strange FW drive issue

Hello All,
Ive got a strange issue with 2 FW drive enclosures that either erase the drive/carriers i put in them, or damage the the drive architecture enough that my computer does not recognize the drive.

my computer specs:
the computer Im working with in this scenario is a 3 year old mac pro running 10.7.5


so heres the drive enclosures.

http://www.advancedaudiorentals.com/products/details/productid/183

One connects via FW 800, the other via FW 400. the carries house IDE drives, these units have been solid for a long time.

In the last few weeks, 5 out of 7 drives I put in come up as unrecognizable,but they will work when I "hard wire" them with a universal adaptor kit I have.
OR they become damaged. (As then they won't work with the universal adaptor) and I have to go into recovery mode.

So what could have happened recently that both of these enclosures affect these drives in this way.

I thought maybe it was a power supply issue with the enclosure, but as I mentioned the FW 400 enclosure is exhibiting the same problems.


I'm totally stumped.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!!

So what could have happened recently that both of these enclosures affect these drives in this way.

Click to expand...

Who knows, could be anything from electronic to a bad connector? You could have had a power surge without knowing it and that caused the carriers to fail. The important thing is to now either buy new carriers or use another type of adapter to attach the drives. Mac Sales (OWC) sells several universal adapters which work well.

chscag said:

Who knows, could be anything from electronic to a bad connector? You could have had a power surge without knowing it and that caused the carriers to fail. The important thing is to now either buy new carriers or use another type of adapter to attach the drives. Mac Sales (OWC) sells several universal adapters which work well.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response.
But perhaps I didnt make it clear in my OP.

The enclosures are what is powered, not the carriers.
After the FW800 "receptacle' was acting flaky, I then plugged in the FW 400 version [ which accepts the same IDE drive carriers].
It acted the same way.


So 5 hard drives of various ages could have died within minutes of each other.

Or 5 carriers connectors could have failed within minutes of each other.

Or two different enclosures/ "receptacles" could have acted the same way. even though all the other sensitive equipment has been unaffected. The whole studio is on on balanced power and surge protected.

My logic was pointing towards the computer and perhaps its FW bus, something I though you folks might have more info on.

thanks again for tour response.

best,
Guy