external hard drive locking up mac pro!

[twoodcc]

hey,

i've got a 500GB external hard drive. i bought a external enclosure and put the hard drive in it myself.

the drive has been nothing but trouble. it even freezes my mac pro when i try to copy files to it. also, if i leave it turned on and hooked up, and i come back later to open it, it freezes my computer.

any ideas on how to save this hard drive? it's not SATA, or i would just put it in my mac pro

[mad jew]

I you wanting to retrieve data form it or to make it usable? Either way, can you try a different enclosure or a different drive in the same enclosure to hopefully determine which component is causing the trouble? Is it recognised in Disk Utility and if so, have you tried formatting it? What is its current format? :)

[twoodcc]

I you wanting to retrieve data form it or to make it usable? Either way, can you try a different enclosure or a different drive in the same enclosure to hopefully determine which component is causing the trouble? Is it recognised in Disk Utility and if so, have you tried formatting it? What is its current format? :)

well, i want to have my itunes library on it. it's a big library. over 300 GB. i just reformatted to the GUID partition scheme. both of my macs are intel, so why not?

it's coping the files right now. 3 hours left :eek:

[mad jew]

Okay, so it's all working now? :)

[twoodcc]

Okay, so it's all working now? :)

i wouldn't say that yet. it's copied 79GB out of 335GB. a long way to go.

is that a good partition scheme though?

[mad jew]

Yeah, the partition scheme shouldn't matter too much for what you're wanting to do, reformatting the drive/changing the scheme might have been enough to realign things and make it all good again. We'll see... Good luck. :)

[twoodcc]

Yeah, the partition scheme shouldn't matter too much for what you're wanting to do, reformatting the drive/changing the scheme might have been enough to realign things and make it all good again. We'll see... Good luck. :)

thanks. before i reformatted it, i did a 'disk repair'. it caught a minor error and it said it fixed it, but it didn't.

right now it's still going...91 out of 335

[mad jew]

Yeah, the good news is that the repair's kinda redundant now that you've reformatted. :cool:

[twoodcc]

Yeah, the good news is that the repair's kinda redundant now that you've reformatted. :cool:

yeah. let's just hope it works this time.

98 out of 335...

[live4ever]

You should mention the enclosure brand and chipset (from System Profiler) - some chipsets are very flaky and will be nothing but trouble (eg. Prolific).

[twoodcc]

You should mention the enclosure brand and chipset (from System Profiler) - some chipsets are very flaky and will be nothing but trouble (eg. Prolific).

the enclosure brand is 'ion'. i can't find the chipset.

but it looks like it stopped copying at 118.14GB. i guess i got my hopes up too soon

what should i do?

[twoodcc]

well it locked up my mac pro again. i had to hit the power button :(

[mad jew]

Mate, it's probably the enclosure. Is there another one you could try out? In the meantime, is there another cable and port you could try? :)

[2ndPath]

I had a similar problem with external drives on my MBP. When copying large volumes of files, the finder occasionaly froze. The only thing that usally brought the finder back, was to unplug the drive. This results in an error message because of removing the drive without ejecting it first, but I didn't have to restart the computer. It didn't happen recently any more, but unfortunately I could never figure out what exactly the problem was.

[THX1139]

Two things:

First, your drive is probably getting too hot. Some enclosures just aren't meant to house large drives.

Secondly, just dump the drive and get something more current. You'd be better off with a lower capacity but faster $79 Sata II drive than buying an enclosure to eek out a bit more life from the 500.

[Silentwave]

Maybe you could crack open the enclosure and if you don't have a second optical drive installed, stick it in the other optical slot and use the IDE cables.

[twoodcc]

Mate, it's probably the enclosure. Is there another one you could try out? In the meantime, is there another cable and port you could try? :)

well, it's done this on another computer as well, so i don't think it's the FW port.

i have another enclosure, but i've had similar problems with it as well. maybe its just the drive?

[twoodcc]

I had a similar problem with external drives on my MBP. When copying large volumes of files, the finder occasionaly froze. The only thing that usally brought the finder back, was to unplug the drive. This results in an error message because of removing the drive without ejecting it first, but I didn't have to restart the computer. It didn't happen recently any more, but unfortunately I could never figure out what exactly the problem was.

yes i get the same thing. but how am i supposed to get the 335GB on the disk?

[twoodcc]

Two things:

First, your drive is probably getting too hot. Some enclosures just aren't meant to house large drives.

Secondly, just dump the drive and get something more current. You'd be better off with a lower capacity but faster $79 Sata II drive than buying an enclosure to eek out a bit more life from the 500.

but paid like $200 on that drive! and it's been like this since i got it.

[twoodcc]

Maybe you could crack open the enclosure and if you don't have a second optical drive installed, stick it in the other optical slot and use the IDE cables.

that might be an idea. but is there enough room for the hard drive, and my current superdrive?

any instructions on how to do this?

[Silentwave]

that might be an idea. but is there enough room for the hard drive, and my current superdrive?

any instructions on how to do this?

SuperDrive are 5.25" drives, HDDs are 3.5" drives. The mac pro can take two opticals, so there should be room. If you want to mount it there permanently you'd probably need to make or buy a bracket of some kind, but temporarily you might be able to rig that up somehow.

Basically there should be another PATA/IDE cable in there, and another power cable. Hook these up to the hard drive which you could remove from the enclosure.

All this is just as suggestion, is not guaranteed to work and I won't be liable for any problems :p

[twoodcc]

SuperDrive are 5.25" drives, HDDs are 3.5" drives. The mac pro can take two opticals, so there should be room. If you want to mount it there permanently you'd probably need to make or buy a bracket of some kind, but temporarily you might be able to rig that up somehow.

Basically there should be another PATA/IDE cable in there, and another power cable. Hook these up to the hard drive which you could remove from the enclosure.

All this is just as suggestion, is not guaranteed to work and I won't be liable for any problems :p

well i've read other people doing it, but they put in a bracket thing. i don't have one of those.

i guess i'll eventually try it

[kered22]

What Firewire are you using? 400 or 800? And also, which ports, front and back?

I had some weird issues with a FW400 enclosure and got slow write speeds or transfers that would freeze part way through using the front port. The back port worked fine however. I wrote in to Macintouch and there was another MacPro owner with a FW800 problem, but reversed.

The posts are rather long, so you may want to read through them and compare to your own experiences:
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/macpro/topic4472.html

I don't know if this is a driver issue or if the hardware implementation is bad or what. Something is amiss with the Firewire though....

[twoodcc]

What Firewire are you using? 400 or 800? And also, which ports, front and back?

I had some weird issues with a FW400 enclosure and got slow write speeds or transfers that would freeze part way through using the front port. The back port worked fine however. I wrote in to Macintouch and there was another MacPro owner with a FW800 problem, but reversed.

The posts are rather long, so you may want to read through them and compare to your own experiences:
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/macpro/topic4472.html

I don't know if this is a driver issue or if the hardware implementation is bad or what. Something is amiss with the Firewire though....

i'm using FW400, in the back port. i really think it's something to do with the drive, and not the mac pro. mainly b/c it's done similar things to my imac as well

[twoodcc]

well i was trying it again, and this time just copying a few files at a time. this was working, and after about 54 files, it messed up again. :(

it's almost like Finder is freezing. when i turn off the drive, my system goes back to normal (most of the time) sometimes it does freeze the whole computer though. (which is very, very bad)

[twoodcc]

well i'm beginning to think it could be the heat. after copying a bunch of files, it locked up my system again, and i had to hit the power button. i picked up the drive, and it was very hot.

do you think this could be the reason?

[twoodcc]

also, would the jumper on the drive have something to do with this? which setting should it be?

[4JNA]

...beginning to think it could be the heat.

also, would the jumper on the drive have something to do with this? which setting should it be?

wondering if the external has cooling or if it was supposed to have a fan that had quit, or... heat is a big problem for hard drives. depending on the external, you might be able to connect the drive while leaving the cover open. you could also use a fan/house fan/desk fan or whatever to move some air over it. big IDE moving 300gb+ would get very warm in the best setup.

the drive jumper should be be set to 'master'.

[Mlebout]

Saw something about this on G4 TV (however, it was an external drive connected via USB)... Is your drive configured to sleep? If so, turn the energy saving sleep/shut down off.

[twoodcc]

wondering if the external has cooling or if it was supposed to have a fan that had quit, or... heat is a big problem for hard drives. depending on the external, you might be able to connect the drive while leaving the cover open. you could also use a fan/house fan/desk fan or whatever to move some air over it. big IDE moving 300gb+ would get very warm in the best setup.

the drive jumper should be be set to 'master'.

well my enclosure doesn't have a fan or anything in it (maybe that's a problem)

i'm trying it now with the case open. i'm copying 3 movie files at a time right now. that way if it messes up, i at least got some files over on it.

[twoodcc]

Saw something about this on G4 TV (however, it was an external drive connected via USB)... Is your drive configured to sleep? If so, turn the energy saving sleep/shut down off.

no it's not configured to sleep