Problems mounting my QPS QUE M3 Harrddrive

Question

Level 1

5 points

Problems mounting my QPS QUE M3 Harrddrive

Since a while I am having problems mounting my QPS QUE M3 external Firewire HD. I already did quite an extensive search on the Internet without any luck.

Here's what happens. When I turn on my QPS QUE M3 the HD spins up and after a short while it looks like my iMac tries to mount the drive. I see the red LED flashing (indicating disk activity) a couple of time together with normal noise coming form positioning the disk head. However, the HD does not mount. Opening Apple System Profiler, I see under the Firewire section some system information for the QPS HD. In Disk Utility I see nothing.
To mount the HD I need to start up a terminal window and type 'disktool -m disk1', which it most cases mounts the HD. In some cases I get the message that '/dev/disk1' is not available.
Once mounted using disktool command I can use the HD as usual. However, when unmounting the drive I have the same problem remounting it. I already formatted the HD, reset the back panel, switched computer (from iMac G3 running Mac OS X 10.2.8 to iMac G5 running Mac OS X 10.4.2), changed Firewire port. None of these resolved the problem.

Did anyone experience the same problem an how can this be resolved?

Posted on Jul 27, 2005 12:35 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 9, 2005 11:13 AM in response to Reflex

I just bought one of the Que M3 firewire external drive on eBay and I can't get it to mount with the Seagate 40GB drive I installed. I assume it is a problem with the hardware on the M3 drive, since I tore apart my lacie external firewire drive and it worked fine with the afore mentioned Seagate 40GB drive. I also tried it on my powerbook g4 550 running 10.2 and that didn't work either. Just get a spinning beachball and a necessary restart.

I have read that a new power supply may help, but they are $30.

So, if there are any tricks to this, sharing them would be much appreciated. It was only a $15 investment, but I'd hope I don't have to flush it so soon.

Thanks,

-Jay

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 9, 2005 11:57 AM in response to Reflex

According to the QPS web page none of their hard drives are certified for use beyone 10.3.9. That doesan't mean they won't work, only that thier support pages don't mention 10.4 and compatibility. It is possible that a firmware update is needed.

I would try contacting them here to see if they support 10.4:

http://www.qps-inc.com/support/

Reply

Answer 3

Sep 9, 2005 2:16 PM in response to Al Van Malsen

Al,

Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm going to email them, just figured someone may have had the same problem before, so I know how widespread it is. The OS 10.4 thing isn't the only problem, since it freaked out on my PB G4 running Jaguar 10.2, as well.

Reply

Answer 4

iMacAdam

Level 1

10 points

Sep 9, 2005 8:52 PM in response to Reflex

Well to add my two cents worth, I have had nothing but problem with QPS drives. I bought a $450 cd burner from them when 16x burn speed was state-of-the-art. It quit being able to burn anything in six months, although it will still read disks with no problem. When I contacted QPS about the issue, they suggested that I buy a new burner considering the substantial reduction in cost these drives had taken at that point. They basically told me that the cost of repair (broken drive by their own admission) would exceed the cost of replacement with a superior product. I know that this issue does not directly relate to your problem, but if it is any indication of the quality of QPS gear, then I would definitely point a suspicious finger at the drive itself.

I will also note that my external hard drive (a fantom drive) would not mount in OSX for some unknown reason. It was brand new and the manufacturer indicated that it was OSX ready. I decide to give it a try in OS 9 and guess what? I was able to mount and format it in OS 9 with no trouble and then switch over to OSX at which point it worked great and has ever since.

Good luck!

Reply