Firewire drives to share to 4 computers

I work in a photo studio that has four g5 powermac stations. My main g5 has 6 firewire external drives that show up on my desktop. I would like the other 3 stations to also access files from all the mounted drives and to read and write privileges to them. Presently if one computer say NO.3 needs a file from one of the drives, I must unmount it and give it to the operator of bay 3 at which I cannot use it. What hardware do I need ( I have a 6 port ethernet hub ) that will always keep the drives mounted at my main computer but always accessible to all users?

You (might) have the hardware - you need software.
Either buy OS X Server, 10 user, or try http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/
I would make sure I had a gigabit switch to make network connections faster. They are cheap.
If it's an old hub 10(/100) Mbit, don't use it for this.
Also, the sharing machine will be slower to work on when the other machines access the shared volumes. A dedicated server is always better in this aspect.
I usually don't like using Firewire drives as shared drives, especially not 24/7, but if you're aware of the drawbacks (drives going to sleep, cooling problems, weak powersupplies and such) I guess it's managable.

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Powerbook freezes when I connect maxtor firewire drive

Ever since I installed tiger and upgraded to v 10.4.6 my G4 powerbook freezes when I connect a Maxtor firewire drive. I also recently installed Final Cut Pro Studio v 5.1. The maxtor drive mounts fine on another PB OS X 10.1.2. A Lacie firewire drive mounts fine on both computers. I can't figure it out. The powerbook with tiger crashes on startup when the maxtor firewire drive is attached or when it's just turned on. Does anyone have any solutions??

Welcome to the Apple discussion forums.
This isn't a guaranteed fix, however, did you update to 10.4.6 via software update or the combo installer? There have been some odd happenings recently when people have updated via the software update function. If you did the upgrade that way, you might try clearing your system and kernal caches (I use OnyX to do that, and other maintenance. It can be found at http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html ). Then download the 140mb combo updater, which can be found at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1046comboforppc.html .

How many external Firewire drives can I share at once?

I have several external hard drives connected to my server. I appears that I can only share 4 of them at a time. I work in a high volume photography environment and store about 2TB every three months. I need to be able to share multiple external hard drives all at the same time. Is there a limit on how many drives or share points I can share at one time?

As long as the drives have their own power supply (powered USB or Firewire 800 Hubs will do) they will run to their theoretical max which is more than several hundred. I think the Thunderbolt can be daisy chained out to a pretty large number too.

Firewire drives do not show up on network

I have a G5 with 2 external drives, 1 firewire, 1 USB
I have a G4 with 2 external drives, both firewire.
When these computers are networked,
The G5 sees the internal drives from the G4.
The G4 sees the internal drives from the G5, as well as the connected USB drive.
But neither computer sees the external firewire drives of the other computer.
I used to see these drives and made aliases for them, but they do not show up now.
I am using the admin accounts from each computer.
G5 running 10.4.5
G4 running 10.3.9
What is the cause of this problem? How can I mount the firewire drives on the networked computers?

I need to modify my question. I also have a G3 running 10.2.8
Yesterday I noticed that the Network icon in the G5 sidebar had an eject symbol next to it. That seems strange, upon reflection, as if something was not right.
I shut off all the machines for the evening.
Today, I restarted all the machines. Chose Finder->Go->Connect to Server->Browse
From each machine, I was able to see the external drives on the other machines, as well as the internal drives, over the network. I did not use nor install sharepoints. It just works (with an admin account).
However, on the G5, there is an external firewire Firelite drive. It is formatted as Fat 32.
It does not show up in the Browse window when I connect to the G5 from any computer. If I move it to the G4, it also does not show up when I connect to the G4 from any computer. So it does not seem to be related to the OS version.
In other words, it seems that since the Firelite is Dos formatted, I cannot see it on the network, even though it is a firewire drive.
So how can I fix this problem?
iMac G5, TiBook, G4 MP 500; G3 beige 333, iMac 333, others Mac OS X (10.4.4)

My iMac (late 2006) no longer boots from FireWire drives, although they contain all the system files.

My iMac (late 2006) no longer starts (boots) from Firewire drives, although they all contain a current system (Mac OS X 10.6.7). If the drives are connected with USB 2, they boot normally. The FireWire drives appear in the Start Volume program, but they do not boot. If I press and hold the Alt key while booting, only the internal drives and the USB drives appear as options. What can I do in order to boot from FireWire drives as I always could in the past?

I'd first recommend doing a SMC reset and if that doesn't work refer to:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10333969-263.html
and
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/firewiretroubleshooting.html
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
Roger

External Firewire drive does not mount on desktop now.

Greetings everyone.
G5 dual, 4.6GB ram, OSX 10.4.10, external firewire drive, formerly worked fine, now is invisible.
Not the drive. New purchase, worked fine until a restart. Not the cable. Power is getting from the G5 to the firewire drive. Not the port. I also have a firewire card instlaled so I have three ports to connect it to (and two on the FW drive). No combination works. Not the computer, the FW drive also fails to appear on an iBook. Not the OS. I did a clean install to make sure.
I'm not a newbie. I know what I'm doing. Until now! DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro, Drive Genius and Apple's Disk Utility cannot see the drive.
The FW drive is a Powerbook internal HD inserted into a case, purchased seperately.
At my wits' end. Can anyone help please.

I am suddenly having this EXACT problem. I have two Firelite firewire drives (one 60G and one 80G) that are suddenly refusing to mount on my older dual 1.25GHz G4 tower. They are also suddenly refusing to mount on my non-intel iMac. They will both mount painlessly on my new Intel MacBook Pro, but that's not much use, since the point of the firewire drives is to transfer files between these computers. I'm updating all of them to 10.4.10 to see if that's the issue...

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.

HELP! - Error 1309 - Can't copy file over 10gig to External firewire drive.

I know this is more of a hardware issue but I know that only other final cut users would be copying single files over 10gigs.
I have a G5 that I use for video production. Video Files can be large and to back them up I got an external hard drive ( Maxtor 1-touch 200gig) When I try to copy a file on to it that is 10gigs it give me a 1309 error. I have found that other people have had trouble copying files over 2gigs over to an external firewire drive. But I haven't found any answers. Can anyone offer any advice on how to solve this?
Thanks

If you don't want to format it for the mac, you are limited to file sizes under 2gb.
Another alternative is to hook a firewire drive to your Mac and then share it with your windows machines (the program SHAREPOINTS is useful for this).
The drive can then be formatted Mac OS Extended and, once shared, the PCs can access all files without size limitations.
good luck.
x

Can't daisy-chain Firewire drives reliably from 1-port Powerbook. Hub??

I have found that I cannot get a daisy-chained Firewire drive to mount more than 50% of the time. This problem doesn't happen with Tiger with the same drives. I have tried 4 different brands of late-model Firewire drives (Iomega, Smartdisk, Maxtor, and Seagate) with different cables and what happens is that a drive that is directly attached to the 12" Powerbook will mount, but the second chained drive fails to mount a majority of the time. Since I only have one Firewire port, this is preventing me from using more than one drive at a time, and I lost two Firewire drives to corruption today. Three out of four partitions lost contained bootable backups of Leopard and Tiger. Ouch!
This issue could prevent from using Leopard with my Powerbook, which is supposed to be Leopard-compatible. I can't remake the clones too easily with only being able to attach one drive at a time. I am thinking I will order a Firewire hub and try that, but I am not sure if that would be a solution, and I am wondering why I can always daisy-chain under Tiger, and not under Leopard. Does anyone have experience with Firewire hubs and Firewire operation details? Will I be able to get reliable Firewire with a hub?

I have exactly the same problem !
I have found this :
Using Multiple FireWire Devices at the Same Time
Power Macintosh computers can transfer perfect digital video (DV) on FireWire when no other devices are using the FireWire bus. If you have problems transferring digital video, make certain that no other FireWire devices are being used at the same time. Turning on a DV camera that is already connected may cause a FireWire hard disk to stop working. If this happens, turn off the camera and verify that the hard disk has recovered. Then unplug the FireWire cable from the camera, turn the camera on, and reconnect the FireWire cable to the camera. Check with the hard disk vendor for a possible firmware update to prevent this problem.
here:
http://www.2ndwave.com/firewire.asp
At the moment I can't upset what I'm doing to test it but I intend to do that as soon as I finish copying transferring...
I have the following device attached to different firewire ports:
a firewire video device connecting my G5 Desktop to the TV screen
a firewire ibot
I thought I would give u a head start

2 iMacs sharing a Firewire Drive

Is is possible to have my 2 iMacs share the same external Firewire drive via Firewire? I have an ethernet hub but it's not quite fast enough for what I need. I want both iMacs using the same hard drive thru firewire... thanks

I'm wondering if there is any software to create a hub or a network drive out there so I can use this drive on 2 machines?

Adding a PC Laptop with my iMac, Powerbook and probably Firewire Drive?

Greetings,
I couldn't really find a really good spot to post this question so if anyone can help me out I would appreciate it. I have recently received my new beautiful iMac which now completely supports all my needs together with my G4 powerbook.
I have a fairly new Dell PC (2 years old) that I plan to sell to replace with a simple inexpensive "usable" laptop for some work that requires a windows PC. I am researching getting an external Firewire Harddrive to use between all computers to back up work and documents since most people tell me I need Firewire, not USB 2.0.
I have found several PC laptops at a good price that offers a 4 pin Firewire input but this connection looks much different thatn the back of a regular "Firwire" plug since it is so much smaller. If I buy a backup Firewire Harddrive will this work on a PC laptop with that small input cord or should I just get a USB 2.0 Harddrive to use between all computers? Also, if so, should I format the USB/Firewire Harddrive as FAT or something different to be able to use all functionality?
Cheers...
[Powerbook G4] [20" iMac] Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You are probably less likely to find an inexpensive PC with a Firewire port than with a USB 2. There are also external drives with both FW & USB ports. As far as the FW cable, if the FW drive has a 4 pin input, just make sure that you have a cable that is 4 pin to 6 pin to connect to your Macs. The FW 400 ports on Macs are 6 pin. Then also, whatever cable you need to match up the external HDD with the PC you buy.
That said, you don't need a PC to run Windows anymore. There are a number of ways to run Windows on the new iMac Intels; Boot Camp from Apple, which is a free Beta right now, but will be part of Mac OS X 10.5 when it comes out in the next few months, as well as Parallels and VMWare Fusion, also a Beta currently, which run Windows from within Mac OS X as virtual PCs.

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.

IBook won't load Firewire drive; "unknown device"

That's the summation via System Profiler. It's a SmartDisk Firelite enclosure but I swapped the old 40 GB drive that failed for a new Seagate Momentus 80 GB drive. My G4 dualie recognizes the new SmartDisk setup fine. It loads immediately and I was able to access via all the utilities. Transfers work well.
But on the 1.33 iBook the green light appears on the SmartDisk enclosure, but no threat of loading. Only System Profiler identifies something, "unknown device" with 400 capability. When I remove the firewire cable, System Profiler doesn't see anything.
I had no trouble with the SmartDisk prior to the old drive failing. It worked perfectly on the iBook. My firewire port appears to be okay, since I tried Target Disk Mode with the two computers and it worked well.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I Googled and found many issues of "unknown device" related to firewire drives, but none that seemed to precisely fit this case, a drive that was recognized on one computer but not another. Both are running 10.4.11.

I'm still baffled but tonight I found an acceptable alternative, a Macally 250 Firewire/USB enclosure that I had in my closet but never used previously. The Seagate drive loads on both the dualie and iBook using that enclosure, which is bulkier than the SmartDisk but right now I don't really care.

Multiple Firewire Drives Do Not Load to Desktop

Hi all,
I have been using several Firewire External drives with Avid Express Pro editing system. Over the past months several firewire drives have broken down on me, increasingly loosing functionality over a period of several weeks. I have now damaged 3 external drives - two were Lacie 800+400 Pin Firewire Drives, and just recently my G-Technology Firewire Drive has also broken down.
First the drives slow down on playback, then read/write time slow down. this happens when using Avid, Final Cut Pro, or when trying to simply copy files to the drive.
Now, my current G Tech Firewire Drive will not even load to the desktop, and Disk Utilities can not find it. I have tried using both 400, 800 pin fW, and USB 2. Problem continues. I have reset ram, run tech tools cd - no problems are found.
When I plug the Firewire Drive into my iBook laptop - it loads fine and runs normally! When I run Disk Utility from the iBook it says the Firewire drives
need no repairs!
I recently connected a friend's firewire drive that had never been used on my desktop and it loaded to my G5 just fine!
What is happening? Is my G5 desktop corrupting the drives as it writes to them? It clearly has something to do with how my computer is interacting with these FW drives. Is it a firmware issue?
I am under a pressing deadline, and can't let go of this desktop for service for over a week right now.
Any suggestions much appreciated! I'm desperate to get this going!
Thanks!

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the feedback. In all cases, I've been using FW drives on their own, not daisy changed. I've tried multiple FW cables as well to confirm that it is not the cables. These 3 different drives I've had problems with each have their own separate power supply, so I don't think that's the issue.
I'll try running a copy of DiskWarriror.
However, if it's an issue of directories on the drive, wouldn't the FW Drives not work on ALL computers? Why would it function fine on any computer other then my desktop?
Any more thoughts would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Max

Not able to connect to firewire drive on network

Hey there knowledgeable people I'm having problems connecting to a firewire drive on a network at home any help greatly appreciated. here's the set up.
G5 has 5 firewire drives daisy-chained together and there's also a lone USB drive attached to it as well. G5 is plugged into (via eternet) an eternet hub. my powerbook is also plugged into the network via the hub. I can see/access all the drives on the G5 (including the USB) but there's one firewire drive that I can't see (it is formatted FAT32, is that an issue?). I've tried plugging it into the G5 on its own without going through the daisy-chain but still nothing.
any thoughts as to why? oh and both computers are running 10.5.2
cheers, Julian

Never mind my question any more. I reformatted the drive in question to Mac Journaled and presto it shows up on the network no probs.

Firewire drives to share to 4 computers

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