New Firewire external hard drive freezes

I have an external USB hard drive, and it works fine if I test it by copying and pasting 10 .jpg files (total ~ 2Meg) to the external USB hard drive from the internal hard drive. I got a new external firewire hard drive and if I try the same test, it freezes mid-copy. (It just sits there forever and I actually have to power down to get it to un-freeze).
It's a brand new Acomdata 250GB firewire external hard drive.
What could be wrong?
Thanks!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I'd return the drive. Get a drive from
Otherworld Computing
Granite Digital (they make cases to go around internal drives)
LaCie
Cooldrives
These are the only ones I know to reliably work under Mac OS X 10.3 or higher.
See my FAQ:
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html
Disclaimer: Reference to links I make to my Macmaps.com website are a for your information only type reference. I do not get any profit from this page, and it is open to the public.

Similar Messages

New FireWire external hard drive won't mount: conflict with iSight?

My parents just upgraded their eMac (1 GHz, 1GB RAM) to Leopard and bought an external FireWire hard drive to use Time Machine. We got the drive back to their place, powered it up, and plugged it in via the FireWire cable. Nothing. Wouldn't mount, didn't show up in System Profiler or Disk Utility. We tried a few more times but eventually gave up and figured the drive was DOA.
After I got home, I realized I should have had them unplug their iSight and try again. Is the FireWire bus on the eMac balky enough that this one additional device could have caused a conflict? They're not using any FireWire hubs: these were the only two devices on the bus.
If it does work without the cam attached, is there then any way to get the two devices to play nicely together afterward? They use the cam all the time for videochats with family, so I'm not about to tell them they have to give that up just to get more frequent backups.
Thanks!

Thanks for your speedy reply. How appalling that a computer with two FireWire ports can't use two FireWire devices! And it's Apple's own device that causes the conflict. I can't even think of an easy workaround, since the whole point of Time Machine is that the drive remains connected all the time.
I guess I could have them eject the drive, unplug it, and connect the iSight whenever they want to start a videochat. If the eMac only had USB 2.0, this would be moot! D'oh.
I'm getting ahead of myself, though -- I still have to go to their place and try the external drive without the iSight attached. Thanks again for confirming my suspicions.

New Firewire External Hard Drive

I have a 186 GB ext. Firewire HD used for general backup of the internal HD (Retrospect and Carbon Copy Cloner). I plan to buy a 300 GB ditto to replace it. The 186 GB one will be for FCE's Sctratch Disc, to which I will move all files associated with FCE, eg., scratch files etc., (and Reconnect them) except Project files and source files (files such as, audio, movies from other programs, still images etc.) which will remain on my internal HD.
All my Projects are either finished and archived or not yet captured. I will alter my User Preferences to point to the new scratch disc.
The FCE Project files will be backed up to the new 300 GB HD, and I will rely on the miniDV tapes to provide a backup for Captured material.
This seems to suit my method of working, but are there any problems?
Thanks.
G5/2.0 GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9) 1 GB RAM, 150 GB HD, Sony DCR-HC96 mini DV, FCE HD 3.0

Hi Steve,
As long as you are careful about what you move & how, and how you modify your FCE preferences, you should be fine.

Trying to use a new, larger external hard drive for my Time Machine backup. However, every time I start the backup, it gets started then fails. And, I can't delete the few files that did save on the external. Sort of a catch 22. Any ideas?

Trying to use a new, larger external hard drive for my Time Machine backup. However, every time I start the backup, it gets started then fails. And, I can't delete the few files that did save on the external. Sort of a catch 22. Any ideas?

Is it a USB hard drive? USB hard drives have the problem of not giving full speed if they are hooked up on the same bus as keyboards and mice. Double check your profiler to make sure that is not a problem. If it is Firewire, make sure there aren't other firewire devices in use at the same time. I recommend not only keeping a Time Machine backup, but also a clone, and if you do use Time Machine, to make sure the Time Machine drive or partition is at least twice the size of the original drive.

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

You'll get better performance if you use a Firewire hard drive (especially if you buy a 7200 RPM drive). Firewire's IO speed is significantly faster than USB 2. USB 2 has a theoretical max speed of 480 Mbps except that it has extremely high over-head. The fastest speeds you can typically get are about 300 Mbps. Firewire, on the other hand, has very little overhead. The fastest speeds you can get are very nearly 800 Mbps. You will typically be constrained by the maximum read/write speed of the drive, not the speed of the I/O on the Firewire bus. Now if you had one of those nice shiny new Macs with the Thunderbolt I/O and a Thunderbolt drive (Light Peak) ... I think they alter space and time so that your data arrives before you know you want it.
Also... unless you want to buy a solid state drive (very expensive), try to keep your hard drives from becoming much more than about 60% full if you want great performance. A nearly "full" hard drive is, on average, only about half as fast as the same hard drive when nearly empty.
USB 2 will work perfectly fine... just not as fast.
Also... it's much safer to move the entire Aperture library than to "relocate masters". Your images must be managed. You can Aperture manage them, or you can manage them. But someone has to manage them. If you "relocate" them so that they are no longer stored inside the Aperture library then you'll need to work out a system of how you decide to organize things and it's critically important that you don't start moving files around or deleting things without Aperture's knowledge. If you do, you'll break the links to your masters and start having problems with missing masters. If you have Aperture manage the library then you don't need to worry about any of that stuff.... it's safer.
Do make backups (use the Aperture Vault or use some other backup program, but make sure you back up your work if you care about it.) There are only two kinds of hard drives in the world: (1) those that have failed and (2) those that are going to fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hard drives are cheap. Backup software is built into Aperture and into your Mac.

Why is external hard drive freezing on iTunes upload?

I have been having problems with uploading music from an external hard drive into iTunes for about a month and I do not know what to do. I recently purchased a HP Envy 15 running Windows 7 64bit home edition. I decided to scrub my iTunes library and start new with uploading selected CDs and purchases from both Apple and Amazon onto the external hard driv e (Western Digital 1TB). Putting the music on the external hard drive is not an issue as I see that all of my music files are there. However, when it comes to adding all my music folders into iTunes the problem starts. The upload will get to song 200-300 and both the hard drive and program will freeze. When I first purchased the laptop I tried the same thing and connecting my iPod classic to the laptop and had the same issue causing my whole computer to freeze following by the blue screen of death. Concerned, I sent my laptop to HP to fix thinking my USB drives were bad. I just received back a week ago and I am having a repeat issue minus the blue screen of death. Again, putting my CDs onto the external hard drive was not a problem at all, but when I want to add my Amazon MP3 files, other iTunes music and other folders my external hard drive freezes.
I have my external plugged into the USB 3.0 port while attempting the upload and not sure if this is the issue. I am also unsure if enough power is getting to the hard drive during upload as I have read about this being an issue for some users. Can anyone provide any assistance on this? I am trying to avoid putting all 5000-7000 songs on my main drive to get my music back on my iPod and find this super annoying. Any assistance would be great, thanks.

Nope, one of the selling points of the drive was that it came ready to work with both Mac and Windows (the product description says there is an NTFS drive installed for use on Mac). No hacking or installing on my part.
But I think I figured it out. Apparentely, Mavericks comes installed with something that does not allow it to write NTFS no matter what (well, unless you go through a whole bunch of technical stuff to rewrite the software). My old MacBook was Leopard.
I'll just reformat the external hard drive for Mac, and if I ever need to use it on a Windows, I'll install HFS+ Explorer on the Windows. Oh well.

HT1751 i bought a new, larger external hard drive. copied my itunes library from the old drive to the new one, changed the libarary location in Edit/Preferences/Advanced to the new drive. iTunes will not start or run unless old hard drive plugged in.??

I bought a new, larger external hard drive. I have my iTunes library on the external drive instead of C: drive, Using Windows 7.
I copied my itunes library from the old drive to the new one, changed the libarary location in Edit/Preferences/Advanced to the new drive.
iTunes will not start or run unless the old hard drive is plugged in.
If I disconnect the old drive iTunes shuts down.
Any ideas. ??

Hello kskip,
Thank you for providing so much information about what is going on. It sounds like you have setup iTunes to save new content to your new external hard drive in iTunes>Preferences, but it sounds like iTunes is not opening iTunes Library.itl file on the new external drive. You have one last step to take to have iTunes point to your new external hard drive rather than your old one:
Steps to create or choose a different iTunes Library file
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
If you are using Windows, hold down the Shift key and from the Start menu and choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes.
You should see the following screen:
Additional information
If you do not see the screen above, then you did not hold the correct key at the correct time. You may want to try again. Note that if you pinned iTunes to the Start menu programs, and open it that way, it may not work.
Once you select "Choose Library," you will need to navigate to the iTunes Library.itl file on your new external drive.
You can find the full article here:
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1589
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

Can anyone help me figure out how to use my new LaCie external hard drive to import movies from my camcorder into imovie '09? I ran into so many problems last night!! Was up way past my bedtime!

Can anyone help me figure out how to use my new LaCie external hard drive to import movies from my camcorder into imovie '09? I ran into so many problems last night!! Was up way past my bedtime!

I'll stay in this chat ... I answered in the other one ... I have a Sony digital Handycam ... from years ago. I just got the LaCie and I think I formatted it for only to be used on my Mac ... how should I go about reformatting it to be HFS Extended like you said?

Editing using a firewire external hard drive and a NTSC television monitor

I have Final Cut Express 2 and use it with a firewire external hard drive and a NTSC television monitor.
I have started to use iMovie with this same set up. I save my iMovie projects to an external hard drive and also have my miniDV deck connected via firewire with the composite outputs going into a 27 inch television so that I can get a better idea of what my colors and title safe framing, etc. look like.
I have had some minor problems with this set up. Like stuttering video, audio tracks playing back when thay are "unchecked" and the "unexpectedly quit" deal.
Thanks in advance!!!
Frank

iM uses a lot of harddrive space on the "start up"/internal disk, even when the project itself is located on some external drive.. make sure, you have at last 10 - 15GB free...
.. and the goo' ol' stutter-problem, in detail discribed by Mastermind Karl Petersen: Stutter in iM5/6, causes and workarounds <<click

FireWire External Hard Drive Workaround

Scenario:
1.) AirPort Extreme connected to Mac Mini via ethernet.
2.) Mac Mini connected to a FireWire External Hard Drive.
3.) MacBook Pro connected to AirPort Extreme via 802.11n (wireless).
4.) AirPort Utility is administered from the MacBook Pro.
Problem:
Considering that the AirPort Extreme does not support a FireWire External Hard Drive, I was hoping to find a work around. Is there any way to indirectly access the FireWire External Hard Drive connected to my Mac Mini from my AirPort Utility administered from my MacBook Pro? Essentially I want to access files from the External Hard Drive on my MacBook Pro without being physically tethered to my Mac Mini or the External Hard Drive. That is, I would like to define the External Hard Drive as an Airport Disk in Airport Utility so I can utilize the Back To My Mac feature.
Solution:
Your solution goes here...

That is, I would like to define the External Hard Drive as an Airport Disk in Airport Utility so I can utilize the Back To My Mac feature.
No that won't work.
If your Mac mini simply has File Sharing enabled you can get to the drive using Back To My Mac with no involvement of the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS).

Firewire external hard drives no longer mount

I had 2 firewire external hard drives connected, not always at the same time and not running all the time. Suddenly they won't mount. I have run System Profiler and it shows "No information Found". The drives themselves mount on my other Mac laptop.
An external DVD writer, when mounted, shows up in profiler though not on the desktop. I have set the finder preferences to -show all mounted drives. System profiler lists all my USB devices. It's just the 2 Firewire hard drives that show no information found. The DVD writer works in either Firewire port.The hard drives are each made by a different manufacturer.
I have re-started with everything off. I have hot swapped.
Help-I need these drives to store photo files and print publications.
Fairview
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9) G4
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9) G4

fairview:
The next step is to see if it is directory related and Repair Disk:
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report if it says anything but Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need to use a utility like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior
Good luck.
cornelius

Recently moved itunes/iphoto libraies to new, larger external hard drive...

Had large itunes/iphoto libraries that had resided on an external hard drive connected to my imac. These were backing up to a time capsule. Recently moved both libraries to a new, larger external hard drive. When Time Machine goes to back up, it is now trying to back up everything again, not just anything that is new. This is about 300 GB of music/movies/photos that were already backed up, and it is now trying to completely backup all this again. 2 300 GB backups will take up a lot of my TC. Should I just let it go? Do I have a possible issue with space? Just want to be sure I do the right thing....

lisacooney wrote:
I have recently moved all of my files to a larger external hard drive
How did you move these files?

LaCie FireWire External Hard Drive NOT working ...

I have a 250GB LaCie External Hard Drive plugged via FireWire into my Desktop and it is NOT working properly for the last 12-14 months. I have tried several things, including taking it to the store, and nothing seems to fix the problem. I even upgraded the RAM to 1.25 GB, but that did not solve this problem (I never thought this was the problem, but the guy at the Genius Bar suggested so). The most frustrating of all is that sometimes it works (20% of the time) and most of the time it is just not working. Also, when I use it with my MacBook, it works just fine, so this gives me a little bit of a clue that the problem is the desktop, not the Hard Drive, this is why I did not buy a new HDrive, and this is why I am asking help here. (By the way, when I try to eject the LaCie from my Desktop, it says it can't be done because the disk is in use -which I know is not)
Here is the thing as today. Last week I was able to drag some music from my iTunes to my HD using my MacBook. I connected my LaCie back to my desktop (which is where I need it to be) and I can NOT copy any file from my desktop to my LaCie Hardrive. It gives an error message like "The name is too long for the destination". Really weird! If I change the name it still says the same. So when I want to save a CD to my LaCie (which is the main purpose of me having an External Hard Drive, I just can't do it).
When I try to open files from the LaCie, it is fine as long as it is a jpeg or a .doc file. MP3 files won't open, and an error will show like this: Disk could not be read from or written to. I can drag files from LaCie to my dektop, but again, only .doc or .jpeg files.
In regards to the Time Machine, I completely gave that up. It would not back up, it would freeze the computer ... I really don't care about that, really. All I want is my External Hard Drive to be able to save my mp3 files safely, since I have thousands of files in mp3 format.
I tried to use Disk Utility to verify and/or repair de disk, but I was not successful with that either. When repairing, after not even a minute it says "Disk could not be unmounted". When trying to verify, it would say "Filesystem verify or repair failed".
I am DESPERATELY asking for help. I am just a regular guy with few computer knowledge. I just want my Apple to work, that is why I use Apple and not PC. But I need someone who could give me advice on how to fix this problem.
Thank YOU very much!

{quote}
My desktop has two FireWire ports. In the first one I had my webcam plugged in. In the second one, the External Hard Drive. I unplugged the camera and used the first port for my External HDrive and now it works! So it seems the problem is a hardware problem with the port.
I'd check to see if the problem returns when you plug the camera back into the second port, or if the drive works in the original port when the camera is not connected.
Edit: Maybe you unplugged the problem, when you unplugged the camera?
Message was edited by: dechamp

OK, Dropped frames due to firewire+external hard drive+camcorder?

I have an iMac 2.4GHz , 1G Memory (I know this is less than ideal). I have a Firelite Smartdisk 120G plugged into iMac firewire. I am daisychaining my CanonZR500 into the external drive. When I capture video I have lots of dropped frames.
Anyone tell me why? Do I need a better external drive?
Thanks

Not all Canon cameras have connection issues, but hanging around this site I've come to recognize their ability to connect in FCP is the most problematic of all the camera brands. If you have a Canon camcorder, and can not get it to connect up with FCP, the following is a way to sort through the issues and get it to work. Some are elegant - some are ugly.
Before we go any farther -
• You should be using 'Firewire Basic' as the control protocol. If you aren't, go change it and try again.
• Also, verify that you have a solid installation of Quicktime. You may want to reinstall it using the 'delete receipts' method. Do a quick search here on the site - it is mentioned daily if not hourly.
With some confidence that the software installation and camera settings are correct ... the most direct solution is to purchase another, non-Canon device to use as your capturing machine. The Sony DSR-11 is highly recommended for DV work. A deck will save wear and tear on the camera's lightweight drive mechanism and will allow you to permanently connect a NTSC/PAL monitor for proper viewing. If you are working with HDV, you may have other issues ...
Beyond that, the path you take depends on the model of computer you own.
1. If you have a G5 tower or a MacPro, capture to a second internal drive with only the camera attached. If you need to move material to firewire drive, disconnect the camera. A second internal drive is quite inexpensive these days if you do not already have one.
2. If you have a G5 tower (PCI) MacPro (PCIe), G4 powerbook (PCMCIA) or MacBookPro (Expresscard 34) with an available slot, purchase the appropriate firewire card for the slot. Connect your camera to the card and you should be good to go. The new card creates a unique bus and will avoid collisions with the external drives.
3. If you do not have a slot or a second internal drive and you are stuck with the camera, welcome to the camera/drive shuffle.
• shut down and remove the external hard drive(s) from the system
• connect the camera directly to the firewire port of the computer
• start the camera then the computer
• capture to your internal (system) hard drive
• shut down the camera and computer
• disconnect the camera and reconnect the external hard drive(s)
• start hard drive(s) and computer
• move captured files to external hard drive(s)
• edit
If you output back to tape or wish to view your work on an external Video (NTSC or PAL) monitor, you need to set up the camera to use the firewire out as the A/DV converter or VTR - which means reversing the steps:
• copy the file back to the internal drive
• shut everything down
• disconnect the external drive(s)
• connect the camera to the firewire port (and the TV to the camera if needed)
• start the camera then the computer
• play the file.
One caveat here - You may have difficulty getting the file back to tape without dropping frames. Playing files off of the system drive is very demanding and they may have a hard time keeping up.
All in all, if you do not have the option for second bus (i.e. iMacs, eMacs, iBooks, MacBooks) you may want to think about a computer with expandable options next time.
There is the option of capturing using iMovie, but that brings on it's own set of problems and is not recommended.
Good luck.
x

Problem with firewire external hard drives.

Hey, I'm new (not to Apple just to these forums) and I find this section very helpful.
Anyways, I have a very... odd situation. I just got my new Macbook Pro today, and I've had a 12" Powerbook G4 since it first came out. Alright, with that out of the way, here is the problem. I have 2 external hard drives, both being a Western Digital. Now, I hook up this Macbook up to HD "A" and it works. I hook up the Powerbook up to the same HD and it fails to recognize it.
Here is where it gets weird. I hook this Macbook up to HD "B" and it fails to recognize it. I hook up the Powerbook to it, and it recognizes it. Any idea as to why this might be? I was thinking maybe because my Macbook is on a 35% charge right now. Then again, my Powerbook's battery doesn't last 5 minutes and the charger for it is away from both HD's and it still works for "B".
If you can help, thanks much. I have searched, but to no avail have I found the same problem that is occurring with me at this time.

Check in system profiler under FireWire when both, one after the other, FW-HDD are connected - just to verify it is a technical problem - if no info (effect) -> hardware, if you see any information like this:
1394 USB COMBO:
Manufacturer: 337 COMBO
Model: 0x8034
GUID: 0x1A3500002828D
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Sub-units:
1394 USB COMBO Unit:
Unit Software Version: 0x10483
Unit Spec ID: 0x609E
Firmware Revision: 0x0
Product Revision Level: 0.01
Sub-units:
1394 USB COMBO SBP-LUN:
Capacity: 111.82 GB
Removable Media: Yes
BSD Name: disk2
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: APM (Apple Partition Map)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
your problem has a different background...
Dont use any software on your hdd until your not 100% sure there is no other way...
c.

New Firewire external hard drive freezes

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for