two USB drives to TC via hub, sporadic results

HI,

I have a first generation Time Capsule. I now have both of my external drives (both Fantom, 1- 250gb, 1- TB, both have USB and Firewire ports) hooked up to the Time Capsule via a powered USB hub (Gigaware 4 port 26-160). When I first set things up, yeterday, I got both to apear on MBP desktop after some fidgeting. Now it seems to be routine that I can see one (the 1 TB drive) regularly (when I have it on. I turn both off when I don't need them.) but the 250 gb drive has been giving me problems. If I try to use that one, the Time Capsule will not be found or the drive will not show up when I try to access it.

I've tried all the USB cables between all the drives and gone directly to the TC from the 250 but that doesn't help. I took the drive back to where my computer is and hooked it up directly by FIrewire, verified it with Disk Utility. (Disk Utility found no problems but after is has "repaired" things it always tells me it is "updating boot support partitiions for the volume as required." I confess I haven't had Disk Utility finish that if it is doing anything at all. I just quit DU at that point and DU doesn't complain.)

Anyway, why does one drive work and the other one give me problems? Both were formatted to 10.4 and had system folders on them but those are gone now as I don't need them for boot discs. They both have backup files on them, so many I couldn't copy them over to the MBP and start over, erasing them.

Sometimes the 250 gb drive will have its indicator light as red (yesterday) but today it has always been green. I have had to restart the TC many times as AIrport Utility will not be able to restart it or do anything to fix things. I pull the plug out in the back and it always has come back fine.

The Time Capsule is a G1 (early 2008) and has performed wondefully otherwise.

One other question: Can I attach the 250 gb drive to the 1TB via Firewire and have the 1 TB connect to the TC by USB?

Many thanks for any help.

Cheers,

John L