iMac "loses" LaCie external

[Vanilla]

Hi
I have a 250gb LaCie external HD attached to my G5 iMac via a Firewire 400 connection, connected to a six-port firewire hub that also has an iSight attached and an iPod docking cradle.

My problem is that if I eject the Lacie and power it down by pressing the blue button and then let the iMac go to sleep, upon awakening the iMac again it will not recognise the LaCie drive after I press the Blue Button on the LaCie to activate it. The LaCie HD clearly powers up but it doesn't appear on the screen.

The only solution is to restart the iMac or disconnect the Firewire cable and reconnect it, which is a bit of a pain.

Is this a known issue or am I not doing something obvious? Is there a way of forcing the iMac to scan for attached peripherals?

cheers
Vanilla
PS: I am on the latest version of Tiger

 

[quidire]

It seems a lot of people have had issues like this... what gives? I have a Lacie Big Disk on the way, and now am quite concerned....

Thanks
-RS

 

[Jo-Kun]

my LaCie works just fine, I tried the things you say and it just mounts again...

try it with a direct connection to the iMac (no hub) if that works than the issue is the hub

allso instead of rebooting try disk util first and try to mount it from there...

 

[Vanilla]

my LaCie works just fine, I tried the things you say and it just mounts again...

try it with a direct connection to the iMac (no hub) if that works than the issue is the hub

allso instead of rebooting try disk util first and try to mount it from there...

Apologies for not responding earlier, I've been on my hols. I haven't taken the direct connection option yet but did check the Disk Utility app. This identified the LaCie fine, but as unmounted. Clicking on the mounting tab solved that one. So for now when I lose the icon I'll nip into DU and mount it. I'll try the direct connection option tonight.

cheers and thanks for the advice.
Vanilla

 

[Applespider]

Have you updated the LaCie firmware? There was one relatively recently that is supposed to help with potential Tiger issues.

 

[Vanilla]

Have you updated the LaCie firmware? There was one relatively recently that is supposed to help with potential Tiger issues.

No I haven't and didn't realise it was an option so thanks for the advice.

The direct connection didn't work either. If you eject the drive, click the blue button on the LaCie to turn it off, click and hold it again to turn it back on, it does NOT mount. If I go into Disk Utility I can see it fine and can mount it from there.

I'm off to the LaCie site to check out this firmware update option.

cheers
Vanilla

 

[mkubal]

I had a similar problem a while back when trying to use my LaCie to backup several computers. There seemed to be a very specific order for powering on computer and drive and connecting the firewire cable, which you had to follow or else it wouldn't mount. It was extremely frustrating.

Since then, the drive has found a permenant home and it never gets shut off or unplugged so it's no longer a problem.

I'll have to check out that firmware update too. Thanks, Applespider.

Edit: Very strange. I ran the updater and it said I had the latest firmware. I know I've haven't updated it and it was purchased near a year ago at least. I have a porsche drive and the updater says that this is for the porsche drives. Did Tiger include the firmware update?

 

[Vanilla]

Okay the firmware update has sorted it.
Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.
Vanilla

 

[Applespider]

Edit: Very strange. I ran the updater and it said I had the latest firmware. I know I've haven't updated it and it was purchased near a year ago at least. I have a porsche drive and the updater says that this is for the porsche drives. Did Tiger include the firmware update?

I'm not sure if LaCie's firmware upgrade was only for the d2/Extreme drives and perhaps not the Porsche ones. It's not in Tiger itself.

 

[andiwm2003]

i had my lacie via fire wire 800 connected and had no problems with my pb finding it. but then i never powered it down. it powers itself down when the pb goes to sleep.
now i have it connected via usb on my monitor and it still isn't a problem. the disk goes to sleep and wakes up with the pb. i didn't do any firmware upgrade either.

andi

 

[mkubal]

I'm not sure if LaCie's firmware upgrade was only for the d2/Extreme drives and perhaps not the Porsche ones. It's not in Tiger itself.

It says it's for the porsche drives, but I think you're right. It just includes the update to the Porsche drive, which is presumably much older than the actual updater.

 

[Vanilla]

i had my lacie via fire wire 800 connected and had no problems with my pb finding it. but then i never powered it down. it powers itself down when the pb goes to sleep.
now i have it connected via usb on my monitor and it still isn't a problem. the disk goes to sleep and wakes up with the pb. i didn't do any firmware upgrade either.

andi

Hi
Mine did this as well, i.e. If I left it on it would power down and back up with the iMac fine. As long as I left it on there was no problem.

The specific problem I was referring to was as follows:

1. Eject the LaCie Drive by either right-clicking on the icon and selecting "eject" or going to finder and clicking on the eject icon next to the drive icon.

2. Click and hold the blue button on the LaCie drive to fully power it down.

3. Wait a bit and then Click and hold the blue button on the LaCie drive to power it up

What SHOULD happen next is that the iMac finds it and then automatically mounts it.

What INSTEAD used to happen is that the iMac would not mount it at all. I had to use Disk utility instead to mount it.

It's probably worth checking the above sequence yourself to see if you have the same problem or not. The good news is that if you do, the firmware update seems to solve the issue; it's certainly resolved it for me anyway.

cheers
Vanilla