External eSATA/SATA possible with a G4 FW800?

Thanks to all the very knowledgeable posters who've answered here, I've already learned quite a bit about the new (to me) G4 FW800. I've also read quite a bit in this forum re: HD upgrades, still not certain this will work. I've got a new 750GB external SATA drive I'd like to connect to my G4 FW800. Looks like I can get a card for about $50, but some of the cards say eSATA. The 7200rpm Seagate drive is in a Macally case with just SATA and USB2 (slow) connectors.
Will a PCI SATA card work in the FW800? How about an eSATA card?
TIA for any help or advice.

dhagin,
Welcome to discussions.
PCI eSATA (if one exists) is what you want.
A PCI SATA card would let you mount SATA drives inside the G4. Although it may also have an eSATA port on the back.
You must be very careful that you get a PCI card, rather than PCI-E (aka PCI-Express) which is what everything seems to use nowadays.
As the drive is 750GB, I don't think you'll have the last resort of just putting the hard drive inside your G4, at 750GB it's almost certainly a SATA drive inside the eSATA case (funnily enough). And any firewire drive enclosure you purchase to take the drive will have to accommodate SATA drives, rather than PATA.

Similar Messages

Dual boot Win7 on external eSata drive with Precision M4700

Because virtualization doesn't support some HW devices I need, I would like to dual boot Win7 Pro/64 on an external (removable) HDD connected to the eSATA port of my Precision M4700.
eSata means optimal performances, but will the boot menu be happy with a removable disk, i.e. which will NOT be permanently connected (obviously I won't boot the OS on the removable disk if it is not connected) ?
And on the legal side, is it OK to use the OEM license of the OS that shipped with the system for this ?
As a side question, are the OS entries in a Win7 boot menu bound to a physical disk on a specific Sata port ? IOW, what happens if I move a HDD with a bootable partition/volume from the internal bay (port 0) to an external eSATA enclosure connected to the eSATA port (port 5) ? Is the eSATA port transparent to the Win7 boot loader ? Will the volumes and drive letters remain unchanged and appear seamlessly to the OS on it ?

Hi Benoitm,
Assuming the M4700 can boot from an external eSATA port, this should be possible. And it should be possible to install onto an HDD then put that drive in an external case and boot from it. Your preferences and drive letters should be retained. You might want to verify your system can boot to an external HDD first.
The Dell license only covers the version of the OS that came with the system. In theory, dual boot requires two licenses.

Success with adding an external eSATA drive to a Verizon FIOS DVR

August 4, 2012 - Success with adding an external eSATA drive to a Verizon FIOS DVR
I just upgraded from a Comcast DVR to a Verizon FIOS DVR. I upgraded because my old DVR was limited to 500GB (1/2 TB) on the internal drive and the new FIOS DVR allowed for a much larger external eSATA drive. Selecting a viable external drive for the FIOS DVR was easier said than done. The three drives listed on the Verizon web site as compatible with FIOS DVRs are no longer manufactured by western digital and are not available on the market.
The DVR that I received from Verizon was a Cisco "CHS 435 HD DVR" that came with a 500GB (1/2 TB) internal drive. This is one of their "Multi-Room DVRs" that allows other set top boxes (not DVRs) to watch videos recorded on it.
I selected a western digital "WD30EURS" eSATA disk drive because it was a follow on product to one of the three listed as acceptable by Verzion on their web page and it was 3TB in size. I ordered from amazon.com for $170.99. This drive is a "bare drive" so it does not come with an external encloser or a eSATA cable.
According to the Western Digial web site this is a AV-GP drive: "These drives are designed to last in high temperature always-on, streaming digital audio/video environments such as PVR/DVR, IPTV, and video surveillance systems."
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/AAG/ENG/2178-771131.pdf
I got a "Macally G-S350SU Hi-Speed eSata/USB2.0 External Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD" to hold the drive for $34.39. I chose this one because it does not use a fan that could cause continious noise. The box is made out of metal so it cools itself as long as it is exposed to air (not covered up). This box comes with an external power supply that has a small transformer that plugs into a wall outlet.
Then I needed a eSATA cable. I got a "StarTech 6-Feet Shielded External eSATA Cable M/M (ESATA6)" for $6.50 and a 3-foot version for $5.90. I went with the longer one so that the cable would be less likely to become accidentally unplugged if I need to move the drive or the DVR. The cables and the drive houseing came from the same Amazon provider so it saved me on shipping. The drive came from Amazon/Western Digial directly but they do not have external housings or eSATA cables on that site.
The total cost was $255.56 including shipping for all these items.
I went with the largest (3TB) drive from western digial's AV-GP line to avoid a future upgrade from a smaller drive to a larger drive. There is no way to copy videos from one external eSATA drive to another drive because they are formatted by the FIOS DVR in a propriatary format. That would mean that any future upgrade would require losing all recorded files during an upgrade. That also means that there is no way to back up the contents of the drive to protect yourself from hard drive failure.
The installer who setup the DVR did not want me to plug in the drive while he was there and explained that I was on my own when I attached this kind of personal device to the DVR. When I plugged in the new eSATA drive it was automatically discovered. I was asked by the DVR if I wanted to format the new drive. I answered yes and within 2 hours the drive completed formatting. I did not watch the boring format so it could have finished faster.
When I started recording new videos they go directly to the external drive automatically and avoids the internal drive. It had no trouble recording two HD shows and playing a recording at the same time. I now have 20 hours of HD video recorded and the 3TB external drive is 17% full. So far my experience with the external drive has been great. No problems or issues. Learning the new remote control, new DVR menu system, and web browser control of the DVR from a laptop is another story. It will take some time to figure out how to make all the new features work.
It took me a while to figure out how to make this work since the verizon web site made useless suggestions and pointed me to products that are not available any more. I could not tell if this really would work until I plugged it in and then I was pleasantly suprised that it did. I have had this working for 3 days without any issues. I hope this post makes it easier for you to add an external eSATA drive to your DVR.
Here are the three items ordered from Amazon to make this work:
Western Digital 3 TB AV-GP 3 TB SATA 2 Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Driv...
Macally G-S350SU Hi-Speed eSata/USB2.0 External Storage Enclosure for 3.5inch SATA HDD
StarTech 6-Feet Shielded External eSATA Cable M/M (ESATA6)

You are right. I can only access 2TB of my 3TB external drive. That gives me a total of 2.5 TB counting the internal (0.5 TB) and external (2.0 TB) drives. This is a significant improvement over the just the 0.5 TB internal drive. I have not been able to find a reason for this limitation. Cisco and Verizon do not mention any limits that I can find. I hope that a future BIOS upgrade could provide access to more space but this would probably require me to reformat the drive and lose everything recorded.
I paid $170.99 for the 3 TB WD30EURS drive at amazon. I could have gotten away with spending only $116.99 for the 2 TB WD20EURS drive. Not worth returning at this point so I will stay with it. Makes me glad I didn't buy the most expensive 6 TB external monster drive available from another company.
I bought: 3TB drive: Western Digital 3 TB AV-GP 3 TB SATA 2 Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive WD30EURS by Western Digital
I could have bought: 2TB drive: Western Digital AV-GP 2 TB SATA II Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Internal Hard Drive - WD20EURS by Western Digital
Details of what I learned:
The external 2 TB drive now has 41 hours of HD video recorded and claims to be 34% full (66% free). My estimate would allow me to have aprox 120 hours of HD on the external drive (2TB) and 30 hours of HD on the internal drive (500GB) for a total of 150 hours of HD. This will keep me happy for the near future.
There is a hidden "diagnostic menu" that is not normally accessible or documented by CISCO or Verizon. This menu has a lot of interesting info on the inner working of the DVR. There was an obscure reference to this menu on another forum.
To access this diagnostics menu:
1) Get the DVR into normal live tv mode (no menu, no guide, no pause ...)
2) Go to the Cisco CHS 435 HD DVR (not the remote control) and press these buttons on the front of the DVR: Press both the Left Arrow "<-" button and "OK" button at the same time and hold them both down for aprox 5 seconds.
3) The "Verizon FiOS TV Diagnostics Menu" menu will appear. The menu can then be used by the remote control.
4) I chose "D03 Memory / HDD" and then "Hard Disk Information" and finally "OK"
A five page disk report appeared. With a little bit of interpretation I discovered:
The Internal Drive is know as "drive 1/hdc1" has 461 GB total space with 454 GB free.
The External Drive is split into two partitions "hdc2" and "hdc3" (aka two mount points).
"drive 2/hdc2" has 1007 MB total with 317 GB free
"drive 3/hdc3" has 1007 MB total with 974 GB free
The normal DVR menu has an "Eject" feature that allows you to stop the external drive and make it safe to remove it from the DVR without losing anything via an unplanned drive removal. This can be found at "DVR" button on remote then "Settings"->"External Hard Drive"->"Eject".

Reformat external HD and possibly partition for use with mac and pc.

Hi. I’d really appreciate some advice. I’m a new Mac (MacBook Pro mid 2012) user. I’m trying to figure out how to use a new external HD (WD My Passport) that just arrived today in connection with a digital tv media player (NBOX V3) that I use to watch videos on my tv, which is in the NTFS format. The tv box works with a flash drive that I have, which I had to reformat as FAT32. Since I tend to max out the storage on the flash drive I ordered this new hd to use as well.
When I went to reformat the new hd I didn’t see the FAT32 option. There are 4 Mac options, MS-DOS (FAT), and ExFAT to choose from. I read that ExFAT would work with both mac and pc (since I’m using OS 10.8.4 and my pc is Windows 7). I was excited about it too since I know that FAT32 has a 4gb limitation. I reformatted as ExFat first on my Mac and then on my pc. I tried both b/c I read conflicting comments about it not working when reformatting on the mac, but that it would work when done on the pc. Both times I tested the newly formatted hd on the tv box and both times it failed to recognize the files. After the failures I wondered if it was even possible for the external hd to work with the tv box, or if it had something to do with the ExFat format. So, I reformatted it on my pc to NTFS and then plugged it into the tv box, which works just fine.
I could really use some advice. I wish the hd had the FAT32 option. I’m wondering about partitioning. I really don’t know too much about it, but am wondering if this might be the answer to make everything work. I would need everything to work from my mac b/c the pc belongs to my husband (which I’m welcome to use), but all of the files that I load are from my computer (not to mention I’m already “used to” my mac and now seem to fumble around using a pc). This might sound dumb, but I was thinking that if I made 2 partitions (one that would work with my mac and one that would work with the tv box, maybe the FAT option?) then I could load files on the mac friendly partition and then transfer them to the tv box friendly partition. I’m thinking it won’t work so I wanted to find out first, plus I’ve never partitioned anything before. I also know that on another external hard drive that we have for the pc I’m not able to modify the files on it from my mac, although I can see them and extract them. I’m thinking if I partition this new hd I’ll have the same problem with the partition that is formatted as FAT.
Partitioning might not even be an option. If anyone knows a way to make what I want to do work, then I would really appreciate the advice. Thanks in advance.

Digital tv media player (NBOX V3) - NTFS, FAT32/MSDOS
Mac - HFS+, exFAT (formatted on a PC best), FAT32/MSDOS
Windows PC - NTFS, exFAT, FAT32/MSDOS
Problem is if you use FAT32/MSDOS your capped at 4GB sized files and can't use larger storage drives. The other formats have no problem.
The Mac can't write NTFS without further software being installed like Paragon NTFS
I usually try to stick with neutral formats, but if your NBOX V3 doesn't accept exFAT then your stuck.
Perhaps you should see if there is a firmware update for it that will enable exFAT, then format the drive exFAT on the PC and you should be set.

Possible to attach external Esata hard disk on the Imac Quadcore 27?

Is it possible to attach external Esata hard disk on the Imac Quadcore 27? Or any other Imac? The purpose is for video editing, but maybe Firewire 800 is good enough for hd video in Final Cut Pro?

Hi Simen,
The iMac series do not have an ESATA connection and there isn't a way to make a connection inside. The only possible way is to perform surgery on the iMac which
1. probably will not work and
2. almost for sure Invalidate the warranty
This is a fairly common questions however there just isn't a way to do it. If your external drive also has a Firewire or Firewire 800 connection that is your best bet. As you probably know your iMac has a Firewire 800 port and you can daisy chain Firewire devices.
Regards,
Roger

Suggestions for: external SATA array with a PCIe SATA card??

Seems like this would be a good idea but have no idea what hardware to be considering.
external SATA array with a PCIe SATA card
Thanks
John

Seems like this would be a good idea but have no idea
what hardware to be considering.
external SATA array with a PCIe SATA card
Thanks
John
I purchased and internal raid kit, Rocket Raid 2320 card and Maxupgrades kit. This guy will help you get your equipment running with over the phone with personal customer service. He has external configs also.
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category _id=313&CFID=3649947&CFTOKEN=58951206
Good Luck
Z1&V1user

How to connect many devices with only one FW800 port in iMac?

Hi,
I am upgrading to a new Intel iMac from a 2004 vintage Dual2.0GHz PowerMac. I currently have 8x d2 Quadra drives chained by FW800, and 2x Iomega drives connected vis FW400 hub which also connects HD cams.
My questions is that with only one FW800 port in iMac, I think my devices connectivity is the following?
(1) Get a FW 800 hub (I can only find 2 port ones at the Apple store and BestBuy)
(2) Connect the d2 Quadras to one port of the FW800 hub
(3) Get a FW 800 to FW 400 cable
(4) Connect my 6 port FW400 hub to the 2nd port of the FW800 hub
Thanks for reviewing this solution, and I would also appreciate other suggestions or hear about your experiences if you have a similar set-up.
Will

In addition to your listed considerations, you should consider the following.
Many storage needs do not required FireWire 800 speed. For example, USB 2.0 works fine for your Time Machine backup drive. If you are just storing user data such as your iPhoto or iTunes media files, USB 2.0 is more than fast enough. So, as much as possible, if any of those external drives have USB 2.0 connections and the data storage does not need FireWire 800 speed, offload as much as possible to USB 2.0. I used to be a +FireWire snob+, but since getting an Intel iMac, I find that USB 2.0 works quite well for most data storage purposes.
There are new hard drives that are power efficient and as large as 2TB. Consolidate your data storage needs onto a smaller number of very large drives, partitioned as needed. This will make your setup more reliable (smaller number drives), and save reduce power consumption. If any of your current externals are SATA, you can probably replace the existing drive with an extra large one.
So, I think you setup should be, extra large FireWire 800 drive connected to the FireWire 800 port directly. Using a 9-pin to 6-pin cable, connect the FireWire 400 hub. Connect any non-storage FireWire 400 devices there. Do some data transfer testing to make sure having the 400 hub there on the chain does not cause the 800 connection to slow down.
Connect other drives as needed using USB 2.0, existing or new. Retire the smaller of your external drives.

Is clustering possible with this setup.

Is it possible to use
Windows Server 2012 Data Center
2 SuperMicro AS-2022G-URF4+ R with
RAID CARD SUPERMICRO|AOC-USAS2-L8i and SAS drives for a failover cluster for Hyper-V
At this moment using mirrored drives for operating system and 4 drives free for the cluster itself if possible with two slots open.

Is it possible to create shared storage with this setup that will work with the cluster or do I need a SAN.
At least now you need to deploy a third-party software doing something similar to the picture below:
So basically you'll take a bunch of a locally attached disks and "mirror" them with a software
component. If you're already having all-SAS setup (something you really do) you can deploy
what's called "Clustered RAID Controllers" config replacing SAS HBAs you use now. See:
LSI Syncro
http://www.lsi.com/products/shared-das/pages/default.aspx
8i does not need SAS JBODs to create a fault tolerant config and 8e needs external enclosures.
P.S. I would not deploy any "magic hardware" as it's a vendor lock-in. You can change software vendor
easily but I'm not aware of anybody doing similar things to what LSI does.
StarWind VSAN [Virtual SAN] clusters Hyper-V without SAS, Fibre Channel, SMB 3.0 or iSCSI, uses Ethernet to mirror internally mounted SATA disks between hosts.

Need to get a bootable external E-SATA HDD connected via E-SATA ExpressCard adaptor

We need to get a bootable external E-SATA HDD connected via E-SATA ExpressCard adaptor to this laptop however there are 2 main question before we purchase those hardware:
1 - will it be bootable at all?
2 - what speed is going to be provided by the ExpressCard slot on this laptop - is it comparable with E-SATA standard?
I'm purchasing the card here http://www.ebay.com/itm/add-2-eSATA-Hard-Disk-ports-for-Laptop-Notebook-PC-fits-34mm-Expresscard-slo... but still can't understand is it compatible and what speed will I get on the slot of my laptop - taking into account your official specification:
" 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)"
Could you please advise us on the above?

wiki explains that "...The ExpressCard has a maximum throughput of 2.5 Gbit/s through PCI Express and 480 Mbit/s through USB 2.0 dedicated for each slot, while all CardBus devices connected to a computer share a total 1.06 Gbit/s bandwidth." - but:
how can I know whichever bus (PCIExpress or USB) is used in my laptop for this interface?

FiOS HD-DVR crashing since adding external eSATA drive

After the recent firmware update, I added an 2TB external eSATA drive to my FiOS DVR. I'd really been looking forward to this because our DVR had been perpetually 90+% full. After a couple of reboots, the drive was recognized and showed as a second DVR at 0% full in the DVR Status menu. Just to make sure everything worked, I scheduled a bunch of recordings to make sure it was utilizing the new drive.
A few days later, we found that the DVR had erased several of our recordings because it was out of space. Checking the DVR status again, the new drive had disappeared.
After a couple of reboots, it appeared in the status menu again, and the DVR started recording to the external drive. But a few days later, my wife couldn't find the recordings. Turns out it had disappeared again.
This pattern has repeated itself several times over the last couple of weeks. On two occasions, the DVR has completely frozen while we were in the middle of watching something, necessitating a complete reboot in order to watch TV, and interrupting any recording that was going on in the background. Each time, at least 2 reboots has been required before the eSATA drive appears.
Needless to say, this whole thing is a disaster. I spent a ton of money and the result is poorer service quality. What can I do to fix this?

After a few minutes searching I found the link of recommended drives.
http://www22.verizon.com/ResidentialHelp/FiOSTV/Other+Hardware/eSATA/129841.htm
Here's a snipet from that page...
Which Verizon FiOS TV DVRs are compatible with eSATA devices?
The following FiOS TV DVRs are compatible with eSATA devices:
Motorola QIP 7216
Motorola QIP 7232
Cisco CHS 435 HDC
Which eSATA external storage devices can I use with my FiOS DVR?
Verizon recommends the eSATA hard drives below for use with FiOS DVR. Customers choosing to install other drive types will assume the risk of compatibility with FiOS DVR and Verizon will not assist with compatibility or performance issues should they arise.
Western Digital – WDBACS5000EBK-NEVZ – 500GB
Western Digital – WDBACS0010HBK-NEVZ – 1TB
Western Digital Retail – WDBABT0010HBK-NESN – 1TB
I'm not sure why this happened...'Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed. Please review the message and submit the message when you are satisfied.'
I'm assuming that the above drives were the only one tested at the time. We users can add to this list if we want. Anyone game?

External hardrive to use with Imac - how to format and to what?

i have my external hardrive i use with my pc
how and to what should i format it so i can use ut with leopard and timemachine, also is it possible to make 2 partiton on it so one partition
would still be windows format so i can backup windows on it too?

If you have an Intel Mac do this:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two and resize as desired using the sizing gadget. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the PC volume you just created (this is a sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to MSDOS (FAT32) from the Format drop down menu. Click on the Erase button.
5. Select the OS X volume you just created (this is the other sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
You should now be able to use the drive on both platforms. One partition for OS X and the other for Windows.

External HD for use with Time Machine

I have a new MacBook Pro with 320GB HD. I want to buy an external HD to use with Time Machine for a back up. HOw much capacity should I be looking at for the external? Is 500GB enough or is it possible to partition a 1TB unit for use as backup and extra storage (photos, music, etc...)?
Thanks.
This should have been posted in the late model forum. Sorry.

tsoup2u wrote:
Can I use disk utility to partition once plug in HD?
Yes, you can. Click the Partition tab. Click options and set the partition scheme to GUID. One option is to have one partition a bit smaller than your internal HDD, which you can use for a bootable clone (SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner).
See this post for a great discussion of backup strategies:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9423426&#9423426

Is a WD My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive bootable with my Powerbook G4 12" PPC 10.5.8?

Sirs or madams,
Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
Thank you very much.

Mr. BGreg,
Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components.
My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer. Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
So, anyway, thanks very much for your information.

Will a external Apple iSight work with the latest Mac Mini?

with a firewire 400-800 if it will what software do i need to take pictures and videos.
Many Thanks

Will a external apple isight work with the latest mac mini.
Yes (if the external iSight works.)
External iSights are great webcams, but they are getting old (as consumer electronics go) and some have had pretty rough treatment. You can test yours using the suggestions from this page:
http://www.ralphjohns.co.uk/EZJim/EZJimpage4.html
I suggest you disconnect other Firewire devices until you get your external iSight working with your mini.
If you do not already have an external iSight and are considering buying one now,
a new webcam (with warranty) may be a better choice.
Many available alternatives are listed here: http://www.mac-compatible-web-cam.com/
THEMACMINIMAN wrote:
with a firewire 400-800 ...
Use one of the following ways to connect your FW400 external iSight to a FW800 Mac port:
• To use the FW400 6pin-6pin cable that comes with iSight, you can use a 6pin-9pin adapter
like one of these:
http://tinyurl.com/ydsbb6m&emsp; (I use this one.)
http://tinyurl.com/cgll7o
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw_adapter.html
• This Firewire 400-800 cable can work:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/TP320LL/A (I use this one.)
• Some report that this low-priced alternative cable works:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189097
I suggest you disconnect other Firewire devices until you get external iSight working with your mini. Once iSight works when it is the only FW connected device, you can try connecting other Firewire devices to determine whehter you can use any of them without conflict.
... if it will what software do i need to take pictures and videos.
With your 10.6.3 mini, you can use QuickTime X, iChat, Photo Booth, iMovie, and some of the other apps that are installed with OS X. Your Mac's Help for each of these apps can tell you how to use them with iSight (or other connected cameras.)
Some more apps you can use are shown in this list:
http://www.ralphjohns.co.uk/EZJim/EZJimpage7.html
The web links for each app gives details on what functions is offers with your webcam.
Many Thanks
You're welcome.
EZ Jim
Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz w/Mac OS X (10.6.3) MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.3)
LED Cinema Display G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

External E-Sata Drive Issues

I have WD My DVD External E-Sata drives attached to my set top box. They work fine for a while, then programs that I delete are still in the list but are marked as deleted and no longer available.
Has anyone experienced this issue? Is there a work around or another hard drive that someone has experience with that has not seen this issue?
Thanks

KY_WD wrote:
Hi again,
Can you tell me what model is your set top box? Also, could you, please, attach the WD external device to PC and also try to perform deleting operations to whether everything is working fine?
KY_WD
The formatting done by the VZ DVR is NOT readable on a PC so there is no value in connecting it to one.
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External eSATA/SATA possible with a G4 FW800?

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