Firewire testing

Is the drive formatted as a Mac volume, or is it brand new? Does the drive name show up if you open Disk Utility?
Is the drive turned on? Do you hear the drive and fan spinning up in the enclosure?
Had it previously worked on a Mac?
Do you know the FW cable is good? Have you tried another cable?
Have you powered down both the Mac and the drive and then started up again?


To answer the question -- we have no way of knowing if the FW port in your machine is burnt out.
This is possible to do if you plug FW cables in while the machine is running. If you plug in the cable cockeyed or upside down (yes I know you're not supposed to be able to, but it does with just a little force) then the power lines can short across the data lines, and fry the FW circuit.

 

Does your internal drive show up on the desktop, you may have set view options not to see it on the desktop, so open a finder window and see if it's in that.. (the external drive that is)

 

I had a friend who's PMG5 Quad did this a few weeks ago. Not a single FW port on it would work.

Diagnosis from Apple was a problem with the drivers, which meant a clean install. Worked perfectly afterwards.


Apparently, "it happens".