file. This makes me wonder if I've found a kernel bug.
-peter

Similar Messages

External firewire drive fails to boot OS X after restart

I have a G4 Cube that exhibits a perplexing boot issue on an external firewire drive. The external drive is a clone of the Cube's internal dual boot, two partition drive made with an identical 120 GB Seagate. The internal drive boots without incident into either OS X or OS 9 - each in it's own partition.
The problem comes when I select the external drive's OS X partition in Startup Disk and restart - the external drive's activity LED shows an initial attempt to boot but then hesitates and boots to the internal OS X partition repeatedly.
As a workaround, I am able to select and boot to the OS 9 partition, either internally or externally, launch the StartUp Disk control panel, select the external OS X partition and reboot successfully into that partition. But upon a restart, it fails to boot into the external OS X partition repeating the aforementioned behavior i.e. it boots to the internal OS X partition.
Using Option-Restart shows the the two partitions on the external drive and the two partitions on the internal drive normally but will only successfully process selecting either of the two OS 9 partitions or the internal OS X partition, again failing to process a selection to the external OS X partition.
Interestingly, this same external firewire drive will repeatedly boot to it's OS X partition without incident using either of two iBook G4s.
I'm stumped!

Hi, LEOinDC -
How old is the internal battery in that Cube? Many machines exhibit boot anomalies if that battery is too weak or dead.
Those batteries have an expected life of about 4 to 5 years under best-case usage; if the machine is unplugged regularly or for an extended period, the battery is consumed much faster. Even if the machine is not unnplugged the battery will eventually die, and there will be no symptoms such as loss of date or time since the trickle power drawn when the machine is shut down (but still plugged in) will maintain those.
Also, is the external firewire drive self-powered? If not, try that.
Sometimes when using Startup Manager (which is what booting with Option held down invokes), all available bootable volumes aren't picked up before it displays what it has found. The solution for that is to click the circular arrow button in Startup Manager - this is an instruction to rescan the buses.

IDE drives not being detected

Yesturday I built a computer from all brand new parts listed in my sig. However, the motherboard can't seem to detect any IDE drives. It is not crashing, it just says 'None' on the 4 IDE devices. I even tried connecting just the one DVD drive as the primary master on IDE 1 (blue part of IDE cable going into MB and the end going into the drive, middle connecter left open) and it still couldn't detect the drive. I've made certain the IDE cable is the correct way round (it doesn't go in any other way), and i've used a different IDE cable that I know works, but still the MB cannot detect the drive. The drive's jumper is set to Master (i have also tried cable select). JBAT1 on the MB is set to "keep data".
I have seen some odd behaviour that may shed some light. When I do not connect the IDE cable to the drive (so it only has the power in it), the lights come on and the DVD drive tray can open. But when I connect the IDE cable to it, the lights do not come on, and you cannot open the tray, as if there was no power to it. I asked my cousin and he said it sounds like the device is being earthed. Is that possible with an IDE cable?
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Apart from failing to detect the IDE drives and CMOS checksum errors the MB seems to be alright. It correctly identifies the CPU and the amout of memory. The back plate diagnostic connecter that came with the MB says everything is OK.
Any ideas?

Hi guys, thanks for your replies. Its been a busy week and I hadn't got a chance to reply myself.
I've been using the computer for a few days now. Sometimes the drives fail to detect and BIOS defaults get loaded again, but I just loosen some of the screws that hold the motherboard to the case and it starts working again. I am very concerned about this broken wire. It defintely looks like a dodgy board and I am not happy with its unreliability. Check out the pics:
Board (its on the top right)
Close up
I think Ebuyer are gonna be a pain to get this returned to them. I have a feeling they are just going to throw me to MSI support to get it repaired or replaced.
If anyone knows anything about this wire please let me know . Thanks!

Firewire Drive Detected But Not Showing Up...

I have a Lacie Fireiwire drive that is detected by XP, it's recognized in the bottom right menu under the "Remove Hardware Safely" thing. But I can't access the files through Explorer, the drive just doesn't show up under my computer. I've tried with Firewire 400 & 800. Any suggestions?

I have the same problem. Running MacBook pro from mid 2007 with windows 7 64-bit. Everything runs perfectly except my external hard drives aren't seen. They work in snow leopard. And I can also acces the mac drive from windows 7 fine. Anyone else having this issue?

Failed to detect hard drive at the first boot

My new system always failed to detect the hard drive at the first boot, but it's ok if restart it. Not use Raid (disabled). Any help will be greatly appreciated. ?(
Yingsheng
KT3-Ultra-ARU
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Quote
Originally posted by Yingsheng
My new system always failed to detect the hard drive at the first boot, but it's ok if restart it. Not use Raid (disabled). Any help will be greatly appreciated
That is another classic symptom of a WD hard drive being jumpered as either a master or a slave when there is no other drive on the cable with it. If the drive is the only drive on the cable, then remove the jumper from the drive.

External Firewire Drive Ceases to be Detected After DVD Drive Installation

About a week ago, I replaced the original Pioneer DVR-103 drive in my Quicksilver 800 Mhz/dual G4 with a Pioneer DVR-115 to work with newer, faster media. After restarting the machine, I got an alert that told me my 80Gb Maxtor external firewire drive wouldn't initialize. The only real option it gives me is to reformat, thus losing valuable data. That's a non-starter. I've tried restarting the machine with the new DVR unplugged, but I get the same result. I've zapped the Pram, thinking it was a dirty pram, but no go. I've reset the nvram to default, using the command line, but no luck. The odd thing is that applications (like iTunes) continue to access the music files stored on it. I need this drive. Seagate support has been worthless. Any ideas?

About a week ago, I replaced the original Pioneer DVR-103 drive in my Quicksilver 800 Mhz/dual G4 with a Pioneer DVR-115 to work with newer, faster media. After restarting the machine, I got an alert that told me my 80Gb Maxtor external firewire drive wouldn't initialize. The only real option it gives me is to reformat, thus losing valuable data. That's a non-starter. I've tried restarting the machine with the new DVR unplugged, but I get the same result. I've zapped the Pram, thinking it was a dirty pram, but no go. I've reset the nvram to default, using the command line, but no luck. The odd thing is that applications (like iTunes) continue to access the music files stored on it. I need this drive. Seagate support has been worthless. Any ideas?

Firewire drive reviews/resources? how to avoid another failed drive??

i have been scavenging online for quite a while and was wondering if anyone could point me to some good resources in purchasing a new firewire drive. mainly looking for resources discussing which brands/models notoriously have problems (eg, LaCie i will never purchase again). i am looking for 200-300Gb, mainly for video editing and backup. thanks-- L
Powerbook G4 Titanium Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Not to add to LaCie's bad reputation here lately. But I would say it's takes a while to get customer service from them. They do not have an 800# and they are hard to contact when a problem occurs.(waiting on an e-mail response for a month is something else too.) It took close to about 4 different times before I finally got a whole new external firewire DVD burner back from them. I had to ship it out to Oregon 3 different times because the firewire connection wouldn't work.At one time it worked. You would think after the 2nd time they would have sent me a brand new one. I just received a brand new one before my year warranty was up.
I will never buy another LaCie brand again despite their good reviews in the MacMall magazine and other Mac info. It took about 7 months before my problem was resolved. To me that's too long.
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Disk Utility Fails When Partitioning FireWire Drive

I am getting this error when attempting to partition my FireWire drive.
"Disk utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility."
I know that Panther users have been having this same error pop up when they attempt to repair permissions. Something about the iTunes 6.0.2 update. I attempted to remove the package files, which was the fix for that issue, and then partition the drive, but it didn't help. This is a different issue. I can repair permissions fine, as well.
Booting from the Mac OS X Tiger install DVD, and using Disk Utility from there, works just fine. I want Disk Utility to work from the startup volume, however.
Has anyone else experienced this issue?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can correct it?
Thanks!

10.4.6 Combo Update has fixed the issue.
Thanks so much! I'm glad you happened to be awake and reading this board. I think something strange happened with the 10.4.6 update in the first place, because my Dock is always restored to the default look (I customize it with TransparentDock) every time Apple updates the OS. Also (maybe I shouldn't say this on an Apple board), my iBook is running Front Row, and it wasn't broken after the update, but it is now, which is fine, as long as Disk Utility works.
Thanks again for your help!

Windows Update Client failed to detect with error 0xc8000247 after using Lenovo System Update 5

My Windows 7, SP1 was running fine, until I installed few updates on 10/15 using Lenovo System Update 5 then Windows Update stopped working, shows as RED:
{CE3119AD-35EF-41CF-9C21-C7698FEB8393}   2013-10-14 21:53:00:256-0700   1   147   101   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}   0   0   AutomaticUpdates   Success   Software Synchronization   Windows Update Client successfully detected 4 updates.
{EB17A01A-EB6E-49FF-9EA2-AA0DD063B4B1}   2013-10-15 04:15:54:069-0700   1   162   101   {C61A0D00-3E51-48AC-B0AF-1D3E02B9E5D3}   201   0   AutomaticUpdates   Success   Content Download   Download succeeded.
{77DAE88F-2795-4258-8BBF-8D27E53662CF}   2013-10-15 12:10:38:196-0700   1   193   102   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}   0   0   AutomaticUpdates   Success   Content Install   Restart Required: To complete the installation of the following updates, the computer must be restarted. Until this computer has been restarted, Windows cannot search for or download new updates: - Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB2862330)
{1398F777-3AEF-4D1D-BE4C-407EC4AEAD4C}   2013-10-15 12:15:25:676-0700   1   183   101   {C61A0D00-3E51-48AC-B0AF-1D3E02B9E5D3}   201   0   AutomaticUpdates   Success   Content Install   Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB2862330)
{A220898A-E5FE-4FE7-8413-2B0C7B4013D0}   2013-10-15 12:15:25:766-0700   1   202   102   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}   0   0   AutomaticUpdates   Success   Content Install   Reboot completed.
{A5400FF2-33ED-4A47-8409-13E5DFE16A6D}   2013-10-15 19:29:31:486-0700   1   147   101   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}   0   0   ChkWuDrv   Success   Software Synchronization   Windows Update Client successfully detected 0 updates.
{43C533EE-775D-445E-A652-06648B72DE65}   2013-10-15 19:29:49:702-0700   1   147   101   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}   0   0   ChkWuDrv   Success   Software Synchronization   Windows Update Client successfully detected 0 updates.
{D6AAAFFB-7F18-4A7E-B39D-1BA09CDC5E6D}   2013-10-15 19:30:05:744-0700   1   147   101   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}   0   0   AutomaticUpdates   Success   Software Synchronization   Windows Update Client successfully detected 3 updates.
{4E73B1C1-5BA2-415D-AB34-92F7AB3DB418}   2013-10-15 19:30:08:753-0700   1   147   101   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}   0   0   ChkWuDrv   Success   Software Synchronization   Windows Update Client successfully detected 0 updates.
{51248882-41AC-4E59-B813-87AD326310AD}   2013-10-15 20:00:05:044-0700   1   183   101   {DBD3B4E9-0357-47DA-8317-D0CF2163BFE6}   501   0   wusa   Success   Content Install   Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: Hotfix for Windows (KB2661796)
{FB2B8E5E-442C-4E76-B23D-6A41B4324C9D}   2013-10-16 00:11:39:832-0700   1   148   101   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}   0   c8000247   AutomaticUpdates   Failure   Software Synchronization   Windows Update Client failed to detect with error 0xc8000247.
Lenovo Thinkpad W500, Intel (R), Windows 7, SP1, latest updates as of Oct 15
(1) Checked Setting, set to automatic update whenever, even changed to never update, rebooted the OS and changed back to automatic update and rebooted the OS.
(2) Stopped Windows Update Services, renamed SoftwareDistribution folder and started the window update services and rebooted.
(3) Ran MS FIXIT
(4) Ran System File checker Scan (sfc /scannow)
(5) Ran CHKDSK /F
(6) Installed "Intel Rapid Storage Technology" drivers from Lenovo site
(7) Ran Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB971033)
None of the above possible recommended solutions were able to fix the issue yet and now I am getting a message your Window is Not Genuine!
Any help or guidance is appreciated.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

The Lenovo System Update installed the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver 8.9.2.1002" right before the Windows Upgrade got broken. So in the Device Manager under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, I choose Intel ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller, on the Driver Tab, I choose the option "Roll Back Driver" and after rolling back the driver and restarting the OS, now Windows Update is working like a Champ!
The End!

My 5 year old iMac's hard drive is at the point of failing. I'm trying to save al files on it, but it wont allow backup via Time Machine to an external hard drive. How can I keep from losing all the files and programs if the hard drive fails?

I'm concerned that my iMac, purchased 5 years ago, is about the crash and I can't back up my files and programs to an external hard drive via Time Machine because the computer freezes after only a couple hundred MB and gets nowhere near the required amount.
How can I save these files and programs if the computer hard drive fails or has to be replaced without the backup being able to be done? I need to do something quickly, but I'm not sure what I can or should be doing.

Get an external hard drive, some good ones that I like are the OWC, http://www.macsales.com Mercury Elite Pro drives...they are very good and reasonably priced.
Get the drive, connect via USB or FireWire, then use Disk Utility to format the new drive as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), and then use Disk Utility to Restore the current drive to the new drive. Restore actually clones the drive so you will have a bootable backup on the external drive.
After you have formatted and named the external drive, click Restore in the main Disk Utility window, drag the name of the old hard drive to the Source box, and drag the name of the new external drive to the Destination box. DU will make an exact clone of the internal drive on the external drive.
That clone will be a complete backup of the operating system and all of your data.
You can test it by restarting the iMac and hold the Option key. That will give you a grey screen showing all bootable drives. Just click the external drive, then click the upward pointing arrow under it and the iMac will boot from that drive.

T61 DVD/CD-RW drive fails to read and crashes

Hello Everyone, I hope people still visit this area of the forums!
I've highlighted and bolded the symptoms to make them easier to find.
I recently purchased a T61 6457-C15 on eBay, and have been in the proccess of setting up and customizing it to suit my tastes. When I recieved the laptop, it looked as though Windows had been restored to original factory state, plus some free software, so I proceeded under that assumption. First I used Windows Update to download all the updates that it could find including IE8. I wanted to have an anti-virus program running on my computer before I used a browser to access the internet. I ran IE8 and went straight to the Microsoft Security Essentials website and downloaded the Install program. At this point I tried to remove the pre-installed and expired Norton Internet Security using the built-in uninstall, but it failed. A message box popped saying that I needed to put the Norton installation disc in the CD-ROM drive so that the uninstall program could find a Norton support file. My computer did not come with any discs, but my mothe had bought Norton 2008, so I took that disc and put it in the drive. The drive started spinning right away, and the uninstall program found the file it was looking for in a few seconds. The support file directed me to the Norton website to get their removal tool, which removed Norton from my system in short order. Afterwards, I ran the Microsoft Security Essentials install program and got MSE running on my computer before doing anything else.
Then I went to the Lenovo support website and had it auto-detect my system. That took me to the support page for my system, where I went to the "Downloads and Drivers" page. I downloaded Access Connections and ThinkVantage Toolbox for Vista 32-bit (my OS is Vista Business 32-bit). I then used Lenovo System Update to retrieve all the updates it deemed neccessary from Lenovo, including those for itself and system components, both software and firmware. There were 35 or more updates suggested, and I trusted the software, so I started downloading them all. I'm not sure, but I think that a DVD/CD-RW drive update was included in the list, but I can't remember if it was auxiliary software, drivers or firmware. After Lenovo System Update was convinced that it had all the neccessary updates, I downloaded Revo Uninstaller and set about removing uneccassary and unwanted programs from my computer and trimming the startup list. I did not touch any Windows or ThinkVantage components, and I searched each program online, so I'm sure that I did not delete or disable any drivers or system files, or anything from Lenovo. I mainly removed Apple products and non-functional software from my system, including an integrated camera driver (my system does not have an integrated camera) and third-party programs that were already missing files or otherwise inoperable when I got my computer. Up to this point I had been using a gigabit ethernet connection to download software; I had not used the DVD/CD-RW drive except for the one time I specified earlier.
Now that I had my system set up to my liking, including personalization and power settings, I started to install my first program: Command & Conquer the First Decade from a DVD-ROM. When I put the disc in the drive and closed it, it took a few seconds for the drive to spin up, and once it did, it was constantly running at high speed and I could hear the reader constantly moving back and forth quickly. After a few minutes the disc's install menu finally appeared, so I clicked on the install button. I waited several minutes but nothing happened, so I tried to view the contents of the drive by going to My Computer > DVD/CD-RW drive (D, right clicking and selecting explore from the menu options. When I did that, the address bar of the My Computer window started to fill up with a dark gray progress bar and said "loading (D", I think with the drive or disc name after it. After it took several minutes to fill completely, nothing happened. I waited a few more minutes to see if anything would change, (nothing did,) I clicked on the X button in the top right corner of the window to close it. A few minutes and clicks later, the My Computer window was labeled as (not responding), and the window itself became grayed-out. I started Task Manager and tried to close the My Computer window, but the entire Windows Desktop disappeared along with it, saying that it would attempt to restart. Even Task Manager became non-responsive and quit after closing My Computer. After a few minutes of staring at my background (and nothing else), I ejected the disc, and Windows Desktop reappeared immediately and acted as if nothing had ever been wrong.
I checked Device Manager, but neither the DVD/CD-RW drive nor any of the ATA controllers were flagged; in fact they all said they were working properly with up-to-date drivers. I ran the ThinkVantage Toolbox diagnostics on the drive using a data CD, a music CD and a different DVD-ROM, but in each case the drive failed the tests and a message box popped-up saying that the discscould not be read because they were scratched or there was a hardware problem. I checked the discs both before I put them in and after I took them out, and they were not scratched; also, all of the discs are publisher-manufactured from a software or music company. I restarted my computer, booted the Rescue and Recovery option and Ran PC-Doctor from there. I ran the same drive read tests with the same failure results. The entire time the drive was behaving the same way it had when it first failed to read a disc. Next I removed and cleaned the drive both inside and out with a can of compressed air; I also cleaned the ultrabay itself. Finally I tried fixing the problem with Microsoft Fix It, but when it automatically ejected the drive and i put a disc in, the disc became trapped in the drive and Windows froze up like before. I had to restart Windows twice (once with a BSOD) in order to get the disc out. When the disc was removed the computer went back to normal operation once again.
Please help me, my DVD/CD-RW drive is a Matshi ta UJDA775, my operating system is Windows Vista Business and my T61's model number is 6457-C15. I have tried all the troubleshooting fixes and none have worked. I have tried updating drivers and using diagnostic software and they have not worked. I have tried disabling drag-to-disc burning and it has not worked. I have treid removing and cleaning the drive and that has not solved my problem. I did notice that the driver for the "Intel(R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI controller" is the only related driver that can be rolled back, so maybe that might fix it. I'm also wondering if a firmware change caused this, and if so, if there is any way I can undo that. The only other fix I've heard of that I haven't tried is editing the registry, but I'm hesitant to do that. I haven't tried booting from the CD drive because I have no bootable CDs and I'm worried that my computer might get stuck in that mode. I'm hoping that someone can tell me what I can do to try to fix this problem, preferably without wrecking my computer. Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
P.S. Just adding a note; I went through both the Microsoft and Lenovo Update histories and the only related updates I could find were: ThinkPad BIOS update, Easy Eject utility, Intel Matrix Storager Manager driver for Windows (32-bit), and maybe one of the two Intel Chipset Support for Vista updates. I tried rolling back the AHCI driver but it had no effect.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Well, my problem is fixed, and here's how. I had some trouble figuring out how to contact Lenovo technical support; online options directed me to the IBM support website, which was clearly designed for businesses. Selecting the "Call technical support" option on the Lenovo support website and then choosing my country gave me a 24/7 hotline number. After waiting about five minutes on hold, a nice young fellow by the name of "Tyrese" answered (I maybe misspelling his name), but the connection was so bad that we could barely hear each other. Although he semed eager to help, when I told him my problem the first things he suggested were simple, like cleaning the drive, However, when I told him all of my efforts, described above, to fix the problem myself and read him the log from the Rescue and Recovery diagnostic program, after he checked the error codes against his computer database he promptly replied that the only fix was to send out a new drive. I was happy to have gotten such a successful resolution to a support call in less than fifteen minutes; apparently, all the work I had done trying to solve the problem myself had paid off in a way. Unfortunately, although I had tried to spell out my address for him, some of it got left off of the address label, which caused some trouble in receiving the new drive. Once I got it, I installed it using the uninstall & remove (old drive), shut down, start up, insert & install (new drive) method that I referenced earlier in this topic. I've been using the new drive since then without any trouble, so I guess that the only fix was to replace the drive. Also, I noticed that the new drive was a Hitachi, perhaps a T400/410 or T500/510 Ultrabay Slim drive, which should help me avoid the problems that other users were having with the older Matshi-ta drives. I hope this description helps anyone else having a problem with the optical drives on the T61/61p.

"attempting to copy to [external drive] failed. the disk could not be read"

this is a problem on my 2x3GHz quad-core intel xeon macPro running os 10.5.7, and itunes 8.2. i have a 1TB external hard drive (firewire 800) that holds all my music for itunes. i have never had any problem with this setup before, until recently.
once, a while back i got an error on my itunes (that popped up without me doing anything.. seemingly random) saying something about not being able to save the itunes library. that went away after a restart, and hasn't returned.
BUT a new problem now happens any time i try to add more music to my itunes library. i have always added music to itunes by setting up my preferences "add file to library" and have the itunes library pointing to my external hard drive. then by dragging the files on-top of a playlist, it sorts and adds the files to my external hard drive. i have been using this process for years without any glitches.
now when i try to drag files into itunes, i get: "attempting to copy to [external drive] failed. the disk could not be read from or written to"
i double checked the read/write privileges on my external drive and nothing has changed since i got it. (it's still read/write access for my user.. and i've even tried putting a "read/write" for "all" as well. no dice)

thanks, that actually doesn't help the issue i'm having.
but now the problem has expanded to finder and everything else. so i'm pretty sure the external hard drive is starting to go out. i'm currently attempting to back up all 700GB of info from the drive.

I'm an avid Mac enthusiast who works in a creative field. However, I simply cannot afford a new Mac after my old one's internal hard drive failed. Can anyone recommend an affordable Mac option? I don't want to consider a non-Apple product.

I'm an avid Mac enthusiast who works in a creative field. However, I simply cannot afford a new Mac after my old one's internal hard drive failed. Can anyone recommend an affordable Mac option? I don't want to consider a non-Apple product.

Macs with a FireWire port will also boot happily from an External drive. You don't even need to open the MacBook.
Some users buy a drive they would like to have as a future Internal drive, and also buy an external enclosure. They get the External set up the way they want it, then swap with the Internal drive.

Hard drive failing on Macbook 13" OS 10.7.3 Need to xfer all files to an iMAC 21.5. How to do this?

Hard drive failing on Macbook 13" OS 10.7.3 Need to xfer all files to an iMAC 21.5. How to do this?

Can you boot the MacBook into FireWire Target Disk mode? That turns it (temporarily) into an expensive hard drive. You can then move files.
Another way would be to use an external hard drive, attach it to the MacBook and user software such as Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the hard drive (assuming you have sufficient space on the iMac.)
Best of luck. Please keep your data backed up in the future to avoid this. It'll make your life easier.

Time Machine: Repeated errors when backing up for the first time using a new external firewire drive

My Iomega 500GB firewire external drive failed on me last week and I have just replaced it with an identical model. I used to use the old drive with Time Machine on my MacBook Pro running 10.5.8 with no issues, until the drive had a hardware failure and stopped spinning up, hence the replacement.
Two days ago I tried using Time Machine for the first time with the replacement external drive. The backup failed and each subsequent backup attempt has failed since then with a different error each time. The drive cannot be ejected using Finder (Finder says disk is in use and cannot be ejected even when no processes are running except for Finder and Time Machine has been disabled), by dragging it to the dock (hangs computer which can only be fixed by a hard reboot), in Disk Utilities (drive cannot be unmounted) or in Terminal ("no such file or directory").
The first backup attempt failed after 3 hours of "preparing" with the message "The backup was not performed because an error occured while creating backup directory".
I tried repairing the disk in Disk Utilities and Disk Utilities said the drive was OK ("the volume Time Machine Backups appears to be OK"). I tried ejecting the drive (hard reboot of computer and disconnecting the drive), plugging it back in again and trying again.
This time it started backing up, then failed after a few minutes with the message "an error occured while copying files to the backup volume". I had a look at the troubleshooting suggested on http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/C3.html and followed instructions. It failed again, so I did a full reset as per http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/A4.html.
It failed again, so I tried reparing the drive again in Disk Utilities and again it said it was OK. I tried using different cables and ports (Firewire 400 instead of Firewire 800), and backups still fail.
I have turned off anti-virus scanning (Sophos). I have tried excluding it from Spotlight but this causes an error message from Spotlight. I have tried trashing the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file and rebooting. I have tried selecting deselecting the drive as the back up in Time Machine preferences, selecting "None", then "Stop Backing Up" then quitting preferences, rebooting, disconnecting the drive, reconnecting the drive and selecting the drive again as the backup disk in Time Machine preferences. I have tried erasing the drive completely, rebooting, and trying to back up again.
None of these have worked. This is a brand new drive and I do not want to have to replace it again if I do not have to.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you.

Hello, some possible clues...
Should you click “Start New Backup”? Not yet! If you see the dialog above, your existing Time Machine backup is corrupt, and you might not be able to recover data from it. But you can save a copy of the corrupt bundle and, perhaps, extract some data from it if needed.
Ask yourself if Time Machine has saved data you might need before deciding what to do next:
If you are sure you won’t need anything backed up before today, click “Start New Backup” and let Time Machine do its thing.
Otherwise, click “Back Up Later” and save a copy before letting Time Machine start a new backup. Just look for a file called “computername.sparsebundle” (for network backups) or “Backups.backupdb” (for local ones) and create a copy with a different name. You can open sparsebundle files with DiskImageMounter and browse them like any other disk. More information is available here.
There you go. If you click “Start New Backup” when you see this dialog box, Time Machine will erase all of your old backup data and start a new bundle. It won’t be corrupt, but it will be empty.
Note that you can manually initiate a Time Machine backup integrity check by option-clicking the “Time Machine” icon in the menu bar and selecting “Verify Backups.”
http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/08/11/time-machine-completed-verification-backups- improve-reliability-time-machine-create-backup/
According to This Time Machine resource “This appears only on Snow Leopard, and started with the Time Capsule Backup Update 1.0 in mid-May of 2010. It also seems to have been included in the 10.6.3 v1.1 update and 10.6.4.”
So, what can you do about it? Grin and bear it, it seems, until Apple fixes it.
One thing you can do to make the backup take less time is to connect your machine to your Time Capsule or other backup drive via Ethernet for the duration of the initial backup.
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/the-dreaded-time-machine-has-completed-a-verifi cation-of-your-backups-to-improve-reliability-time-machine-must-create-a-new-ba c kup-for-you-message-and-why-you-are-seeing-it/
Time Machine: About "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4076
Or a different/better solution in my experiences...
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/products/tribackup.html

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