Firewire drive doesn't startup from sleep

[vd0t]

Hi

I'm not sure if this is a common issues with Macs and firewire drives, but it seems to be an issue with my PowerMac G5 and iMac G5. I have 2 firewire drives (with USB2 support) and they both experience the same problem between both my Macs. I've tried hooking them up via USB2 and there is no problem (mainly because when it's hooked up to the USB port it doesn't go to sleep at all).

Basically the problem is, I attach a firewire drive to my Mac. My Mac goes to sleep after a few minutes of inactivity. When I wake up my Mac from sleep, and try to access the firewire drive, it hangs on me. I would then have to restart my Mac (and my firewire drive). This is very annoying!

How can I get my firewire drive to wake up from sleep properly? Or not put it to sleep at all (the put my hard disks to sleep option is currently unchecked on my Mac).

And the reason I don't have to it on USB2 is because I have other things attached on there (iPod, mouse, printer, etc) and don't want to keep flipping between them.

Also, is there a firmware update I can do? I believe my drive has the Oxford 911 chip (although I cannot 100% confirm, I've opened it up but no mention of Oxford chip).

Thanks in advance!

 

[vd0t]

Help anyone?

Nobody here has any trouble with their external drive?

 

[After G]

Install Developer Tools, and use the SpindownHD program.

To check the chipset, use Disk Utility and it usually tells you.
Your external case manufacturer should be able to provide info on firmware updates.

 

[vd0t]

Thanks for the reply!

I actually don't mind the drive sleeping. As long as it wakes up properly.. which it's not doing. (In fact, I probably prefer it sleeping since it cuts down some noise.. it's in my bedroom).

My 2 external drives are from different manufacturers (purchased about a year apart) so I don't think it's the manufacturer's problem (but who knows).

 

[Sedulous]

I'm not sure I have a complete picture of what is happening. Does the drive spindown at sleep then never spinup on wake? Or does the drive unmount?

 

[vd0t]

Spins down approximately 5-10 seconds after my Mac goes to sleep. When I wake up my Mac, it doesn't spin up at first... but when I try to access something fromt the drive, I can hear it spin up and I just get the beach ball. Then my Finder just freezes and I have to manually shut it down and boot up again.

It doesn't unmount though.. However, after I wake up my Mac and if I do unmount the drive, I get the beachball as well.

So I'm guessing from the lack of responses that this isn't really a common issue. But, like I said I've tried 2 different firewire drives on both my PowerMac G5 and iMac G5 with the same results!