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Problem with 10.5.7 and USB external drive

J

Jungle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 7, 2008
24
0
Yesterday, I used software update to apply the 10.5.7 upgrade on my Mac Mini and, since then, I haven't been able to access a Buffalo external USB hard drive which has worked perfectly for the past couple of years on the same machine.

I have tried the drive on a PowerBook still running 10.5.6 and all works fine so I know the drive is OK. I have also swapped cabling around so the drive connects directly to a USB port on the back of the Mac Mini rather than a USB hub but with no success. last night, having read advice on this forum, I downloaded the combo update for 10.5.7 and applied that in case something had gone wrong with the update. Sadly, still no joy. The drive doesn't appear in Finder, nor can I see it in 'Disk Utility'. lastly, I tried to see if it could be seen as a USB device in Profiler but it isn't there.

I'm really hoping I am doing something really dumb but can anyone help me? I'm afraid I'm fast running short on technical expertise on OS X and am not even sure if I can 'downgrade' back to 10.5.6. All advice, tea and sympathy very gratefully received!
 
irbdavid

irbdavid

macrumors regular
Mar 27, 2006
154
0
Hi Jungle,

Same problem for me here on a C2D white MacBook. Possibly even the same drive - mine is a Buffalo 320GB thing. The USB tab in system profiler shows it as a 'USB IDE bridge', but doesn't find any drive attached to it. No solution as yet, but will let you know if I find anything :)

Nothing more annoying than updates that break other things...
 
A

ae3265

macrumors member
Feb 3, 2009
85
0
gertruded said:
Since going to 10.5.7 my white Macbook has been dropping external drives seeming randomly. The attached drives are 500gb WD and attached with firewire.
Click to expand...

I have not seen any issues with either FW or USB drives on either of my 2 mini's or my MBP since going to 10.5.7. OTOH, I did go through a lot of grief with cables on OSX and Windows and USB. Once I got the cable issues sorted through I've been good.
 
M

Marvin1379

macrumors 6502
Jun 25, 2007
337
3
New York
gertruded said:
Since going to 10.5.7 my white Macbook has been dropping external drives seeming randomly. The attached drives are 500gb WD and attached with firewire.
Click to expand...

On my 2007 MPB, my USB connected 320gb WD (time machine) has been fine since I combo updated to 10.5.7, but my FW 800 WD 400gb (media) drops at random times, wake from sleep, time machine backups, etc. I switched to FW 400 to see if it would make a difference. Not so much. I'll have to see if USB is more reliable, although I can already notice the speed difference from FW 800 to 400, so I'm not thrilled if I have to stick with USB 2 instead of FW400.
 
L

llumiaho

macrumors newbie
May 18, 2009
4
0
I have the same problem with my Buffalo 320 Gb external USB drive that I am using with time machine.
 
B

bagpuss

macrumors newbie
Sep 25, 2008
12
0
Blast!
I have two 500GB Buffalo drives and they're both not working.
And I only upgraded the other computer in the house to 10.5.7 this morning...
So we've all been stuffed by this?
 
Tumbleweed666

Tumbleweed666

macrumors 68000
Mar 20, 2009
1,761
141
Near London, UK.
bagpuss said:
Blast!
I have two 500GB Buffalo drives and they're both not working.
And I only upgraded the other computer in the house to 10.5.7 this morning...
So we've all been stuffed by this?
Click to expand...

Looks like it, it seems to affect many different Buffalo models all USB interface though not FW. I read last night an email from buffalo support which someone had posted, it stated that as these were all drives no longer being sold, it was extremely unlikely there would be any firmware updates. A nice approach from buffalo, support ends once they bring out a new model ! Whats that, every 6 months?

In the same thread there was a post from another user who had taken the disk out and put it in a new enclosure and it worked fine, eg as the issue is with the USB interface, you can access your data by moving to an enclosure with a USB interface that works .

Not sure where the cut off cost-wise is between getting a new enclosure and replacing the drive. I have a 250Gb Buffalo that I use for weekly CCC backups, will have to look at the cost of replacing the enclosure vs buying a new larger(and non-Buffalo!) drive. I havent gone to 10.5.7 yet and wont be for some time, its always possible that Apple will issue a fix for this as obviously they changed something and its possible they could revert.
 
G

griz

macrumors 6502a
Dec 18, 2003
583
222
New London, NH
I have a Buffalo 250GB and have the same problem.
Upgraded my mac mini to 10.5.7 and now it refused to mount.
The same drive comes right up on an iBook running 10.5.6.
I certainly hope someone has a fix for this. I use this drive as
my backup drive.
If buffalo doesn't buck up and fix this it's the last product I buy from them.
 
irbdavid

irbdavid

macrumors regular
Mar 27, 2006
154
0
Well, according to the discussion in this thread over at the Apple support pages, it doesn't look like any fix is going to be available. Seems to be a hardware problem in the buffalo drives, and they won't be doing any repairs/exchanges. Guess I'll be palming mine off on a windows user and getting me something else. Add Buffalo to the list of hardware suppliers I don't buy from. Seagate have never done me wrong so far...
 
G

griz

macrumors 6502a
Dec 18, 2003
583
222
New London, NH
Just found a discussion over at Buffalo forums on this.

http://forums.buffalotech.com/buffalo/board/message?board.id=0101&thread.id=9986

Anyone who is having problems should post there as well. Lets keep on them about this.
Pass the word around that this problem is going on and see if anyone else is having it. Get them to post too. A lot of people might be thinking they have a failed drive. The more people they hear from the more likely they are to do something about it.
 
S

scorn

macrumors newbie
Jun 8, 2009
1
0
Not just buffalo

I am seeing similar problems with a samsung 1TB drive hosted in a USB-SATA enclosure. I have also seen many reports of similar issues over on the Apple support website, so I don't think it's limited to Buffalo drives.
It seems to be more about basic drive management, as I have also had issues with memory sticks, digital camera etc since going to 10.5.7.
The only thing that seems to help is to power off the drive, and reboot the system. It then always mounts up first time for me.
 
MacHiavelli

MacHiavelli

macrumors 65816
May 17, 2007
1,253
913
new york
scorn said:
I am seeing similar problems with a samsung 1TB drive hosted in a USB-SATA enclosure. I have also seen many reports of similar issues over on the Apple support website, so I don't think it's limited to Buffalo drives.
It seems to be more about basic drive management, as I have also had issues with memory sticks, digital camera etc since going to 10.5.7.
The only thing that seems to help is to power off the drive, and reboot the system. It then always mounts up first time for me.
Click to expand...

Tried that, but it didn't work .... :mad:
 
JonnyBravo

JonnyBravo

macrumors regular
Sep 1, 2007
205
355
Glendale, CA
Problems with 320 External Western Digital

It seems to be affecting a lot more than Buffalo. My 320 Ext. WD acted up after upgrading. I was backing up over Airport Extreme. Time machine would recognize and then just hang...I couldn't even force quit. I decided to try and connect the drive via USB and I'm having the same problem. Weird thing is I tried to reformat the entire HD and Disk Utility won't recognize the drive via USB. And when it does, it won't let me unmount because it says other applications are using it. UGH! My drive seems to be working on my other computer though (PC), so it must be the update.
 
K

keihin

macrumors member
May 7, 2008
30
8
IcyDock Also

I believe I'm seeing this same issue using IcyDock enclosures. Seems to occur using either FW800 or USB interfaces.
 
I

iHusky

macrumors newbie
Jun 6, 2007
25
0
same for me with a WD drive.

doesn't show on desktop, disk utility doesn't detect it, system profile doesn't detect it. 0 for 3.

:(
 
J

Jungle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 7, 2008
24
0
Jungle said:
Yesterday, I used software update to apply the 10.5.7 upgrade on my Mac Mini and, since then, I haven't been able to access a Buffalo external USB hard drive which has worked perfectly for the past couple of years on the same machine.

I have tried the drive on a PowerBook still running 10.5.6 and all works fine so I know the drive is OK. I have also swapped cabling around so the drive connects directly to a USB port on the back of the Mac Mini rather than a USB hub but with no success. last night, having read advice on this forum, I downloaded the combo update for 10.5.7 and applied that in case something had gone wrong with the update. Sadly, still no joy. The drive doesn't appear in Finder, nor can I see it in 'Disk Utility'. lastly, I tried to see if it could be seen as a USB device in Profiler but it isn't there.

I'm really hoping I am doing something really dumb but can anyone help me? I'm afraid I'm fast running short on technical expertise on OS X and am not even sure if I can 'downgrade' back to 10.5.6. All advice, tea and sympathy very gratefully received!
Click to expand...

OK - an update! Upgraded to 10.5.8 two days ago and.... the drive now works again. I guess I'm going to need to be an adult about this and let Buffalo know that, exactly as they said, this was an Apple problem after all.

Anyway, I now have my drive back which is going to be a backup device from now on...
 
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