[DEMUG] all sorts of Firewire issues

[Michele Stapleton]

I have a G5 Power PC, I have four firewire external LaCie hard drives  
that are daisy-chained with firewire 800, the first one being  
attached to the FW 800 port on the backside of the G5, and then each  
HD is connected to the next.

Today, when I was out of the office, my assistant plugged in a small  
portable hard drive to the FW 400 port on the front side of the unit  
and suddenly all the hard drives disappeared from the desktop.

Now, we can't get anything that we connect via FW to show on the  
desktop. Or in the System Profiler or Disk Utility. We can't get any  
of them to mount again via firewire, whether we use the FW port on  
the front of the machine or the FW port on the back. We've tried  
using other FW cords but still nothing.  However, those drives do  
show up when connected to other machines via FW. And, I can get a  
drive to show up on the desktop when I attach via USB.

My initial diagnosis is that the FW port(s) on the G5 bit the dust  
but that the external HDs are all okay. DEEP SIGH OF RELIEF.

I have several questions: Is there some limit on how many FW devices  
can be attached at one time (did I cause this by having too many FW  
units attached at one time?)

Until I can get this machine in for service, I would like to still  
have access to the stuff on the external HDs. Which makes me wonder  
if I can daisy chain with a mix of USB and Firewire?  In other words,  
can I attach the first drive via USB and then daisy chain with FW the  
other drives?


Michele

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Michele Stapleton, photographer
BRUNSWICK, MAINE
http://www.MicheleStapleton.com
http://www.MaineWeddingPhotographer.com/
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