10.4.5 Update and Firewire Problems...

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Level 1

45 points

10.4.5 Update and Firewire Problems...

It seems that since my recent 10.4.5 update, my external firewire drive is not being recognized. Using System Profiler, there even seems to be difficulty for the profiler to provide any info when "firewire" is clicked on under "Hardware"; Profiler seems to search for any info re: firewire, but produces nothing.

I have shut down and rebooted the computer, turned off/on the FWD, changed cable ports... I am considering re-installing 10.4.4 to see if that might make a difference.

Any clues or insights??? I can't access my external FWD!!

Thanks!
Todd

G4 PowerPC, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Mar 6, 2006 10:22 AM

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Answer 1

Todd Rising Author

Level 1

45 points

Mar 6, 2006 11:37 AM in response to Todd Rising

I found the resolution in the following post; text pasted below as well:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=383931&tstart=0

Re: External Hard Drive Problem
Posted: Feb 28, 2006 7:11 PM in response to: Jkalmeda ( http://discussions.apple.com/mailpost.jspa?messageID=1830549 )

Thought you could use this info about getting FireWire to work!

First, you should always Repair Permissions in Disk Utility before and after any update; I would do that now. If you installed your update with FireWire plugged in, your Mac may not recognize it anymore.

Try resetting your FireWire ports by disconnecting all FW devices, shut down your Mac and unplug it from AC power (wall socket) for 30 minutes. plug it back in and try FW.

If that did'nt work, download the combo update from this site (yours may be corrupt), not Software Update, disconnect all firewire + USB devices except keyboard + mouse, Repair Permissions, re-install update, Repair Permissions again + try. Yours is the 10.4.5 Combo update. Others reading, download the Combo that applies to your system.

If that still did'nt get it Zap the PRAM. While restarting Mac hold down the following key combo Command-Option-P-R. Keep holding those keys down till you hear the second start-up chime, then release.

For those of you with Macs that are not PowerBooks or iBooks, a bad internal battery can cause FireWire to not be recognized, so make sure it's good!

Good Luck!

Cheers!
DALE

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Answer 2

Mar 7, 2006 11:45 AM in response to Todd Rising

Please see my post at :

http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=1873284

I'd advise caution using the disk utility if the filesystem is FAT32. It may recover HFS and/or HFS+ OK, but if it doesn't work the first time on FAT32/VFAT, it may well destroy the remaining data. The data may still be OK, mine was, but the first copy of the partition table and the boot sector were wiped by OS X.

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