It seems that I am the victim of a never ending saga of external Firewire hard drive failures. I'm running a PowerBook G3 Pismo/2000 - have 10.2.3 and 9.2.2 installed on two separate partitions on the internal 30GB IBM Travelstar HD. Things on that end work extremely well, now that I replaced the original IBM Travelstar.
Two problems:
1. External 3.5" Firewire HD
I've got a Macally external firewire enclosure - it has 2 firewire ports, and has its own builtin power thingy (the power plug goes from the back of the enclosure straight to the wall socket - no power thingy in between - it's builtin). I've had a IBM Deskstar 40GB hard drive in it, and have had numerous problems with the hard drive failing. Sent the enclosure and hard drive back and got it replaced last year. Experiencing the same problems AGAIN. Norton Utilities reports: "wrappers Catalog B-tree. The leaf record count is incorrect. (11,2,20)" and reports that it has fixed it. Last week I lost 2 of the 3 partitions initially, but the hard drive just won't mount at all now - all I get now is this awful graunching noise - sounds like it couldn't find what it was looking for in order to say the drive was ready to mount (this is before I plug it into my PB).
(NB When I power up any firewire enclosure I always have it unplugged from my PB first, I wait for the sounds that tell me the hard drive is ready and then plug it into my Powerbook)
Anyways, I bought a new IBM Deskstar 180GXP 120GB this week and installed it into my enclosure. I partitioned it into 2x 30GB and 1x 60GB partitions using Apple's Disk Utility. But I've had a couple of funny things happen, that were the same things that the 40GB hard drive went through. Sometimes the hard drive won't mount - it just isn't recognised. I have to do a reboot to make it work. And this is before I even install an OS or software on it. I then plug in my new 2.5" external firewire HD and it isn't recognised either until I do a restart. Looks like the firewire ports go "off line". I'm not sure if it has the Oxford 911 chisept or not - anyone know how I can tell?
2. A new external 2.5" Firewire HD
I also purchased a 2.5" enclosure (I think it's a New Motion one - there's absolutely nothing on the packaging or the box that says what brand it is) that has both a USB 2.0 and 2x Firewire ports. (The reseller said it was New Motion and that it has the Oxford 911 chipset). The packaging does say "Bootable hard drive support for Power Macintosh systems". I put my IBM Travelstar 6GB HD (that originally came with my PB) in the 2.5" enclosure, and installed 10.2.2 on it but it simply won't boot. I press Option at startup and my internal HD partitions with OSX and OS9 are shown, but no sign of OSX on my external 2.5" HD. I've reset the PRAM (x 3), pressed the Power Manager button (held it for 5 seconds - waited for 5 seconds and then restarted) but that doesn't work. In OSX "System Preferences" "Startup Disk" pane it does see the hard drive and sees the correct version of OSX that is installed on it. I then select the 2.5" HD as the startup system, save the changes and restart, but my OSX system on my internal HD starts up. It does exactly the same thing when I set it up as the startup system in OS9. Aaaggh!
The 2.5" enclosure comes with two USB cords. One is a power cord that plugs in via a USB cable into a USB port on your computer, the other is the actual USB cord that connects the unit to the computer for data transfer. I think the USB power cord is for use with USB 2.0. I don't need it to mount the unit via USB - it mounts just as well with the USB power cord connected or not. When I plug in the USB powered cable the hard drive powers up immediately - that's without either the firewire or USB cables being plugged in too. So I've tried restarting my PB (pressing Option key) with the USB power cable plugged into the 2.5" enclosure, and tried the same with just the USB power cable plugged in with the firewire cable - no sign of the 2.5" external HD at startup when I press the Option key. I've done the same with the USB cable and it didn't work, but I guessed that I can't boot up with just a USB 1.1 HD.
I've got a very strong feeling that there is something wrong with the firewire ports on the PowerBook Pismo/2000/Firewire model laptops. I heard that there was actually a fault with the firewire system in my PB, but can't find anything about it. I still have 3 months of my extended AppleCare warranty left but haven't played that card yet as I'm not confident that Apple will come to the party. I read somewhere that Apple hadn't recognised that this was a design fault and so it was left to people like me to take a class action against them.
Any ideas most welcome. I know this is a mouth full, but it ain't nothing like the stress and frustration I have experienced for the last two years. Zeal
Two problems:
1. External 3.5" Firewire HD
I've got a Macally external firewire enclosure - it has 2 firewire ports, and has its own builtin power thingy (the power plug goes from the back of the enclosure straight to the wall socket - no power thingy in between - it's builtin). I've had a IBM Deskstar 40GB hard drive in it, and have had numerous problems with the hard drive failing. Sent the enclosure and hard drive back and got it replaced last year. Experiencing the same problems AGAIN. Norton Utilities reports: "wrappers Catalog B-tree. The leaf record count is incorrect. (11,2,20)" and reports that it has fixed it. Last week I lost 2 of the 3 partitions initially, but the hard drive just won't mount at all now - all I get now is this awful graunching noise - sounds like it couldn't find what it was looking for in order to say the drive was ready to mount (this is before I plug it into my PB).
(NB When I power up any firewire enclosure I always have it unplugged from my PB first, I wait for the sounds that tell me the hard drive is ready and then plug it into my Powerbook)
Anyways, I bought a new IBM Deskstar 180GXP 120GB this week and installed it into my enclosure. I partitioned it into 2x 30GB and 1x 60GB partitions using Apple's Disk Utility. But I've had a couple of funny things happen, that were the same things that the 40GB hard drive went through. Sometimes the hard drive won't mount - it just isn't recognised. I have to do a reboot to make it work. And this is before I even install an OS or software on it. I then plug in my new 2.5" external firewire HD and it isn't recognised either until I do a restart. Looks like the firewire ports go "off line". I'm not sure if it has the Oxford 911 chisept or not - anyone know how I can tell?
2. A new external 2.5" Firewire HD
I also purchased a 2.5" enclosure (I think it's a New Motion one - there's absolutely nothing on the packaging or the box that says what brand it is) that has both a USB 2.0 and 2x Firewire ports. (The reseller said it was New Motion and that it has the Oxford 911 chipset). The packaging does say "Bootable hard drive support for Power Macintosh systems". I put my IBM Travelstar 6GB HD (that originally came with my PB) in the 2.5" enclosure, and installed 10.2.2 on it but it simply won't boot. I press Option at startup and my internal HD partitions with OSX and OS9 are shown, but no sign of OSX on my external 2.5" HD. I've reset the PRAM (x 3), pressed the Power Manager button (held it for 5 seconds - waited for 5 seconds and then restarted) but that doesn't work. In OSX "System Preferences" "Startup Disk" pane it does see the hard drive and sees the correct version of OSX that is installed on it. I then select the 2.5" HD as the startup system, save the changes and restart, but my OSX system on my internal HD starts up. It does exactly the same thing when I set it up as the startup system in OS9. Aaaggh!
The 2.5" enclosure comes with two USB cords. One is a power cord that plugs in via a USB cable into a USB port on your computer, the other is the actual USB cord that connects the unit to the computer for data transfer. I think the USB power cord is for use with USB 2.0. I don't need it to mount the unit via USB - it mounts just as well with the USB power cord connected or not. When I plug in the USB powered cable the hard drive powers up immediately - that's without either the firewire or USB cables being plugged in too. So I've tried restarting my PB (pressing Option key) with the USB power cable plugged into the 2.5" enclosure, and tried the same with just the USB power cable plugged in with the firewire cable - no sign of the 2.5" external HD at startup when I press the Option key. I've done the same with the USB cable and it didn't work, but I guessed that I can't boot up with just a USB 1.1 HD.
I've got a very strong feeling that there is something wrong with the firewire ports on the PowerBook Pismo/2000/Firewire model laptops. I heard that there was actually a fault with the firewire system in my PB, but can't find anything about it. I still have 3 months of my extended AppleCare warranty left but haven't played that card yet as I'm not confident that Apple will come to the party. I read somewhere that Apple hadn't recognised that this was a design fault and so it was left to people like me to take a class action against them.
Any ideas most welcome. I know this is a mouth full, but it ain't nothing like the stress and frustration I have experienced for the last two years. Zeal
