Disappearing Drives

PDD

Hi Folks,

I have two external drives VIA USB with multiple partitions on them, when I boot into OS X I have all of these mounted as individual drives. However every once in a while the drives just disappear and I have to unplug the drive then plug it back in again to get the partitions mounted or even reboot OS X if a partition is not showing. When the drives disappear (no longer vissible in finder) the drives are still vissible in Disk Utility so unmounting them and then remounting them seems to bring them back. Has anyone any thoughts on why the drives are being dropped?

Dave

WUSBDesign

Did the volumes do a "live" disappearing act before your eyes, or were they just forgotten about when MacOS recovers from sleep? If it is the latter, then this "amnesia" is quite widespread.

PDD

@WUSBDesign - They do it live before my eyes where the icon disappears from finder. Its also happens a few times when Im copying things between partitions/drives and one will just disappear. Sometimes is the one partition and other times its all the partitions on the external drive.

ZENER

Are the drives powered from the USB port or do they have their own PSUs ?

ZEN

babypink

ZENER wrote: »

Are the drives powered from the USB port or do they have their own PSUs ?

ZEN

Also, are they connected straight into the computer or are they going through a hub?

PDD

Hi Guys,

Both drives are external 3.5" HDD in external casings with their own power supply. One connected directly and the other via a USB Hub/Card reader. Both drives disappear not just the one connected via USB hub.

Dave

babypink

one other thing you could do, for info, is to go into the system profiler and see what info is thrown up for the drives....moreso the chipset/firmware of the enclosures you're using.

Chances are it's a PL3507....its made by Prolific. I've had issues with enclosures using that chipset, and try to use ones based on an Oxford911 chipset

PDD

@babypink - Yep its got the Prolific chipset but Im not sure if I will be able to return it :-( Any recommendations for an enclosure with the Oxford chipset and where I might source one in Ireland as my usual places seem to have failed me?

WUSBDesign

Is USB a must? Will FireWire meet the requirements?

Someone is selling a MacMini-friendly enclosure for about GBP60 + postage. FireWire, USB, etc.

Is this too expensive or does not fit what you're looking for?

babypink

1) you can rely on OWC to have the right product.....pity they're US based.....shipping is ~$45 to Ireland. Though with the cheap dollar...it makes it a little more attractive.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/External-Enclosures/

2) if the HD's are SATA.... the following product is an innovative solution....its a HD docking station.....this one is the same as the Thermaltake BlacX.....a very well received product.

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/668282/art/pixmania/supsu2-docking-station.html

PDD

Hi Folks,

Cheers for the heads up :-)

@WUSBDesign - I was thinking about getting a MiniStack v3 but I found that the v2 I had got very hot so I don't think Id get another plus I found it hard to justify the extra money for USB/Firewire ports when two fo them are used just to connect the drive to the Mac.


@babypink - OWC can be cheap, I got a v2 stack of them but the extra for customs made it a bad deal. Its a damn shame they dont have anywhere in Europe that sells. Is a HDD docking station secure? :-| I thought they were only to be used as temporary thing

WUSBDesign

I've used a miniStack v2 before - stuck under a MacMini PowerPC - for the iPhoto library and never noticed any significant temperature. Would it be the HDD generating too much heat? The HDD on the miniStack is a Hitachi 320GB DeskStar.

The miniStack v3 sold on OWC/MacSales is about GBP55, delivery extra. Total, this comes close to the eBay I linked to, the latter having the advantage of not having to face the prospect of being slapped with customs, excise duty.