Hi all,

I'm have an eMac with a 40GB internal drive and a BusLink 80GB external
firewire. I have my user account on the external. Problem is, the
machine occasionally loses contact with the drive. I get a spinning
cursor and zero drive activity. I can switch apps, but gradually each
app freezes up as it tries to access the drive and can't find it.

Usually this happens about once a week. Today it happened twice in about
a three hour period. It is extremely irritating, because *everything*
ceases to respond and I have to restart the machine. I can get it to
respond by unplugging the drive, but since my user account is on it,
this is not usually terribly wise.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this -- there's no
particular sequence of events that leads to it, it just sort of happens.

Since this is an eMac, I depend on the external drive. I could put in a
larger internal, but frankly, the 120GB I have set up currently is not
enough. I was planning on getting another 80GB external, but these
problems give me pause.

Anyone else encounter this or have any suggestions?

sp

--
This sig property of the Soviet Union

Yes. I expect your drive is defective. I had one that behaved
something like that recently.


In article <1113701632.21e4ac3ced7f9e32837c541e6b71b7a1@teran ews>,
Steven Daedelus <sdaedelus@ira.gov> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm have an eMac with a 40GB internal drive and a BusLink 80GB external
> firewire. I have my user account on the external. Problem is, the
> machine occasionally loses contact with the drive. I get a spinning
> cursor and zero drive activity. I can switch apps, but gradually each
> app freezes up as it tries to access the drive and can't find it.
>
> Usually this happens about once a week. Today it happened twice in about
> a three hour period. It is extremely irritating, because *everything*
> ceases to respond and I have to restart the machine. I can get it to
> respond by unplugging the drive, but since my user account is on it,
> this is not usually terribly wise.
>
> There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this -- there's no
> particular sequence of events that leads to it, it just sort of happens.
>
> Since this is an eMac, I depend on the external drive. I could put in a
> larger internal, but frankly, the 120GB I have set up currently is not
> enough. I was planning on getting another 80GB external, but these
> problems give me pause.
>
> Anyone else encounter this or have any suggestions?
>
> sp

In article <1113701632.21e4ac3ced7f9e32837c541e6b71b7a1@teran ews>,
Steven Daedelus <sdaedelus@ira.gov> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm have an eMac with a 40GB internal drive and a BusLink 80GB external
> firewire. I have my user account on the external. Problem is, the
> machine occasionally loses contact with the drive. I get a spinning
> cursor and zero drive activity. I can switch apps, but gradually each
> app freezes up as it tries to access the drive and can't find it.
>
> Usually this happens about once a week. Today it happened twice in about
> a three hour period. It is extremely irritating, because *everything*
> ceases to respond and I have to restart the machine. I can get it to
> respond by unplugging the drive, but since my user account is on it,
> this is not usually terribly wise.
>
> There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this -- there's no
> particular sequence of events that leads to it, it just sort of happens.
>
> Since this is an eMac, I depend on the external drive. I could put in a
> larger internal, but frankly, the 120GB I have set up currently is not
> enough. I was planning on getting another 80GB external, but these
> problems give me pause.
>
> Anyone else encounter this or have any suggestions?
>
> sp

Sounds like a defective drive - I don't suppose it's still under
warranty? It's rare that hard drives fail, so if you replace it I
wouldn't expect you'd have a similar problem. You should replace it
asap or back it up asap or you will surely lose your data that's on it.

Dan

In article <1113701632.21e4ac3ced7f9e32837c541e6b71b7a1@teran ews>,
Steven Daedelus <sdaedelus@ira.gov> wrote:

> I'm have an eMac with a 40GB internal drive and a BusLink 80GB external
> firewire. I have my user account on the external. Problem is, the
> machine occasionally loses contact with the drive. I get a spinning
> cursor and zero drive activity. I can switch apps, but gradually each
> app freezes up as it tries to access the drive and can't find it.

Sounds like the drive is failing. Back up all your data NOW and replace
the drive--it's likely that soon all the data on the drive will become
irrecoverable.

--
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink:
all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

In article <160420051923318077%tosh@newsfeed.com>,
Toshiro <tosh@newsfeed.com> wrote:

> Yes. I expect your drive is defective. I had one that behaved
> something like that recently.
>
>
> In article <1113701632.21e4ac3ced7f9e32837c541e6b71b7a1@teran ews>,
> Steven Daedelus <sdaedelus@ira.gov> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm have an eMac with a 40GB internal drive and a BusLink 80GB external
> > firewire. I have my user account on the external. Problem is, the
> > machine occasionally loses contact with the drive. I get a spinning
> > cursor and zero drive activity. I can switch apps, but gradually each
> > app freezes up as it tries to access the drive and can't find it.
> >
> > Usually this happens about once a week. Today it happened twice in about
> > a three hour period. It is extremely irritating, because *everything*
> > ceases to respond and I have to restart the machine. I can get it to
> > respond by unplugging the drive, but since my user account is on it,
> > this is not usually terribly wise.
> >
> > There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this -- there's no
> > particular sequence of events that leads to it, it just sort of happens.
> >
> > Since this is an eMac, I depend on the external drive. I could put in a
> > larger internal, but frankly, the 120GB I have set up currently is not
> > enough. I was planning on getting another 80GB external, but these
> > problems give me pause.
> >
> > Anyone else encounter this or have any suggestions?
> >
> > sp

I have an AcomData external drive with both Firewire and USB ports... I
found the Firewire connection increasingly intermittent, but it seems to
be rock-stable when connecting via USB.

Luckily, my Macs have USB 2.0 ports.

===============================================
remove 'nospam' when replying

In article <alan-76E5C2.09460117042005@news.vc.shawcable.net>,
Alan Zisman <alan@nospam.zisman.ca> wrote:

> In article <160420051923318077%tosh@newsfeed.com>,
> Toshiro <tosh@newsfeed.com> wrote:
>
> > Yes. I expect your drive is defective. I had one that behaved
> > something like that recently.
> >
> >
> > In article <1113701632.21e4ac3ced7f9e32837c541e6b71b7a1@teran ews>,
> > Steven Daedelus <sdaedelus@ira.gov> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > I'm have an eMac with a 40GB internal drive and a BusLink 80GB external
> > > firewire. I have my user account on the external. Problem is, the
> > > machine occasionally loses contact with the drive. I get a spinning
> > > cursor and zero drive activity. I can switch apps, but gradually each
> > > app freezes up as it tries to access the drive and can't find it.
> > >
> > > Usually this happens about once a week. Today it happened twice in about
> > > a three hour period. It is extremely irritating, because *everything*
> > > ceases to respond and I have to restart the machine. I can get it to
> > > respond by unplugging the drive, but since my user account is on it,
> > > this is not usually terribly wise.
> > >
> > > There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this -- there's no
> > > particular sequence of events that leads to it, it just sort of happens.
> > >
> > > Since this is an eMac, I depend on the external drive. I could put in a
> > > larger internal, but frankly, the 120GB I have set up currently is not
> > > enough. I was planning on getting another 80GB external, but these
> > > problems give me pause.
> > >
> > > Anyone else encounter this or have any suggestions?
> > >
> > > sp
>
> I have an AcomData external drive with both Firewire and USB ports... I
> found the Firewire connection increasingly intermittent, but it seems to
> be rock-stable when connecting via USB.
>
> Luckily, my Macs have USB 2.0 ports.
>
> ===============================================
> remove 'nospam' when replying

That sounds familiar. I've had occasional minor Firewire issues on this
machine before, and my previous machine was a real pain when it came to
Firewire.

With respect to everyone else that answered, thanks, but I really don't
think it's a failing drive. This has been going on for a year, and the
frequency (minus twice yesterday) has never increased. Moreover, the
drive passes hardware checks via DiskWarrior.

I really think it's a Firewire problem -- I just hoped to find others
that have had intermittent Firewire outages.

--
This sig property of the Soviet Union

On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 21:33:19 -0400, Steven Daedelus wrote:

> I'm have an eMac with a 40GB internal drive and a BusLink 80GB external
> firewire. I have my user account on the external. Problem is, the
> machine occasionally loses contact with the drive. I get a spinning
> cursor and zero drive activity. I can switch apps, but gradually each
> app freezes up as it tries to access the drive and can't find it.

Is the external formatted with Disk Utility, or is it using a non-Apple
driver that could possibly be the problem?

Have you installed all system updates? Have you tried disabling third-party
extensions?

Your original post and subsequent imply that you were hoping to learn of
a known software problem with FireWire. If there were a problem with
Apple's FireWire implementation, it is likely that it would be well known and
you would have heard some responses to that effect. But if there is a
problem with BusLink's firmware, it might not be well known, especially if it
only occurs with certain models of Mac.

If you suspect a software problem, you could try switching your drive to a
different enclosure that uses different FireWire firmware. Or you could
switch it to an enclosure that uses identical firmware, if you suspect a
bridge board hardware failure.

Naturally, echoing the other responses, the first step is to back up your
essential data ASAP if you have not done so already.

Best wishes,
Steve Wise

An update:

I reset the nvram on the machine (due to other problems) and ran fsck,
and haven't had a problem since.

I have a good idea that Apple's Firewire implementation is a bit flakey,
though -- I've had trouble with other devices and other machines. Most
recently I had a DVD burner on another machine, daisy-chained through
another hard drive. Sometimes if I switch the DVD burner off, the hard
drive dismounts.

Go figure...

sp


In article <0001HW.BE8D65F101C3CBECF04075B0@news.clt.bellsout h.net>,
Stephen Wise <csaw@jhu.edu> wrote:

> On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 21:33:19 -0400, Steven Daedelus wrote:
>
> > I'm have an eMac with a 40GB internal drive and a BusLink 80GB external
> > firewire. I have my user account on the external. Problem is, the
> > machine occasionally loses contact with the drive. I get a spinning
> > cursor and zero drive activity. I can switch apps, but gradually each
> > app freezes up as it tries to access the drive and can't find it.
>
> Is the external formatted with Disk Utility, or is it using a non-Apple
> driver that could possibly be the problem?
>
> Have you installed all system updates? Have you tried disabling third-party
> extensions?
>
> Your original post and subsequent imply that you were hoping to learn of
> a known software problem with FireWire. If there were a problem with
> Apple's FireWire implementation, it is likely that it would be well known and
> you would have heard some responses to that effect. But if there is a
> problem with BusLink's firmware, it might not be well known, especially if it
> only occurs with certain models of Mac.
>
> If you suspect a software problem, you could try switching your drive to a
> different enclosure that uses different FireWire firmware. Or you could
> switch it to an enclosure that uses identical firmware, if you suspect a
> bridge board hardware failure.
>
> Naturally, echoing the other responses, the first step is to back up your
> essential data ASAP if you have not done so already.
>
> Best wishes,
> Steve Wise

--
This sig property of the Soviet Union