Unwanted Duplicate Mounts of FireWire External Disk

Hi all,
I've been having this problem since Tiger, yet it continues through Leopard. Every time I plug in my i-Rocks 9300 series FW800 enclosure for my external 320GB drive, OS X mounts the disk twice if via FW800, which causes all partitions on the disk to become corrupt, forcing me to erase the disk cleanly. This doesn't occur if mounted via USB.
I have a sinking feeling that this is a problem with the firmware in the enclosure. I've tried most everything I can find about disk mounting in OS X. Modifying the fstab is no help, and it seems that there aren't any ways of controlling such behavior properly.
Any help is appreciated.

It does not have FW400, except via a 9-to-6 adapter and cable, and I don't have a 6-pin cable to test it.
I haven't been able to test it out on other Macs, yet.
Yes, I can eject one or the other, but more often than not, another system process has already written things to only one partition, thus causing corruption.
Have tried re-formatting to something other than FAT or HFSJ.
I think I may end up buying another enclosure, since the manufacturer's support team is useless.
Thanks!

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Dear Experts,
Years ago, I tried installing RAC at home on Linux 2.1.
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I was only partially successful.
Today, with Oracle 11, what would be a good external harddisk
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http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/10g/OracleDB10gR2RACInstallationOnCentos4UsingVMware.php
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Disk Utility Unable to Repair External FireWire Hard Disk

Hello all.
This is the External FireWire Hard Disk that has been giving me problems for days, it is a Backup/Clone Disk of my sis's Mac mini Core Duo, and may explain why it was so hard and took so much pain to copy some of the data out, at times it failed to mount, and I manage to rescue some data after using Disk Warrior, but Disk Warrior was also unable to replace it with a new directory.
Anyway, so I (was able to) mount the hard disk, and I was successful in erase and reformating it.
But when I (try to) repair it with Disk Utility's First Aid, this report is what I get:
(The usual 'Checking...' text lines, text in BOLD indicates RED colour text)
Checking HFS Plus volume
Checking Extents Overflow file
Checking Catalog file
Checking Catalog hierarchy
Checking volume bitmap
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information
The volume Untitled could not be repaired after 3 attempts
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
Repair attempted on 1 volume
1 volume could not be repaired
Then a window dropped down from the top says:
First Aid failed
Disk Utility stopped repairing "Untitled" because the following error was encountered:
The underlying task reported failure on exit
(OK Button)
I guess this hard disk is really a gone case?? I am quite OK just to replace it with a brand new one... maybe all the trouble I had in the beginning is because I may already have a faulty backup drive to begin with???
Thanks and cheers

Hi Kappy,
I knew there was something about "not mixing" PPC and Intel versions of dealing with the external drive.
The drive was originally prepared on an Intel Mac mini Core Duo. But it should also mount normally on a PPC mac as an external hard drive right?
Here's the sequence of events:
1. Tried to boot from the Back Up/Clone Drive of the Mac mini Core Duo, through my MacBook Core 2 Duo, but failed to boot up
I had to shut down the MacBook (prolonged Bluescreen)
2. When I reboot the MacBook, and tried to mount the ext drive as normal, nothing happens, I knew something was wrong
3. Able to reach the vendor, use the Mac mini again to erase and reformat the drive, then check with DU, everything is OK
Clone with SuperDuper
After that check again with DU, not everything is alright, there are errors.
4. Brought the drive home, try to mount on my iMac G5, nothing happens.
I did a check on this forum, and the reply was that I should be able to use Disk Warrior 4 (Universal) on a PPC to fix an Intel-based ext drive. I was very specific and detail in my post/question
5. So anyway, I have no other option, I ran Disk Warrior 4 from my PPC iMac G5 and scan the ext drive, trying to fix it.
It reported the drive is too damaged to be replace with a new Directory, but gave me a Preview Mode. I use this to copy some data out.
But not sure if the data is OK or not.
6. After that, I was able to mount the drive in my iMac G5, so I just use DU and erase and reformat the drive, with Zero Data
7. Ran DU again, and that's where I am now, at the very first post, getting error messages that I cannot fix the drive
Thanks and cheers

Fire wire external disk fails to mount

Hello,
I've been trying to work out how to access my LaCie external disk on my macosx 10.4.6.
At first it worked well on both servers. After a while, the mounted icon simply disappeared. Try as I may, neither server mounts my external LaCie or any USB device for that matter.
I reinstalled OSX on one of them and when i connect it now it is correctly mounted, including usb device.
But on the other identical server on which i did not reinstall OSX it still doesn't mount.
Nevertheless, in the system information panel, fire wire, there is a line stating "la cie external drive" blah blah, but without specifiyng size and the disk is not accessible, no icon on the desktop and so on.
I tried shutting off for 20 min, with every cable unpluged, I tried updating but still it does not mount.
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These are the most common reasons for one computer to work with an external drive while another does not (assuming the cable is the same), all of which are covered in my FAQ mentioned earlier, which perhaps I should outline like this:
1. The PRAM needs zapping. Note, if a machine is 3 or more years old, PRAM zapping should only be attempted after verifying that the clock battery is fully charged at 3.6 V.
2. The firewire ports need resetting.
3. Dust in the firewire ports.
4. Installed firmware on the Firewire bridge of the hard drive is not fully compatible with the operating system. Check the manufacturer's support line (in this case e-mail firewire AT lacie.com) for updated firmware.
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Hi,
I just had to reformat and reinstall all the OS and applications on a imac g5 for a friend of mine. I have updated all the os to 10.5.8 and have installed user software iWork, iLife, Microsoft office and Roxio's Toast 10 and a family history software called Reunion. That is all that has been done to this new install.
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Cd's mount just fine.
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pax

BDAqua wrote:
What exactly shows in System Profiler>Hardware>USB for those drives?
Boot from the Install Disc & see if they show up, not grayed out in Disk Utility.
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
We were thinking along the same lines. While at home I dug up a firewire enclosure and put a bootable GUID formatted drive in it (that I had in one of the usb enclosures) and started her computer holding down the option key and then chose to boot from the external firewire. All usb drives are now mounting upon connection. I asume that her drive has bad sectors on it (even though the SMART status says it's OK) and is not loading all the drivers properly for USB to mount. I was suspicious from the beginning that the OS was corrupt when she first had me look at it. It was at that point that I booted it in target mode, connected to my Macbook Pro, and then CCC'd to a usb drive that I had. I then had a couple of difficulties installing the new OS. Should have known......
I am now going to put a new drive in it for her and she'll be up and running.
Thanks so much for your help and thoughts that got me thinking as well.
pax

Firewire external harddrives mounting issues

I searched and have not found any helpful(to me) info on the problems with firewire harddrives not mounting. Just for the info, I have a 320G dual connection Western Digital my book premium edition external hard drive. as others, it won't mount via firewire, but will vis USB. It doesn't show up in system profiler or Disk Utility either When it's connected via firewire. I had suggestions to disconnect,unplug and shut down the harddrive and the imac. wait several minutes, and restart and reconnect. That did nothing. Should I return this harddrive for another brand? I want to keep it as I picked it up dirt cheap on sale, and with rebates, instant savings, etc. it was only $109. And no I don't want to just use it with USB, I want firewire.

Hi Tcimac
It is often difficult to determine a users' specific knowledge level after a few posts.
There are folks that come here looking for help that have never had a computer, and if they did, perhaps someone else like a child or grandchild got them up and running and they are left to their own devices when troubleshooting.
I am sure that those to whom that article was directed do not feel like those are simple steps at all and are often very thankful for the document.
Be thankful for what you do know. Do not forget that to some your question may be equally received-
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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

Firewire external mobil disk hard drive is no longer recognized

After last system update, my firewire external mobil disk hard drive is no longer recognized. Any solutions?
Why does MacOS go backwards... gets worse over time?

Thought you could use this info about getting FireWire to work! I have had no trouble with any update Apple puts out (the Combo update is what I normally choose). Are you running 9.2 like your specs. say? You are in the Tiger forum, so I'll assume you haven't updated your Macs specs.
First, you should always Repair Permissions in Disk Utility before and after any update; I would do that now. If you installed your update with FireWire plugged in, your Mac may not recognize it anymore.
Try resetting your FireWire ports by disconnecting all FW devices, shut down your Mac and unplug it from AC power (wall socket) for 30 minutes. plug it back in and try FW.
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If that still did'nt get it Zap the PRAM. While restarting Mac hold down the following key combo Command-Option-P-R. Keep holding those keys down till you hear the second start-up chime, then release.
For those of you with Macs that are not PowerBooks or iBooks, a bad internal battery can cause FireWire to not be recognized, so make sure it's good!
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Cheers!
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Hi Robert
Yes
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More than likely your old G4 has a disk controller only capable or recognizing drives up to 128Gb size. If it's an original G4 model with no additional ATA card in it, that would be normal.

Yosemite cannot mount external disks

Since I upgraded to Yosemite my IMAC does not mount external disks, even the bright new one I bought
I have also a Macbook Air that I upgraded to Yosemite and these same external disks can be mounted on the Macbook Air.
I have searched on the Apple support community and on the internet and quite some people whom upgraded to Yosemite have the same problem.
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IMAC :
     Hostcontroller : builtin userinterface
     OS hostcontroller : AppleUSBEHCI
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     PCI factory code : 0x8086
     Busnb : 0Xfd
MACBook Air:
     Hostcontroller : builtin userinterface
     OS hostcontroller : AppleUSBEHCI
     PCI- code : 0x0d9d
     PCI revision code: 0x00a2
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Needless to say that I need the data stored on the external disks.
Thks for helping me out.

I have read that if you turn Spotlight off you will have no problems. Open Spotlight, choose "privacy", click the "+" at the lower left and add what you do not Spotlight to search. Worked for me. I have 2 internal Seagates formatted OS X journaled in an external case.

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So all seemed well, until tonight. The problem is that I don't always connect the firewire disk - so for a couple of nights, Time Machine was backing up the internal disk only. Tonight when I did connect the external disk, Time Machine backed up the entire disk, from scratch again!
It looks like Time Machine can't handle looking back through previous backups in a disk orientated way...it misses that 'Media' was last backed up 3 backups ago, so starts from scratch.
2008-08-31-002721/Macintosh HD <- incremental files only
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2008-09-02-194944/Macintosh HD <- incremental files only
2008-09-03-193024/Macintosh HD <- incremental files only
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Anyone else seen this?
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Of course. Your Time Capsule won't use the external drive to store backups (they will be stored in the Time Capsule's hard disk), so you can use the external drive to store other data.
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I have a Seagate external USB hard drive. It's a 1TB FreeAgent drive that's USB powered. I use this to share data across several computers. Every time I connect the drive to my MacBook Pro, it does not mount. If I try to mount it, I'm told to "try running first aid".
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Is the drive's icon on the desktop (perhaps behind another icon, which is possible if Finder > View > Cleanup is enabled)?
If not, is the box Finder > Preferences > General > External Disks checked?
Is the drive listed in every Finder window's sidebar?
If not, is the box Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > External Disks checked?
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Unwanted Duplicate Mounts of FireWire External Disk

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