2024-04-23

FireWire Drive

How to install a FireWire drive in Mac OS X

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM02 mins

OS X supports WD FireWire drives without any special software.

FireWire drive If the drive has been working in a prior Mac OS:

  1. Boot the system.
  2. Turn the drive on, leaving the FireWire cable disconnected. Wait 20-30 seconds for the drive to spin up completely and then attach the FireWire cable to the back of the drive.
  3. The drive should mount on the desktop.
  4. To unmount the drive, drag the icon to the trashcan.

If the drive is new:

  1. Boot the system.
  2. Turn the drive on, leaving the FireWire cable disconnected. Wait 20-30 seconds for the drive to spin up completely and then attach the FireWire cable to the back of the drive.
  3. Use Disk Setup in the Disk Utilities folder.
  4. To find Disk Setup, access the Applications folder.
  5. Next, open the Utilities folder.
  6. Click on the Disk Utility icon.
  7. When Disk Utility opens up, you can choose Disk First Aid to test the drive, or select Drive Setup to partition and initialize the drive.

Note: OS 10.0 or 10.1 only supports Firewire hard drives up to 137Gb.

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Recommended shutdown procedure for Mac systems with a USB 2.0 or FireWire drive

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM01 mins

In some cases, shutting down the system without properly unmounting the drive results in data corruption. If the OS stops the device while data remains in the drive cache, data can be lost or file system damage can occur. To avoid possible data corruption, it’s recommended that FireWire and USB drives be properly unmounted from the Mac OS prior to turning off the system.

To safely disconnect the drive, simply drag the drive icon to the trash. This will assure that all data is properly cleared from the drive cache before the drive is removed. At this point the FireWire or USB data cable can be safely removed and the drive and Mac system can be powered off.

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