External firewire drive problem

[imported_Tram]

So I got new drives from WD and threw them in two combo FireWire/USB enclosures. Now, these two enclosures work fine when I use them with USB on my PC. They work fine when I use them with USB or Firewire on my iBook. But, When I try to connect the drives, singly or chained, to my PC, they just will not detect. What am I missing?

I've tried connecting them to my built-in firewire, and to my PCI firewire card. I'm running XP with SP2, on an nforce4 motherboard. I'll be happy to post any other system information as well. Is there some sort of update that I need to use firewire drives in xp?

I switched the PCI slot my firewire card was in and tried again, and it detected my first drive, but not the daisy chained one. I then removed the drive properly (via "safely remove") and now neither drive will show up again.

my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-K8NGA-K8NF-9. The card is some no-name.

My iPod also now no longer registers as a removable device when I try to connect it. I'll be around to post any additional required info or whatever. The card didn't throw windows into its 'new device' frenzy, but the USB ports work and I now have 2 firewire busses in device manager. I am just at the end of my rope here.

 

[Jiggz]

Try again with the just the built in firewire controller. Remove the PCI firewire card. Install the drives one at a time first and make sure it works perfectly before daisy-chaining the second one. If the first device does not get detected, go to Device Manager and do the following:
1. Disable the IEEE controller
2. Re-enable the IEEE controller

The device should get detected. If it still does not get detected check MS Knowledge Base and do a search for firewire.

 

[LtPage1]

do they work using USB on the PC?

 

[corkyg]

I have a lot of experience with external combo drives - I have 5 of them active. When yhey do not detect, it usually indicates they are not getting enough power - use the supplementary power connectors that normally come with these drives - or connected them to a powered hub.