Panther and Firewire drives

In article <111120030143374083%jcdontyouspammehokey@sbcglobal.net>,
James Chokey <jcdontyouspammehokey.DeleteThis@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

 >
 > I'm sure a lot of you know this already, but I just heard about the
 > conflict between Panther (10.03) and some firewire drives:
 >
 > "Apple has identified an issue with external FireWire hard drives using
 > the Oxford 922 bridge chip-set with firmware version 1.02 that can
 > result in the loss of data stored on the disk drive. Apple is working
 > with Oxford Semiconductor and affected drive manufacturers to resolve
 > this issue which resides in the Oxford 922 chip-set.
 >
 > In the interim, Apple recommends that you do not use these drives. To
 > stop using the drive, you should unmount or eject the disk drive before
 > doing anything else. Please check this web page for further updates.
 >
 > Apple and Oxford Semiconductor have confirmed that firmware version
 > 1.05 resolves the data loss issue experienced by some FW800 users.
 > FireWire disk drive manufacturers have begun posting firmware updates"
 >
 > Here's my question-- how can I tell whether my external firewire drives
 > use the Oxfford 922 bridge chip-set with firmware version 1.02 or not?
 >
 > Is there some way to find is out by looking at the drive? By using
 > the apple system profiler? Is there a comprehensive online list of
 > which ones are and which ones aren't?
 >
 > FWIW, I've got three Lacie external firewire drives-- one 200 G, one
 > 160G, and one 80G. Should I be worried? Do I need to update my
 > firmware on anyone of them? If so, how can I tell which?

LaCie has a firmware update on their site. They have articles
describing the nature of the situation and which drives are affected.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Panther and Firewire drives 

In comp.sys.mac.system James Chokey <jcdontyouspammehokey DeleteThis @sbcglobal.net> wrote:
 >
 > I'm sure a lot of you know this already, but I just heard about the
 > conflict between Panther (10.03) and some firewire drives:

Apple just released 10.3.1 yesterday which addresses some of these
issues, but the release notes still recommend updating the firmware
on your firewire drives. Check the web site for the company who
made your fw drive for details.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Panther and Firewire drives 

In article <111120030909113486%star@sky.net>, Davoud <star.RemoveThis@sky.net> wrote:

 > Apple recommends two things: update to 10.3.1 _and_ get new
 > firmware from your drive manufacturer. There is new firmware from just
 > about all manufacturers.

Considering the potential for data loss on FW drives, understating the risk
or overstating the availability of fixes is in no one's best interest.
Yes, there is new firmware available from 10-12 manufacturers. These do
not represent "just about all" manufacturers, however. There are many of
us who have drives from manufacturers who have not made a firmware update
available. Buslink's response to me was that "we've have good luck" with
Panther so far. Compare that atttitude to LaCie, which still hasn't been
able to make any of their drives fail under Panther, yet they've
nevertheless taken the word of Apple, Oxford, and the company's own users
that their firmware needed to be rewritten pronto. Unfortunately, not all
mfrs have been equally responsive.

Also, it should be noted that although there are many FW 400/Oxford 911
users whose drives have been similarly hosed, Apple and Oxford have
declared that the risk applies only to FW 800/Oxford 922 drives. So FW 400
owners need to understand that there is no firmware update for this issue
forthcoming from *any mfr*. Since no company has officially taken
responsibility for investigating the FW 400/Oxford 911 reports, there's no
reliable basis for evaluating the risk to a specific drive. All you can do
at this point is assume the worst, prepare by archiving all valuable data
from the drive to another medium (preferably something the OS can't
overwrite, like CD-R or DVD-R), then watch how the drive behaves after
multiple restarts under Panther. But since Panther sometimes waits through
several restarts/dismounts before writing the series of 0s to the 800s,
even initial good behavior may not be sufficient proof that the drive is
safe to use.

--
CC<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Panther and Firewire drives 

In article <BLOCKSPAMfishfry-5696DB.01510311112003 RemoveThis @netnews.attbi.com>,
fishfry <BLOCKSPAMfishfry RemoveThis @your-mailbox.com> wrote:

 > In article <111120030143374083%jcdontyouspammehokey@sbcglobal.net>,
 > James Chokey <jcdontyouspammehokey RemoveThis @sbcglobal.net> wrote:
 >
  > >
  > > Here's my question-- how can I tell whether my external firewire drives
  > > use the Oxfford 922 bridge chip-set with firmware version 1.02 or not?
  > >
  > > Is there some way to find is out by looking at the drive? By using
  > > the apple system profiler? Is there a comprehensive online list of
  > > which ones are and which ones aren't?
  > >
  > > FWIW, I've got three Lacie external firewire drives-- one 200 G, one
  > > 160G, and one 80G. Should I be worried? Do I need to update my
  > > firmware on anyone of them? If so, how can I tell which?
 >
 > LaCie has a firmware update on their site. They have articles
 > describing the nature of the situation and which drives are affected.

I saw the firmware update, but it wasn't entirely clear to me whether I
actually needed to use it. On your suggestion, though, I went pack and
disscovered the article located at
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.lacie.com/news/news.htm?id=10059," target="_blank">http://www.lacie.com/news/news.htm?id=10059,</a> which seems to specify
more definitively which of their drives are affected and which aren't.

If I'm understanding it correctly, it sounds like the only Lacie drives
that are at risk here are the ones that have both the Firewire and the
USB connectors on them, with serial numbers whose first four numbers
fall either into the 1312-1339 range or the 0312-0339 range?

If so, I guess I'm in luck-- as my drives are firewire only and.
moreover, have serial numbers outside of that range. *whew* Thanks
for the tip.

That said, I'd still be interested to find out if there's some more
general way one can find out what version of firmware happens to
currently be installed on a drive?

-- Jim C.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Panther and Firewire drives 

In article <111120030909113486%star@sky.net>, Davoud <star.RemoveThis@sky.net>
wrote:

 > James Chokey:
  > > I'm sure a lot of you know this already, but I just heard about the
  > > conflict between Panther (10.03) and some firewire drives...
 >
 > Yes, we knew about this over a week ago. It might pay you in the long
 > run to take an occasional look at macintouch.com, macfixit.com, and
 > macnn.com.

Oh I do... about once a week or so. That's how I found out about this
in the first place. (That, and when I upgraded to 3.0.1, Software
Updater gave me the message I quoted.)

 > Apple recommends two things: update to 10.3.1 _and_ get new
 > firmware from your drive manufacturer. There is new firmware from just
 > about all manufacturers.

Right, and I had known that Lacie had posted firmware on its site. I
guess I was trying to figure out whether I should bother.
Specifically, I was curious as to whether there was some general
mechanism for determining (1) whether a given drive had the Oxford 922
bridge chip in the first place [I guess a technical specs sheet would
have that info?], and (2) how one can determine what
version of firmware is currently installed on an external drive, so
that I could figure out whether I was at risk and needed to upgrade the
firmware.

I've since found an article at Lacie's site that, if I read it
correctly, seems to indicate that I'm in the clear, since my drive
types and serial numbers don't match those listed. Still, I'm kind of
curious as to how I might find out what version of firmware is on a
given drive.

-- Jim C.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Panther and Firewire drives