USB/ Firewire HD enclosure speed
 

Hi all,

I'm using my old 2.5" IDE drive in an USB/ Firewire enclosure.

To be able to power it to work, I connect both cables:

enclosure USB port - USB Powerbook
enclosure Firewire - Firewire Powerbook

The speed of transferring data is slow/ USB speed. Is there an utility for me to configure the enclosure so that it transfer in Firewire speed?

Thanks.

Can you give us details about this enclosure? Brand, model, perhaps a link to the manufacturer's website tech data?

That's unusual. What happens if you connect only the FireWire cable? USB is underpowered, so I doubt that it's getting any usable power from USB.

What information do you see about the drive in System Profiler? Please copy/paste everything you see here for us to see.

Trevor

Bad news..I was fiddling with the enclosure and it won't mount and started to smoke up at the power connector.

I think it some how short circuited my Powerrbook and Ican't reboot now.

Only gray screen at every start ups :( No spinning wheels etc, nothing.

Any tips?

Try to boot from your OS X Install disc and then launch Disk Utility to repair your boot drive.

Trevor

ok..will report back

It's not doing anything when I inserted the install disc!!

It is, it seems, a little easier than one might hope to plug the firewire cable in improperly and that can certainly cause damage to the device or to the motherboard or to both. Smoke is hardly ever a good sign when connected with a computer or peripheral. It is my guess that the motherboard has been damaged and will need to be replaced, but only an inspection by a qualified service person could say that with certainty. I recommend that be your next stop.

Your internal drive may not have been damaged at all, however, so that much is hopeful, I think. Good luck!

Joe VanZandt

Can I rule out motherboard damage as the install disc works with my old drive on? It runs and loads and everything on the screen displays properly.

I'm sorry I mis-interpreted what you meant when you said "It's not doing anything when I inserted the install disc!!"....I thought that meant it wouldn't boot from anything. It may still be the case that the firewire port is damaged, but I'd say if you are able to get it to boot to the old drive, the motherboard is not totally fried! Sorry about that.

Joe VanZandt

My new hd is in at the moment and I can't seems to boot from install disc at all. It just turn on and stay a gray screen.

Do I need to hold any key while turning on the Powerbook with the disc inserted?

I think holding the "c" key down will (or should) make it boot from the optical drive. Did you already try that?

Joe

I think it should be "option" key, I tried c key as well, both no joy!

Holding option, I get to a screen with "refresh" box on the left and " right arrow" on the right of the screen :confused:

I can't select/ do anything at this stage.

I just read some tips on Apple's website below. The screen just stays at " apple logo" when I reboot from disc while holding "c".

Anyone can sheed some lights?



Try Disk Utility

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.

I'm not sure I completely understand what "with my old drive on" means, but I *think* that you mean that you have an older external drive which is still able to boot the computer? If that's the case, boot to that older external drive, run Disk Utility from that, go to the First Aid tab, select your internal drive, and click "Repair Disk" (not Repair Disk Permissions).

Trevor

My previous old hd can be rebooted by install disc but my new hd can't. Both wired internally.

Nevermind, I've diagnosed the old drive via system profiler and there's nothing. I think the bloody external enclosure fried both my old 60gb and new 160gb HD

Hi,

Can anyone confirm if I can reboot by install disk withouot an internal hd present?

Reason being I got a better ide enclosure for my new hd and wanted to check if Disk Utility can see the ide drive (in enclosure)?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, you can boot to a bootable optical disc with or without an internal hard drive.

Trevor

Thanks Trevor!

Hi again,

I inserted a new HD into my Powerbook but it's not booting up the install disc. Without any HD, it boots to select language/ installation stage fine.

Any idea on this one?

Assuming the mother board is fried as previously suggested, will it still boot into setup mode via install disc? What could other reasons be for this symptoms?

Assuming that you connected the new hard drive correctly, that sounds like a hardware problem. It may be time to take the PowerBook in to your preferred Apple Authorized Repair place and let them sort it out.

Trevor

FYI, the "C" key is supposed to force boot from optical drive specifically. The Option key is supposed to provide a list where you can choose from any connected volume that has a bootable OS X on it (CD, DVD, hard drive, partition, stick drive, NetBoot, etc.)

The weird thing is...

(no internal hd) Boot ok with install disc - obviously I can't install without any hd in place!!

(with internal hd) Won't boot by install disc


Surely the logic board (very expensive) is OK! :rolleyes:

Are you using the original optical drive? I know that some notebook optical drives are sold preset (via firmware) to work as Slave drives while others as Master drives. The Mac requires the Slave types.

Have you closely examined the drive cables for damage?

Drive ribbon seems ok.