issue with an external hard drive...

Question

ocnative1964 0 Light Poster

20 Years Ago

I have a 80 GB external maxtor that is in a separate companies case, that has USB and fire wire, on my old IMAC i used the usb and everything was fine.... I just purchased a used powerbook g4 1 gh with superdrive 15 inch....

so I thought great now I can use the FW port... well nothing comes up on the desk top when I use the fire wire... if i go back to the USB it works fine, but that is no solution...

are there any common connection prooblems I may be overlooking??? is there a way to test the FW port on the powerbook, as I have no other FW devices yet (will be getting a video cam someday)

any help would be appreciated...:)

apple-hardware

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Latest Post 20 Years Ago Latest Post by ocnative1964

alc6379 120 Cookie... That's it

20 Years Ago

The only way you could really test the firewire port would be to attach a different device to it, and see if it works. If it does, the port is good.

Do you have another system to try the hard drive's firewire connection out on?

kc0arf 68 Posting Virtuoso

20 Years Ago

Hello,

I would plug it in, and go into the System Profiler, and see if the Powerbook G4 sees it. IF so, great. If not, then there may be a problem.

If the System Profiler correctly identifies it, then I wonder if there is a security issue on the device. But I think the device should be "mounted" first, before any such warning is displayed.

Also check to see if the G4 is up to date on system software.

Christian

kc0arf 68 Posting Virtuoso

20 Years Ago

Hello,

I hope you are able to get that working. I have not upgraded to Firewire technology, so don't know everything about it. I am still working with SCSI and USB, although I think I have left serial behind.

Take care, and let us know.

Christian

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ocnative1964 0 Light Poster · Answer 1 · 2004-06-21T10:11:08+00:00

it definitely did not recognize it on the profiler, it does when hooked up on the usb though... I sure hope the port is not dead on the computer as it is not under a warrantee.....

the only other thing I have with a FW connection is my wifes fujitsu, but it has a MINI connection, so if I get A FW to miniFW connection I could see if it sees other computer???

ocnative1964 0 Light Poster · Answer 2 · 2004-06-22T09:22:32+00:00

well. it may be the connecton on the back of the drive, I bought a cable that would connect my mac to my wifes windows, and it showed up on the profiler, and then I hooked the drive up the the windows pc and nothing registered... i really hope it is the drive connection, as i can still use it on the usb output at least......

any other thoughts let me know...

ocnative1964 0 Light Poster · Answer 3 · 2004-06-25T09:46:28+00:00

well I had a friend with a Powerbook try it on his FW port and it did not work, so the good news is by Powerbook seems to work fine, the drive case seems to be the problem...

very good news and somewhat bad news...

I think the drive case may still be under warrantee... so that may be a help...

kc0arf 68 Posting Virtuoso Team Colleague · Answer 4 · 2004-06-25T21:56:28+00:00

Hello,

Looks like it's time to contact the manufacture and have the drive swapped. The Firewire will be much faster (assuming the drive mechanism can keep up) than the USB package is.

Take care, and hope all is well.

Christian

mikeandike22 18 Nearly a Posting Virtuoso · Answer 5 · 2004-06-26T06:31:38+00:00

you might just need to reinstall the software for the port or just reconfigure it if you can

davebw@ntlworld 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 6 · 2004-07-16T14:47:25+00:00

hi, i had this problem before.. i have a western dig drive in an enclosure by belkin... i found the bub would work but the fire wire would not..

i later found it was something silly by me. i hadn't set the drive to master.. it was set as a slave as it was in my pc as a slave.

when i chanded it it worked fine after..

try looking at that..

DAVE

davebw@ntlworld 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 7 · 2004-07-16T14:48:05+00:00

davebw@ntlworld 0 Newbie Poster

20 Years Ago

errrr usb not bub :cry:

ocnative1964 0 Light Poster · Answer 8 · 2004-07-21T02:15:41+00:00

hi, i had this problem before.. i have a western dig drive in an enclosure by belkin... i found the bub would work but the fire wire would not..
i later found it was something silly by me. i hadn't set the drive to master.. it was set as a slave as it was in my pc as a slave.
when i chanded it it worked fine after..
try looking at that..
DAVE

So is that a switch on the bare drive itself???? that would be easy... I'll check it out... since I never had it in a computer I guess that may be the default setting since most of these DO get put into a computer...

thanks, I'll look for that...

ocnative1964 0 Light Poster · Answer 9 · 2004-07-31T09:19:20+00:00

hi, i had this problem before.. i have a western dig drive in an enclosure by belkin... i found the bub would work but the fire wire would not..
i later found it was something silly by me. i hadn't set the drive to master.. it was set as a slave as it was in my pc as a slave.
when i chanded it it worked fine after..
try looking at that..
DAVE

Dave, you are the king.... you were right on target... there is a little bridge pin on the back of the bare drive.... there are about 4 places it could go... according the the diagram on the drive it looked like it should be removed, but that didnt do it, so I tried the next pins over and that was it...

all is good...

thanks again....[img]http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/techtalk-images/icons/icon10.gif[/img]

David