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gayle28607
Junior Member
Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 23
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 Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:19 pm Post subject: Mini running off attached firewire HD -NOT! |
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Hi,
I've been running my Mini 3,1 Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHZ with 4 GB memory in conjunction with an external (OWC) HD connected via firewire 800. That is, the external HD is my start up disk.
But, I've come back from a long vacation and am not given the option of selecting the external HD as my start up disk anymore. I can run off the mini internal drive and see all the connected files on the FW drive, so the drive seems to be fine.
I feel as though there is something stupid I must be overlooking as this has run flawlessly for so long I haven't had to mess with it. It's likely I'm forgetting something obvious. I am hoping one of the good people here can steer me in the right direction.
The whole setup runs as a HTPC, with the mini providing the internet connection, but the external FW drive houses all the movies.
Any thoughts as to why this might have happened, and what I should do to fix it?
_________________
Gayle
Mini 2.53 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB 5400 RPM HD (Booted from FW Hitachi Deskstar 1 TB 7200 RPM HD in OWC Merc Elite enclosure) - MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 1.5 TB 5400 RPM HD - Verizon iPad 2 64GB - AT&T iPhone 4s 64GB |
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Cypher
Veteran Member
Joined: 24 Jan 2007
Posts: 2909
Location: North West - UK
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:19 am Post subject: |
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How are you trying to select the Firewire Drive as the startup, via system Preferences - Startup Disk or directly at boot up via a keyboard shortcut ?
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Phil
Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S |
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gayle28607
Junior Member
Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 9:22 am Post subject: |
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| Cypher wrote: | | How are you trying to select the Firewire Drive as the startup, via system Preferences - Startup Disk or directly at boot up via a keyboard shortcut ? |
I have disappeared for awhile due to a move and a number of other things that made me just say "Forget it!" for a while. The mini worked fine on its own, even if it worked better in my setup booted from the external firewire HD.
I wanted to report back that yes, Cypher, I was unable to see the firewire drive AT ALL. I tried connecting it to my MBPro, all to no avail.
This past week I had to spend a lot of time for work upgrading a different HD and so on, and it inspired me to return to the mystery of the OWC enclosure and the 1 TB HD inside it.
After some reading on various sites I learned that sometimes the power supply is inadequate. That is, it turns on the lights on the HD but metaphorically speaking, nobody's home. I think this is the situation I ran into last year.
The solution: I used a brand new power brick from OWC that I hadn't used before and had at the house, and also used a different FW cable, also brand new. Voilą! All is now as it should be. I'm going to see about perhaps getting a replacement brick from OWC, as I am now down one brick for the set I need for all the HD's around here.
I hope somebody might find this useful. It was hugely frustrating to me, and the solution turned out to be very simple: get enough power to the drive. This is not obvious as the drive light and the brick light all turned on even though there was not enough power going to the drive for it to be visible and mount until I switched out the bricks.
_________________
Gayle
Mini 2.53 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB 5400 RPM HD (Booted from FW Hitachi Deskstar 1 TB 7200 RPM HD in OWC Merc Elite enclosure) - MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 1.5 TB 5400 RPM HD - Verizon iPad 2 64GB - AT&T iPhone 4s 64GB |
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geeji
Member
Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 146
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| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:01 am Post subject: |
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| gayle28607 wrote: | | I hope somebody might find this useful. It was hugely frustrating to me, and the solution turned out to be very simple: get enough power to the drive. This is not obvious as the drive light and the brick light all turned on even though there was not enough power going to the drive for it to be visible and mount until I switched out the bricks. |
I had a similar problem when replacing a 2"5 HDD in a self-powered external Firewire enclosure with a SSD : although the enclosure worked fine without a power brick with the HDD inside, the SSD did not mount at all, although the power LEDs were nor even blinking.
Contrary to one might expect, some SSDs eat more power than their HDD counterpart (here 500GB).
And some Firewire+USB enclosures limit the Firewire power draw to the same limit as USB2 (0.5A, 2.5W) although a Firewire connection can supply more (at least on a Mac). |
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marv777
Senior Member
Joined: 13 Jul 2012
Posts: 422
Location: Philippines
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| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:17 pm Post subject: SSD |
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| geeji wrote: | | gayle28607 wrote: | | I hope somebody might find this useful. It was hugely frustrating to me, and the solution turned out to be very simple: get enough power to the drive. This is not obvious as the drive light and the brick light all turned on even though there was not enough power going to the drive for it to be visible and mount until I switched out the bricks. |
I had a similar problem when replacing a 2"5 HDD in a self-powered external Firewire enclosure with a SSD : although the enclosure worked fine without a power brick with the HDD inside, the SSD did not mount at all, although the power LEDs were nor even blinking.
Contrary to one might expect, some SSDs eat more power than their HDD counterpart (here 500GB).
And some Firewire+USB enclosures limit the Firewire power draw to the same limit as USB2 (0.5A, 2.5W) although a Firewire connection can supply more (at least on a Mac). |
Why would SSD eat more power than conventional HD if they are faster? |
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geeji
Member
Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 146
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| Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 2:27 am Post subject: Re: SSD |
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| marv777 wrote: | | Why would SSD eat more power than conventional HD if they are faster? |
Don't know.
That was going against my implicit assumptions, but you can verify that by looking at the electrical characteristics of various 500GB HDDs and SSDs.
Some SSDs have lower consumption than a HDD, but for many it is greater. |
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bobbyvu
New Member
Joined: 28 Jan 2013
Posts: 4
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:55 pm Post subject: |
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Hello everybody. I just bought my first Mac ever, a 2009 Mac Mini. Was stoked to get it setup and start some iOS programming but when I go to boot up it does the flashing folder. There is an upgraded HDD in the machine and when I took to a local Mac store, they had to use an external HDD to even boot up and the optical drive is not functioning as well. My question is if I know there is a copy of Snow Leopard on the HDD and I take the HDD out and place it in an external enclosure and leave no HDD in the Mac Mini, do you think it will boot from the external?
I'm trying to salvage this messed up Craigslist purchase. |
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macmanmacman
Veteran Member
Joined: 25 Oct 2007
Posts: 1679
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| Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 3:39 am Post subject: |
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| ha ha ha ha ha ha looks like they saw you comming from miles away |
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Smithcraft
Veteran Member
Joined: 09 Nov 2008
Posts: 3010
Location: Seattle
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| Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 3:51 am Post subject: |
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It should work that way. Or get a really fast external FW800 drive and install 10.6 via another mini.
SC
_________________
Grumpy old man of computing.
[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8
[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)
Make sure it has pins! |
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bobbyvu
New Member
Joined: 28 Jan 2013
Posts: 4
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:44 am Post subject: |
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@Macman yea, the one time I take a chance and try to trust people.
@Smithcraft thanks for the word of encouragement. I got the drive out. Hooked up to my PC and verified there is an install on the disk. Just can't figure why it won't run in the Mini. Looking for an external enclosure right now that has FW800 support. So expensive but cheaper than having some techs fix it. |
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gayle28607
Junior Member
Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 9:31 am Post subject: |
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| bobbyvu wrote: | @Macman yea, the one time I take a chance and try to trust people.
@Smithcraft thanks for the word of encouragement. I got the drive out. Hooked up to my PC and verified there is an install on the disk. Just can't figure why it won't run in the Mini. Looking for an external enclosure right now that has FW800 support. So expensive but cheaper than having some techs fix it. |
I'm using the Other World Computing enclosures which are a good option. Of course there are others, too, that will probably suit you. I'd also think you'll ultimately end up with a decent HD inside the mini. Don't despair!
_________________
Gayle
Mini 2.53 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB 5400 RPM HD (Booted from FW Hitachi Deskstar 1 TB 7200 RPM HD in OWC Merc Elite enclosure) - MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 1.5 TB 5400 RPM HD - Verizon iPad 2 64GB - AT&T iPhone 4s 64GB |
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