Mac OS X 10.4.7 Special Report: External drives not recognized -- fixes
Several users have reported that external FireWire and/or USB hard drives will not mount after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.7.
MacFixIt reader Joseph Samuels writes:
"I did have some trouble with one of my two laptops recognizing my firewire drives. On the Pismo, with Daystar G4 550mhz upgrade and 1 GB ram, there were no problems. On my Powerbook G4, 1.67mhz, 2 GB ram, at first after the upgrade, the firewire drives were not recognized. I unplugged them all from the computer and restarted and tried them again and they all worked. For the first plug-in with each drive, it took some time for the machine to mount the drive. It seemed that the system had to do something to the drive before it could mount. But after the first plug-in for each drive, the later plug-ins were very quick like it had been before installing 10.4.7."
As noted by Joseph, the solution for some cases of this problem is to simply unplug the drives, restart and re-connect them.
In other cases, clearing system caches with a utility like AppleJack, Cocktail or Tiger Cache Cleaner can often restore accessibility to FireWire devices that otherwise refuse to mount.
You may also want to try some of the suggestions listed in our tutorial about solving various FireWire issues.
Index:
- AirPort connectivity issues -- fixes
- Bluetooth: Erratic device behavior, loss of connectivity
- Cellular data modems now natively supported
- CS2 apps (Photoshop, etc.) not launching -- potential fix
- Digital camera problems -- not recognized, workaround
- Don't skip update verification process
- Dozens of SMB processes spawned -- fix
- Example of the dangers in continuing work while update is applying
- External drives not recognized -- fixes
- FireWire device recognition issues
- Increased fan activity -- fixes
- Intel re-release: Determining whether you have the old or new version, more
- Internet access problems caused by DNS errors
- iSync issues
- MacBook Pro screen failures with external display connected
- MacBook (13"): Vertical multi-colored lines at startup after Mac OS X 10.4.7 update
- Microsoft Word crashing frequently -- fix
- Palm synchronization issues
- Printing issues -- fixes
- Problems caused by devices connected during update
- Problems starting up after update -- fixes
- Quark Xpress 6.5: Problems with fonts, temporary fix
- Rosetta problems -- potential fix
- Safari: Problems accessing secure sites, crashes, more
- SoundSticks unrecognized -- fix
- Spotlight will be re-enabled after update
- SuperDrive burn issues -- fix
- Third-party displays causing freezes
- Trackpad difficulties -- input not recognized
- Two-finger click functionality now enabled on 15" MacBook Pros, PowerBooks
- USB problems (device recognition, preventing your Mac from sleeping etc.) -- fixes
- Widget "phone home" function actually a security measure
- Windows sharing and processor hogging (system slowdown)
The first problem occured when I tried to import a CD into iTunes. The external drive hang and I had to shut down my iBook G3 (OS 10.4.7) by brute force (holding the power button until it shut down). Running DiskUtility repaired the external disk, I decided to not import that specific CD and everything seemed to be all right.
A few days later I tried to import another CD. Same problem. Since then I cannot mount my external drive at all. DiskUtility hangs at the 'gathering disk information' stage when I start it while the external drive is connected to the iBook via Firewire.
Re-booting doesn't do anything, neither does repairing the permissions on the internal boot disk or connecting the drive through the second FireWire port on the hard disk.
No idea what to do. Any suggestions?
Tom