External HD doesn't appear on desktop sometimes

[typer16452]

Sometimes my external HD doesn't appear on my desktop (connected with Firewire).

It spins up, and all I generally have to do is turn it off and turn it back on again for it to appear.

But obviously I wish it would just work the first time.

Using 10.6.1 on a Mac Pro, external drive is OWC Mercury.

 

[smythey]

There seems to be a problem for some users running Snow Leopard and an external drive over Firewire. Im having a similair issue - my drive mounts and shows up, but my transfer rates have dropped from ~30MB/s on Leopard to ~1MB/s on Snow Leopard.

Theres a thread on the Apple discussion board on this, and loads of people are having the same issue as you, and the same issue as me.

Some reckon it has something to do with a problem with the drivers; apparently copying the drivers from Leopard can fix it. It made things even worse for me though.

Hopefully this will be sorted in 10.6.2....