Firewire drives sleeping on the job

I have put turned every energy save preference off and my lacie firewire drives still shut down after awhile until wakened. This is causing a problem when I am printing long clips to video (FCP). I talked to Lacie and they said the drive has no intelligence, firmware or otherwise that would be doing this.
jmf

Cocktail has a setting that keeps all drives awake and it is a pretty good maintenance product to boot. I have 3 LaCie Extreme drives and none sleep after the Cocktail fix.

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I have a new 2.0GHz Intel Core i7 macbook pro and my external firewire drive is causing the laptop to lock up

I have a new 2.0GHz Intel Core i7 macbook pro and my external firewire drive is causing the computer to lock up. The drive seems to sleep and then never wakes and the laptop locks up. I've had this drive connected to an older 2.0 core duo macbook pro and a 3.0GHz quad core macpro with no issues. It's a ministack v3 drive, 2GBs, fw400+800, sata and usb. Any ideas? And can I stop the drive from going to sleep?
Thanks.

Check with the drive's manufacturer to see if they might have a firmware update for the enclosure; it sounds like the enclosure's firmware isn't properly detecting the FireWire wakeup sequence.
Obviously this could also be a bug with the new MBP's firmware, so it wouldn't hurt to ask the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store; in particular, ask them to show you that the sleep/wakeup sequence on your MBP works with some other FireWire drive.

When I download a movie from iTunes the cover art disappears. I try get info and add the art, it doesn't show up. So it's just gray. It opens and plays fine. Apple can't figure it out. It's an nas drive. When I use a firewire drive I get the art

When I download movies from iTunes to my NAS drive, I don't get the cover art. It shows up while its downloading, but when it's finish it disappears. If it has an iTunes extra the cover art is there. I tried get info and add the cover art, it never shows. Regardless of how I add it. Funny thing is, if I download the same movie to my external firewire drive, no problem its there. I've called Apple with no success. I've even tried copying the movie with the art from the firewire drive to replace the file on then NAS drive I still loose the movie cover art. I also tried several times to re download it, no luck. Any ideas? I'm out of ideas.

Do you have any videos/movies in the video app?
In iTunes if you right click on the video and select Get Info and go to the Option tap what Media Type is shown?

Someone is sleeping on the job.When you click on price watch the email comes the day after the sale.

Someone is sleeping on the job.When you click on price watch the email comes the day after the sale.

Thank you for the feedback and apologies you may have missed out on that sale!
I would definitely suggest signing up for our newsletter, they will ensure you get all the news everytime!

Firewire drives sleeping too much.... help?

Hi all,
I have seven external Firewire drives, both Lacie D2 and G-Raid. Seems like ever since I got the G5 these drives go to sleep in about 10 minutes if I don't access them. Then when I have to do a search, or use the finder, I have to wait for a full minute while the drives individually spin up (one after the other after the other... etc.).
The System preferences settings make no difference. This is a big problem for me. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Matt

Well, Matt,
Energy Saver default behaviour is to spin down all internals and externals that are left unaccessed, at the same time after 10 minutes of inactivity, if you chose the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" option.
And to let them all awake if it is unchecked.
—> One thing you can set yourself manually without Developer Tools:
The spindown time for all internals and externals.
Set it to 120 minutes instead of 10, using this Terminal command:
sudo pmset -a disksleep 120
so that they stay awake long enough but sleep at night still.
If you want them to never spindown, type this command:
sudo pmset -a disksleep 0
If this works, it means a preference file is corrupted somewhere. The one that "tells" Energy Saver settings to PowerManagement.
I don't know which one is it, but hopefully Preferential Treatment would find it?
(Here, a Terminal command that verifies even more prefs than PT:
sudo find /Library/Preferences -name *.plist -exec plutil {} \;;find ~/Library/Preferences -name *plist -exec plutil {} \;
Let us know!
Curious too,
Axl

Why are Firewire Drives Sleeping?

I have several Firewire drives that are suddenly being sent into sleep mode, which was not happening previously. I checked the Energy settings in Preferences, and the "+never sleep+" option is chosen, so I'm stumped as to what is suddenly causing this behavior. Does anyone have any suggestions on what else I can look at?
Thanks

The "sleep" of your external FW disks is normally invoked by the controller of your external HD. For instance my WD My Book sleeps every now and then, even though I have enabled "Never Sleep" . The only way to prevent this from happening is to make sure your drive is accessed frequently enough.
Also have a look at http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090316190817357&query=sleep
Hope this explains it,
Hayo

Hi, Can anyone recommended software to import dvd to iMovies. I need to import about a dozen homemade DVD's and edit them into a single DVD comprising the 'best bits'. How best can I do this. I have an external hard drive available for the job

Hi, Can anyone recommended software to import dvd to iMovies. I need to import about a dozen homemade DVD's and edit them into a single DVD comprising the 'best bits'. How best can I do this. I have an external hard drive available for the job

You need to convert the VOB files in the TS-Folder of the DVD back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle. For that you need mpegStreamclip:
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :
http://store.apple.com/us/product/D2187Z/A/quicktime-mpeg-2-playback-component-f or-mac-os-x
(unless you are running Lion in which case see below))
which is a mere $20.
Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:
http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
which costs $25.
For the benefit of others who may read this thread:
Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.
And from the TOU of these forums:
Keep within the Law
No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.
Do not submit software or descriptions of processes that break or otherwise ‘work around’ digital rights management software or hardware. This includes conversations about ‘ripping’ DVDs or working around FairPlay software used on the iTunes Store.
If you are running Lion or later:
From the MPEG Streamclip homepage
The installer of the MPEG-2 Playback Component may refuse to install the component in Lion. Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion onwards, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it. See this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3381
To install the component in Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion. The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.
The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion. For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion. (The same applies to Mountain Lion even though that has it preinstalled.) You don't have to install QuickTime 7.

Time Capsule Hard Drive Sleeps All The Time!

Hi All,
does anyone know whether it is possible to change the settings on the time capsule which decide after what period of time to sleep the HD? At the moment it seems very short, this basically means the hard drive is having to spin up from stationary almost every time I use it. Some applications don't like the 2-3 second delay in getting a response from the filesystem. I'd rather it go to sleep after 10-mins of inactvity. i think it's set to seconds at the moment. probably is not great for the HD either.

vadalus wrote:
yes, i know all those things. i was asking whether this could be changed.
no, you can't change this setting.
But the hard disk drive in the Time Capsule is enclosed in a very small case: it's better to have it in the idle state every time it's possible.

Powerbook G4 sleeping on the job

Is it possible to have the G4 notebook not go to sleep when you close the lid but instead have it keep running. I have not been able to find any setting for that
Thanks In advance

Us, in the G4 Tower forum, no little about Powerbooks.
Try the appropriate Powerbook Forum please.
Cheers!
DALE

Powerbook sleeping in the job

Hi, is there a way of haveing your powerbook G4 not go to sleep when you close the lid? I have been looking at all the settings but there does not seem to be a setting for this.
Thanks
David

Us, in the G4 Tower forum, no little about Powerbooks.
Try the appropriate Powerbook Forum please.
Cheers!
DALE

My HD's like to go to sleep on the job - Causes one **** of a freeze

PPC G3 Blue & White 400 MHz, 640 MB RAM, 13.6 GB HD (Primary) 6 GB HD (Secondary Storage) on same IDE chain. Primary Dev - 0 secondary dev - 1. Running OS 9.2.2. If you need any other details, ask, and you shall receive...
System boots up fine, no extension conflicts as per first thing I tested.
Performed Disk First Aid from OS Install CD ROM. THe 6 GB HD registered PEOF error, and could not repair. Isolated the problem, backed up files, and initialized the HD zeroing Data.
reformatted to Mac OS - Extended, and now sits empty waiting for storage.
Problem = during operation they system has a mild freeze as one of the HD spins up (Similar sound as during boot of system) and can usually resolve itself in a few minutes. Then after a while, the system completely freezes,and the HD's do the same sound, I can't even move the mouse, and takes hours to resolve. As I have a USB MP3 player, the computer treats it as a disk to mount, and if I improperly remove it, I have this same sort of freeze. It's almost like the HD's unmount, then try to remount when needed. Any one have any IDeas as to what may be happening?
I will be troubleshooting further this weekend. I will be trying to isolate which HD is giving the problem. I will be Installing OS 9 on the 6GB, and will try running the computer with only one HD at a time. Whichever one freezes, is gonna get da boot! It won't be a worry to get rid of, as I will be installing a 30 GB next month.
If anyone out there has any other ideas / suggestions, your help would be greatly appreciated

FIrst thing, Grant, I hate to be the one to tell you this but my Blue & White G3 Hackintosh does in fact support Cable select on the hard drives, and does so quite well I might add.
Anyways, the issue is solved, and thank you to all who submitted their suggestions. The original config by physically designating Master / slave set up caused nothing but PEOF errrors on the disk. This weekend, I attempted to run the hard drives individually to see if one was experiencing physical problems. Once it was determined that both Hardrives function properly, I tried reversing the master slave setup and physically designating Master / Slave with the jumpers. Again, problems. I then shut down, removed the HD's and set the jumpers for both to be cable select. I first booted from the OS disks and performed a full initialize on both HD's, zeroing all data, and a clean OS9 went into my now master 6GB hardrive. After establishing the startup disks, I shut down crossed my fingers, and booted from HD.
Voila! Success. The unit booted fine, and is accepting new software. My backed up files have been integrated to the 13.6GB HD and apps are installed on the 6GB. There hasn't been a single freeze, and the computer has been in a testing mode for 72 hours straight. All functions have been tested thoughroughly, and by the end of the week, I should have everything restored.
After the testing cycle, I ran a performance diagnostic, and found that the system is running at optimum, which is the first time since the whole resurrection process started a month ago.

Mount USB/Firewire drive from shell or cron job

Is there a way to mount a USB/Firewire drive from the shell or possibly mount it using a cron job? Here's the situation. I have a user that keeps all of her data on her desktop or in her Documents folder. I have attached a firewire drive to her PowerMac G5 (OS 10.4.6) and successfully created cron jobs to backup her entire user folder every night. The problem is that she logs off of her computer before she leaves work. When she logs of the firewire drive unmounts and the cron job fails because it cannot find the drive. I was hoping there was a way to mount the drive using a script so that it will mount, let the cron job run, and then possibly unmount the drive afterwards. Any help with this would be much appreciated.
MacMini, PowerMac G5, iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Try adding the following line to the beginning of the job:
mount -a
You may need to add u and/or w to the command after the a without any additional spaces for the mount to work properly.
(13951)

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.

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.

Sleeping firewire drive causes system crash

I have a 320 GB external firewire seagate drive connected to my Dual Ghz Quicksilver G4. At least twice a day, when I try to access that drive, I experience a system crash, what I believe to be a kernal panic. I get a message telling me I need to shut my computer down and restart it. I am thinking this is not so good for my computer.
So, either the hard drive is the problem or it's the third party firewire card i have installed in one of my PCI slots. But here's the thing, other drives are connected to that card.
Would keeping the Seagate drive awake stop this from happening? It goes to sleep all the time. Have others experienced problems with the seagate drives? Should I stop using it?

Hi, Aaron. Welcome to the Discussions.
If you are seeing this message, that indicates a kernel panic.
There could be a problem with the FireWire drive or the card. If disconnecting the drive for a few days results in no additional panics, then it is the drive. For that, I'd contact Seagate. If not, the card becomes suspect. An examination of the panic log might prove helpful.
You can also try running Step 1 of the process specified in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ against the Seagate FireWire drive.
Checking the FireWire cables, trying different cables or ports, checking that the card is installed correctly, checking that you assembled the Seagate drive and enclosure correctly (sounds like you built the FW drive) are some other troubleshooting steps to consider. The FireWire enclosure itself may be defective.
See also my "Resolving Kernel Panics" FAQ. This FAQ includes step-by-step instructions for identifying and resolving some of the most common causes of kernel panics, including tips like those above.
My FAQ is a roadmap: start at the beginning and work through to the end, following the instruction in the order specified, including the "If all else fails..." section if a cause or resolution is not found in an earlier troubleshooting step therein.
You maybe unable to prevent the FireWire drive from sleeping. Secondary hard drives (second internal, as well as external drives) may not respect the "Put the hard drive(s) to sleep when possible" option if de-selected. I discuss this particular issue in my "Spinning Beach Ball Of Death (SBBOD)" FAQ, specifically in the section entitled "SBBOD spins for 30-35 seconds. You may hear your hard drives spinning up."
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Firewire drives sleeping on the job

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