Btw, update 27-01-2008: New problems, didn't want to start new thread as it seems like a string of problems that started with the external drive.

The symptoms started with turning on the FW enclosure and hearing the HDD inside spin up, then forcibly spin down, then up, then down (going up was like normal, but going down wasn't like when the drive went off, it was more like a BRRRrrrrRP sound.... not having recorded the sound I can't play it for you, but the drive was making this sequence of spinup and hard spindown noises again and again.

I tried the Enclosure and drive disconnected to the computer and it did the same thing. I took it apart (I had had the forethought to get an enclosure that was easy to take apart) and removed the HDD to put in an old USB enclosure (where it later worked). There was a small amount of dust which I removed from under the circuit board but I doubt if that would have changed anything.

The weird thing now is that after about 10 mins of being taken apart and disconnected, I put the main enclosure and HDD back together again and it all works fine now.

It's a Skymaster Mobile Hard Disk Enclosure (in case any of you know of problems with those). Should I be worried? I really don't have the internal HDD space for the data I'm using so I really don't want my drive to be lost suddenly.

Thankyou in advance.

Now System Prefs says for Time Machine Like wtf? It's backed up before with no problems, and haven't reformatted the drive at all.

Reformat your external drive as case sensitive. At some point, you must have formatted your internal as so, which is not the norm.

You can do so in Disk Utility. Choose "Extended Journaled", but not "Extended Journaled, Case Sensitive".

That's just the thing... Everything except one Drive is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" (according to getting info in Disk Util)

I have no idea how I let that partition on my external HDD become "Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)" but I'm not backing up that partition (seeing as it's on the same drive as the Time Machine drive partition, which isn't case-sensitive. Same as my Boot Drive. The one that gets backed up.

I just removed and re-added the only case-sensitive volume to the exclude list for Time Machine... no fix there

I don't know what possessed me to format one of the *external* drives as HFS+ Journaled Case-sensitive, but I haven't formatted anything since, as console says And that was a partition on my Girlfriend's External Drive.

Ok, here's what I've done: I've repaired and verified Disks, repaired permissions, rebooted (the three Rs?) and I get the same problem... and I don't think this problem should be happening. And I really don't want to reformat my internal HDD to exactly the same format just to appease Time Machine (which last worked perfectly at 12:40-something AM last night.

Ok, it seems to happen (the spin down thing) when I plug the drive in via Firewire... And I really don't think that should happen. Currently the drive's plugged in, the red read-light thing is on, and it's not mounted. Although it does appear in System Profiler as a Firewire device.

I'd say either the Firewire bridge chip in your Skymaster has died, had its firmware become corrupt, and/or the case's power supply is playing up. The fact the actual HD itself works in another box means it's okay, obviously.

Personally? I'd throw that shitty Skymaster box (and its power-pack) into the trash and go buy something decent, like a Macpower Icecube II or a Newertech Ministack or a Sarotech or something else with a good PSU and Oxford chips, and put the HD into that.

EDIT: I got curious. Your Skymaster uses the Prolific chipsets, and as many people here will attest, Prolific and MacOS are not happy with each other (in fact, Prolific-based boxes have trouble playing with anything other than Windows XP)

Oh great, just after I got my Girlfriend to get one because it had been working so well for me up until now

I changed the Firewire cable to the one that came in the box and I can mount and read and write to the HDDs now... I still can't backup Time Machine tho

Some may disagree with this, but I've found harddrives really bugger around before they kick it... there's this period of strange activity... spinning down, strange sounds... and then it works great. Followed by complete disaster a few days later when it doesn't work at all. Make sure you've backed up all important data

Oh and if you're looking out for a new caddie I strongly recommend the Icecube Gen II... it's a damn good caddie and uses a very good firewire chipset.

I really really hope that's not the case... I bought the Enclosure sometime last year (might have been in late October) and I bought the Hard Drive... must have been on the 9/12/2007 because Console Says that Disk Utility remembers formatting one of the partitions on it then (and I partitioned it the night I got it).

So what I have is fairly new and it just feels wrong that things should suddenly fail so soon.

As the caretaker of Daisy, an infobot on #apple that keeps a very complete log, I thought I'd take this opportunity to post a few sterling quotes about Prolific chipsets:

Mac + Prolific = disaster in the making

the cheap chinese ones all use VIA or Prolific, which are awful

You mean Prolific actually make something useful for a change?

reccomends anything with a oxford chipset... others have had problems with prolific chipsets

Prolific chipset for Firewire + OS X == data loss

if you see the word 'Prolific' used, run.

and what ever you do, DO NOT get an enclosure that uses prolific chipsets!

Dave

In my defence, (not saying that anybody's wrong. I know you're all very very right, but I do feel very annoyed that I have been cheated here out of $70).

I have scoured the packaging and there is no mention of any chipset (ok, I suppose I should have taken that as ominous) but also it claims Macintosh compatibility on all sides of the box (but not in the manual). The campus Apple store only had 2.5" enclosures and it was a Friday.

At least it has a USB connection, or are there problems with prolific and those too?

I'm having a bad day with hardware and software now. I think I'll start backing things up to DVDs just in case.

Warranty?

I don't know about warranty...

-Removed end of post, decided to start new thread-

So what do people think about

http://www.macpower.com.tw/products/...des/pd_800plus

Does that seem a good idea? It does mention prolific but a little googling suggests that that is for the USB transfer only...