For DV editing, I use a 200GB
WD Caviar HDD (7200rpm, 8MB cache) in an
OWC Mercury Elite Pro external enclosure, with FW800 and FW400 ports (Oxford 922 FW-IDE bridge).
I`ve had this set up running very nicely for a while, using it for capture & storage in FCE 1.01 and my 15-inch AlBook.
However, in the past few weeks I`ve noticed some oddness; the drive will mount on the Desktop fine, and FCE can access it. But after a fairly random period of time, FCE seems to lose the drive, and I get a spinning beachball when attempting to access data (i.e. footage) on the drive. The only solution appears to be to Force-Quit out of FCE. The drive is missing from the Desktop, but oddly System Profiler still says the drive is attached to the PowerBook`s FW800 port.
Powering down & up the drive doesn`t get it to re-appear; the only solution seems to be to log out (or restart), after which it appears again, and can be accessed (for a time at least).
I`ve not noticed any unusual noises from the drive, to indicate impending failure. Initially I thought the drive was overheating (the enclosure doesn`t have a fan), so I cut a hole in the enclosure to improve ventilation. But the problem recurred this weekend.
Does this sound like imminent drive failure? Or something else? (e.g. overheating, failing FW bridge, etc).
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