I have an IceCube Firewire 80GB external HD that will not mount. It
is one of three connected to my G5 1.8 via a common hub. The drive
appears to switch on, the light comes on, but it does not mount.
The other drives all switch on and mount. I have checked all cables
which seem secure and sound. The drive has always been superquiet
and vibration free and I can not tell by feel if it is spinning.
What other checks can I do?
Severin Crisp
I've had several (Sarotech and Maxtor)units blow their transformers
which supply the power to spin the disk and power the disks
controller but, in the case of those specific models, the interface
bridge card (or at least part of it) is actually powered by via the
FireWire bus rather than the units own power supply (so hence the
"lights come on").
firstly remove all other devices from the chain including the hub -
use a known good cable - the one from the computer to the hub should
be fine as it allows other drives on the hub to mount.
check to see if it appears in the apple system profiler in
"FireWIre". you may see the case's bridge card but not the drive
(suggesting either dead drive or loose internal cable connections in
the case. you might see something that looks like a unknown or
generic FireWire device with no sub devices - this sometimes means
that part of the bridge board in the drive case has blown
turn the computer off, turn the drive off, disconnect the power
supply to the drive. power the drive back up then power up the
computer. see if it mounts.
if not then -
turn off all extraneous hardware (including the computer) then power
up the drive there should be an initial "whirring " noise, maybe
followed by one or more short mechanical clicks
Easiest way to test if it's spinning is to hold the drive unit flat
in your palm and try twisting your hand around in a "waving good
bye" motion, the inertia from the spinning disks should present a
fairly noticeable difference between rotating your hand clockwise V's
anti clockwise. You can also hold the disk unit edge on and attempt
to "fan and twist" it around, again, if the disk is spinning you
will notice it will be easy to swing it one way but the other way
it will try to "vector off" slightly under it's own rotational
force.
if the drive is not spinning, turn off and disconnect the power
lead, open the case, and check your wiring from the power supply to
the bridge card and the drive .. also try "sniffing" the power supply
unit for a "burnt" smell - it will probably be faint but sharp and
acrid. If it has a external brick this can be difficult as they are
generally too well sealed to "let the smoke out"
don't touch the powers supply unit though as even with the power
cable unplugged you might still get a painful stinging zap from any
residual charge in the larger capacitors.
if you don't get it spinning up after checking the cables swap the
drive in to a case of one of the known good drives and put the known
good drive (or a spare known good drive) in to the "dead case".
you'll find (hopefully) that which ever unit is dead won't work in
it's new configuration.
ie.
possible dead bridge/power supply + known good disk WON'T work
but
possible dead disk WILL work with known good bridge/power supply
obviously you may have the the rare but still possible situation of
both a fried bridge/power supply AND fried hard disk.........
___________________________
_____________________________
Assoc Professor R Severin Crisp, FIP, CPhys, FAIP
15 Thomas St, Mount Clarence, Albany, 6330, Western Australia.
Phone (08) 9842 1950 (Int'l +61 8 9842 1950)
email mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web pages http://www.JennyCrisp.com.au
& http://members.westnet.com.au/Crisp
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