LaCie External Harddrive suddenly won't mount via Firewire 400 or 800

My LaCie External d2 Quadra suddenly won't mount via Firewire 400 or 800, but will mount via USB 2.0.
I have:
Tested the harddrive on another computer and it works fine via firewire.
Shut down and re-boot. It had no effect.
Updated all software.
Note: My MBP will not boot if the Firewire 800 cable is connected.

I've had a whole heap of strife with my two macally enclosures over FW. I've only got them working twice together, regardless of jumper settings on the harddrives. I can plug either in fine, but if I use both together, my mac shuts down and refuses to boot. One drive is bus powered, the other is powered via the mains
I wish you luck

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External Hard Drive Won't Mount Via USB

I have a Western Digital (Model #WD2500...) Hard Drive that is about 3 years old. I initially set it up on a PowerBook running Mac OS 10.3.x. I have two newer laptops both running Snow Leopard, and neither will recognize my drive via USB 2.0.
The weird part is that the drive will mount when connected via Firewire (400 in this case). My newest laptop is on of the new MacBook Pros and it only has Firewire 800. I'm guessing I could probably get a 400 to 800 Firewire cable, but it would be much easier to just use the USB 2.0 connection. Any idea why the drive won't mount over USB 2.0?
I went to the Western Digital site, and there didn't appear to be any new drivers or firmware for this product. The drive seems to run perfectly well over the Firewire connection, so I don't see what the issue is with USB. The documentation that came with the drive indicates that it should work with USB. This is very baffling to me, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much!!

In most external drive enclosures that have both USB and Firewire interfaces, the Firewire interface is able to draw enough power to run the drive. Firewire can provide up to 45 watts and up to 30 volts of power per port (not all devices supply the full wattage; my MacBook model provides up to 8 watts). USB 2.0 and earlier can only provide 5 volts at 500 milliamps (up to 2.5 watts). Some newer laptop drives are at or under 500 milliamps, but just barely, and the enclosure itself needs some power.
It sounds like the USB port on your enclosure is bad. Firewire is going to provide faster transfer rates anyway, and you don't have to bother with the power supply. Based on your comments, I suspect it still might be a bad power supply, or maybe it's not the right one for the drive. Those things are easy to mix up.
If you're brave enough to crack the external drive open, what you'll find inside is a standard off-the-shelf hard disk drive, with either a SATA or PATA interface, in an enclosure. You can move the drive to a new enclosure easily.

General Capture error,capturing straight to MacBook via Firewire 400 to 800

Hi guys,
I'm on a shoot now and whilst I'm capturing straight from my Z7 into the Macbook (going from Firewire 400 to 800), occasionally after the capture I get a 'General capture error' and I lose the footage! Obviously it's backed up on tape so it's okay but this is kinda frustrating, do you think it's an issue with the fact that I'm going from 400 to 800?
I've tried altering the Easy Setup a few times, still having the error.
Thanks,
Alex

In the System Settings/Scratch Disk tab, try activating the "Limit Capture Now To" function. Type in whatever is the longest session you expect to record.
If you don't activate this feature, FCP has no idea how much material to expect and assumes you will need to fill up your harddrive.
Let us know if that helps.
K
BTW...why don't you tell us exactly what format the Z7 is recording and what your capture settings are. Might also include exact versions of OS/FCP/QT.
You may just be choking the macbook, by attempting to capture directly to your internal hd.
Message was edited by: Kevan D. Holdsworth

Lacie external hard drive won't mount, seems dead. Caused by 10.5.6 update?

Hi all, a couple days after I updated Leopard to 10.5.6, my Lacie external drive no longer worked with TimeMachine. So I repaired permissions and ran Repair Disk from my original 10.3 Panther disk. Not sure if that was the cause, but afterward when the drive is connected by FireWire, it makes exciting new loud buzzing and grinding noises, and then I get an alert that reads "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." Apple Disk Utility shows it as a Maxtor Calypso drive now with a capacity of 2TB, even though it's a 160GB (a FireWire only, Porsche model). I don't want to erase the disk and reformat it because I want the data.
Lacie customer support says the drive has suffered a "controller failure." Says Lacie, "The controller on the hard drive mechanism can not obtain the volume information on the hard drive and can not gain access. It is reading the control board information. You should be able to install a new hard drive mechanism in the enclosure and be ready to go again." Lacie CS continued to say DiskWarrior etc will not help.
Now I know that theoretically software updates shouldn't damage hardware, but I believe installing Leopard in the first place caused my lower RAM slot to fail. (That happened immediately after the upgrade.)
-So, does anyone think the 10.5.6 update could have caused this problem? Any fix ideas?
-If not, should I open the drive up and attempt to repair/replace this controller mechanism? If so, can anyone direct me to tutorials or instructions on how I could do that?
-Or, should I try putting it in the freezer overnight, as some online forums recommend as a last resort fix attempt for dead HDs?
I want the data, but not enough to pay for an expensive data recovery service.
Thank you very, very much.
scott

First off, software can not cause hardware to fail.
Lower RAM slot failure is a common issue not because of software issues, but rather because memory is unaware of bus slewing issues with energy saver power requirements. Secondly, the lower RAM slot of these machines was extremely hard to properly align the RAM right in the slot, making it easy to misplace the RAM during the installation process, thus short or damage teh slot. See my FAQ on bad RAM*:
http://www.macmaps.com/badram.html
You should be able to open the drive, and insert it inside another inexpensive hard drive case that is known to be compatible such as those by http://www.macsales.com/
Unfortunately, recently LaCie has had some hard drive interface converters which have not caught up with spec changes in the operating system, meaning their external drives sometimes need a firmware update. The only company that has been able to consistently avoid firmware updates is http://www.macsales.com/ This problem has plagued Firewire hard drives since the release of 10.3, and possibly earlier at as mentioned on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html
If inserting the drive in another case does not solve issues, Prosoft Data Rescue, Subrosasoft Filesalvage, or Boomerang's Boomerang and a second drive at least as large as the one to be recovered can sometimes extract information from a flakey hard drive. In event that doesn't work, then data recovery specialist is the only option.
In the future always backup your data and never let there be less than two copies of your data at anytime*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

External hard Drive will not mount via firewire tpo my Powerbook G4

I have a Powerbook G4 1.5, 2 Gb Ram and an 80 Gb Hard Drive. Well my problem is, I went and purchased a Western Digital External Hard Drive. The box states that this hard drive is compatible for both Windows and Mac. But for some reason I can't get the external hard drive to mount via the firewire. However it will mount by using the USB.
So can someone please provide some troubleshooting tips on how I can get this external hard drive to mount?
Thanks

hi there,
in your case, your drive is probably bad because the copy was interrupted. your hard drive may be finished, but more likely, just the file structure is damaged and/or you have bad sectors.
you have a few options:
*if you don't need the data back:*
• see if the drive appears in disk utility and try to erase/reformat (make sure to zero out data to avoid bad sectors)
• if it doesn't appear, try a pc. it won't recognize it, but it may allow you to reformat/initialize it. then, connect back into mac (which will recognize a pc formatted drive) and reformat as mac os x extended (journaled).
*if you need the data back:*
• try a program like data rescue II, file salvage, or boomerang data recovery first to recover the data
• see if the drive appears in disk utility and try to repair disk
• if that doesn't work, try disk warrior and/or drive genius
• if you aren't successful, you may want to try a professional data recovery service (or me first, to ensure that you actually need someone as high tech as drive savers)
• if you are successful and are able to recover the data, then erase the drive (zero out data) and then move the data back, to ensure you're working off a well formatted drive.
fyi, if your computer freezes in the future, be sure to try appleoptionesc first and force quitting the problem application. if that doesn't work, try controloption+appleeject (shutdown) and/or optionappleeject (restart). if those doesn't work, in this situation, the next best move would probably have been turning off the power on the hard drive. if that doesn't unfreeze the system in a few minutes, then hold the power button.
hope this helps,
brian
corewerkz/briancometa.com/

G drive mini won't mount via firewire 800. usb ok

It hasnt been too long i bought myself a gdrive mini to benefit from the firewire 800 port. It seems that once my macbook gets warm the drive won't mount. It mounts just fine via usb. I've been to the genius bar twice and it worked both times, thats when i noticed it only happens when its warm. I was convinced its a software issue, but i dont know what to think anymore.
Has anyone encounter this issue? Any ideas of whats causing this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated

WAIT WAIT EVERYONE....READ THIS....VERY SIMPLE FIX!
My G mini 750GB drive stopped mounting.....I tried a million methods to get the G mini drive to mount and searched a ton of forums but never found this VERY EASY FIX. Try powering down your computer (imac in my case), then UNPLUG the power supply from the back of the computer....VERY IMPORTANT TO UNPLUG COMPUTER FROM ELECTRIC SOURCE. Nothing else worked for me.
Wait a minute, then plug back in and re-boot....MAGIC - freakin G mini showed up on desk top!
Good Lord why is this simple fix not all over the G mini site?????? It ought to be on the front of the box when you buy this thing! Seems no one at G mini sites talk about this and people are sending drives all over for repair!
Hope this helps!

3rd Gen iPod won't mount via firewire - any ideas?

After working for a brief spell when I first hooked it up, the progress bar would freeze while I was trying to copy files across to the HD. I unplugged, reset the iPod and tried it in my old clamshell iBook, where it worked fine again.
I tried resetting the PMU on the Macbook, but this only made things worse - the iPod now refuses to mount, despite still working fine on my old iBook. Tried resetting PRAM too but no difference.
Do I have a duff port? Or could it be an issue with 10.4.6 on the Macbook?

I tried a JVC digital handycam while on the phone to AppleCare, which it recognised in iChat, and showed a live picture in iMovie. I don't know how I would check for consistency with this device, but it seemed to be working ok.
I'm connecting via a dock but have also tried connecting direct - all official Apple cables. No difference.
I'm now noticing new behaviour. When I plug the iPod in it mounts very briefly, triggers iTunes, then unmounts. It stays charging from the Macbook's firewire port, but the 'do not disconnect' disappears and I can use it as if it was only connected to AC. This is reproducible, and is the same if I turn off the launch iTunes option.
Once again, it works flawlessly with the old iBook.
I'm almost tempted to go down to the Apple Store in Regent St. and plug my iPod into a Macbook there to rule out software - unless you have any other suggestions?
Thanks for your continued support.

Lacie external hard drive suddenly won't mount on iMac 27"

Help! My back up Lacie suddenly won't mount. It shows up on my disk utility (but faded) and I tried to repair it with no benefit. I thought it might be a Lion problem, but my other Lacie is working fine. I tried using a different USB cable and unplugging everything, rebooting etc. Any help would be much appreciated.

There may be hardware problem with the drive. However you can try resetting the SMC. Don't be afraid to reset it 2-3x if the first time doesn't work.
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.

External hard drive suddenly won't mount

Although I've not had a problem with this drive in the past, it all of a sudden won't mount. It has all my music on and stalled while I was using iTunes, the timer wheel came up and was still the same after 20 minutes so I closed down. Now the drive won't mount at all so I can't even try repairing the disk. I've tried swapping from firewire to USB cables and also going through a hub, neither have worked.
It's a Lacie and the power light stays continuously orange on it and it feels like it's working overtime.
PLEASE HELP!

A little bit more on this... I looked at the instructions for the Lacie and it said that some smaller laptops may require a power cable via a USB port and back into the Lacie, which now works but I'm wondering why this has happened all of a sudden and can I rectify it??
I've deleted a load of stuff off my ibook hard drive, like photos etc, thinking that would help but it hasn't. Plus, I've recently installed an extra 1gb power card.
What can I do to avoid having to plug all these peripherals in to access my music?

My external hard drive suddenly won't mount.

I have a mac 0sx version 10.5.8. My WD hard drive suddenly won't mount. Tried running a repair with disc utility-no luck.

Your best bet is DiskWarrior...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

Two seperate external hard drives won't mount

HELP!
Neither of my external hard drives, both AC powered, suddenly won't mount. I've swapped all the cables and ports but no joy - it can only be the mac. Any idea?! Maybe I haven't mounted them since the last software/ security update, I can't remember...
I feel like everything is breaking down one by one and it always seems to be the result of an update.

Ok, a small amount of success.... I've figured out that it's the USB adapter (Apple - The one I got with my ipod). So I changed the fuse in the actual plug, and that works fine with the laptop charger connected but not the USB part of the adapter plug - the actual square adapter than hooks onto the plug... So what can I do about that? is there another fuse inside that? I can't seem to get it open - Do I just need to buy a new one?

Need help with Lacie Big Extreme that won't mount

OK Guys,
My buddy's Lacie 1TB Big Extreme won't mount to any computer we try. The blue light is flashing. We have tried different cables on different computers. After a web search for similar problems we found out several people had success just plugging in a new power supply. So, we ordered one. Didn't work.
I can hear the drive spinning up. Oh, I guess I should mention this unit is out of warranty.
Here's my question. After some research, I found out this drive has 2 hard drives inside and set up as Raid 0. This is the way Lacie sets these up for use right out of the box. So if I take the Lacie enclosure apart and try to mount the drives separately in another generic enclosure what will I see in terms of the files written on a single drive (assuming it mounts) since I am dealing with an initial Raid 0 set-up? My intention is to save the files. Please help.

Same problem with an external LaCie Little Big Disk = does not mount, but shows up under FireWire in System Profiler. I assume it's a OS X issue, because I ran a software "Data Rescue II" and this software has recognized the disk.
Has probably something to do with one of the latest OS X updates, because I've used this disk with Time Machine now more than a year and never had a problem.
I recommend not to experiment with partitioning/reformatting (if you care about the data on the disk) and push Apple for a solution. It assume it's some kind of an access problem.

External Hard Drive Won't Mount- Need to recover files

Hello Everyone,
I am hoping that one of you fine mac experts may be able to assist ~
Problem: External Seagate FreeAgent Desktop USB external hard drive
won't mount on desktop=ie: no access to my important files.. Please Help!
Details:
External seagate freeagent 500 GB Desktop USB HD ( only 2 months old)
(using for document / file backup-not as a startup disc)
on my Mac G3 350 MZ Blue & White Tower /768 ram/ running OSX 10.1.5 & OS9.2~
~
Problem: Started using the external 500 GB HD 2 months ago -with no problems-until this morning. Tried to double click to open it to access files
and got the "beach ball of death" and needed to restart.
My trusty G3 started up fine, however, the external HD was now
not showing up on the desktop as normal. I troubleshooted -by restarting,
trying different a/c plugs/ different USB ports , ran disk utility..called
seagate -not much help . Seagate said to try the HD on another mac-which I did-
a G5 tower- same problem.
~
The External hard drive will show up in disk utility, but is grayed out.
and when click "mount" same two messages keep showing:
message 1: "a disk attempting to mount as unknown has failed verification or has failed to
mount.please use disk utility to check the disk"
~
message 2- when unplugging and repluggin the usb in-and upon
restart:" you have inserted a disk containg no volumes that mac osx
can read to use unreadable volumes,click initialize to continue with the disk inserted ,click continue"
~
( I really need access to these files- and do not want to re-initialize the HD!!)
I ran Disk Utility /first aid "verify & repair , the following info came up:
Repairing disk "main backup 2007 ".
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid key length ( <<<IN RED )
Repair completed. "
~~
Though it said the repair was completed, the "invalid key length" issue
still comes up when re-running disk utility...Hard drive would still not
mount on desktop-even after restarting .
~~~~~
If there is a mac genius out there that can help?- it would be greatly
appreciated. I have tried to call seagate several times in the last several hours-
1st time-they disconnected me after being on hold 10 minutes-2nd call
I was put on hold for 40 minutes ..Finally spoke to someone ( they are not mac users or mac experts!)and he said I would need to send it to Seagate's Data Recovery-... for a fee of course!
~~~
At this point, I am hoping to just get the files and photos off
the hard drive- I heard about Disk Warrior-should I use that and if so
what version?
Thank you very much!
L

Will zapping the PRAM be of any use in getting the external to mount on the desktop?
Your external Hard drive is already recognized. But it cannot be mounted on the desktop due to its directory damage. You can certainly Zap the PRAM, and it will not hurt anything, but I am skeptical that it will change the situation.
Do you think the Disk Warrior 4.0 cd will even work on my G3 350MHZ running Mac OS 10.1.5?
If you boot from the CD and run it from the CD, absolutely yes. If you attempt to INSTALL it from a download or a CD, probably not.
Have you ever used Disc Warrior and is using it complicated?
I own and use Disk Warrior. You select the drive to be rebuilt, it builds a proposed new directory from the information and file fragments available.
When complete, it will provide a list of problems encountered, tell you what files have been placed in the "Rescued Items" folder, and allow you too look at your drive using the proposed new directory. Your only decision is whether the new directory seems to be an improvement over the old \[in your case, hopelessly corrupted] directory. You then tell it whether to replace the old directory with the proposed new directory, or to abandon its work and leave your Hard Drive unchanged.
Is there a good chance that the ext HD will still have my files on it- or do you think from what I've described that they are gone ?
From what you have described, your files are very likely to still be there. Sometimes in a situation like this, a handful of files cannot be recovered.
My other thought was to take the external HD there and have them try to recover the files.
Make sure you completely understand the costs involved. File recovery using a service like DriveSavers can run into many hundreds of dollars. They are prepared to disassemble your drive in a clean room and replace controller boards and read/write heads to achieve success. Your drive has serious, but not fatal, Directory damage. The Hardware, and most of your files, are likely just fine.

External HD's won't mount (& more) after update to 10.3.9

I updated from OS 10.3.2 to 10.3.9 using the Apple updater utility. After the update, external hard drives won't mount unless they are on when I boot up the computer.
Also music cd's won't mount, but data cd's do. The only way I can eject the music cd's is to shut the computer down or use Toast in copy mode. For some reason Toast can "see" the cd.
Also I was running Firefox 1.5.0.7 and Mozilla 1.7.13 when I updated. Now Firefox and Mozilla won't open. I had them in the dock and now clicking on them gets a question mark. I tried downloading Firefox 2. and when I double click the .dmg file I get a warning box saying that the disk image failed to mount because of "error 536870208". I get the same error message when I try and open the .dmg files for the older versions.
Do I need to wipe the hard drive and reinstall everthing? I hope not.
Thanks for any help,
John R

No. DVD's mount and work fine. Music cd's are the only ones that won't mount, and they don't get kicked out.They just sit in the machine. They are not damaged when I do get them out.

External hard drive won't mount, even after disk repair.

My Toshiba external hard drive won't mount on my MacBook Pro 10.8.5. I can see it in my disk repair, and when I repair, "the partition map appears to be ok." But I can't access the icon to be able to open the hard drive contents on my desktop. Help!

Hello maccynicwhoalwayshasmacs,
Thanks for the question. After reviewing your post, it sounds like trouble with an external HD mounting. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help you resolve or isolate the issue.
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a nice day,
Mario

LaCie External Harddrive suddenly won't mount via Firewire 400 or 800

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