This is just a shot in the dark, but here’s what I’d try to do.
I don’t have a hard drive I can connect through a firewire port. But I do have devices that connect via USB 2.0 that can act as either a web camera or a storage device. But the computer can only acknowledge one function. And that function must be selected in my camcorder’s menu before connecting it to the USB port. So it seems likely to me that the solution to your problem is to insure the camera is configured to act as a storage device instead of it being a camera. As I mentioned, I’m not sure how the IEEE 1394 (firewire) port decides what a device does, but I know that for USB ports, the device itself always tells the computer what it is. So check your camcorder menu for the USB setting and confirm it is set to be a storage device.
Now I would guess this might just solve your problem. If not, you may need to update, or re-install, the drivers that came with the camcorder. So give the device setting & driver issues a shot and let us know what happens.
Good luck and I hope it works out for you.
