External drive - USB or Fire wire or AC

Hello I dont know where to put this question so: Which would be the best for a 500GB external drive, USB & fire wire or AC? I want a portable external drive (2.5) but am not sure whether AC is best route or if USB/Fire wire?
Thank you
Veedeekay

Which would be the best for a 500GB external drive, USB & fire wire
Use FireWire, not USB.
I ALWAYS build my own drive (takes 5 mins). More storage and less money.
 I like the TD-M120 enclosure, it's the best I know of.
Has a cooling fan, shock absorbers, and all the ports you will ever need. 
   http://www.cooldrives.com/ox93saiihadr.html
http://www.onnto.com.tw/product.asp?sys_sysno=31
And this drive:  
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Intellipower-Desktop-WD20EADS/dp/B001RB1TI S/ref=sr11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258862242&sr=8-1

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G5 shuts down when Portable external drive connected to Fire wire port

Hi, I hope somebody can help me. I have a 100G lacie portable external HD that I use to back up my files regularly. It worked until today, I plug it in, I was able to save some files, and then the computer shut down. I restarted it and it did the same thing. Black screen. nothing. I have another External HD with its own power supply connected to the same computer and that one works. I tried plugging the Portable HD to the back of the one with Power supply and it shut down as well. Then I plugged it in the back of my 19" LCD, same thing. So I though that the portable HD was bad, I went and bought another drive, a verbatim, and same thing happen. I then plugged my lacie drive to another computer, a G4, and it works which leads me to think that the problem is in the G5, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thought this may be the issue, problem is the USB3.0 connector is 2 micro USB side by side in a single plastic moulding, have searched for separate USB cables but cannot find them.

Toshiba mini external driver.usb 2.0

I have bought a mini PC android 7.
I'd also bought a mini external driver, when I put the USB into the mini PC
it connects okay at the it says it is blank u-disk. its a (Toshiba mini external driver.usb 2.0)
I have put some photos to test , but it still says the same.
in the settings it said (unavailable)
could you please help me
thank you
system: mini PC android 7
version 2.2
kernel version 2.6.32.9-default
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Hi
Did you get the same error message connecting another external USB 2.0 HDD or an USB flash memory stick to this notebook?
Test this
Maybe it HDD issue.
Furthermore the USB 2.0 provides an 500mA power if an external USB HDD or USB device would need more power, an issue could appear.
In such case its recommended to connect an USB hub with an external power source between the notebook and USB device

Do all maxtror drives have 2 fire wire ports

Hi all,
Im trying to buy a hard drive (maxtor seem to have been good to me so far) they have a new one called ONE TOUCH 3 but I cant seem to find out if they have 2 fire wire ports.
All the spoecs say this
"We stock 300GB and 500GB version with both USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 interface, please select storage capacity at the bottom."
Any tips ?
T
Thanks in advance
justin

If you are planning on using this for video work you should look elsewhere. It is not designed for that application.
If you are looking for a drive to simply back up data, it should work.
Generally recommended drives for DV and HDV include: G-tech & Granite Digital. Both of them make highly engineered drive solutions and include Hitachi mechanisms.
If you are thinking of working with uncompressed footage, then much more specialized drives/enclosures/connections are required.
good luck.
x

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.

Transferring data from pc to mac using external drive usb

is there anything "special" you need to do to transfer data from Win 7 to MacBook Air using a USB 3.0 external drive?

No.
(118476)

External drive USB or FW ?

I know the obvious answer is Firewire 800.
But, my FW connector is already used for an external audio card.
So, I'm considering buying a USB2.0 external drive. But I want to make sure I will not get into obvious performance issues.
Is access to an external USB2.0 drive fast enough to play with photos in iPhoto, build movies in iMovie, listen to music in iTunes, watch a video, etc... ?

Yes, you are missing something. USB and FireWire are not functionally the same. FireWire is capable of transferring data across the interface much faster than USB even though USB's interface is rated at a slightly higher speed. Thus FW400 is roughly 40% faster than USB 2.0 in disk benchmarks. Therefore if you need the fastest possible data throughput then use FireWire, preferably FW800.

Tiger install from external drive (USB)

iMac G4, 900mHz., 640mg. ram, CD rom.
Is it possible to install Tiger from an external dvd drive (USB)? I'm not sure how to start up and bypass the installed os. Would it be easier to use my iBooks' dvd drive to install the os on another machine, using target disk mode. If so, how is that possible?
Thanks-Tom

I believe OS 9 supported USB booting - hence why it could be done on a Clamshell, OS X does not support USB booting- although the rumours are that the Intel Macs can boot from USB drives. The Target Mode is the best option. Switch off the iBook with the Tiger DVD in, then boot holding T to get you to target mode. Then you should be able to boot the iMac and hold 'alt' aka 'option' to see a full list of boot options.
mrtotes
P.S. There's no such thing as a 900MHz iMac.

Booting From SD Card, External Drive, USB Stick, etc...

If you configure an external HD, usb stick, sd card, etc. to be a startup volume for your mac, does the computer write or otherwise use the computer's 'default' internal hard drive?
For example, if I insert an sd card into an iMac and boot off of that and open safari and visit a website, once I startup again from the iMac's internal drive, will that appear in the safari's history when booting up again form the internal HD?
Will there be any trace otherwise of anything I do while booted from the sd card?
If I sent the iMac to DriveSavers or some other computer forensic analysis place would they find anything on the internal drive?
I'm inclined to think they would not, but I was hoping this could evolve into a technical discussion with somebody perhaps being knowledgable enough to explain how data travels from the internet, over the ethernet connection, to the motherboard, and then the hard drive. I try to visualize it, myself having a basic understanding, and I think that if there is an entirely different boot volume being used, the 'secondary' volume wouldn't even get written to - unless I obviousy elected to save a file to it.
*Oh, without sending super sketchy I thought maybe I should put this question into context. So, I'm a college student and I was thinking that maybe I could just spend a hundred bucks on an sd card and always have it with me and just go to the library or lab (or local apple store? thought I think they don't allow it) and boot from a 'host mac'. My concern is that I don't want to leave traces of a paper, or email, or private chat, or browsing history on the computer's internal hard drive. If this works I'll save like $1,000 - to a college kid that's like a billion dollars, even in this economy.
Thank you very much!
Tom

Each boot drive will use a different set of home folders, so the history and other settings created in one will not be available in the other.
The operating system is just software that loads from a storage device. For Macs this can be the internal drive, an external drive, a DVD, or a networked volume. This software loads at boot and allows use of the system's hardware (mouse, keyboard, graphics processors, etc.). Booting does not require the use of the internal drive. When the system is powered on it gets a list of all attached storage devices and will preferentrially try to load an operating system from the default boot device, but if it cannot or if it's instructed to look elsewhere (e.g., if you hold the C key to boot to a DVD), then it will load the operating system software from a different location.
When the system has an specific boot drive loaded, it will reference every location of where to save things from that drive. This is the "root" of the system, on which the system has references to storage locations both on the "root" drive and to those on other storage devices. Very briefly, the system sees your external drives simply as folders on your boot drive.
If you boot to an external drive, then this will be the "root" drive, and your system's internal drives will be likewise seen as folders like any other secondary storage locations.

Seagate Desktop 500GB External Drive USB not recognised

When connecting this drive to either a PC running XP Pro or a Mac (MBP) running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) then I can access the drive without a problem. However, when I connect the drive to a Mac running OS X Server 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard Server) then the drive is not recognised. It does not even show up in the Mac's Disk Utility. I am able to connect USB Flash drives and other USB devices to the same Mac (a new Mac Mini 1TB server to be precise) which verifies USB connectivity.
It looks like there is a compatibility issue with OS X Snow Leopard. Do you work with Seagate at all to correct this issue? is there a firmware/OS X fix?

Have you contacted Seagate, as they manufacturer the hardware? Do they have any updated drivers or firmware or statement of compatibility regarding Snow Leopard on their website?
Message was edited by: DaddyPaycheck

Booting from an external drive...

After some work, my MacBook Pro is running nicely. But I have been unable to boot from any of my external drives for which I've used the Restore function of Disk Utility to make clones of my system. After making a copy on my USB drive, I was unable to boot from the drive, although it appeared as a selectable drive when I held opt at boot-up. Thinking this might only work with Fire Wire drives, I created a back-up on my other external drive, this time Fire Wire, and the same thing happened: after selecting the drive after holding opt at boot-up, my comp seems to go into something like terminal mode, making up to 10 attempts to boot. Any ideas? Am I missing something?
J

Try using a utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to clone. I think Restore should do it but...?
Intel Macs normally only install OSX to a drive partitioned to GUID. While I have heard of them booting to APM partitioned drives, again, who knows...? Check your partitioning scheme in Disk Utility.

Which external drive to buy.???

Ive recently purchased Apple TV and have started to import all of my dvd's. I currently use a 500gb Seagate external hard drive however this is almost full so I have been browsing many sites and have become totally confused by it all. I have never used a fire wire cable so do I need to purchase an external drive with a fire wire cable ? I would like to buy a 2tb one, the ones ive seen are around £100. Is this a reasonble spend or should I spend more ?
Any advise much appreciated. Also can you buy a fire wire cable for my existing hard drive ? Are they all the same fitting ? Confused.com (newbie)
Thanks in advance
CC

There are many to choose from however for your needs I'd probably get a USB drive for archiving movies. While Firewire and Firewire 800 are quite a bit faster a good quality USB drive will be fine. However if you see your needs changing where you will be do a lot of reading and writing to the drive then you may want to consider Firewire 800.
The only brand I'd recommend staying away from is WD, the enclosures they use tend to have issues with Macs.
You may want to consider OWC (www.macsales.com) as a vendor, they specialize in Macs and have great prices and service and will ship overseass. Their support is also good too and they have a very broad selection and can help you choose what is best for your needs. You can do a live online chat and get some advice.
If you choose to not consider OWC I'd look at LaCie, G-Tech and Seagate. If you have access to an Apple Store you may want to stop there and ask for suggestions.

Trouble formatting a 1TB external drive

I am unable to format or partition a 1TB external drive, connected by fire wire 400. My computer is a Power Mac G5 (not intel), 1.6 Ghz, and 1.25 RAM. I am running OS 10.5.6.
When I first plugged in the TB drive, its icon displayed on the desktop. Under Get Info, it was formatted Windows FAT 32. So I opened Disk Utility and attempted to erase and reformat the drive for Apple. I selected the disk drive icon in the left sidebar window of Disk Utility, clicked on Erase, and selected Mac OS Extended (journaled) and clicked to proceed. After a moment I got an error message that the formatter had failed. The help menu stated that this will happen when trying to format a disk larger than 500 GB. The instructions were to partition the disk, and then, presumably, format the partitions. The disk's icon will no longer show on my desktop, even after a restart. However it still showed in the Disk Utility left side window. So I selected it and clicked the Partition button. But all I get is a window that says this disk cannot be erased. All the partition buttons are grayed out. After trying a few times, the Partition button itself is grayed out and causes the spinning beach ball, and I have to force quit disk utility.
Any suggestions on how I can get this 1TB external disk formatted for Apple?
Thanks in advance for any help.

Uhg... is it too late to return it?
Do no Firewire things show up?
The My Books have had far less than glowing reviews for Macs...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2191614&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1543028
http://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3219&p=42023&hilit=western+digital#p420 23
http://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2939&p=34120&hilit=western+digital#p3412 0

Fire Wire Error Message:

If anybody has been following my posts, I have been wanting and needing a fire wire enclosure for large hard drives. I only have one of each. A Fire Wire enclosure and a 3.5 PATA drive. A Maxtor 160gb. I have other hard drives and they are smaller, and have issues. Fortunately OS 9 is able to mount these damaged drives.
I am very happy to have a fire wire enclousre and also a new hard drive for my files. =] =] And I still have like a bunch of files to organize but the most important thing right now is to get all of these files off of three messed up hard drives.
I have one hard drive connected to a USB enclosure and the new 160gb one is connected to the Fire Wire enclosure. (It also has a USB 2.0 port but I am connecting it to Fire Wire) and I am running OS 9 while operating all the external hard drives.
As for the fire wire enclosure: I get an error message:
A FireWire disk has stopped responding. The problem must be corrected to prevent damaging the disk's contents.
Please check all FireWIre connections. If you added, removed, or turned on a FireWire device on or off, try undoing what you did.
And so I turn off the drive and turn it back on. It acts like nothing has happened to it. But certainly something bad is happening!!! =S
Also it has done this in the middle of transferring files and then I turn it off and on and then it resumes moving THE SAME file!!!!!!! =S
????????????????

Could the problem have been the USB-only enclosures??????? I have tried to get it to work a few minutes ago and it would not turn on. I gave up on it and I disconnected it. I am moving files from the damaged hard drives onto that imac's internal hard drive, and then onto the new hard drive ... all using the same fire wire enclosure. I have one so far and not two... and that is kinda frustrating. =S }=S }=S
Even though I have to keep switching hard drives with one fire wire enclosure, the fire wire enclosure transfer speed is now FAST!!!!!!!!
=]

Fire Wire 800 connections

Am thinking about getting an external hard drive that uses Fire Wire 800 connection. Than realized there is only 1 800 port on this G5. So if I wanted to use another 800 port, it doesn't exist. Not to worry say some, 800 devices can be chained. Not to worry say others, there are 800 hubs just like USB has hubs.
Are any of these truth? What are the facts?

I understand what you are saying. On the main-line computers you hook many devices to a selector channel BUT only one device at a time can perform I/O; on a multi-plexor channel all devices can function at a higher speed than on a selector BUT still not up to their maximum. I would be reluctant to chain a device that would be operating at the same time as another device in the chain.
If chaining is possible, you would need in AND out ports, shades of the SCSI, wouldn't you. I've seen several small (160-250GB) but only one showed me a picture and it appeared to have 1 each USB, 400, and 800 therefore, no way to chain. The others gave me no reason to think they had "out" ports.

External drive - USB or Fire wire or AC

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