eMac External 40 GB Firewire 400 HD and backup software?

I resently experienced a partial data loss for no logical reason. The screen froze, I couldn't force quit, so I had to power down the computer. Something that I never like to do as I was informed that it can damage the HD. All the folders on the desktop disappeared without trace. I back-up to CD ROM every month. All my important data was intact. However some data was lost. It occured to me that I should have a perfect duplicate back-up of my internal hard disc.
My emac has a 40 GB HD.
Can anyone suggest a good firewire External HD and backup software? In order that no data can ever be lost!
eMac 1 Ghz Combi Mac OS X (10.3.9) 1GB SDRAM

For backup software, CarbonCopyCloner has a number of fans; I use SuperDuper!. A bootable clone of your HD would be a minimum. Better yet, get a 100 GB or greater HD, partition it, and use SuperDuper to put a bootable clone on the first partition, updating that regularly, and use the other partition(s) for either additional storage or a redunant backup of key data. You can for instance move your iTunes Library or move your iPhoto Library to an external HD.
The actual make and model of an external Firewire HD is less critical than having one in the first place (and regularly backing up). I have several LaCie drives at home and work (one cowaorker has about 12 LaCie HDs chained off his Mac, an impressive sight); or you can check the expanding your eMac forum for any of the posts in which Patrick (PT) describes how to roll your own, so to speak: buy a cheap bare HD, buy a Firewire enclosure, put them together and format.

Similar Messages

Firewire 400/800 and Iomega connectivity in the Latest Mac Book Pro?

Hi,
I am awiting my Mac Book Pro to arrive. I have no experince with a Mac Book Pro.
I have a Mac version Iomega External Portable Hard Drive. This Iomega has USB2, Firewire 400 & Firewire 800 connectivity.
I do not think Firewire 400 or Firewire 800 cable came with my Iomega.
Is this Iomega connectable through Firewire 400 or Firewire 800 to a latest Mac Book pro? If so do I connect it to the Thunderbult port in my Mac Book Pro?
Is there especial cable avaiable for these purposes?
Regardsa

Connection is with the FW800 port using a FW800 to FW800
cable. The ones I've purchase came with USB and FW800
cables. The Thunderbolt port is only for Thunderbolt devices
or some displays via a Display Port adapter.
If for some reason you no longer have any cables, FW800 cables
are readily available either online or at any store that handles
Apple computers, and some that don't.

Playing Russian Roulette with Firewire 400 drives and Final Cut Pro

oh boy! this has been a fun week!
I would love to ask the advice of the group about checking the firwire
ports on my computer, and also on the separate external drives.
Here is what has been going on.
Final Cut Pro 5 starts up and then starts to pinwheel.
but in short here is the result, I have recently lost 2 external
FIREWIRE 400 drives, one by LaCie that is my newest drive of the
group, it is 160gb 2 port FW400, and another by ProMax which also has
2 FW400 ports. the lacie was the first to go and is just not mounting
and does not show up using any of my Disk Utility software (even the
heavy duty stuff like DATA RESCUE II or Disk Warrior), I am thinking
that both ports are bad(maybe fried by another bad port on my tower?)I
can hear it when i boot it up and it sounds normal with the same
routine sounds, but it just doesn't mount, nor show up, so is this the
ports?fried?
Now, on my tower I have the following setup - 2 FW400 ports that are
STOCK that came with the TOWER G4 when I bought it. There is also a
FIREWIRE 400 card which has 3 ports. In the past I have used all the
ports for drives, and for a printer and a scanner in my studio.
Everything mounted and worked properly. Then,recently I moved the
drives and the tower to another location(in the room and no I didn't
drop or shake anything) and replugged everything in again, probably in
different slots but upon boot the external firewire drives didn't mount.
I had to UN PLUG them and then RE INSERT them by trial and error(which
I thought normal as I have done this when using these drives with my
laptop, until I got them to mount. they all did mount. However, once
up an running I started Final Cut Pro 5, and it started to get a
PINWHEEL for more than reasonable and if forced me to RESTART the
computer.
The next time, one of the HARDDRIVES (the LaCie 160gb) was no longer
mounting, and I tried to change firewire ports and on the stock and
also on the card for fear that the 3rd party card might be faulty.
I even ran APPLEs HARDWARE Utility and it gave no results as to
anything faulty on the firewire ports. It just said they were there.
Both stock and the PCI firewire card.
Next, I tried to mount this LaCie 160gb onto another computer, with no
results.....it now acts as if both ports are faulty, again, I hear the
drive spinning and going through its initial startup, which sounds
exactly like the other drive, but it never mounts. which is odd...what
is your idea about this drive? and how to save it?
is there a way to take the drive out of the casing and test it in my
other LaCie160gb that is currently working?
2nd, this is where it gets funky, then upon starting Final Cut Pro,
the pinwheel reappeared now with another firewire drive a PROMAX 160gb
that was plugged into the STOCK FW 400 port (on the tower) starting to
show a RED light(not good), however, after restart, I didn't see the
PROMAX drive mount, but I was able to load it up with DATA RESCUE II,
and it is doing a QUICK SCAN to save the DATA on that disk......
now I have backed up most of this data, but the problem now is not the
data, it is whether or not to even plug any of my other drives into
any of these FW ports until I can test them for faultiness.
A friend told me of another friend having a problem where a firewire
port was frying drives as soon as they plugged them into the certain
port. How can you figure this out without re-acting like 'Deerhunter?'
This feels like playing Russian Roulette......if you get my drift?
How do you check any ports for such foul play?
Thanks in advance for your support....
makin

well, now I am finding out that the culprit is I think the POWER MAC g4 itself.
For it has been blowing the firewire ports over time by frying them with power.
Has anyone had this happen?
My Power Mac g4 will not shut down.
It powers itself back up.
I end up having to press the POWER button and holding it, but this sends power to the firewire ports and I can hear them turning on.
so all this time I had just dealt with the issue
Apple had seemed to blame it on a 3rd party MATROX card in the PCI slot.
But, now that has long been taken out of the equation.
The only thing left is that the 17inch MONITOR is plugged into the POWER MAC and for some reason it is keeping a charge?
Can anyone help me in this matter?
As this has haunted me for 5 years with this machine, and I have probably fried more drives than I care to mention.
I just want my computer to SHUT DOWN when I tell it to.
is that too much to ask?
Might the POWER SUPPLY be at fault?
What in God's name could keep this ******* of a computer from shutting down?
I have no USB hubs or keyboards hookedup
the only thing is the MONITOR itself....that you can press its button to shut down etc.
I would be honored to know what this is as APPLE CARE never could figure it out
I didn't want to go through the hassle of taking out the RT MAC card, and just either left the machine on, or Unplugged the thing....
that is a nasty way to shut down a computer is it not?
much thanks to any one who can help me to figure this out?
thanks
singleton

External HD: is firewire 400 enough??

I have Finalcut pro 5.0.4 running on my Powerbook G4 1,3GHz. It has firewire 400 + 800 + USB2 ports.
My camcorder is a Sony HDR-HC3 (firewire400).
I just finished my first project, which I had on a partition of my internal drive.
I did not encounter any problems.
Anyway, I want to buy an external drive, I do have the LaCie rugged (2,5", 5400rpm) in mind, as I travel a lot.
Obviously, I cannot do anything wrong, if I buy the triple interface (fw 400 +800 + USB2). But will firewire 400 or even USB2 be enough for my hardware-combination?
Thanks for your advise!

Luke,
Truth be told, Apple never sanctioned the use of external firewire drives for FCP but they can be made to work quite reliably over a very wide range of users. USB can't do that. Here's why.
If you read the specifications for usb 2.0, it appears fast enough - almost as fast as fw400. However, the real issue is the ability to send data through uninterupted. This become critical when you start pushing the number of simultaneous streams through - like trying realtime playback of 6 or more files.
There is a technical name for this capability - Isochronous - and USB is not set up that way. Without that dedicated bandwidth capability, video hicups, stutters, and FCP correctly reports dropped frames. SOME (like you) have made it work, but it really is a gamble and a poor one at that.
But, you cry in disbelief, Apple, the techno god, has pronounced usb 2.0 to be the future of the video iPod!
Well, who cares if the transfer of a mp3 or video to an ipod has minor hicups and does not happen in the streamingest manner - you are not VIEWING (or listening to ) the stuff as it flows accross. Minor interuptions are not an issue. However, when you need something to happen in real time with high data rates you want firewire or, increasingly, external SATA drives.
x
Isochronous
(from "how stuff works")
An important element of FireWire is the support of isochronous devices. In isochronous mode, data streams between the device and the host in real-time with guaranteed bandwidth and no error correction. Essentially, this means that a device like a digital camcorder can request that the host computer allocate enough bandwidth for the camcorder to send uncompressed video in real-time to the computer. When the computer-to-camera FireWire connection enters isochronous mode, the camera can send the video in a steady flow to the computer without anything disrupting the process.
(from Whatis)
In information technology, isochronous (from the Greek "equal" and "time"; pronounced "eye-SAH-krun-us") pertains to processes that require timing coordination to be successful, such as voice and digital video transmission. A sound or picture going from a peripheral computer device or across a network into a computer or television set needs to arrive at close to the same rate of data flow as the source. In feeding digital image data from a peripheral device (such as a video camera) to a display mechanism within a computer, isochronous data transfer ensures that data flows continously and at a steady rate in close timing with the ability of the display mechanism to receive and display the image data. (FireWire, the IEEE 1394 High Performance Serial Bus, includes an isochronous interface.)
Isochronous can be distinguished from asynchronous, which pertains to processes that proceed independently of each other until a dependent process has to "interrupt" the other process, and synchronous, which pertains to processes in which one process has to wait on the completion of an event in another process before continuing.
Technical Explanation:
http://www.techfest.com/networking/wan/isoc.htm

Compatible Tape Libraries and Backup Software

Hi all,
Having trouble digging up any good info on this. I'm building a Solaris 11.1 filer and would like to attach a tape library to back up the filesystem via NDMP. Libraries I'm considering at the moment:
Quantum i40/i80 (HP LTO-6 drives)
Overland Storage NEO 400S (IBM LTO-6 drives)
Backup software I'm considering:
Symantec Backup Exec (runs on a Windows Server)
Dell/Quest Netvault (runs on just about anything)
Ultimately the question is, will either of these tape libraries work with the Solaris 11.1 NDMP implementation and either of the two backup solutions above? Thanks in advance.
-Anh

I just use a script of my own and just call it using cron. All though I don't hold enough data to warrant incremental backups. Here it is.
gary@reddwarf ~ $ cat /usr/local/bin/backup
#!/bin/bash
#backup script for $1
rm $2/backup*.txt
FN="$2/backup-`date +%d-%m-%y`.txt"
STIME=`date +%s`
export FN STIME
echo Setting backup options > $FN
#mt -f /dev/st0 compression 1
mt -f /dev/st0 drvbuffer 1
mt -f /dev/st0 stoptions buffer-writes
echo - >> $FN
echo Starting backup of $1 on `date` >> $FN
echo - >> $FN
tar cvpPWf /dev/st0 $1 -X $1/exclude >> $FN ## -X does not work on this version of tar
#tar cvpPWf /dev/st0 $1 >> $FN
ETIME=`date +%s`
export ETIME
BTIME=`expr $ETIME / 60 - $STIME / 60`
export BTIME
echo Backup of $1 complete and verified in $BTIME minuites>> $FN
#mt -f /dev/st0 offline
There are some incremental backup scripts floating round the fourms.
There are plenty other examples in this thread http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=56646
You should be able to coble something together from these. You will have a much finer control writing a little script

Firewire 400 and 800

I use my powerbook for digital video editting. I connected to dv camera to the firewire 400 port and connect an external hard drive to the firewire 800 port. Recently when doing this the device that is connected last does not show as being connected. If I connect the the hard drive first them imovie does not show a camera connected and likewise if I connect the camera first then the hard drive does not mount on the desktop. If anyone has any ideas on what I can do to get my firewire ports to work simultaneously please let me know.

I have the same issue and I thought the ADS unit or the Hard Drive was bad. If I disconnect the FW800 cable from the external HD, then repower the drive, it will boot and I can plug the FW800 back in and it will mount on the desktop.
FOUND A FIX!!!!
I found this in the knowledgebase:
Short Version to reset NVRAM and it fixed my boot issues with external FW800 HD.
Boot Mac while holding down the Apple-Option-O-F keys
at the prompt type:
RESET-NVRAM (press enter)
RESET-ALL (Press enter)
Then your mac will reboot.
After I did this, my drive mounts normally!
If you want the whole thread, search for "reset NVRAM".
Matt Caswell
Mesa, AZ

Audio interface for 24" iMac - conflict between firewire 400 and 800?

So, what I have now:
2.8ghz iMac, latest model, newest firmware, running OS 10.4.11, connected to an M-Audio Ozonic Firewire 400 interface, and I was hoping to run said interface while ALSO connecting a firewire 800 hard drive for samples, or for recording to.
Alas, as soon as I turn on the firewire 800 drive, a model sold by Other World Computing and containing an Oxford chipset, all audio stops on the Ozonic keyboard and is replaced by clicks and pops. The only way I've found to get the audio back is with a complete restart of the system, with the firewire 800 drive OFF.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the M-Audio device, it's a small keyboard and firewire audio interface in one unit. Perhaps not the highest quality, but my Powerbook G4 1.67 with firewire 800 CAN run both the Ozonic and the firewire 800 drive at the same time. With no interruption in sound playback.
I did some research and discovered that in the iMac I bought, the two firewire channels, 400 and 800, appear to be on the same PCI E bus, and perhaps will NEVER work together.
Is that right? I thought the whole point of firewire was how it's able to negotiate such communications and work seamlessly with other firewire devices. I know, I know, I'm living in dreamland, it's just sad that a much older Apple product (my PPC notebook), can do something a brand new model cannot. Sigh.
Any advice? Any chance 10.5 fixes this?
If not, should my next audio interface be USB 2.0? Any thoughts from the Audio pros out there (besides 'you bought the wrong machine) would be great.

Sorry I can't help with your specific query as I have never used that Audio hardware.
I am a video man myself and went for the 24" 2.8Ghz iMac as i believe the Firewire 400 and 800 Buses are seperate. I know on older iMacs and even the MacPro the FW800 and 400 buses were on the same bus and when connecting a firewire video camera to the FW400 bus, the 800 would lower it's speed to 400 to accomodate or in some cases would lose the connection all together.
I currently have a FW800 Hard drive connected to the FW800 port and a video deck in the FW400 port and they both run at full speed 800/400 respectively.
This leads me to believe Apple have fixed the Firewire sharing problem.
I know it's no help but just though I would share my experience with the Firewire on the new iMac.

Mac Pro Early 2008 problems with firewire 400 drives

I am having some sporadic problems with firewire 400 drives and am trying to figure out my best options going forward. System 10.5.2 has hung on me twice in the first week of use, and each time I noticed from console there were some problems accessing one or more of these drives (even though I wasn't doing any reads/writes to/from them). Just before one of the crashes, Disk Utility also had problems "seeing" these drives. My external firewire drives are:
Maxtor OneTouch III 750GB
Acomdata enclosure/Seagate 400GB
LaCie d2/160GB
LaCie w/Lightscribe DVD
I have this "cobbled" arrangement because I just upgraded from an eMac and needed these drives to manage video files, audio files, photos, etc. While I'd love to go out and buy new internals to install in my spare bays, and migrate the data to them, I will have to do that in stages as my budget is tapped out at the moment. My MacPro is the base version of the early 2008 units, with 300GB internal.
In the interim, is it worth troubleshooting firmware updates for these externals, or am I destined to continue to have firewire problems? Is there a straight-forward/inexpensive way to remove these drives from enclosures/install in drive bays with an adaptor? I believe the external hard drives are all ATA type drives.
Thanks in advance for any counsel.

I would assume that the Maxtor may be SATA. Does it have an eSATA port? Also, there were a lot of threads (in OS X Leopard forum) about those OneTouch units. Same can be said for LaCie problems.
Yes, check for firmware and configuration. In some cases, and what I do with any new OS, is to reformat all drives - gradually. Given the age of the eMac I'd guess firmware is out of date, and that the drives are formatted some time ago. While you don't have to use GUID, it is a good idea eventually, or just reformat a drive.
Don't forget to test your drives with Disk Warrior (4.1) also.
750GB WD Caviar is $139 SATA.
http://eshop.macsales.com/Specials/XLR8YourMac.cfm?Criteria=&sort=&man=Western%2 0Digital
Are you using daisy chains? you have one FW bus shared by front and back ports. Do you have any on FW800 or using FW400 to FW800 adapter cable? PCI Express FW400 card might even help a little.
Never had trouble with OWC enclosures:
http://www.macsales.com/firewire/

Extremely Slow Disk Access from External Drives (USB & Firewire)

Following the upgrade to 10.6.2 (from 10.6.1), my computer is communicating extremely slowly with all external drives (both Firewire 400 and USB). File transfers which used to take less than a minute now take 5-10 minutes (less than 1 GB). Peering into the Console, I see messages for each aspect of a file reading: Nov 13 12:30:12 Nautilus /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder[152]: Possible unresolved transaction race -105/filename
(Nautilus is the name of the computer)
By "each aspect", I mean that for Pages files, it provides a message for Quicklook,(null) , Contents,(null) , and filename,(null).
All disks are in good health, formatted as FAT32 for ease of use with all OS types, and are SATA.
Again, this occurred immediately following the installation of 10.6.2 (both Software Update and Combo). I've seen similar errors online with iTunes libraries on network drives, but this is on directly connected drives.
I normally wouldn't ask this, but, is there a way to reinstall 10.6.1 over .2? At this point, Time Machine would likely cause me to lose other data as well in a full revert, since it has been more than a few days.

I have various personal files backed up on these drives (not system data): music, pictures, documents, etc.
FAT32 should not be an issue, as I have used these drives for over 2 years with Tiger, Leopard, and then Snow Leopard with nay an issue, until now. Additionally, while the Time Machine backup may be an archive, it is the sole occupier of an HFS-formatted partition which is not exhibiting the issue. I only included that information since it is physically on the same drive as a partition (FAT32) which is being troublesome to rule out driver/hardware problems.
Bottom line: All of my drives worked perfectly on 10.6.1 (and continue to do so on my other Macs (10.5.8), but do not on 10.6.2. I was only looking for a potential solution to my computer's specific issue, not a statement that my "compromise" is the cause of my problems.
Actually, since Apple fully supports read/write access on FAT32 partitions, I should, indeed, be able to "have all things all ways...", no offense intended.

Recording to external hard drives - Firewire 800 problems

Ok so i did post a similar thread on this in the "mac mini" part of the website so im very sorry for double posting but I thought since this problems pertains mostly to recording and specifically recording on garageband, that I would try posting here as well. Heres my deal:
I am a musician working with garageband and I have always been recording to my internal drive until recently. I was unaware until I read some posts here from the good people like you guys, that that is not a good idea to record to your internal drive. So, I got an external firewire 800 drive (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DGZ05A) and this cable (http://www.amazon.com/2M-Firewire-800-9PIN-Cable/dp/B000XQILWK/ref=pdbxgy_e_imgb). When I received it, I first used disk utility and reformatted it for Mac OS Extended Journaled. Then I proceeded to move a couple sample libraries and my entire "Garageband" folder (with my saved songs in it) to the external. I instantly knew something was wrong. The files were taking forever to get written over. It took about 15 mins for a 5GB folder to be moved over. I was already discouraged. Anyway, I plugged in the USB cable that came with the external (the drive has hook ups for both USB 2 and firewire 400/800) and tried moving the same files and it was MUCH faster. The same 5GB file was moved over in a matter of minutes.
I then tried recording to the drive (using firewire again) and it would hardly even PLAY the song without stopping every couple seconds (too many effects error, and yes ALL the tracks were locked). Tried to record as well and i'd get even less time before garageband would stop the song with the same error. So I disconnected firewire and went USB. Thru USB the song didnt stop once, not on playback OR recording. Then I moved the songs back to my internal and played them (and recorded) with no problem either.
I ran a couple tests on the drive using AJA system test and came back with these results:
Basic test of read/write speed using firewire 800:
write - 14/mb sec
read - 21/mb sec
then, using usb 2.0
write - 18/mb sec
read - 37/mb sec
both these connections seemed to be running slower then they should ..but at least the USB connection would actually let me play a song and record to it without stopping
I manually copied over a 2.04GB file and via firewire 800 connection it took 2 mins and 20 secs. Via the USB 2 connection it was 55 seconds! ..also, while i transfered the files i noticed that the USB transfer was nice and steady with tiny increments of the file being transferred. Firewire, however, was speedy then slow, speedy then slow. Very inconsistant transfer speed throughout the process. kind of choppy
So what gives? I cant figure out if I'm doing something wrong, or if my external HD is bad? Or the cable is bad? Or maybe the firewire port on my mac mini is bad (i've never used it before for anything other than this external drive). Or i'm thinking maybe my processor isnt strong/fast enough to record to the external firewire drive? Im working with a mac mini 120GB internal HD and the 2ghz intel core 2 duo with only 2GB ram (i know thats not ideal for recording and im planning to upgrade at some point, but i have been recording to the internal just fine with the RAM i have now and never had a problem until trying to record to the firewire drive). I was going to go out today and get a new cable and see if that was the cause of it. Anyway sorry for the book-length post! But PLEASE SOMEBODY help me here! ..as i said, im not very computer literate and only just started producing music using computers so please use dummy terms lol ..thanks in advance

Strictly my opinion, and more than happy to be educated with facts and convinced otherwise... but, there are no dangers.
Bottom line is this... does your specific computer setup encounter ANY problems during recording or editing with your chosen software and current workflow? If not, then there is nothing wrong. Simple as that. Further, if you are having problems, then its more than likely dealt with by upgrading RAM amount and internal HDD speed and size. If you have a slightly older machine that is pre FW800, you will find by bench marking your HDD's that an upgraded internal system HDD will significantly outperform any external HDD read/write spec's. Even with FW800, comparing apples with apples, your system HDD will more than likely have better spec's. Please however, do not take my word for this, but try it out for yourself. Make sure you have facts about your own system rather than believing my claims or anyone else's claims. I used Intech's Quickbench http://www.speedtools.com/QuickBench.html to get some facts about my machine.
There will be an argument made that you will be putting strain on your hard drive by recording to the system drive because it not only has to deal with this function but also with other functions related to your audio programs and OS. Apparently you may be working it on the 'hard' side and shorten its life span. Probably technically correct but practically speaking you will more than likely never even notice any such strain. If you are worried about a system HDD crash or death because you are working it too hard then the answer to this is a well planned back up regime. You should have one anyway, regardless of setup.

Daisy-Chained G-Tech 400/800 and Mini

I've got a Mini that I use as my entertainment system (all music, video, TV, etc.)... I use a lot of harddrive space and currently have a G-Tech 500gb Firewire 400/800 drive that has one firewire 400 and two firewire 800 ports. I use this drive to store all my music, movies, TV shows, etc... and a second one to backup my Mini, my media external hard drive, and my MacBook Pro...
My question is as follows:
I know that with Firewire I can daisy chain the drives... however, my Mini does not have an 800 port... So, can I do the following without running into problems:
Mac Mini connected to "Media Drive" via Firewire 400 - connected to "Backup drive" via Firewire 800?
Basically my question is can some devices in a daisy chain be connected via 400 and others via 800 or does a daisy chain need to remain consistent using only 400 or only 800 throughout?
Otherwise, I guess I'll just use a hub... though this option rubs me the wrong way for some reason... it seems like I'd be sacrificing something by going through a hub... is this unfounded?
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.9)

That's what I thought you meant. The issue is whether the drive in the middle has a cross-connection between FW 400 and 800 ports, and that is not likely (though technically possible despite the different specifications).
I would check with the manufacturer of the drive you intend to use in the middle of the chain to see if there is such a cross-connection on the FW 400 and 800 interfaces, but FW 400 and 800 aren't like USB 1.1 and 2.0 with their backwards compatibility.

Firewire 400/800 Questions

Hello -
I recently upgraded to a new 24" iMac and noticed that there is only one firewire 400 port (as opposed to my previous G5 which had two.) In my old configuration I had an external drive connected to one of the firewire 400 ports and all of my peripherals (DV camera, card reader, etc.) in the other port.
Now that there is only one port, and I must daisychain with the hard drive, will I run into a problem when I try to import footage from the DV camera to that external firewire drive? From what I've read only one firewire device should be used at at time and this would obviously be using two.
I am considering buying a firewire 800 drive as a potential solution and wondered if it would, in fact, be a solution. Also, would a firewire 800 port be that much faster to notice a difference? If so, I might buy one anyway.
Thank you in advance for your responses and my apologies for not really knowing much about this stuff.

I have a Core Duo, so I have two FW 400 ports. Thus I'm answering this based on theory, not experience. FW 800 is supposed to support 400 Mbps connections. So you can use the 800 port by getting a cable that has an 800 connector on one end and a 400 on the other. You can definitely use more than one FW device at the same time. However they will share the bandwidth. If they are not designed well, they might possibly interfere, but that shouldn't happen.
A typical disk drive will deliver about 35 MB/sec. A FW 400 port can handle that. However I've seen some reviews suggesting that with the most recent fast drives (particularly the big ones that bundle several physical drives into one) you may see some performance advantages to FW 800.
A lot depends upon how you use the drive. If you copy one drive to another, or use large files, you'll get very high speeds. But in normal use, the drive spends most of its time moving the heads around, and you won't see much difference between FW 400 and 800.
I would be inclined to start by getting a FW 400 to 800 adapter cable and splitting devices across the two ports as you did before.

Can't import video into iMovie 09 (8.0.6) from older Sony MiniDV with Firewire 400.

I have about 2 hrs of video from an oral history, done on my Sony DCR-HC85 MiniDV Handycam. Now I'm trying to upload the video to iMovie '09 (Ver 8.0.6). I could get the iMac system to recognize the videocam via USB, but that only allows uploads from the memory card.
To upload video from tape you have to use the"i.LINK" cable (supplied with videocam). That's a FireWire 400 cable, and my current early-2009 iMac Intel has only a FireWire 800 port. However, one of my external drives is an older Seagate with free FireWire 400 ports, so I'm trying to use one of those.
The iMac does not seem to find the Sony Handycam when I connect it and turn on the camera. My previous iMac PPC with FirwWire 400 ports and earlier iMovie version did so, no problem.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks!

apparently Lacie doesn't sell such a cable anymore... http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10045 ... in any case, as far as I know, these cables do not allow the transfer of video from a camcorder to a computer...
The Macbook doesn't have any expansion card slot unfortunately...

Connect FireWire 800 device to FireWire 400 port?

Hello all,
does anyone know whether it is possible to connect a firewire 800 device (e.g. external Hard Disk) to a firewire 400 port on a e.g. MacBook?
I know only that it works for sure via special fw cable the other way round – FireWire 400 device to FW 800 port.
Cheers,
Gillion

Hi Gillion!
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
My understanding is that with the appropriate cable you can connect a FireWire 800 to a FireWire 400 device and vice-versa.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=4B8 F4B38&nplm=TP320LL/A
The machines will throttle the transfer speed down to an acceptable range for the slower (FW 400) device to communicate effectively.

Whats the best external drive setup for FCP and accompanying software?

With all the external Hard Drives out there I am hoping that other users could suggest the best options when setting up FCP to work with an external drive. I am working with both SD and HD and am planning to use DVD Studio, Soundtrack Pro along with Motion and AE.
With all the info out there claiming to be the 'best' it gets a little confusing. I bought a 2T WD HD with Firewire 400, 800 and eSATA connections. With the amount of footage I have to capture this wont last long. And the intention is to archive this footage and making it easy to access in a year or two.
Which is best type of connection? Firewire 800 or eSata? Any Suggestions as to a really good external hard drive set up that I can add to as finances allow?

Not quite sure what this question has to do with Qmaster, but what the heck.
The simple response is get the fastest and biggest external you can. If you are getting a drive mechanism without swappable disks, purchase 2 mechanisms - 1 for use when editing and the second for backing up. Purchase a 3rd drive to back up your system drive.
If you go the swapable drive bay route, you'll pay more for the mechanism but you'll recoup the cost as you can purchase additional bare drives for a fraction of the cost of another whole mechanism.
The fastest connection speed is esata then FW800 then FW400. USB is not appropriate to editing video (but can be used for simple backups).
If you have the resources, something like a Caldigit HDOne is a high performer. If that's out of your range, look into their VR line or something from MacBurley. Granite Digitial also makes good basic devices.
Have fun.
x

**eMac External 40 GB Firewire 400 HD and backup software?**

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