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I WAS the One · May 27, 2008, 07:47 AM

I have three External HDs connected to my iMac. One Firewire800, one firewire400 and one USB 2.0... and everything works great until I restart the iMac, it keep a blue screen stand by forever, and I need to disconect the drives to restart the iMac and everything goes normal again, I always connect the drives after the restart and so on.... Help

ibook_steve · May 27, 2008, 11:01 AM

Something may be wrong with one of those drives. Run repair from Disk Utility to see if anything needs fixing.

Steve

mduell · May 27, 2008, 12:53 PM

Try just unplugging (or turning off) one of the drives; repeat with each drive until it boots.

I WAS the One · May 27, 2008, 05:49 PM

ok, I will do that, but when I found out what HD is making trouble what will be the next step? let's say that one of them keep my iMac hanging what do I need to do to solve the problem??

here's my list of external drives:

1) MyBook Studio 1T (firewire800)
2) MyBook Premium 500GB (Firewire400)
3) Seagate FreeAgent 250GB (USB 2.0)

I hope that Now that you know what the brands are, you can help me with ideas on this issue... thanx

ghporter · May 27, 2008, 05:55 PM

The next step would be to do what ibook_steve says and use Disk Utility to diagnose/repair it.

I WAS the One · May 28, 2008, 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

The next step would be to do what ibook_steve says and use Disk Utility to diagnose/repair it.

Ok, I did all of the checking and guess what the one thats giving me the problem is the Seagate FreeAgent I run Disk Utility and it says everything's ok, but I still have the same problem... then I check the format and suddenly I noticed that when I click on the drive it says MS-DOS Format but when I click on the same Drive but the sub-Drive with the custom name it says Mac Extended...?? both formats? What's the procedure now?

Check it out:

Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

What's going on? DO I need to erase it and re-format it to Mac OS Extended both parts?

ghporter · May 28, 2008, 10:21 PM

The root of the external drive is formatted as MS DOS (FAT), while the volume you're using is formatted as a Mac partition. Maybe this IS your problem. In my experience you shouldn't see a format for the root of a drive, just for the partitions you create. As long as the Segate drive will let you, back up the stuff you need from your Mac partition (and the DOS root if there really is anything there), and then use DU to wipe the thing completely and start over. Once the drive is ALL Mac, it should be just as cooperative as you expect it to be.

I WAS the One · May 29, 2008, 08:52 AM

Ok, Now all my drives are Mac OS Extended Formated. I back up everything, download the latest drivers and softwares for the HDs, fill them with the info again, try them one by one with restarting the iMac and individually the iMac start up fine (slow but fine) when I connected the three drives and restart the iMac, the blue screen appears again, the same issue again.... the only way to made it is unplugging the drives to have a successful restart... what do I need to do now? please help me. it's annoying to unplug everything to restart my iMac. What's going on? I leave it in sleep mode now, when I get back home I will keep working on it. any advise?

ghporter · May 29, 2008, 10:34 AM

I'm at a loss. As far as I know, OS X should be very happy with external drives connected on startup. Sorry.

P · May 29, 2008, 10:34 AM

This is a known bug (search for USB) in Leopard. Bug Apple about it and experiment with different USB combinations to see what will work.

I WAS the One · May 29, 2008, 02:17 PM

ok, a friend told me that if I open System Preferences and select the internal drive as the start-up drive all my problems will gone forever.. and I was like "R U Nutz?" The only HD that has an OS it's the internal, so Why this will be necessary right? WRONG, as soon as I did that, I can restart my iMac without problems... I don't know why bt his advice works, the thing is that because they are three extrenal drives it take a minute or two to boot up, but it works! unbelievable!!!

ghporter · May 29, 2008, 05:08 PM

I have to wonder how your Mac decided to be concerned about anything but your "Mac HD" to boot from. But I'm glad you have found a solution.

I WAS the One · May 29, 2008, 07:52 PM

yeah me too... It's weird do you think I need to let Apple Store check that situation? or it's a normal behavior? It's on Apple Pro Care BTW

ghporter · May 29, 2008, 10:10 PM

If it changes back on its own, I'd have it checked out. Otherwise, I'd just be glad it's doing what I want it to.