Mac OS X 10.4.x: Remember to upgrade Firewire firmware

A quick reminder: Make sure your FireWire drive firmware is upgraded to the latest version after (or preferably prior to) installing Mac OS X 10.4.0 or Mac OS X 10.4.1.

We've noted that outdated FireWire drive firmware can cause significant issues with data transfer, drive recognition, mounting or unmounting problems and more several times in the past, and there appears to be a recurrence in reported incidents in Tiger and its first incremental update.

Updated firmware can generally be found on your drive manufacturer's Web site under a "Support" or "Drivers" tab. Also, firmware for most popular drive manufacturers can be found on our sister site VersionTracker -- just search for the manufacturer's name.

MacFixIt reader EJ is one reader who was affected by this issue:

"Since upgrading to Tiger I've been having a problem with my FireWire 400 drives unmounting unexpectedly and then refusing to remount after a power-off. This may or may not have caused irreparable damage to the data.

"The solution may be to upgrade the FireWire drive firmware to the latest version. Tiger, it seems, doesn't play well with Oxford 911 chipset firmware earlier than v3.8 (it's currently at 4.0). Since upgrading all my drives to 4.0, all has been well."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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