External HDD causing Mac to slow down/freeze up

[Bendy Walker]

I have a 500Gb Lacie External HDD, connected to my Mac via Firewire 800.

Just recently, it has been causing my Mac to have some major slow down, and frequently causes applications to freeze up (forcing me to 'force quit' them).

I know the HDD is the culprit because when I disconnect the HDD my Mac goes back to it's speedy, 4Gb RAM empowered self.

I've tried formatting the HDD and reconnecting it, but it's still causing me some issues.

Does anyone have any suggestions to fix this problem, or is it time to buy a new one?

 

[madog]

Could be a bad firewire port and therefor a faulty logic board that could be causing it (or even a bad cable). Have you tried using a different firewire port on the machine/drive? You can buy a 400 to 800 cable to connect a 400 device to an 800 port, however, it doesn't actually speed anything up (although it could slow it down if it works the other way, I can't remember), though I wouldn't be surprised if your drive has a 400 or USB port on it as well to determine if it is in fact the drive, something in between (not likely, but possible), or the computer itself.

 

[crazyrog17]

I've got the same problem!

I don't know what to do. Does this really sound like something I should take it to the Apple Store for?

I'm using USB for the moment and there's no trouble there. It can't be the drive itself unless it's the drive's FW800 and not it's USB.