GoFlex, GoFlex Desk, GoFlex Pro, GoFlex Slim, & GoFlex Turbo

[catouija]

I have two GoFlex Desk Firewire 800/USB adapters, Model #STAE105, and have a 2TB Goflex Desk units attached to each of them. 

If I hook them up separately to my Mac (OS X 10.6.8, Snow Leopard), they work fine. 

But, if I daisy-chain them, neither one mounts, nor shows up in Disk Utility.

In Console, I see this: Firewire Error: Devices with identical unique ID: 00203750 90000000 cannot be used.

In System Profiler, under Hardware/Firewire, it shows:

FireWire Bus:

  Maximum Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

Unknown Device:

  GUID:0x20375090000000

Maximum Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

  Connection Speed:Unknown

Unknown Device:

  GUID:0x20375090000000

  Maximum Speed:Up to 800 Mb/sec

  Connection Speed:Unknown

So, it appears that both adapters have the same "Unique" ID, and the Mac won't allow either to mount. 

On this forum, there are methods of getting past this problem in Windows, such as via going into Computer Management and changing the status of the "Offline" drive to "Online," but I couldn't find a similar solution for Macs ... 

Some research online revealed the existence of a Java utility that might allow for changing the "Unique ID" of the Oxford chipset contained in the GoFlex (see here and here), but I couldn't get this to work either. The Mac version of the utility seems to have been written for OS X 10.3 or 10.4 and doesn't work on Intel Macs, and I even installed Boot Camp to try to use the Windows utility and that didn't work either. (Also learned that Parallels Mac doesn't recognize firewire at all! hmmph)

So I guess my question is, is there any other way I can get these two adapters to daisy-chain? Either I'll have to change the GUID of one of them somehow, or the Mac will somehow have to allow both despite the same GUID. 

Otherwise, I guess I'll have to return one of them : ( ... are there any other companies' Firewire 800 enclosures anyone out there can vouch for? 

Thanks in advance!

[catouija · Accepted solution]

Got this message from Seagate support this morning:

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"Thank you for contacting Seagate.

I'm sorry to hear you are having this issue. Unfortunatly we cannot support "daisy chaining" these products together. Normally daisy chaining is a viable option, however these devices have a high power requirement (480ma), and do not work well in that configuration. In the interest of the stability of your data and the product, I ask you not to use the devices like this.

If you have any additional questions you may call us during your regional business hours listed below. For your convenience we also have on-line chat assistance."
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This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me though ... each adapter has its own power supply, and they each also have two firewire 800 ports - presumably so that they can be daisy-chained! If they were not designed to be daisy-chained, you would think they would only have one firewire port, for direct connection to the computer. 

Anyone have any thoughts? 

==============MODERATOR NOTE, 30 APRIL 2012================

We are looking at why the technician sent that response back in December, however the GoFlex Desk Firewire adapters will daisy chain fine.

The only two issues we might see are:

1) If both drives are using the original NTFS partitions, they might have the same partition signature (ID) on both drives. Reformatting one of the drives will correct that issue. Just be sure to backup all the data before formatting the drive.

2) Some units left the factory with the same Firewire ID; if you contact support and let them know you are seeing this issue they will help swap out one of the adapters to make sure you get one with a unique ID.

These are the types of responses you should have received the first time you contacted us. However if you can Private Message me with your case number or serial number that would help track down the technician and have our quality team discuss this with them.

[catouija]

So I responded to Seagate CS saying what I said above, and this was their reply:

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Thank you for contacting Seagate.

If you would like to daisy chain a mouse off this device that is fine. Mice and keyboards, printers and scanners all are low voltage devices. Hard-drives have a very high power requirement and so the "daisy chained" device rarely connects properly. Then there is the Mac signature collision issue you are experiencing Where the devices are "thinking" they are the same device. I have not found a Fix for this issue and Mac has not posted a fix for this issue. I suggest contacting mac as they may have an answer for you but due to the testing that was done here at our labs, Seagate will not support daisy chaining.

I'm sorry about this issue and I wish there was an easy fix for it.
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I don't know about you, but I find that rather insulting - "daisy chain a mouse off this device"??? how?!? using a FIREWIRE 800 MOUSE? A FIREWIRE 800 KEYBOARD, PRINTER, OR SCANNER?!! How absolutely absurd and patronizing.

(Besides the general stupidity of the statement, I would also have to disagree with the idea that printers and scanners are low voltage devices, since the majority of the ones I've seen most definitely require a power supply of some sort to work. But what do I know.)

C'mon, what other purpose could there be for a hard drive enclosure/adapter to have TWO firewire 800 ports? Other than hooking up another hard drive (which has its OWN power supply), there's ... well there's not much else. (OK, maybe an audio interface. but the guy's patently ridiculous reply doesn't mention that, and anyway most audio interfaces use the power from the firewire bus, so there goes that theory).

But, DAISY CHAIN A FIREWIRE 800 MOUSE OR KEYBOARD OFF THIS DEVICE?!!!!?! WHAT THE ... !!!! Great advice, Phillip from Seagate!!!!!

And as far as the "Mac signature collision issue" ... umm, the problem is that Seagate is manufacturing a gazillion (I'm estimating) firewire adapters WITH THE SAME UNIQUE ID!!!!! This is the same thing that is causing all the problems with Windows setups as seen over and over in this forum!!   "Mac signature collision issue." GIVE ME A BREAK!

Anyway, returning this adapter to Amazon post-haste.

I've used nothing but Seagate drives for years now - my Drobo for example started off with four 500GB Seagates and now has three 2TB Barracudas and a 1TB Barracuda ... I've had nothing but faith in their products, but this is the first time I've had to contact their tech support for anything, and it is a real eye-opener. What a lame, dismissive set of responses they've sent me.

You broke my heart, Seagate. You broke my heart!!!

[GoFlexYourself]

Hi catouija, " Ah feel your pain" as Jimmy Carter used to say.

I too bought two GoFlex FW800 bases for my 4tb GoFlexes, thinking that they could operate in daisy as almost all other recent Mac-friendly devices can. I was a bit disgruntled to not only learn that they cannot, but that they also fail to auto-mount unles the FW is plugged into the Mac ports directly, and the drive's power switched on with each boot of thee system. Seagate is not nearly as Mac-conciencious as they once were.

BUT, being unable to get Seagate to help given their extremely limited capability to solve most Mac GoFlex issues, I did find a solution that works for me.

I pluged the first GoFlex's FW into my Mac's rear FW800 port.
I pluged the second GoFlex's FW into my Mac's front FW800 port.

(another solution that worked is to plug my older Maxtor external FW400/800 drive into the Mac, and daisy the second GoFlex off that one. Works as long as all drives are ON)

I put both power blocks into a switched powerstrip that is plugged into my APS backup unit so in case of electrical outage, the drives won't crash dismount, which loses data if the drive is xferring at time of outage.

Now, both drives run at FW800, and if they fail to mount upon startup, I just kick the switch on the powerstrip and all is up and running.

You might also get a powered FW800 hub and try that. It should recognize both drives regardless of ID.

After 20 years with Seagate purchases, due to the misrepresentation and weak support of GoFlex issues, they have lost my company as a future external HD customer.

[catouija]

Hey GFY, thanks for the update! Yeah, I returned one of the adapters a while ago and got a FW800 enclosure from a different company, which is working fine in the daisy-chain (despite Seagate customer service's "signature Mac collision issue" and "you can only daisy-chain a mouse" nonsense). In fact I've got 3 FW800 drives daisy-chained together, all working excellently - the only difference from before being that they all have different unique IDs.

I have a Macbook Pro, so there's only one FW port - no forward/rear ports as you have, I assume you have a Mac Pro or something like that ... glad you got it to work though. : )

[AlanM]

Please note that I have added a clarificatory note to Message 2 of 5 in this thread.