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WD 500gb External HDD Firewire problem

3K views 15 replies 3 participants last post by  catman_32 
#1 ·
i have serious problem with that firewire connection. has k9a2 platinum motherboard, OS is Windows XP pro sp3. checked from device manager see as " VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller" by the way checking network connections section and i looked at " 1394 Connection Connected, by title down 1394 Adapter" When i plug firewire 800 to 400
cable to Wd external hdd, it doesnt recognize on "My Computer". Could you somebody please help my problem ???
 
#7 ·
Look in disk management to see if it's there.

Right click on my computer
select manage from the context menu
click on disk management in the lower left pane
your drives will show on the right
see what it says, if anything, about your external

This article from LaCie will give you an idea about what's in disk management.
http://www.lacie.com/ca/support/support_manifest.htm?id=10041&article=1012
 
#9 ·
I don't think it's being recognized in device manager either, the controller is, as it should be. It should show up as a hard drive there and in bios, I don't have any firewire, but my usb externals show in bios, device manager, and disk management as hard drives. And not as externals, but as the physical hard drive that is inside the enclosure. For example, my 1TB LaCie contains a Samsung Green Power sata hard drive. This leads me to believe that it's either the hard drive itself, or the interface inside the enclosure. Assuming that there were no warnings in device manager.
With a new drive, I wouldn't open it up to mount it internally for access as that will cause warranty problems. If any data on it isn't critical, I'd have it replaced.

Am a bit curious about what you did with it the one time you used it. Were you able to transfer files to it, or just have it recognized?
Did you remove it using "safely remove hardware", or just unplug it?
 
#10 ·
first use i plugged the wall socket in, then transfering some HD-DVD, bluray ripped movies. when transfering finished i change name the External Drive Device as "WD MY BOOK" old name is "Wd My Book". then used safely remove" and unplugged it, thats all..
 
#11 ·
When you plug in the drive to the wall socket, can you hear it spin up? Or feel the vibration of it spinning if you put your hand on the enclosure?

If it's spinning, then you should be able to access it by taking it out of the casing and putting it directly into a computer, like any other hard drive. However, if it is under warranty, that will void it, they don't like people taking their stuff apart.
You wouldn't have another cable you can try on it, or borrow one? Can't see cable problems with a new drive where the cable has worked once, but stranger things have happened.
 
#13 ·
If you are plugging the drive into the wall socket so that it has power and it does not spin when turned on, it's a dead drive. It should still be under warranty, contact Western Digital, or wherever you bought it and have it replaced. You'll get a different empty drive in return, but unless you want to spend an awful lot of money, it doesn't sound like there's any irreplacable data there, if it's just movies.

Odd that you've only used it once in 9 months, but I haven't used either of mine in a week or two either. Hasn't been dropped or anything while it's been out of use?
 
#15 ·
I think WD has a 3 year warranty, but I'm not sure about external drives, has to be at least a year if not the full 3 years. I had one go bad last year, it wasn't a WD model, but the store I bought it from had a one year return policy and I was able to bring it back there and exchange for a new one. Saved all the trouble of shipping.
 
#16 ·
It took me several days to find the simple solution to this issue and it had nothing to do with drivers. I was attempting to use a firewire 400 to 800 connection wire and it would not recognize the external drive (WD 500gb). The weird part was the drive worked great when connected via USB.

Solution:
I was using a PCI expansion firewire card and it didn't provide enough power. I rearranged some cables and plugged the firewire cable directly to my mobo and voila! The WD drive manager picked it up right away.

I hope more firewire 800 sufferers see this because there is very little information out there on it.
 
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