FW800 Port on 09 Mini - Underpowered?

[JustGretchen]

Anyone else trying to power a 2.5" external FW drive from their fw800 port on their 09 mini?

I have a high quality (MacAlley) FW400/USB2.0 enclosure with a 160gb drive in it that has worked just fine historically off FW400 port on my MBP.

This is the first time I am hooking it up with a 400>800 cable to an 800 port, the drive seemingly powers and spins up, but doesn't mount. Wondering if the mini's FW800 port doesn't put out enough juice.

FYI, I run a 1tb WD MyBook Studio Edition via FW800 on my mini and it works fine, but that drive has it's own power source since it's a 3.5" drive.

Any suggestions? I find this very odd that FW800 can't power & mount this drive but a FW400 port on my MacBook Pro can.
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[JustGretchen]

Ok...so i rebooted my mini, not even a full shut down, just a reboot, and plugged the drive in and it showed right up. very strange.

I was even able to then daisy chain it off my 1tb from it's other FW800 port which is what I was trying to do in the first place.

This is all pretty strange.

 

[MacDawg]

I've had to reboot to get things recognized before myself
I would say that probably isn't all that uncommon
In fact, that would be the first step I would take to trouble shoot
A good restart can take care of a lot of issues!

Glad it is now working for you!
I know things like that can be frustrating!

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[Brien]

I've had similar issues on my MBP with my LaCie FW800 drive. Maybe an OS bug?

 

[JustGretchen]

Well it was strange because when I first plugged in the drive, I plugged it directly to the 1tb drive, and it powered and spun up, but did not mount.

So I thought maybe I can't daisy chain it for some reason. So I unmounted the 1tb, and unplugged it, then plugged the other drive directly to the mini, and go nothing.

Oh well, seems to work now.