Firewire (1394) Hard Drive suddenly not working with XP Pro (Code 10)

Hello there,

I found your forum through googling my problem, and I can see there is some excellent knowledge here.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the solution to my precise problem in the various posts and stickies.

In a nutshell, I have an AC-powered LaCie external HD, which has worked happily in conjunction with the Firewire (1394) port on my elderly-but-fit Sony PCG V505-AP laptop for almost two years. Last week, out of the blue, the drive (both partitions) disappeared from My Computer. Investigation through Device Manager produced the dreaded response:

"This device cannot start. (Code 10)"

- The drive works fine with my other laptop.

- My DV camera is detected fine by my Sony laptop when I connect via Firewire.

So I suspect it's not a hardware issue, though I could of course be wrong.

I have tried the following:
- uninstall and reinstall the HD
- update HD drivers
- connect using different Firewire cable
- installed the update http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222 (on suggestion of LaCie Support)
- crying, pleading, swearing, etc.

Constructive suggestions would be very gratefully received. :)

Welcome to Windrivers Viscious Cycle

I am afraid you are not going to like the answer...

Code 10 more often than not happens when there is a power problem. The problem could be with the hard drive (in which case you data may be lost) or it might be just with the caddy in which the drive sits (in which case the data may be OK).

If the Lacie unit is out of warranty, is it openable? You could try getting the drive out and connecting it directly via a usb to ide adapter or open your computer and attach it to an ide port in the computer... it depends on how you feel about taking your computer apart.

If it's still in warranty, prove I am right by trying it on another machine with firewire then contact lacie and find out what can be done about the data on the drive.

Just one other thought, some firewire externals are also usb external drives... is yours? If so, try it with the usb as well.

Thanks for replying so quickly, NooNoo.

The drive works fine with my other laptop. As far as I can tell it will only work as a Firewire unit (the only connections on it are Firewire at any rate).

It DOES work with my other laptop. This leads me to think that the problem is not hardware-related - at least not so far as the HD is concerned.

It is in warranty, and LaCie Support have emailed me - but their suggestions have so far failed to produce any results. As it's my backup/media drive, I am not that keen on sending it back to them without, uh, backing up!

Having read other posts about USB hard drives, I was wondering whether there might be a registry issue - and if there is a process for performing a similar clean-up for a Firewire HD?

This article ( http://www.wikihow.com/Buy-a-Laptop-...udio-Recording ) notes that the use of 1394 firewire products on laptops requires that the devices be self-powered.

Is yours?

Have you tried it using the wall plug-in (powerpack) ?

OK so it proves it's OK and your firewire is OK, then it must be the drive recognition. I don't have a firewire drive to create the registry keys that will be in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\V 1394

You should compare the entries on the machine that works with the one that doesn't.

What drive letters and mapped drives do you have assigned already? What drive letter does the lacie usually take?

Thanks again for the reply. This is where my knowledge starts to get a little sketchy. Here goes.

On the "problem" laptop, under V1394 I have the following folders:
- NIC1394
- 15cbcea8004603
Control
Device Parameters
LogConf

On my other laptop I have the following:

- NIC1394
- 2afedc50344fc000
Control
Device Parameters
LogConf
- fac810800
Device Parameters
LogConf

The only difference between the contents of the folders 15cbcea8004603 on the problem laptop and 2afedc50344fc000 is that the driver number ends in 0012 on the former and 0001 on the latter (the remainder of the driver numbers are identical).

fac810800 has a driver ending in 0026 and an extra line saying "Friendly Name: 1394 Net Adapter #2"

The contents of the subfolders are identical.

There are named entries for the hard drive (Lacie_Group_SA_etc....) under SBP2 on both computers. 2 subfolders with hexadecimal names (same on each computer). Drivers end in 0004 and 0003 on the "problem" laptop, and 0010 and 0008 on the other. Otherwise entries are identical.

There are named entries under the folder 1394. 2 subfolders with hexadecimal names (same on each computer). Identical data on both computers.

Hope that's not too much info. I am wondering if it would be a terribly bad thing to uninstall the HD and delete all the entries for Lacie_Group_SA_etc....?

One last thing, the HD is partitioned and takes the letters F and G (as set by me).

so you set the hard drive letters on the problem laptop?

In the reg key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices on the right pane, do you have dos devices f and g shown?

Yes it's probably a good idea to remove the lacie entries. Export each key you find before you delete it - then you can remerge it if necessary.
On the problem laptop, have you used a usb device that could have taken f or g?

Yes, F and G are shown in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices. A couple of long-ish hex strings next to each.

I do indeed use a variety of devices, and have occasionally had the problem of flash drives etc. taking the drive letters if the HD wasn't attached, but not such that it caused the HD to stop functioning.

So... I will remove all the LaCie entries - should I also remove the F and G entries from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices?

yes.

Thanks. I will give it a go over the weekend and let you know how I get on.

Update... That didn't work, I'm afraid. Uninstalled the drive, then removed all the LaCie keys and Mounted Devices F and G from Registry.

Then re-booted and connected the HD. Nothing happens. Drive doesn't show in My Computer or Device Manager, scan for hardware changes does nothing.

Now seriously thinking about a destructive restore - only problem being that my backup drive is said Firewire HD, and it's not quite upto date...

Any more thoughts would be very gratefully received.

How about a repair install of windows? Or do you only have a recovery disk with a full (destructive) restore?

Other thing to consider is that if it stopped recently, what other software or hardware did you add. You could uninstall the most recent windows updates.. Have you got a firewall?...tried turning that off?

We're into a bit of a grey area here. I do a destructive restore every so often to to keep things clean. However, I'm really not sure how to/whether I can do a repair install.

I have a series of numbered CD's which I insert when prompted. The last time round, I asked it only to wipe the C drive (where all the programmes and My Documents live), not the D partition (where I keep my media files).

Please assume as little knowledge as possible and let me know what would be your modus operandi.

Re. software and firewalls - I have recently installed Comodo Firewall - the HD was working fine after installation for a while, however, I will try turning it off. It's a bit more hair-trigger than Zone Alarm, I find.

Also, there are one or two pieces of software which I have recently installed. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about Sparkle XP.... I'll uninstall it and see what happens.

I have just bought an external USB HD, so at least I should be able to backup (very slowly via USB 1.1) in any case.

You can do a repair install if one of your cds is an operating system CD. Which manufacturer are we talking about? What model?

Comodo beat the pants of Zone Alarm in a set of tests... live with the hair trigger - at least nothing is going to get past it!

Sparkle XP? ... according to what I just looked up on the net, it creates a new user profile. Does the firewire work in this new profile or the old one? Which one have we been talking about? These tweaking programs can be very dangerous. I personally hate them.

It's a Sony PCG-V505AP laptop. Getting long in the tooth, but usually runs well. The CD's I have are labelled "Product Recovery CD-ROM (vol. 1-4)". No indication of an OS CD.

Sparkle XP - a way of creating a profile which keeps everything very simple, fewer processes running - and makes it impossible to access the internet. Which is helpful if you are easily-distracted! I have, however, been slightly underwhelmed by it - and will be even more so if it turns out it's screwed up my settings. Will check. Then uninstall.

Backup is chuntering through as I write.