Two external FW drives - Can't mount both at same time?

Hi, I just got two new 200 GB ATA drives and I've installed them in two separate cases. I have managed to get both drives formatted and mounted, but only one at a time. If I have one drive switched on and mounted, as soon as I switch the other one on, the system hangs and I get the beach ball. If I then switch off the drive I just put on, things return to normal. If I unmount the first drive and switch it off and then turn on the second drive it mounts normally.
I have another FW drive with a different type of controller in its case (Oxford Semiconductor Ltd). I can mount that no problem and then mount either of the two new drives. The only thing I can't get to work is the the two new drives in their cases made by the same manufacturer. System Profiler says that the external cases contain Prolific PL3507 Combo devices.
I have tried every way of connecting the drives - i.e. two cables one from each drive to each FW port on my computer and also daisy chaining the drives, but I still can't get the two new drives to mount together. If I use my old FW drive and one of the new ones, I have no problem getting them both to mount with two cables or daisy chained.
So I'm stuck now - any advice I can get here will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Powermac G4 MDD 1GHz DP Mac OS X (10.3.9) 2 GB RAM

Thanks Malcolm - Do you think it might be worth trying to flash the firmware on these cases - there seem to be updaters available on Prolific's website. Obviously I'd have to do it on a PC. I've emailed Prolific asking them about my problem. No reply as yet, and I'm not holding my breath! Do you know if there are any other posts on these boards relating to Prolific? Stupid question really - I'll just do a search...
Thanks again for your post. Cheers from Bonnie Scotland.

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bj10au wrote:
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Hello Everyone,
I am hoping that one of you fine mac experts may be able to assist ~
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Details:
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~
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~
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~~
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~~~~~
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~~~
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Will zapping the PRAM be of any use in getting the external to mount on the desktop?
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I used Disk Utility to test everything and everything was fine.
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Hi, try to put your HDD in other Mac and look if appear the same, also you can try to repair permission.

External Hard Drive won't mount on desktop!

Hey, guys.
I ran into a problem this morning that I've never ran into before and I wasn't sure where to write it but I thought this is best.
Here it goes...
Last night I had a power surge and when I restarted my computer, my external hard drive did not mount on my desktop. I than proceeded with restarting my computer, I relinked all my connections and I cant seem to get it fixed. I have a lot of material on my external drive that I dont have backed up (I know, a stupid move) anyways, I dont want to lose that information. Also, when I open up disk utility, the icon for my external drive is there and the partition I made for my external drive shows up also but the title of my partition for my external hard drive is not in bolded font. I tried to click the button to mount my external drive cause the specs tell me that it is not mounted but when I press the mount button, it does nothing. I than tried clicking the unmount button and than restart my computer and still nothing.
What problem am I facing and how can it be fixed?
Thanks.

Dear Jason,
Gary's advised is, IMHO, a very sound one.
The only thing I can think of about your problem, given the information you have provided us, is to run Disk Warrior on your external HD.
In fact, DW is particularly indicated in events, like:
"...you should run DiskWarrior when you suspect that there is directory damage on one of your disks. Directory damage can result in the disk not mounting (not appearing on the desktop when the computer is started), missing files or folders, an inability to move or copy files, or crashes when files are used...".
You could actually buy your copy of DW Licence on-line and download it directly onto your internal HD, starting from this "Information you must read before you make your purchase" page. A hardware copy of the software you have so purchased, will follow by postal service (or currier, if so you choose), shortly.
Follow all the instructions you will find in the download to install the DW software onto your main internal HD and then run it on your external hard drive.
DW has saved my data several times and in similar situations as you are experiencing. IMHO, you should seriously give it a try and, even in the unfortunate event it does not manage to solve your problem, it is one of those Mac OSX utilities which ANY Mac power user MUST have handy at all times.
So, no matter what, my opinion is that it is always well-spent-money those used to purchase your copy of DW: in the long run, you won't regret it.
In the event that even DW is unable to retrive your precious data, my suggestion is to contact Micro Com data recovery. It's going to cost you some money, but if you make a leaving out of the data you've lost on your external hard drive, it's going to be worth it.
All the best.
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