No firewire devices found...

[archrenov8]

I recently installed Retrospsect 6.0 Workgroup on my G4/400 desktop, running latest version of Panther. I am backing up nine macs all running Panther. I also purchased a LaCie firewire AIT2 U&I Tape drive. For several backup sessions, everything was fine running on the firewire cable.

Then, suddenly, with no changes, I started getting the message: "No firewire devices found." when I would check devices, and backups would fail.

I called LaCie, and they suggested going to another computer, and trying the same thing, and when that failed as well, they replaced the drive through my vendor.

Now I am having the same problems with the new drive, only two weeks old. Except this time, it has been intermittent. I was able to get it to be recognized by unplugging the cables, re-connecting, and restarting. But even that is not consistent.

Are there any settings or ports to enable?

What is the procedure to connect a firewire device, in terms of it being on when the computer starts up?

[natew]

Hi

 

There isn't much to hooking it up. I usually power on the computer and the drive before hooking it to the computer with the firewire cable.

 

You are using the latest Retrospect driver update right? Does it still happen intermittently when you run the backup on other machines?

 

Thanks

nate

[archrenov8]

Hi Nate,

 

It was totally random on the G4/400. Since I replaced the first tape drive with another, and the intermittent problem recurred after a few back-ups, I have not moved the tape drive to another mac again to try to duplicate the results.

 

I have been looking for definitive instructions on hot-swapping firewire devices, or what sequence should be followed in powering them up. I thought those issues vanished with OS X.

 

There didn't seem to be a way from within Retrospect to force it to find the device.

 

Glen

[stephenb]

I occasionally will have that problem with my VXA-2. Exabyte suggests turning the drive on before plugging/replugging it into the FW port. I suspect it has something to do with their FW bridge.

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

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There didn't seem to be a way from within Retrospect to force it to find the device.

 

---

 

The question is, does the Macintosh see the device?

 

- Launch System Profiler and view the Hardware/FireWire line; does it show the drive?

 

If not, nothing you can do with Retrospect will make a difference.

 

If it does, simpy restarting Retrospect should be the most invasive thing necessary.

 

Dave

[archrenov8]

Dave,

 

I just reconnected using the firewire cable, and checked the System Profiler. It showed FireWire> FireWire Device Tree>FireWire Bus>FireWire Device, and then in the box below:

FireWire Bus:

 

Speed: 400 Mb/sec Speed

 

So then I restarted my Mac, and in the box below, it showed a little more info:

FireWire Bus:

 

Speed: 400 Mb/sec Speed

 

FireWire Device:

 

Speed: 400 Mb/sec Speed

 

Then, when I disconnected the firewire cable, and connect the USB cable into the back of my keyboard, nothing comes up as indicating the tape drive. Same thing even with a direct USB connection to the back of the Mac.

 

I guess I am supposed to be seeing more specific information than that, huh?

 

Actually, the real Retrospect message is "No devices found."

 

Is there a way to actually repair the FireWire bridge.

 

Glen

[CallMeDave]

Although I don't have a FW tape drive like yours to see, ASP should show you complete device information for any FW device you connect (use the "refresh" command if you make changes while ASP is open).

 

If ASP can't see the device, Retrospect can't either. This is not a Retro problem.

 

You should probably try the drive on another Mac (you don't need Retrospect installed; let Apple System Profiler be your test application). You may have a bad FW bus on your Mac (don't despair, FireWire PCI cards aren't very expensive).

 

Dave