[X4U] Firewire drives won't mount

[Scott]

On Aug 8, 2005, at 10:26 PM, Michael Elliott wrote:

> I'm running 10.4.2 and have 2 external firewire drive cases. I've  
> always disonnected them between OS updates as recommended, and  
> should also say that I've had this trouble before...going back long  
> before any of the 10.3.x updates.
>
> I had a computer crash, and when I rebooted, I could no longer  
> access my external drives from my iMac G4.  The drives are not  
> visible in Disk Utility.  Unplugging, replugging, turning power off/ 
> on doesn't seem to do anything.  The FW ports on my iMac are  
> good...iSight functions without a problem on either, and I have  
> disconnected the iSight during all of these permutations to  
> eliminate what is reportedly a persnickety peripheral.
>
> However, when I connect the drives to the firewire port on my  
> iBook, the drives mount perfectly.  I ran Disk Utility on both of  
> them, and they checked out fine. I was able to mount/unmount/eject  
> the drives without difficulty.  However, they still won't show up  
> on my iMac.

Reset the PMU. On the iMac G4, this involves disconnecting power,   
removing the RAM access plate on the bottom, and pressing the PMU  
button *once*. Then put it back together , connect the power cord,  
and turn on the machine. The directions recommend waiting 10 seconds  
before connecting the power cord, but I assume you'll take longer  
than 10 seconds to reattach the bottom plate.

Note that according to Apple, this is generally not recommended to be  
done by mere mortals.

Instructions for adding memory and airport cards (which includes how  
to open the bottom):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=26239
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=26237

Location of PMU reset button:
http://scotist.com/26237_7.jpg