Firewire external drive disappeared... but works via USB. - TIA

[Jake]

A year ago, I installed a firewire card (Safecom PCI Firewire 1394A
Card (OEM) in my PC. To this, I connected an external hard drive
(Maxtor 80gb ATA/133).

It ran 100% as hoped. Recently, the hard drive stopped showing up
under Windows XP, no matter what I did.

I have not messed around with the PC since the drive was appearing.
All I have done is connected a couple of extra USB devices: different
scanner, digital camera, couple of different printers.

I looked in Device Manager but could not find any "Mass storage
device". According to the readme file supplied with the drive caddy,
that's what the drive should show up as.

Today, I discovered that the caddy also has a USB socket - so I
removed the firewire lead and connected the drive via USB. Now the
drive shows up and works fine.

Can anyone advise why the firewire conection might have stooped
working? I tried wiggling the cable connections in case there was a
bad connection, but it had no effect.

Thank you,

Jake

 

[philo]

Can anyone advise why the firewire conection might have stooped
working? I tried wiggling the cable connections in case there was a
bad connection, but it had no effect.

Either the firewire port in your computer has died...
or the one in the external box

 

[JAD]

A year ago, I installed a firewire card (Safecom PCI Firewire 1394A
Card (OEM) in my PC. To this, I connected an external hard drive
(Maxtor 80gb ATA/133).

It ran 100% as hoped. Recently, the hard drive stopped showing up
under Windows XP, no matter what I did.

I have not messed around with the PC since the drive was appearing.
All I have done is connected a couple of extra USB devices: different
scanner, digital camera, couple of different printers.

I looked in Device Manager but could not find any "Mass storage
device". According to the readme file supplied with the drive caddy,
that's what the drive should show up as.

Today, I discovered that the caddy also has a USB socket - so I
removed the firewire lead and connected the drive via USB. Now the
drive shows up and works fine.

Can anyone advise why the firewire conection might have stooped
working? I tried wiggling the cable connections in case there was a
bad connection, but it had no effect.

Thank you,

Jake

Does the 1394 card show up in device manager?

 

[Rod Speed]

A year ago, I installed a firewire card (Safecom
PCI Firewire 1394A Card (OEM) in my PC. To this,
I connected an external hard drive (Maxtor 80gb ATA/133).

It ran 100% as hoped. Recently, the hard drive stopped
showing up under Windows XP, no matter what I did.

I have not messed around with the PC since the drive was appearing.
All I have done is connected a couple of extra USB devices: different
scanner, digital camera, couple of different printers.

I looked in Device Manager but could not find any "Mass
storage device". According to the readme file supplied with
the drive caddy, that's what the drive should show up as.

Today, I discovered that the caddy also has a USB socket - so
I removed the firewire lead and connected the drive via USB.
Now the drive shows up and works fine.

Can anyone advise why the firewire conection might have stooped working?

Usual possibility, something has failed in that area.

I tried wiggling the cable connections in case there was a bad connection, but it had no effect.

Can you try it on something else with a firewire port ? That should
tell you whether its the port card or the Maxtor drive thats the problem.

 

[Jake]

Does the 1394 card show up in device manager?

I can see "NEC OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller"

Could that be it?

If that is it, then yes it shows up. It's the only 1394 device I can
find there apart from 1394 Net Adaptor (overlaid with a red "X")

Jake

 

[Jake]

Usual possibility, something has failed in that area.


Can you try it on something else with a firewire port ?

Not easily. I don't have anything else.

That should
tell you whether its the port card or the Maxtor drive thats the problem.

The drive works fine via a USB connection.

Jake

 

[Jake]

Either the firewire port in your computer has died...
or the one in the external box

Seems very possible. On the other hand, cirquits don't usually fail
for no good reason, do they?

Jake

 

[JAD]

I can see "NEC OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller"

Could that be it?

If that is it, then yes it shows up. It's the only 1394 device I can
find there apart from 1394 Net Adaptor (overlaid with a red "X")

Jake

your adapter is dead...try removing it (uninstalling from device manager)and
reboot and reinstall it.

 

[Rod Speed]

Seems very possible. On the other hand, cirquits
don't usually fail for no good reason, do they?

Those that are on external connectors like that can do from static damage.

 

[Rod Speed]

Not easily. I don't have anything else.

You dont know anyone that has one, or one at work etc ?

The drive works fine via a USB connection.

Yeah, it seems pretty clear that its just a firewire port failure,
but the best test for whether its the firewire port in the PC
or the external drive is to try the drive on another system
with a firewire port. They arent all that common tho.