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WD MyBook FireWire not working...


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OK so after snooping around on apple.com forums and all other Mac forums, I decided to come here since this is where all the Mac godlies live anyway :D

 

Anyway, after using Hackintosh for a year I FINALLY got a MacBook.

 

Mac OS X 10.4.10

2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

1 GB RAM

120 GB HD

Intel GMA950 integrated graphics

basically, standard tier 2 white MacBook configuration.

 

Anyway, I got a Western Digital MyBook Premium 320 GB a month before I got my MacBook because it has dual FireWire400 / USB 2.0 support and it claimed to be PC and Mac compatible. However, plugging the hard drive in via FireWire doesn't work. It only works when I plug in via USB. When I plug it in through the FireWire port, nothing happens; System Profiler doesn't say anything, and neither does Disk Utility. I mean, yea, I could use it through USB, but I only have 2 USB ports, and plus, I didn't dish out the extra $50 for a FW / USB combo for nothing. Anyway, here's what I've done so far:

 

- Rolled back all FireWire kexts to the 10.4.8 versions

- Upgraded my hard drive's firmware to latest version that CLAIMS to fix FW problems

- Snooped around on my old Hackintosh (10.4.6) and found a .kext called "IOFireWireWDHID.kext" and tried installing it on my MacBook (force loaded kext and everything), and no dice. Although I had trouble figuring out where I need to put my Device and Vendor ID in the Info.plist of the kext... anyway, that didn't work.

 

I know that my FireWire port works because my friend's LaCie drive works on it, and my FireWire cable is not fried either because that's what I used to plug in his LaCie drive. The {censored} at Western Digital think that my hard drive's FW ports are messed up and are willing to replace it, but seeing as 2903409234 other people with my hard drive are having the same problem, I really think it's an OS X thing and not a defective drive problem.

 

I've searched around on this forum and many people have posted that they have WD MyBook Premiums that work great via FW400 on their Macs, so I know it's possible to get it to work...

 

If anyone can help, I'd really, really, REALLY appreciate it :-)

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  • 3 months later...

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I am having this same problem.

 

Mine is also having troubles turning on at times, but thats an entirely separate issue.

 

The HD is brand new. I got it for Christmas, so I dont think anything on the HD is broken (That would cause a problem with the Firewire ports, of course.)

 

I did the firmware updates, and I am able to connect using USB when it powers on.

 

EDIT: My computer is a 2.2GHz MacBook Pro with 2GB RAM and a 120GB HDD, if that helps at all.

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  • 2 years later...

hi, me too i have the same problem, when i boot whit my book connected via firewire it freeze the system until i unplug the cable. System profiler recognize the hd but it don't appear in disk utility. Works only whit usb.

Can anyone help us?

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  • 2 months later...

Greetings,

I too am having identical problem. I notice that the "IOFireWireWDHID.kext" file is dated March 16, 2006. So certainly it is not likely comfortable with Snow Leopard. I ran Kext Utility, but to no avail. The error came up shortly after running Kext Utility 2.3.2.

 

MacBook Pro 2.5GHz, OS X 10.6.3 (current on updates)

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