[Elliot_N]

Hi

I've just purchased two 250Gb external FW hard drives for my eMac. I already have a 60Gb external FW hard drive.

I also purchased a 6-port Belkin FW hub to hook them all up.

I've been having problems getting the three drives to mount simultaneously.

Initially I thought the problem was with the hub, or the FW cables, but the cables are fine, and if I take the hub out of the equation, and just try to mount two drives using the eMac's two FW ports, I still have problems.

Either of the two new 250Gb drives will mount fine with the old 60Gb drive, but if I try to mount the two 250Gb drives simultaneously, only one will mount (which ever I plugged in first).

The only way to get both 250Gb drives mounted at the same time is to use FW for one and USB for the other (way too slow).

The 250Gb drives are Hitachi Deskstars in enclosures with the Oxford chipset.

I've searched the internet for answers, but haven't found much, except, maybe, for this comment:

'While this cannot solve all FireWire issues, I've spent a lot of time debugging multiple FireWire enclosures on the same computer. Apparently there is a unique hardware ID (similar to a MAC address in an Ethernet card) that some manufacturers are not making unique. Any time you have two or more drives with the same ID, you'll have problems.'

Any ideas?

Thank you.


eMac 800Mhz; Mac OS X (10.3.8); 768Mb RAM

[mduell]

Put one of the 250s in the enclosure that currently holds the 60 and toss the 60?

If it's the hardware ID problem, you may be able to work around that with one enclosure with the Oxford 911 and the other with the 912 or 922 chipset.

Too bad your eMac only has USB 1.x.

[senseigmg]

I have this same problem, but it only recently started to happen, I have a powerbook and 2 external 200gb drives. the hub wont work, and it wont mount the drives chained, even with an ipod in there.

[Elliot_N]

Update:

I followed Mark's suggestion and put one of the 250Gb Hitachi Drives in the old enclosure that had been housing the 60Gb drive.

It works - both 250Gb drives will mount simultaneously.

But the 60Gb drive (which I've temporarily put in one of the two new enclosures) will not mount if the other new enclosure is mounted.

So the problem seems to be not with the drives (and their i.d. codes) but with the new enclosures.

For some reason, my eMac will only recognise one of these enclosures at a time.

Any further insights?

Thank you

Elliot

[rjenkinson]

the drives have their own power supplies, right?

-r.

[Elliot_N]

Yes, they all have power supplies

[senseigmg]

i had them work in panther and when i upgraded to tiger. I think it started acting up when I did a clean install of tiger this summer.

[Elliot_N]

Not sure if there are any clues here, but this is how System Profiler describes the two enclosures with their 250Gb drives (I've mounted one, got a report, unmounted, then mounted the other, got a report, and pasted both below):





---------DISK ONE-----------



OXFORD IDE Device LUN 0:

Capacity: 232.89 GB
Manufacturer: GENERIC
Model: OXFORD IDE Device LUN 0
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
OS9 Drivers: No
Speed: 400 Mb/sec Speed
Unit Spec Id: 24734
Firmware Revision: V36O
Unit Software Version: 10483

250Gb Drive 1:

Capacity: 232.76 GB
Available: 232.71 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/250Gb Drive 1







---------DISK TWO-------------



OXFORD IDE Device LUN 0:

Capacity: 232.89 GB
Manufacturer: GNENRIC
Model: OXFORD IDE Device LUN 0
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
OS9 Drivers: No
Speed: 400 Mb/sec Speed
Unit Spec Id: 24734
Firmware Revision: V36O
Unit Software Version: 10483

250Gb Drive 2:

Capacity: 232.76 GB
Available: 232.71 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/250Gb Drive 2

[Elliot_N]

Oh well.

I'll send them back for a refund.

Can anyone recommend a pair of 250Gb external Firewire drives that will work well with OS 10.3.9?

(One drive is to be a mirrored backup of the other.)

FW400 + FW800 would be nice, as I'm hoping to get a G5 Powermac soon...

[Elliot_N]

Update:

The problem was with the two enclosures having the same ID.

The supplier asked me to send one back to him. He updated the firmware and returned it to me.

Now both will mount simultaneously on my eMac via the 6 port Belkin FW hub.

Elliot