firewire problems on external hdd

[RA23]

Hi

I just got a Lacie Quadra 3TB external HDD that has firewire and USB. I connected it to a 2011 Mac Mini running OSX 10.10.5 using Firewire. All works well, until at some apparently random moment (minutes to hours later) the blue hdd light starts blinking continuously and I cannot access the hdd anymore. Unplugging the FW cable and putting it back in resets the situation to normal.
I have googled and tried to check fs_usage to see if the system was accessing that disk, but it did not look like it. I have also put the 2 partitions on that disk in the "ignore" list of spotlight, but that also did not appear to make any difference.
Finally I replaced the FireWire cable with a USB cable and the system has been running for days without trouble now.

Does anyone have a clue what is going on? Could it be an issue with the MacMini/OSX or with the HDD (in that case I can claim warranty)?

Any ideas are appreciated,

Edwin

 

[Fishrrman]

Do you have a DIFFERENT firewire cable?

Try it with the substitute cable.

 

[RA23]

No, I only have one. I don't think it would be related to the cable, because if I play around with the cable nothing changes. The "apparently random" failure seems to be related to some software accessing the drive.

Does anyone have a suggestion what I could do to diagnose the issue?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote above:
"Finally I replaced the FireWire cable with a USB cable and the system has been running for days without trouble now."

Hmmmm......
So.... the USB cable works all the time, but firewire is problematic?

My approach to problem solving in instances like this is:
"Go with what works for you, and don't worry about what doesn't".

If the USB connection works, that's what I'd use....

 

[RA23]

I agree..... except that I spent extra $$ for this particular drive because it would give me higher speed on FW compared to USB2 (no usb3 on my MacMini 2011)

In my trouble-shooting efforts I have also connected the drive with FW cable via a Thunderbolt display to a Macbook also running 10.10.5 and guess what: no problems (yet).

So it appears to be a Mac Mini-only problem.