Firewire 800 and mbp 2011

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro 2011 15" i7 2.2 with a Seagate Flex Pro 750 GB on Firewire 800. I also get the freezing when copying/transferring files when the transfer is "too big".

When I plug it thru USB, I don't have any issues. Has anyone found a solution yet?

I have the same problem here.

MacBook Pro 15 late 2011 i7 2.2

Seagate Go Flex Desk Mac

With Firewire, I have problems, but with USB2 runs fine.

Will Apple help us?

Just to add some data points to the story line as I am in the same situation.

Had a WD Studio 2TB connected via FW800 to a Mac Mini running Lion for at least 1 month without problems.

Suddenly on 7-Nov it stopped working. I checked all connection, did resets etc but nothing. I also have three other Macs connect to them via FW same situation. It spins up when power connected but stops after few seconds.

The drive itself and data on it is intact as I can connect it via USB without any issues.

The FW ports on the Macs are also ruled out as I tested it on 4 Macs and I also have another FW400 drive that connects and works just fine. In other words can't be a FW bus issue on the Macs I think.

The only conclusion I have here this cannot be a software or driver issue but the FW interface on my WD has somehow gone. I'll check with WD what they say but seems a hardware problem.

Any solutions to this problem yet? I'm in the same boat. MBP (Early 2011) 2.3 i7 8GB with Seagate 1TB Go Flex FW800. Finder crashes on large file transfers from the MBP to the external drive.

The problem persists.

No solution until now...

Since there are reports of non portable fw800 drives working fine, I'm wondering if drives that are externally powered work fine, and those powered by the firewire port/MBP don't work consistently due to power issues with the port.

My seagate goflex ultra portable 1tb fw 800 works fine with iMac, but any of our 3 MBP 2011s it randomly disconnects. They work fine USB.

Well, my theory is bad, Cfruno posted that he has issues with Goflex Desk, which I think has external power supply.

Michael

Message was edited by: mkflyfish

Has anything been resolved regaurding this. I have a WD Passport studio, OWC Mercury On-The-GO and a plug in desktop Goflex all firewire 800 and they hang doing large file transfers or super duper backups. Works fine over usb 2. Has anyone taken this to the geniusbar?

I don't know that I ever replied to this thread - since it goes back almost a year or so...

There seem to be an unusual number of Mac users that are having problems with Western Digital drives. I don't know why - it seems as if they just don't play nice together. If I were a WD owner, I would try to return the drive and get something from G-Technology (G-DRIVE - I have two of them), OWC, LaCie, etc. Most of - if not all - these drives come formatted for Mac. I am particularly fond of my G-DRIVE's and my LaCie drives (one of which has been in use for almost 7 years).

That's what I would do. WD may be cheaper - and there may be a reason for that.

Clinton

I have worked with g-tech minis and have had the same issue.

It has to be Apple's problem. Any other company would have some sort of recall/update/etc... At Apple they just ignore it.

I ended up taking my mac to the genius bar and they diagnosed it as a bad logic board. It was replaced and works fine now.

did the same thing. they tested the logic board & it was cleared. the tech did clean out some dust that had built up. don't know what else to think. I've had a g-raid connected all day & no problem. I'm thinking it may have something to do with the g drive mini being bus powered so I bought a power adapter to go with the g drive mini and will see if that helps performance.

Sorry you had to buy a logic board. That is a bummer.😟

It may have to do with funky drive chipsets or it may be due to bus powering of the FW bus on the MBP. My three month NOS old late 2011 2.5Ghz MBP can't transfer large files to either of my WD Passports via FW800 but can with USB2. These drives have no such problem with my 2008 MBP or numerous other computers.

fyi, i zapped the p-ram and haven't had any problems lately with the mini drive so I would try that.