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Hooligran Author

Level 1

0 points

Lacie External Hard Drive disappeared!

Updated my G5 and iBook last night to 10.4.9. This morning noticed my Lacie HD, connected via firewire to my G5, wasn't showing on the desktop. At first I thought it might be connected to the update, so I plugged it into my old G3, running 10.4.8, but there was no sign of it there either. I have searched for it using Disk Utility, System Profiler and Tech Tool Deluxe, to no avail. The HD itself looks and sounds as though its working normally, light on, sound of spinning etc. I unplugged everything on the G5, ran repair permissions, restarted, turned off and left for 20 min, restarted and plugged the Lacie back in. Nothing. I swapped cables, no cigar, and then tested my Firewire scanner on the same ports, it showed up immediately. Lastly I plugged the Lacie into a friend's G4, who also uses Lacie HD's, again, it failed to show.
Does this mean it's definitely the Lacie that's the problem, or is there anything else I need to tinker with on the computer?
Thanks very much!

iMac G5 iSight 2.1GHz, iBook G4 1.42GHz, iMac G3 Snow 700MHz, 2x iSight Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Mar 14, 2007 4:26 PM

80 replies

JLSS

Level 1

0 points

Mar 20, 2007 7:20 AM in response to Hooligran

Hi.

Sounds asthough your experiencing quite a few issues.

If you boot holding down the Shift key, HD connected and turned on.
does it mount or appear in Network?

Also if you log in as root user does it mount from there?

redzzz23

Level 1

0 points

Mar 22, 2007 11:46 AM in response to JLSS

not yet....but i havent tried it with the superuser acct...

Mar 22, 2007 1:22 PM in response to ThomasPatrick

Thomas,

OH MY GOSH! It hadn't occurred to me to hook up my external Seagate HDD to the Airport Extreme. I had the same problem of my external HDD not mounting and appearing as though it was not formatted as mentioned above since update to 10.4.9. With it hooked up to my airport extreme via USB, it appears to work fine and all my files are right where I left them.

I've been holding off on reformatting the drive because it was my backup drive and I would have been very inconvenienced without that data. I'll be interested in AppleCare's reaction to this solution since they are corresponding with me on this problem.

Thank you sooooooo much!

Very best regards,
Jamie

Mar 22, 2007 2:34 PM in response to jthomasfl

My situation mirrors manwithcamera. My LaCie d2 Extreme appears in my System Profiler when I connect using FW400, but says device unknown. It never appears in the Disk Utility. This is a brand new external HD. I bought it on Saturday--I believe this is AFTER the update to 10.4.9 so it was not plugged into my PowerBook when the update occurred.

I am SO frustrated. My hard drive is all but full and I need to get a lot of stuff off the internal HD and on to the external one.

I'm not very experienced with messing around with my Mac. Can someone tell me how (or if I can) hook up to airport extreme, as mentioned above? I do have airport on powerbook...(sorry if I sound stupid)

Mar 22, 2007 3:10 PM in response to web-betty

Hi Betty,

Are you able to plug anything else into your firewire port and get it to work? How about your usb ports? Ruling out whether the problem is with your ports would be helpful. Try plugging something in that you know works.

Next, does the LaCie manual say you must do anything special to initialize the disk with a Mac?

The Airport Extreme Base Station is a peripheral piece of equipment. It's a wireless router that one purchases extra. It has, among other ports, one USB port that accommodates a printer (or in this case a hard drive can use the port). You can see it at http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=C2E 351E1&nplm=MA073LL%2FA

Jamie

Mar 22, 2007 3:15 PM in response to jthomasfl

Hi Jamie,

My wireless mouse connects via the USB and I haven't had a problem with it. I don't have anything else to connect to the FireWire.

When I connect the LaCie to the FireWire 400, the external HD powers on, so it appears that my computer does know that something is connected. At least that's what I'm assuming 🙂

I've tried using the USB cable to connect, but I get the same thing. The external HD powers on, but does not show up in Disk Utilities.

The instructions from LaCie were pretty simple:

1) connect the power
2) turn the drive on
3) connect the cable to the external HD, then the computer

According to the instructions, the drive should mount on the desktop after a few seconds. Do you have any other suggestions I should try?

Redarm

Level 4

2,593 points

Mar 22, 2007 3:40 PM in response to web-betty

Hi web-betty,
Did you have a go at what brought back my external firewire drive (same symptoms), i.e. resetting the PRAM?
To do that you have to restart your computer and straight away press the following four keys simultaneously:
cmd (apple) + option (alt) + P + R until you hear your startup chime three times. Then let go. I did this with my drive unplugged and it reappeared when I plugged it back in. See this post

Mar 22, 2007 3:50 PM in response to Redarm

You're right, Redarm, resetting the PRAM did work for my USB iPod connection, but it did nothing for correcting my external hard drive (I tried reconnecting it by firewire and usb consequtively to no avail.) But perhaps it will work for Betty.

By the way, throughout all of my problems with external drives since the update, even before resetting my PRAM subsequent to the update, my usb mouse continued to perfectly without interruption. Go figure.

Redarm

Level 4

2,593 points

Mar 22, 2007 3:54 PM in response to jthomasfl

"my usb mouse continued to perfectly without interruption. Go figure. "

I don't think it is a problem with the ports themselves, as only my firewire enclosure didn't show up. I have a second hard drive (LaCie), which never disappeared and continued to work fine on exactly the same firewire port.

Mar 22, 2007 4:00 PM in response to web-betty

Yes, my ext. hard drive, when connected directly to my MacBook whether via USB or Firewire, whirred just like it was going to be mounted, but it just didn't. It still won't. Still says "device unknown" in the system profile, but mine does show up in disk utility. It's just that it won't mount and appears to be unformatted, which I know is not true.

All those problems don't happen when I connect it to Airport Extreme Base Station. It works just fine that way.

AppleCare walked me through resetting the PRAM and doing a number of other things I've outlined elsewhere in this and other related discussion threads. None of those things have fixed the problem that exists when connecting it directly to the MacBook.

I hope that you will find a solution to your problem.

Mar 22, 2007 4:06 PM in response to Redarm

Redarm, you're situation clearly differs from mine. I was having problems with external drives connected via USB. The problem with the iPod drive cleared up after resetting the PRAM. If the issue withe the iPod was a port issue, then why would the mouse still work? I don't understand it. That's why I'm asking.

Mar 22, 2007 4:06 PM in response to jthomasfl

What Jamie describes is exactly what happens to me. I get "unknown device" in the System Profiler, and nothing appears in Disk Utilities.

Now I'm trying to burn 8 .mov files, and I'm having trouble with that, as well! See this post: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=899228

So, my workaround to that issue is to upload them to my host for temporary storage.

I've also had iPod issues which I won't even go into right now.

My main concern at this time is getting the **** HD mounted, although that is sounding less and less likely. I'm out of room on my HD. What's the point of having an external HD if I can't use it, and what's the point of having an iTunes library if it uses all of the space on my internal HD and I can't do anything else??? Makes for a REALLY expensive music player...

Once I've uploaded my 8 movies, I'm going to try the PRAM clearing that was suggested. If that doesn't work I don't know what I'm going to do.

Stay tuned...

Redarm

Level 4

2,593 points

Mar 22, 2007 4:24 PM in response to jthomasfl

deleted

Message was edited by: Redarm

Redarm

Level 4

2,593 points

Mar 22, 2007 4:22 PM in response to jthomasfl

"you're situation clearly differs from mine. I was having problems with external drives connected via USB"

No, it doesn't differ. My enclosure has firewire and USB ports and none of them worked.

"If the issue withe the iPod was a port issue, then why would the mouse still work?"

I was aggreeing with it not being a port issue, if you read my post. It was the "go figure" that suggested that you expected it to be a port issue. Just a misunderstanding I think.

Redarm

Level 4

2,593 points

Mar 22, 2007 4:28 PM in response to web-betty

You could always do an Archive and Install and only upgrade to 10.4.8

Lacie External Hard Drive disappeared!