New Aluminium iMac Problem: Firewire 400

[Shreedhan]

Hey guys,

I got a new imac and I have a problem with my FW400.
In system profiler under "Firewire" it says:

"
FireWire Bus:

Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec
"
My Western Digital MyBook Premium doesn't connect via FW400. It's got me quite worried since I've only had it for a couple of days. I've tried resetting PRAM, the SMC wit no avail.

Any ideas?

 

[mzd]

all i can offer is that mine says the same thing in profiler and my 3G iPod connects perfectly (firewire 400).

 

[rainydays]

My WD MyBook Premium works fine. Did you try updating the firmware on the MyBook? If that doesn't work, try finding another FW-device to test.
If that doesn't work, return your iMac.

 

[AlexisV]

My Western Digital MyBook Premium doesn't connect via FW400. It's got me quite worried since I've only had it for a couple of days. I've tried resetting PRAM, the SMC wit no avail.

I don't understand. Is it FW 400 or 800? How doesn't it connect?

 

[oduinnin]

I don't understand. Is it FW 400 or 800? How doesn't it connect?

The new Aluminum iMac has both 400 & 800 connectors. If your WD HD has both connectors & cables, as my LaCie does, you should be able to connect up using either cable and get the appropriate speed.

In doing online research into which external drive to get, I noticed that one of the WD drives I looked at (because it offered both FW 400 & 800), did not offer the FW 800 when used with a Mac. Why, I haven't a clue, except I've also noticed that WD products seem to be Windows oriented.

Shreedhan, What happens when you connect up using FW 800 cable? if available.

 

[Shreedhan]

Right, I borrowed my firends old U2 iPod which can connect via firewire (unlike the newer ones) and it connected fine, showed up on desktop and in iTunes with all of it's info.

I tried a spare cable I had with the MyBook again but still no luck.

I googled and found lots of people with same/similar problems:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5280624

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4145769

this sucks because I have my new iMac setup the way I like and if i have to return it i have to do it ALL over again!

 

[Kinetic]

Hey guys,

I got a new imac and I have a problem with my FW400.
In system profiler under "Firewire" it says:

"
FireWire Bus:

Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec
"
My Western Digital MyBook Premium doesn't connect via FW400. It's got me quite worried since I've only had it for a couple of days. I've tried resetting PRAM, the SMC wit no avail.

Any ideas?

I have the same problem (although I have the MyBook with the USB and Firewire 400 connections). The USB works fine, but the FW doesn't. I tried another FW drive and it works fine. It must be something with the MyBook. For now, I have it running on USB. I'm going to check to see if I need to update the firmware next, but I would like to know what's going on.

 

[mucmacian]

I had similar problems with my iBook, not beeing recognized in target disk mode.
I posted a solution given to me by apple support yesterday.

Maybe that helps:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/352936/

 

[Shreedhan]

It's definitely a WD problem since my camcorder works fine with the FW400 port, I want them to sort it asap.

 

[Leon Kowalski]

It's definitely a WD problem since my camcorder works fine with the FW400 port, I want them to sort it asap.

Sure sounds like a WD problem; my two IcyDock external enclosures (one
each FW400 and FW800) both work fine on the iMac's FW400 port. The WD
"MyBook Premium" firewire port is FW400-only, so it should work -- but
there have been many complaints of iMac problems with the entire MyBook
product line.

LK

 

[twighlitediter]

Have you tried repairing your disk permissions? I recently bought a Lacie and after a few days, the drive was connected, but it didn't show. Repairing permissions did the trick for me.