problem external drive Firewire 400

External drive Western Digital MyBook Pro 500GB, USB/Firewire400/Firewire800:

When connected with Firewire 400 the external drive starts/powers up together with Windows XP, as it should, but sometimes:
- it doesn't power up at all
- it powers up but is not visible in Explorer nor in My Computer

I already re-installed the software and drivers (the disk doesn't need extra drivers, drivers are for the WD button manager) while connected to USB, as it says in the manual. Shut down, remove USB and connect Firewire 400, reboot. Still sometimes the same problem.

When connected with USB (2.0) the drive functions without problems.

Does anybody have a clue?

Firewire is usually pretty good. Is the MyBook provided with a power pack, or does it draw power from the Firewire port? There usually isn't any problem if it's port powered, as Firewire specification provides several times the power output of USB (unless it's an unpowered mini port of course). But a port could always be faulty.

Also, have you tried engaging the drive after Windows is booted up, to see if it ever misbehaves when it's done this way?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Platypus

Firewire is usually pretty good. Is the MyBook provided with a power pack, or does it draw power from the Firewire port? There usually isn't any problem if it's port powered, as Firewire specification provides several times the power output of USB (unless it's an unpowered mini port of course). But a port could always be faulty.

Also, have you tried engaging the drive after Windows is booted up, to see if it ever misbehaves when it's done this way?

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Hi, many thanks for your response!
The MyBook is provided with a powerpack, the firewire 400 port is also powered, and the firewire connection triggers the start-up of the MyBook when I start-up my PC. The power on the Mybook seems to be ok, when It doesn't start up I can activate it with the power button, but then again it won't show up in Explorer/My computer.
I don't think the MyBook will function without the power pack, the Mybook behaves ok as long as it powers up and shows up in Explorer/my Computer.
It seems that the port malfunctions sometimes, but I really don't know how or where to start troubleshooting.

What drive letter is assigned when using USB?

What drive letter is assigned when using firewire?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CCT

What drive letter is assigned when using USB?

What drive letter is assigned when using firewire?

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Both get drive letter G: assigned (not at the same time of course)

What I am wondering is, if this is 'confusing' the registry. You probably have 2 keys now, one for USB and one for 1394, both recognizing that drive.

Try changing the USB connection for it in Computer Management to drive letter M.

Then see if they will both get recognized.

Timepieces, I don't know if you can find a way to try the drive on another Firewire equipped system, but that would be an extremely helpful trick to work out if the problem is in the drive or your computer. If the same thing happens on another computer, you could save a lot of time fruitlessly trying to fault-find the setup on yours. If it works fine on another system, then at least we know to keep searching for the cause in your computer.

Hi all, many thanks for all your hints & tips so far :thumbs:
I will force a different drive letter for firewire and usb connection, unfortunately I do not have another firewire system to test with... but first I will try another socket outlet. The one I have is functioning fine for years now but maybe it's broken. The outlet socket is a power-slave one, the PC is connected to the master socket, all other stuff (printer, scanner, external drive, etc.) is connected to slave sockets so they only get power when the PC gets power. Maybe sometimes the external drive doesn't get power quick enough so it doesn't get power at the moment the PC wants to start it up :confused: Then again, never had problems with the USB connection, but the problems occur randomly so that might have been a coincidensce as well... or the power-on request is done quicker over the firewire connection?
Hopefully I'll get back to you in a couple of days with the solution .... and not with the same problem :eek:

The problem not detecting the drive seems to be solved....still sometimes the drive won't start up together with the PC...next step is to replace the master/slave outlet socket for a normal one.... I will test this this weekend.

I installed the microsoft patch KB885222, and re-installed the WD Button Manager, shut down the PC, unplugged the firewire connection and powered off the external drive, rebooted, plugged in firewire and powered the external drive. Everything seems to be ok for about a week now. Still think that anti-spyware or a registry cleaning tool messes things up, but I'm not sure about that.

Glad you got it fixed TimePieces

..... problem is back again. Found the solution as well, got the message that Logitech Setpoint needs to be re-installed...this happens every other week.
It's an older version of Logitech Setpoint. That's because newer versions of Setpoint don't show the tabs for mouse and keyboard so I use the older version. Apparantly the software conflicts with the firewire 400 connection on the PC???
So I have to re-install Setpoint every other week....or finally convince myself to buy a USB hub and connect the External drive to the USB 2.0 connection.....

Or just put up with the annoyance... your call. But at least you have a definitive answer.