Unable to mount Lacie d2 Quadra (500Gb) using FW 800

Question

Unable to mount Lacie d2 Quadra (500Gb) using FW 800

Hello

I've just bought a Lacie d2 500Gb Quadra external harddrive to use for Time Machine on Leopard with my MBP.

The manual indicates it is formatted for Mac OS X Extended out the box. So I hooked it up to my MacBook Pro using the F/W 800 cable but when I powered on my Mac, it just asked to Initialise the drive.

So I chose initialize and then tried to create a single partition using GUID and Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). However it just seemed to stall at "Creating Partition Map".. approx 2% complete but no more.

After about 30 mins, I power-cycled the drive and tried the Erase Option instead, again choosing Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). However despite selecting this, it always reverted to FAT (or FAT32) and I was unable to mount the drive.

In the end I shut down both the Mac and drive and connected it via F/W 400 instead. Magically everything is fine, it remembered my drive format and name and TimeMachine backs up fine to it.

However if I try going back to F/W 800, it just asks to Initialize the disk again.

I've checked the firmware and it appears up to date (only bought the drive today) so I'm a bit stuck. I really want to use it with F/W 800 and this was one of the main reasons for buying this type of drive.

Am I missing something simple or stupid here.. like duff cable, directional cable etc.. wrong F/W port on drive (there are 2 - tried them both).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
James

MacBook Pro 17" 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5), 2Gb RAM, 200Gb internal hard-drive

Posted on Oct 30, 2007 2:33 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 30, 2007 4:44 PM in response to James Shoebottom

Further to my earlier post, if I hook up the drive using FW400, I can partition it using both GUID Partition Table and Apple Partition Map (APM) without problem. When I format it as GUID and then switch back to using the FW800 cable, it asks to Initialize and shows up as a Master Boot Record partition.

All attempts to partition under FW800 fail using GUID. It allows me to partition as APM but then I cannot erase nor mount the drive afterwards.

Hoping this is a software or firmware bug which is fixable.

James

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Answer 2

StephenR

Level 1

5 points

Oct 30, 2007 8:55 PM in response to James Shoebottom

I have a MBP (see below) with a 500GB d2 Quadra connected via FW800 and it works fine. Mine came pre-formatted as HFS+ though, so i havent tried to re-format it. Maybe try formatting it as FAT and then attempt to copy data to/from it using FW800. maybe its a dodgy fw800 controller chip in the drive/laptop? if it fails copying to/from over FW800, take the drive back and get them to test it against another machine.

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Answer 3

Oct 31, 2007 6:08 AM in response to James Shoebottom

Stephen

Thanks. I took the drive back to the shop and using the same FW cable, hooked up to their iMac 24" FW800 port. The drive mounted fine, showed as being formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Re, your suggestion of formatting it for PC, I tried this but it doesn't mount - error Invalid Filesystem. I suspect either a duff port or incompatibility of some kind.

I've emailed LaCie but will also take it to the Apple Store and see if it works with other FW800 drives.

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Answer 4

StephenR

Level 1

5 points

Oct 31, 2007 6:18 AM in response to James Shoebottom

if it worked fine on the iMac at the store, and basically doesn't work on your FW800 port, I'd say its a problem with your FW800 port or the OS/drivers.. i would be surprised if its a problem with the disk.

when you take the laptop back, take the drive with you and test it on another MBP if they'll let you..

hope it works out for you!

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Answer 5

Nov 6, 2007 12:26 PM in response to James Shoebottom

I've got the same issue with a new d2 Quadra 500GB drive on my 15" MBP (core 2 duo, 2.16 GHz). Works fine under Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 (don't have an eSata port to test with). Firewire 800 just insists on initializing but never completes. Also have an email into LaCie ... waiting for reply. Will try the drive on a G5 (also running Leopard) tomorrow.

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Answer 6

Nov 7, 2007 4:55 AM in response to CGiannetto

Following up to my post of yesterday, I've got some additional data points for you. This morning I brought the drive into the office and tried it on a G5 (1.6GHz PPC) running Leopard and it worked just fine. I retried it on the Core 2 Duo MBP (again running Leopard) and got the same response as yesterday, an unrecognized disk. I then tried booting the MBP off of the Tiger (10.4) install disk that it came with and found that it was able to recognize the disk this time. I then tried the same thing with the Leopard install disk and was back to no joy (unrecognized). The funny thing is the MBP by itself (booting with the disk connected), can see and recognize the partitions on the d2 Quadra but after booting up into 10.5, it's a no go.

So to conclude, it appears there is some sort of issue with Leopard on at least the second generation Core 2 Duo MBP. The d2 Quadra and the FW800 cable appear to be working properly (of course a combination of some quirk in the d2 Quadra firmware and Leopard on the MBP could be responsible as well).

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Answer 7

StephenR

Level 1

5 points

Nov 7, 2007 5:09 AM in response to CGiannetto

well given that mine is working and what you've said, it sounds like a driver issue in leopard with the fw800 controller on the 15" MBPs (mine is a 17" and works fine)

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Answer 8

Nov 7, 2007 5:20 AM in response to StephenR

I agree. You've got a third generation MBP and the OP has a second generation just like mine (although his is a 17" MBP). There's got to be something different at work here (different controller chip & driver most likely). The significant point here is that it appears to work under 10.4 so it might even be possible to downgrade to the 10.4 driver and get things working again. For the time being, I can live with FW400 as long as I know that Apple/LaCie is aware of the issue and working on a solution. I did update my case with LaCie this morning as well. So far they've been very responsive but it appears they are just starting to test things with Leopard now.

Message was edited by: CGiannetto

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Answer 9

Nov 8, 2007 12:24 PM in response to James Shoebottom

Yep I concur with what has been said.

I have a friend with the latest generation of MacBook Pro (Santa Rosa - 2.4GHz with FW800) who also has two Firewire 800 drives, both Lacie, one a 320Gb Little Big Disk and the other a 200Gb d2 Hard Disk with Triple Interface. Her MacBook Pro is also running Leopard, like mine

So first I tried a different FW cable between my MBP and d2 drive - no dice. I then connected my d2 drive to her MBP and it mounted fine with both my original and her own FW800 cable. So to corroborate StephenR's reply, the latest MBP revisions seem to work fine with the new d2 drives.

I then hooked up both the Little Big Disk and Big Disk Triple Interface drives to my MacBook Pro over FW800 and these also mounted fine. So no problem with my FW800 port (which is a relief - since my warranty runs out in a weeks time ! )

So there must be an obscure incompatibility between FW800 on this type of drive and my revision of MBP. I haven't tried booting into Tiger yet, that will be my next step and I'll post an update. But my MBP does work with at least two of the other types of LaCie drives over FW800 which leads me to hope either a firmware patch from Lacie or Apple will cure the problem ( hard part is getting them to acknowledge it in the first place ).

I've sent an update to Lacie so hope to hear soon.

James

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Answer 10

Nov 8, 2007 12:51 PM in response to James Shoebottom

James,

I think you'll find that it works properly under Tiger (it did on my MBP) which would seem to indicate an issue on Apple's side of things. On the other hand, you've found that other FW800 devices (and devices from LaCie too) appear to work properly under Leopard on the 2nd generation MBP, so perhaps it's an interaction between the updated drivers from Apple, the FW controller/chip on this particular laptop and the specific firmware on the d2 Quadra's. My response from LaCie indicates that they believe it's Apple's problem but they did say they would address it with an update if it turns out to be a firmware issue on their end (although I'm not sure how they will determine that or how long it will take to fix if this is indeed the case).

- Charlie

Message was edited by: CGiannetto

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Answer 11

Nov 8, 2007 1:08 PM in response to James Shoebottom

Charlie

Yep I agree. I just booted back into Tiger (using the Restore DVD which came with the system) and using Disk Utility, the d2 drive mounted fine. Fingers crossed either LaCie or Apple come to the rescue soon.

James

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Answer 12

Nov 8, 2007 1:19 PM in response to James Shoebottom

The real question is how long will this take ... what is disconcerting is that if you start up the MBP with the Option key depressed and the d2 Quadra connected via FW800, it shows up in the list of available boot devices (assuming you have a bootable copy of OS X on it) so the MBP at the firmware/EFI level works properly with the firmware on the d2 Quadra. However, after the system boots into Leopard and whatever additional OS/kernel level drivers load, you lose access to to it.

Oh well, I guess is FW400 or USB 2 (or eSata if I get an ExpressCard) for the time being.

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Answer 13

cyril-b

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2007 3:37 PM in response to James Shoebottom

Hello,

I have exactly the same problem. You have to remove the firmware (efi) passaword of your mac...

(sorry for my poor english)

Cyril

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Answer 14

Nov 8, 2007 4:50 PM in response to cyril-b

I don't have an EFI password set. I can see the d2 Quadra from EFI but not after booting into Leopard (booting into Tiger works just fine). Please be sure to report this issue to both Apple and LaCie so that we can someday get a fix for the problem.

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Answer 15

Nov 11, 2007 7:54 AM in response to cyril-b

Cyril

Yes, we have exactly the same issue, confirmed by Apple's genius bar after an almost last-day of warranty visit!

This is for a MBP 15" 2.33Ghz Core 2 duo and using a LaCie BigDisk 1TB.

The drive works fine with FW400, and it works fine with firmware password off. However, if we add the firmware password back on (needed for security software), then the drive cannot be mounted with FW800 and an "initialise disk" option is offered.

Very frustrating - especially with Time Machine.

Updates to this case would be very welcome.

Thanks
Ian

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