Backup External Drive Missing

[Rogerdn]

This is my first post here and I'm not an especially Mac-friendly user. I have a Mini I use as a music server and use an external FireWire Oyen drive as my working drive for music files, and piggybacked to it is another Oyen for backup. Recently I disconnected the backup drive, to substitute a second one, having done an Eject first, but apparently it did not work because I immediately got the warning message to Eject first. Now Devices no longer shows the back up drives, neither the one I removed or the second backup drive when I reconnect it. I tried to repair using Utilities/Disk Utilities but it is not recognized, only the working and Mini drives show.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Kaveman]

Start with a full shutdown, and restart. Fingers crossed...

 

[Rogerdn]

This is my first post here and I'm not an especially Mac-friendly user. I have a Mini I use as a music server and use an external FireWire Oyen drive as my working drive for music files, and piggybacked to it is another Oyen for back. Recently I disconnected the backup drive, to substitute a second one, having done an Eject first, but apparently it did not work because I immediately got the warning message to Eject first. Now Devices no longer shows the back up drives, neither the one I removed or the second backup drive when I reconnect it. I tried to repair using Utilities/Disk Utilities but it is not recognized, only the working and Mini drives show.

Any help is appreciated.

Start with a full shutdown, and restart. Fingers crossed...

yes I have already tried, no luck.

 

[Morhass]

Next thing we need to test is whether your FireWire port or cable are faulty
Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > System Report… (older versions of MacOS will call it the System Profile…) in the system information that comes up, inspect what it says in the Firewire entry in the sidebar in the left.
Connect a FireWire device, use Command R to refresh the system report, and see what it says now
Repeat this process with at least two firewire cables and at least two different devices, preferably including a combination that you KNOW works Ok on a different device…
The information you get this way will point us to where next…
also, information on the Mac's model and system version will be helpful.

 

[Rogerdn]

Next thing we need to test is whether your FireWire port or cable are faulty
Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > System Report… (older versions of MacOS will call it the System Profile…) in the system information that comes up, inspect what it says in the Firewire entry in the sidebar in the left.
Connect a FireWire device, use Command R to refresh the system report, and see what it says now
Repeat this process with at least two firewire cables and at least two different devices, preferably including a combination that you KNOW works Ok on a different device…
The information you get this way will point us to where next…
also, information on the Mac's model and system version will be helpful.

Thks, will do but will have to wait till tomorrow.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Have you tried each drive individually without the daisy-chaining? Also if you have access to another computer you could try them individually to see if they are recognised ...

 

[Rogerdn]

Have you tried each drive individually without the daisy-chaining? Also if you have access to another computer you could try them individually to see if they are recognised ...

No I have not, the Mini is my only Mac, is it formatted do you know so it will work on my PC ?

 

[Rogerdn]

Have you tried each drive individually without the daisy-chaining? Also if you have access to another computer you could try them individually to see if they are recognised ...

Ok, the back up that did not eject correctly (call it #1) is not recognized using the FireWire cable that works with my working drive. But the back up drive that has been ejected correctly (call it #2) is recognized when not daisy-chaining, BUT when daisy chained to the working (normal set up) it is not. I have no idea what is going on.

Tonight I hope to be able to check Morhass's questions. BTW MY OS is 10.6.8 (10K549) and the Mini is a 5,2 with Core i5.

 

[Rogerdn]

Next thing we need to test is whether your FireWire port or cable are faulty
Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > System Report… (older versions of MacOS will call it the System Profile…) in the system information that comes up, inspect what it says in the Firewire entry in the sidebar in the left.
Connect a FireWire device, use Command R to refresh the system report, and see what it says now
Repeat this process with at least two firewire cables and at least two different devices, preferably including a combination that you KNOW works Ok on a different device…
The information you get this way will point us to where next…
also, information on the Mac's model and system version will be helpful.

Morhass, today when I got back to checking things out I got different results, my backup 1 is now working properly when daisy chained and Time Machine is backing up again. But backup 2 is not recognized using two different FW cables, both of which I have confirmed work with the other drives. I ran the System Profile and again it is not recognized even with the refresh. Also Disk Utilities does not recognize it, (it checked out drive 1 as ok).

Also when connecting Drive 2 I get a message 'disk you inserted cannot be read', so I'm guessing I just have a drive failure. I assume I cannot try formatting if it is not recognized, correct ?