ndrwkelm

Q: My iMac intermittently fails to recognize my desktop hard drives

I recently upgraded my iMac (mid 2010, OS 10.10.4) so that I can run Final Cut Pro X.

When I first tried to install the program with my old setup, it just didn't work. I was also having unrelated issues with TimeMachine backups not completing, my two LaCie desktop hard drives starting to run slow or not be recognized in Finder, and I was getting weird unresponsiveness on startup. So:

  • I upgraded from 4GB to 16GB RAM
  • I took the computer in for servicing; got a new internal hard drive (apparently the computer was running very hot and they assured me that they were able to fix that.)
  • I got a 4TB G-Raid to use as a scratch disk and a 2TB G-Drive to run TimeMachine backups.

The setup works great when it works. But sometimes I try to open my Final Cut file on the G-Raid and can't access it; Finder itself may freeze on the spinning beach ball till I do a hard shutdown...

I can get the drives back -- through a combination of restarting the computer, ejecting the drives, and generally mucking about -- but obviously I don't want to have to do that, and this must be a sign of an underlying problem that should be addressed.

Note: I have my G-Raid partitioned into 2 2TB drives; and I also made the partitions after I copied on my media files (65GB) -- Could that be part of the problem? Should I take off all the files and reformat the drives?

But also disturbing: the current issues are not entirely dissimilar to what was happening before I made the upgrades -- before I even tried to install Final Cut X ... Now, since the servicing, I have TimeMachine scheduled to run once a night and it is generally successful, but there have still been two or three times when it did not work.

Any suggestions?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), mid 2010, Firewire 800

Posted on Aug 15, 2015 10:20 AM

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Q: My iMac intermittently fails to recognize my desktop hard drives

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  • by rkaufmann87,Helpful

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 Aug 15, 2015 11:01 AM in response to ndrwkelm
    Level 9 (58,115 points)
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    Aug 15, 2015 11:01 AM in response to ndrwkelm

    Basic troubleshooting would be to reset the SMC and PRAM (do each 2-3 times) and if that does not work try new cables. However if it's multiple devices that don't show up I would recommend the resets. Also, try upgrading to Yosemite 10.10.5, it was released earlier this week.

     

    SMC and PRAM ResetInstructions.

  • by ndrwkelm,

    ndrwkelm ndrwkelm Aug 15, 2015 12:45 PM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 15, 2015 12:45 PM in response to rkaufmann87

    I did as you suggested and so far so good. I'll see how it behaves over the next few days.

    Really appreciate your help!

    Andrew

  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 Aug 15, 2015 12:53 PM in response to ndrwkelm
    Level 9 (58,115 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 15, 2015 12:53 PM in response to ndrwkelm

    Your welcome.

  • by ndrwkelm,

    ndrwkelm ndrwkelm Aug 25, 2015 4:24 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 25, 2015 4:24 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    FYI -- The same issues started happening again within a week after resetting the SCM and PRAM but more specific:

    • TimeMachine backups stopped working entirely; I rebooted and they started working again.
    • My RAID drive started up with the same intermittent flakiness; a Disk Utility scan pointed to a problem with partitions; so I repartitioned / reformatted, and now it seems to be fine.

    It all feels more stable now. Thanks again for your help.