Very odd and annoying Mac Mini firewire error

Hi guys!.

I have the following equipment:

1/ A Mac Mini 1.66Ghz Core Duo
2/ A G3 500Mhz iMac DV
3/ An external firewire/USB2 caddy, with 400GB EIDE hard disk inside

I cannot get the Mac Mini, to continually transfer data, to and from the external drive - the G3 likes it, but on the Mac Mini, the transfers halt, randomly, and I get the "Device was not properly put away" error message!.

I have also connected the G3 in FTDM, to the Mac Mini, and done various transfer tests; all seems fine in this instance, and so I am thinking that my Mac Mini doesn't like the external Firewire Caddy (for some odd reason!).

Could this be the signal specifications/voltages used by the caddy?
Is the Mac Mini (Intel) particularly fussy about this?...

I have used two different firewire cables, in just about every conceivable combination of the above configs, to no avail - the Mac Mini just *won't* transfer data (Gigs of!) *reliably*, between itself and the external firewire disk (caddy).

If anyone can shed some more light on this, I would greatly appreciate it, as it is driving me insane, not being able to use a brand new 400Gb hard disk!!.

[PS] Incidentally, I was able to install Tiger, *flawlessly* last night, from a partition on the VERY SAME external caddy, via firewire, to the Mac Mini

NOW can you see why I am a little more than confused?!.

I have that same 1.66 Core Duo Mini. I have tried it with at least 2 external Firewire enclosures and not had a problem at all. I often transfer video files I am working on to the FW drive that are probably 20GB in size before conversion and never a hiccup.

Just curious, what brand is that external FW/USB2 caddie? The actually 3 here I have that work perfectly are WD, Seagate and AcomData. My CompUSA one after a while started to error like that on all my systems using Firewire so I retired it.

dtravis7 said:

I have that same 1.66 Core Duo Mini. I have tried it with at least 2 external Firewire enclosures and not had a problem at all. I often transfer video files I am working on to the FW drive that are probably 20GB in size before conversion and never a hiccup.

Just curious, what brand is that external FW/USB2 caddie? The actually 3 here I have that work perfectly are WD, Seagate and AcomData. My CompUSA one after a while started to error like that on all my systems using Firewire so I retired it.

Click to expand...

Ahhh.. NOW then... I think I may have found an explanation...

http://missig.org/julian/blog/2004/06/10/prolific-pl3507-firewire-device/

My caddy uses the 'Prolific PL-3507" and the firmware on older chips needs a firmware upgrade (executed using Windows XP).

[UPDATE]

The firmware in the PL-3507 chipset that I just updated, was a *2004* firmware!!

I have just updated it to the latest (2006) firmware, available @:

http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=44

Anyone else having these odd issues, with file transfers hanging/DU freezing etc, I *urge* you to update the firmware of your IDE to Firewire bridge chip, now!. It solved all my issues, by the way!.

[[ UPDATE ]]

OKAY, the issues have so KINDLY decided to return!!!

Hellllpppppppp... do I go for Lacie, after all?!

:S

I just purchased a 'Mad Dog' USB2/firewire enclosure for a 3.5 100GB Maxtor and have the exact thing happening. Small transfers seem to work fine (firewire) but if I copy something large like my itunes folder it seems to have a slow tranfer rate for a few seconds and then it disconnects and I get the "Device was not properly put away" error message. I then cannot get the mac to see the drive again unless I reformat it.

This is happening on a Cube and a Macbook Pro core duo.