Just got a new passport studio because of the firewire 800 and for the most part it's working great. It does seem to be a little quirky though. I plugged it in earlier and it didn't show. Then I tried again, and it showed up, but finder locked up, and then all of the desktop icons disappeared. The only way to get them back is to do a restart. I'm trying to figure out if something is wrong with the computer or with this passport studio. any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
I've found the right solution in the forum. The problems with the Passport Studio don't come from the WD hardware but from the Snow Leopard Firewire kext. I've changed the 5 IOFirewire etc. in the System/Library/Extensions folder with the old one coming from my Leopard dvd (installed using Pacifist), run the Repair Permissions and then installed the last Turbo Drivers and the WD Driver Manager... now I'm able to play all the tracks on my Pro Tools sessions! I've made a stressful test using a session with 16 tracks on Pro Tools, a stereo audio file in Peak Pro 6 and a BFD2 drum kit full of samples, everything played at the same time. For 30 minutes, without having any problem!
Tonigno wrote:
I've found the right solution in the forum. The problems with the Passport Studio don't come from the WD hardware but from the Snow Leopard Firewire kext. I've changed the 5 IOFirewire etc. in the System/Library/Extensions folder with the old one coming from my Leopard dvd (installed using Pacifist)
What solution you found in "the forum" are you referring to?
Can you link it for us, please?
This thread dates back from Leopard and is mainly about defective units (i.e. hardware problem).
Anyway, be aware that you are now running your system in an unsupported configuration and that you should put the original extensions back before updating the system (and maybe even before checking for updates).
I know all the issues with the WD drive... but I've got 5 Passport drives and I didn't explain why a Studio version had that problem. If you read here (this is also for Xfox): http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2136580&tstart=0 and other related threads (read carefully from the first to the last page) you'll find that many persons are having issues with Firewire under Snow Leopard. This configuration worked for me, until now even with the "old" extensions, I never experienced a kernel panic, a freeze or any disappointment. I was also able to upgrade to Itunes 9.0.2 using the Software Update... so, good news 🙂
Apparently the problem is still here. Today the drive begins to make that strange click making the entire system slowly. I don't know what to do, maybe I will ask a refund for that WD disk (but I bought it one month ago... so I don't know if they will give my money back).
since a month I'm waiting for a replacement...they said I have to wait still for 15 days, 'cause they have not a similar drive in stock for my in warranty replacement
Ever since getting a new MBP with Snow Leopard, I have been having very flaky behavior with FW drives. I have about a dozen different FW drives from LaCie and OWC. All of them have had problems. Most common issue is the drive not showing up in the finder. Sometimes disk utility will "see" the drive but then that app hangs. One LaCie portable can't be seen with the FW800 port, but the 400 still works. These drives ALL work fine on my older MBP running 10.5.8. Same cables, same drives, runs without issue. The new machine - complete charlie foxtrot. And in fact, right now my Finder has crashed while trying to access one of the drives.
With my old laptop, I did tons of FinalCut editing, tracking with Logic, etc and never a problem. I could daisychain 2 or 3 FW drives without incident. The new machine and 10.6.1 I can't even transfer files sometimes without a finder crash. Time Machine had only backed up 2GB (of 170Gig) after 5 HOURS.
This OS is really, really broken. Or I've got some bad hardware, but given posts here and elsewhere, I think the problem is software. I downloaded the new "Performance Update" that "fixes issues seen by a small number of users." Yeah...only those that actually need to use their FW bus. :-/
Not only my man... the problem is that after the 10.6.2 update the problems are still there. WD told me that Apple had to solve that problem... so I waited until these days for the new update and after installing it I've discovered that the Firewire problems aren't solved. ****, what a piece of crap, ****.
Apple, where you at?
It isn't Apple's problem, it's WD's. As I wrote above, WD external drives have been problematical since long before Snow Leopard, on a wide variety of Mac models including older Powerbooks.
I don't think so because I've used and I'm still using several WD hard disks without problems (if using the USB ports). So, the problem isn't related to WD but with Apple, if you think that SEVERAL people is having the same issues even with Seagate, Lacie etc. etc. Firewire support is not well considered from Apple. Strange thing, if you think that Firewire for Mac is like Eiffel Tower for Paris 🙂
As you say, it's generally the FireWire implementation, not USB, on the WD drives that is hopelessly fouled up. WD doesn't "get" FireWire at all. As I've said, it isn't Apple's problem but WD's.
"Several" people may very well be having problems with drives from other manufacturers. MANY people have them with WD drives.
Western Digital enclosures are garbage full stop. They do not mount consistently via FW800 and I have had three of them die on me. Never again. My latest drive is a 1TB Rocstor drive which costs just a little more but is much better quality enclosure and power supply. I would also recommend OWC. Avoid Seagate external drives for the same reason as Western Digitals enclosures.
Do not purchase this product, it is garbage. Out of the box the drive would freeze when using firewire. Tried to install drivers and format drive, which did not correct issue. I was running Leopard. Returned drive to WD. Received a reworked replacement unit. Now running Snow Leopard. Now when I try to use the drive it locks up the O/S. My opinion is that WD is guilty of false advertisement.
I think exactly the same thing. It's the worst external HD I ever had.
If you move just a little the disk when working, it stops completely and crash.
I tried to copy my Aperture Library twice, and it hangs at 20%. It hangs also the Finder.
I'm going to try the warranty with Pixmania, where I bought it, as I think they are not going to give me my money back.
