FW400 or USB hard drives freeze the system until unplugged

Here's what happens, and I can reliably reproduce with any external HD either FW400 or USB:
I'll plug it in and it'll work just fine... for a while.
Then, at a seemingly random time, all disk activity to ANY disk will halt. This means internal SATA2, eSATA2, USB Flash, FW400, USB, etc. Any disk queries go unanswered. If I try and open a video off the external disk, QT opens then hangs.
Usually, when I disconnect the disk, I get the usual "Device not ejected" error, but then my system returns to its normal state.
Again, this is with any HD I've tried, both on FW400 and USB. Also, a FW400 DVD-RW has this same problem. It seems to be a generic disk issue... though this problem does NOT include eSATA disks - they work just fine and don't hose the system.
The only difference between the eSATA disks and the FW400/USB disks is that, at least with the FW400 disk I currently have next to me, it's formatted with the Apple Partition Map whereas the eSATA are formatted with GUID Partition Map.
Here's the console log from plugging in the HD on a FW400 port then watching it become unresponsive:
Dec 10 09:28:40 Defiant kernel[0]: IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00::setPowerState(0xc715f00, 3 -> 2) timed out after 100146 ms
Dec 10 09:33:40 Defiant kernel[0]: IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00::setPowerState(0xc715f00, 2 -> 1) timed out after 100123 ms
// At this point, I unplugged it
Dec 10 09:34:20 Defiant /usr/sbin/spindump[20189]: process 20184 is being monitored
Dec 10 09:34:21 Defiant /usr/sbin/spindump[20189]: process 20184 is being force quit
Dec 10 09:34:30 Defiant diskarbitrationd[44]: QuickTime Player [20184]:83839 not responding.
Dec 10 09:34:30 Defiant diskarbitrationd[44]: mds [34]:14595 not responding.
Dec 10 09:34:30 Defiant diskarbitrationd[44]: fseventsd [40]:13059 not responding.
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test' (fd=0) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310/index State' (fd=26) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310/live. 0.indexGroups' (fd=32) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310' (fd=33) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310/journ alAttr.28' (fd=34) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310/live. 0.indexIds' (fd=35) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310/live. 0.indexHead' (fd=36) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310/store .db' (fd=49) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310/.stor e.db' (fd=50) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test' (fd=59) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310/journ alLive' (fd=60) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:34:34 Defiant mds[34]: (Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310/journ alSync' (fd=62) left open on device 234881041
Dec 10 09:35:20 Defiant kernel[0]: IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00::setPowerState(0xc715f00, 1 -> 4) timed out after 100239 ms
// At this point, my system usually returns to its normal state. This time, it did not, so I plugged the drive back in via USB (external hard drive has both USB and FW400), and got the following logs before unplugging it.
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: jnl: disk5s3: replay_journal: from: 17478144 to: 18109440 (joffset 0x749000)
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: jnl: disk5s3: journal replay done.
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: disk4s3: I/O error.
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:06: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: disk4s3: media is not present.
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: lkNum 14920] [LBlkNum 14920] [FSLogMsgID 1006091285] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant com.apple.launchd[128] ([0x0-0x760760].com.apple.quicktimeplayer[20184]): Exited: Terminated
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant mds[34]: (/Volumes/Stability Test/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/1A194423-2C4A-4DB5-8EFA-4AABCA422310)(Erro r) IndexCI in openPayload:open err: 6, 0.indexPositions
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant fseventsd[40]: event logs in /Volumes/Stability Test 1/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (518 1 1527)
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: jnl: disk4s3: dojnlio: strategy err 0x6
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant fseventsd[40]: log dir: /Volumes/Stability Test 1/.fseventsd getting new uuid: 3FDB756A-ADEB-4531-821A-CBA1C2D273FE
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: jnl: disk4s3: writejournalheader: error writing the journal header!
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant /usr/sbin/spindump[20189]: process 20184 is being no longer being monitored
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: disk4s3: media is not present.
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:06: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: jnl: disk4s3: dojnlio: strategy err 0x6
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: jnl: disk4s3: end_transaction: only wrote 0 of 61952 bytes to the journal!
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: disk4s3: media is not present.
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:06: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Dec 10 09:37:06 Defiant kernel[0]: disk4s3: media is not present.
Dec 10 09:37:07 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:07: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Dec 10 09:37:07 Defiant kernel[0]: disk4s3: media is not present.
Dec 10 09:37:07 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:07: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Dec 10 09:37:07 Defiant kernel[0]: disk4s3: media is not present.
Dec 10 09:37:07 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:07: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Dec 10 09:37:07 Defiant kernel[0]: disk4s3: media is not present.
Dec 10 09:37:07 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:09: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Dec 10 09:37:09 Defiant kernel[0]: disk4s3: media is not present.
Dec 10 09:37:09 Defiant kernel[0]:
Dec 10 09:37:09: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Dec 10 09:37:09 Defiant kernel[0]: jnl: disk4s3: close: journal 0x40e2a28, is invalid. aborting outstanding transactions
I see the "I/O Error" above... but don't believe its the disk. Again, completely different disks, both confirmed working on a G5 iMac, cause my MacBook Pro 17" C2D to stop responding, both running Leopard.
Any ideas as to what's wrong? Or even better, how to fix it? It'd be really nice to use my USB drive for Time Machine, FW for temporary storage, and my eSATA disks for high-speed temporary stuff... instead of using an eSATA disk for Time Machine...

Me again. I think I have solved and/or understood the USB problems I have seen.
The issue of the external drive 'ticking' may indicate a lack of bus power, according to various other threads in this forum. There also seem to be differences between left and right USB ports. My external drive does not mount at all when plugged into the left USB port, even though the power light is on.
I was still getting an intermittent problem with the drive plugged into the right hand port. This appears to have been fixed by reformatting the drive in a different way, creating a single Partition rather than using Erase in Disk Utility. I have also disabled Spotlight indexing on the backup disk: maybe that's what really fixed it?
The other observation I have is that the drive only seems to work if the cable is connected to the computer first, then to the drive.

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I have a mac pro and want to place my files on a seperate hard drive to the system. Can anybody please ad vise me what I have to do to achieve this. My OS X is Lion 10.7.5

Drag and drop will normally work if the separate hard drive is formatted right:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3003
Mind you, an external hard drive is the ideal way of backing up data. Software such as Carbon Copy Cloner or Time Machine can be used for backing up, and is much faster than using the Finder for drag and drop, and will ensure the entire system gets backed up.
Time Machine offers whole unbootable system backup with archiving. Each archive has a temporary existence as long as the backups are automatic. When you make them manual, you can copy them off to a non-time machine source to ensure they exist longer. The larger your destination drive, the longer the archives last.
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I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive. I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB. I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive. 10.6.8

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http://pondini.org/TM/18.html
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Can you share a USB hard drive over the network through an Airport Express?

After asking a few individuals at my local Apple Store, I have been consistantly told that I can plug in a usb hard drive into the bottom of my airport express and share it over the network.
However, after making sure my airport express has the latest firmware (6.3) and even donwloading and installing the airport disk utility I still am not having any luck getting my HFS (journaled) usb 2.0 hard drive to be visible on the network.
I have also noticed that when following the instructions on this apple support document (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AirportUtility/5.1/en/ap2108.html) that when I get to step 3, the option to click disks is grayed out. I assume this supports my theory that the airport express won't share hard drives, can anyone confirm?
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Thanks
Message was edited by: althe3rd

Thanks for the swift reply.
Continuing my investigation I started to come to the conclusion you just mentioned. I am surprised none of the staff at my store realized this. However, at least I know now.
The basis for me looking to this is... With leopard on the eve of its release, I wanted to get a large network accessible storage solution that would allow my wife's and I's Macbook pros to use time machine on the network drive when we were at home. Since we rarely use our laptops while sitting at a desk connected to an external drive, I figured this would be a great idea and started to look into various NAS solutions.
Surprisingly, most generic (netgear, western digital) network drives require you use proprietary software to connect to them, and are only compatible with windows xp. After seeing the options the airport extreme opens up in terms of network storage I figured it would be the best bet.
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I attached an external USB 2.0 hdd and stored data on it at a rate of about 35MB/s. This took really long, cause it was a larger backup. CPU load didn't exceed 20%.
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karol wrote:
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I have recently bought the new airport etreme 802.11n. Great little device, look wonderful on the office desk. I had some troubles getting it up and running on my machine but finaly got there in the end.
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I have recently bought the new airport etreme
802.11n. Great little device, look wonderful on the
office desk. I had some troubles getting it up and
running on my machine but finaly got there in the
end.
The USB hard drive is a great little addition that I
was very excited about, untill I got it running. It
is amazingly slow, for example I tried to copy a
folder that contained 15 files which amounted to
135.6mb and it took 20 mins and 24 seconds to
upload!
Is this just the speed that it should be uploading or
is there somehting wrong with my settings.
I'm running on 3 bars of signal and the settings I'm
using are:
connect with password (which is the same as the base
stations password)
Automatically discover disks
Show in menu bar
If anyone knows the technical data for the transfer
speeds and can confirm my queries I'd really
appreciate it!
Thanks in advance
Does your drive meet these requirements?:
You can connect USB-based storage devices to an AirPort Extreme (802.11n). Learn which formats and protocols are supported.
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The AirPort Extreme (802.11n) shares storage devices based on the format used to initialize the storage device. For example, if HFS-plus formatting was used, AFP and SMB/CIFS protocols are used to share the device on the network. If FAT16 or FAT32 was used, SMB/CIFS protocols are used.
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I totally agree. It was frustrating that it would add to the sharing list just like any other folder and say it's shared but then not appear on the network on other computers.
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http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-Upgrade-Main.html
In case you are one of the few contributors to this Mac Pro forum who is not already aware of his MPG, this is the link to the main "Articles & Reviews" section:
http://macperformanceguide.com/index_topics.html
I use my system mainly for photo editing, digital imaging, and colour printing up to A2 size, and I have found Lloyd's MPG indispensible, and I would also recommend that anybody with an interest in photography should follow his Blog at:
http://diglloyd.com/index.html
Regards,
Bill
Message was edited by: Biltan-Wales

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FW400 or USB hard drives freeze the system until unplugged

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