Onboard Firewire not working on Sandy Bridge Hackintosh

[MasterTurtle]

Hallo community. My hackintosh is almost complete. I have spent the time to clean up my sound, get wireless internet, and I have updated to 10.6.8 successfully. Now, the only problem that remains is my onboard firewire does not work. When I plug in a hard drive, the hard drive turns on (vibrants and spins) but it never shows up in the computer, either the desktop (as it automatically supposed to) or in any system profiles. Not quite sure what to do next. I appreciate the help. My monster computer is almost complete.

 

[SnapMan]

Firewire usually just works OOB....you could check in BIOS and make sure it is not disabled.

If your HDD is NTFS you need to install the free utility from Apple to make the computer recognize it. Or if it is a new drive, you can reformat it in Disk Utility to MacOSextended(Journaled). But you should be able to see it in Disk Utility if the formatting was the issue.

 

[MasterTurtle]

I am pretty sure my hard drive isn't NTFS. I had an Macbook Pro previously, and it worked on that machine. I am assuming NTFS doesn't work on any Mac OS. Where in my BIOS is my firewire option? I am pretty new to BIOS and BIOS setting.

 

[akimov]

Hi,
Same problem here. In fact firewire is working.
I could install my external soundcard (tc electronic konnekt 24d) wich is working great with my music software. (digital performer).
But no hard drive will mount.

 

[reimund]

My onboard firewire will not mount my disk either (GA Z68X-UD4-B3). Anyone else got it working?

 

[Thrashavich]

Same issue here. Can't mount firewire disk drives. I also have the z68x-UD4-B3.
Tried every bios version and bios setting.

Disk utility will not see the drive no matter what.

But it shows up in the system profiler. Drive name and everything.

Could it be a compatibility issue with the VIA VT6308 chip?

 

[ar13]

Strange.... mine works, i use a Motu Interface and a FW H.D [ i have it Partitioned in 2 ] in a USB2/FW case and works without any problems....... perhaps is your h.d. case....

 

[SnapMan]

I would do the following to try to narrow down the problem:

Check BIOS (hit delete key on startup, as soon as the BIOS splash screen appears) and make sure to Enable 1394 the official designation for Firewire.

Try the Firewire drive in a different computer, if it mounts, take a look at it's formatting, check if it is NTFS or HFS+

Plug a different FIrewire device into your computer, if you have one and see if the computer recognizes it and works

If you can't do either of the above, but System Profiler can see the device, read it carefully, it should identify the drive formatting. If you can see the drive in Disk Utility (I know you said you can't) clicking the info button for the drive and partitions will also supply this information.

If it is NTFS, you will need to install the free NTFS utility from Apple to make it mount.

 

[Thrashavich]

I would do the following to try to narrow down the problem:

Check BIOS (hit delete key on startup, as soon as the BIOS splash screen appears) and make sure to Enable 1394 the official designation for Firewire.

Try the Firewire drive in a different computer, if it mounts, take a look at it's formatting, check if it is NTFS or HFS+

Plug a different FIrewire device into your computer, if you have one and see if the computer recognizes it and works

If you can't do either of the above, but System Profiler can see the device, read it carefully, it should identify the drive formatting. If you can see the drive in Disk Utility (I know you said you can't) clicking the info button for the drive and partitions will also supply this information.

If it is NTFS, you will need to install the free NTFS utility from Apple to make it mount.

Yes I've tried several drives (some ntfs some hfs) plugged directly into the motherboard (even utilizing tuxera ntfs) and 1394 is enabled in bios. It seems as though the 1394 port is only functioning for capturing video / sound cards.

 

[kr33p3r]

I hate that no one chimes in or refers to other threads as if it's so easy to search hundreds of thousands of threads for the exact issue.

I never figured out what it was with the onboard firewire with my specific motherboard (listed in my signature below) but I can confirm I had the exact same issues that you guys are having.

What solved it for me was the firewire PCI card that I bought from amazon.com (listed in my signature below) works O/O/B no extra tweaks necessary; just install and boot, plug in your FW HD and it will mount instantly.

Hope this helps you guys out;

PS there is a shorter version of this firewire card on amazon but I didn't see it till after I installed the one that I ordered; anyhow, FW 800 and FW 400 on this card; works great.
All we need is a thunderbolt PCI-E card for the icing on the cake!