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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Macbook Pro firewire 800 + Red Drive = Nothing.

P

Patrick Britton

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Hi there.

First time I'm posting to these boards, they've been a huge help to me on a few RED projects already.

I've been having a problem with 2 RED drives and 2 different Macbook Pros. Basically, the drives won't show up, when they will on an older Macbook Pro. I've tried now with two different unibody 15inch macbook pros, and both times, nothing. One is late January, the other new today. Both are running 10.5.6. Hooking up the Red Drive over an ExpressCard LaCie firewire 800 card works perfectly...

The macbook pro that does work is a Late 2007 Santa Rosa, also running 10.5.6.

Ok, so basically, I'm hoping someone on here is either having the same problem, or Hooking up their Red Drive to their Unibody Macbook Pro over firewire 800 (built in) works.

Thanks a ton.

-Patrick.
 
Ok, so I have plugged in another firewire 800 device (my other macbook pro santa rosa in disk mode) and that worked no problem.

The Red Drive is hooked up with the firewire 800, and with AC power to the wall. I've tried it both with power and without.

So, I have 2 unibody 15 inch macbook pros, running 10.5.6 that can't see the Red Drive.

Thank you for your help so far, I think I've managed to get 2 lemons?

-Patrick.
 
yeah, It's been sitting there for about an hour now, with nothing. As a note, on my older macbook pro, it shows up instantly...

but thanks. I guess I'll just keep searching.

-Patrick.
 
Did you try to hook two up at the same time?

As in two RED DRIVES to the same computer via the same type of interface at the same time.
 
Hi.

Yes, I tried daisy chaining 2 Red drives in both sequences, with both Macbook Pros, and nothing.

-Patrick.
 
Do you have another kind of external drive you can mount to see if the computer sees that one?
 
I'd guess it's Mac Book Pro issue. The expresscard slot even has issues but Apple hasn't fixed it yet. When they renew the components they make changes with the control chips that often give new issues like this.

Devices with drivers can get solved when third party develops the fix towards the new chip set, but devices like RED DRIVE, the fix has to come from Apple. I notice MOTU has released new Firewire drivers for thier Firewire audio interfaces, so there must be some changes in new Apple machines.

You'd have to wait until Apple releases an update.
 
Hi Sam.

Yeah, I can connect my other macbook pro to it in Firewire disk mode no problem.

Kaku. Thanks for the advice. I think you're right, maybe they switched the chip in the system or something, but yeah, I'll wait for a system update. I do have other systems that I can use in the meantime, I was just hoping that someone else on here was seeing the same issues. The strange thing is, I pop in a Lacie firewire 800 port Expresscard, and it works no problem. Of course, I'm trying to dump to an esata drive that needs the Expresscard slot, so that's not a solution for that system.

Thank you everyone for your help on this one, I do love this site, very helpful users. Even the chatter about Avid vs Final Cut can be quite civil sometimes...

-Patrick.
 
I've been having a lot of problems over the past week with two 500g lacie drives. I have both of them running out of a dynex duel esata express card adapter. I have the red drive coming in via 800 fire wire. No problems seeing the red drive but the drives do not mount on the desk top now. I have been backing stuff up to them and I know the files are on them. My mac book pro does not recognize them. Kind of similar problem to yours and yet different.

Best, Peter
 
Hey Peter.

I am using that exact same card. The dynex. it's a little slow, but at 40 dollars, you can't go wrong. I had a similiar issue before when I had a custom USB kext installed, so I could pwn my iphone, but it would randomly also turn USB completely off, causing me to reinstall the OS. Needless to say, jailbreaking my phone was not worth a re-install.

Might I suggest trying the card and drives in a PC if you have one, I found that sometimes the OSX eject wouldn't take, and the drives wouldn't show up. Also, do they show up over usb? My other suggestion would be to take them out of the enclosure (warranty voiding of course) and hook them up to a tower, or through a different enclosure, it might be that the Lacie boxes have bailed.

Jeff. Are you running the unibody Macbook Pro? Can your Red drive connect over usb? do you have access to an express card firewire 800 card (about 30 dollars, usually) I'd be curious if maybe there's something about the drives that is common in our setups.

-Patrick.
 
I don't know if it helps, but I've been working with a lot of RedDrives, about 10 at a time, and they do behave differently.

Two of them will ONLY mount via FW400, powered or not. Both from the same owner. All the others mount happily on any machine.

Don't have an answer on this, just an observation.
 
Hi Jim.

That's actually good to hear, that maybe the drives are different model to model. I'll try to get my hands on a few more Red drives to test it out.

Thanks again.

-Patrick.
 
I am on a 17inch 2.6ghz core 2 duo macbook pro (the one released right before the unibody). I tried to connect a different red drive today over fw800 and it worked. The other drive still will only connect over fw400 and not 800. It seems as though it may be a problem on the red drive end of it. I dont have an express card and I'll pick one up this week and see if it will fix the problem.
 
No problem Patrick.

By the way, the drives that wouldn't mount via fw800 we from very early on. Haven't had any trouble with more recent ones.

Patrick Britton said:
Hi Jim.

That's actually good to hear, that maybe the drives are different model to model. I'll try to get my hands on a few more Red drives to test it out.

Thanks again.

-Patrick.
Click to expand...
 
Jeff said:
I am on a 17inch 2.6ghz core 2 duo macbook pro (the one released right before the unibody). I tried to connect a different red drive today over fw800 and it worked. The other drive still will only connect over fw400 and not 800. It seems as though it may be a problem on the red drive end of it. I dont have an express card and I'll pick one up this week and see if it will fix the problem.
Click to expand...

Jeff,

If you have not already you may want to reformat your red drives from the mac disk utility. Under erase choose the security option and Zero Out Data. It takes about an hour and a half to format this way but will address bad blocks on the drive. You will have to format it on the red as well and this will take a couple of minutes.

Best, P
 
Patrick Britton said:
Hey Peter.

I am using that exact same card. The dynex. it's a little slow, but at 40 dollars, you can't go wrong. I had a similiar issue before when I had a custom USB kext installed, so I could pwn my iphone, but it would randomly also turn USB completely off, causing me to reinstall the OS. Needless to say, jailbreaking my phone was not worth a re-install.

Might I suggest trying the card and drives in a PC if you have one, I found that sometimes the OSX eject wouldn't take, and the drives wouldn't show up. Also, do they show up over usb? My other suggestion would be to take them out of the enclosure (warranty voiding of course) and hook them up to a tower, or through a different enclosure, it might be that the Lacie boxes have bailed.

Thanks Patrick,

I like doing redundant back ups to two drives through R3d and the dual esata adapter. It is easy for me as I am a bit technically challenged. The odd thing is I have been working with this flow for about 8 months now without a hitch until about 10 days ago. I think an install is my next order, clean or OS is what I considering not.

Best, Peter.
Click to expand...
 
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