Favoring FireWire interface over USB for external HDD

I have my iMac hooked up to an external HDD via both USB and FireWire 800 as it is triple-interfaced (USB, FW 400 & FW 800).
Lately, as I turn on the external HDD (pretty much always once the iMac is up & running), the HDD icon shows in the Finder with the USB symbol.
It requires me to eject the HDD in the Finder and then disconnect the USB cable for the iMac to detect the external HDD again but now through FireWire.
The reason I use both interfaces is to handle HDD read/write communication via FW whereas USB only as hub (the external HDD comes with 3 USB ports).
Is there anything I can do to make sure the primary interface is FireWire and not otherwise?
Thanks!

In a recent phone call with OWC's tech support I asked the same question. Answer was "Do not connect both interfaces at the same time". There is no way to arbitrate the connection the Mac will use, and strange things will happen.
If you think about it, there is no way to specify a preference in the Mac for what ports to connect with, so it does what it wants, not what you'd like.
I can only imaging what happens on Windows machines. I suspect corruption ahead

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Will the PB G4 USB-ports provide sufficient power for external HDD ?

I am in the market for a 2,5in external HDD, preferably powered through the USB-ports of my PB G4. However, I have read that in many cases, Apple's laptops provide insufficient power for such devices. Is this a fact?
The drive I'm currently looking at: Western Digital Passport 120GB USB2.0 (WD Passport WDXML1200UE)

Dear Thosen, yep this can be a problem with the 12' models, I think that there are adaptors, that use both USB ports, one of power and one for data transfer. The other option is to try a firewire drive - this has the added advantage of being bootable.
bw
Andrew Platt

Airport Extreme REQUIRES powered USB hub for external HDDs

Just bought an Airport Extreme Wireless dual-band N router (January 2012). It works very well and having the separate 2.5 and 5 GHz bands is a fantastic feature. Setup was really easy and it essentially worked 'out of the box'. The one issue I had is attaching a USB Western Digital 1 TB HDD to share on the network and use for Time Machine backups from multiple MacBook Pro laptops.
The drive would appear in the Aiport Utility's "Share Hard Drive" tab, but it was listed as zero bytes and wasn't available to actually share out over the network. I formatted it as a single volume to make sure there wasn't an issue with the drive itself (although it should support multiple partitions on a drive), and it mounted to my Mac just fine, but it still would not work with the Airport Extreme.
After reading several posts on these Apple forums I picked up the fact that the only way most people get their hard drives to work is by purchasing a powered USB hub and connecting that between the Extreme and the hard drive. Some hard drives do appear to work plugged directly into the Airport Extreme, but that seems to be more of the exception than the rule.
The reason given is that the USB port on the Airport Extreme was originally designed for printers and is basically underpowered for proper HDD connections. Adding a powered USB hub not only allows USB hard drives to work, but you can connect multiple USB devices (hard drives and printers) to share over the Airport Extreme through the powered hub, so you do get that added feature.
So if you have plans to upgrade to the incredibly fast and efficient Airport Extreme and plan to do your Time Machine Backups wirelessly (which works very well), add a powered USB hub to your purchase to avoid some frustration. I picked up a four-port powered USB hub at Staples for $30.
It's a great purchase otherwise. Four out of five stars in my review.

For anyone else who reads this post, the respondents are correct. I cannot find anything directly from Apple that states explicity the support for Time Machine backups to a USB drive on a second generation Apple Airport Extreme. I would love to see their detailed case studies and latest tests that demonstrate the backup corruption isues, and more recent tests conducted with the latest Airport Extreme, running the latest firmware with Lion 10.7.2.
Having said that, each person who is interested in this as a backup solution should consider more than one source before making a final decision:
http://gizmodo.com/369973/apple-time-machine-now-works-with-airport-disk
http://stephanfassmann.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-setup-time-machine-on-airport .html
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=881757
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9070282/Time_Machine_now_works_with_AirPo rt_Extreme_drives_say_users
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/03/finally-airport-extreme-usb-disk-time- machine-backup.ars
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Time-Machine-Update-Back-Up-on-AirPort-Extreme-Ad ded-81256.shtml
The Apple Support articles referenced that explicity state TS does not work with Airport Extreme mounted USB drives are for older OS X 10.5 and 10.6. I cannot find anything for 10.7 that states the same thing:
Older Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
http://Pondini.org/TM/Airport.html
The other thing you can do is on the Time Machine menu, hold down the "Option" key and use the 'verify backups' option to help ensure that your TS backups are valid.
Hopefully Apple will come out with an official statement soon that speaks directly to the 2nd generation Airport Extreme on the latest firmware running TS backups from OS X Lion 10.7.
My statement about the need for a powered USB hub to have much better success with USB attached hard drives still stands.

Drivers for external HDD?

I just got a 500gb 2.5" external USB Store Art HDD. I plugged it into my desktop PC which had XP SP3 loaded. The pop-up tells me that there is new devise. Windows then continues looking for drivers and then says that hardware has not been installed. In Device Manager it shows as "unknown device" and I can not do anything to it.
I've tried it on other computers and they all do the same.

Okay, my problem are solved. This is how the process went on.
Bought drive and tried to use it at work. Only one very short USB cable were in the box so I decided to use an extension cable. This only brought up the "unknown device" problem.
At home I plugged it into the laptop WITHOUT the extension cable and it worked 100%.
Wanted to use iPod at work. Plugged it in WITH the extension cable and it did not work. Removed extension cable and it worked 100%. So I realised it was not operating system but extension cable.
Got a new PC but seeing that USB cable that were supplied with HDD is so short, I decided to use the one that came with my digicam. It did not work. The little light is shining and I can feel the drive spinning so it is getting power but nothing else happened. I saw that the cable was not very secure into the HDD but it was as far as it could go. I used an art knife (Stanley knife) to trimmed back some of the plastic on the plug. It now fits very snug and it works 100% on both home and work PCs.

Best format for external HDD for compatibility with Windows and Mac?

I have a couple of USB HDDs formatted as MS-DOS (FAT32) which I use on both my iMac and Toshiba laptop .
This week I discovered that I could have used exFAT which would have avoided the 4GB file limitation.
Apart from this, are there any other pros or cons associated with exFAT and would it be advisable to use this formatting in future?

I am cross using extern HDD and USB Stick's. Win7 64 and OSX 10.9. I had the best results when i format the drive with OSX (best cluster size by automatic). I am using small 16GB USB Stick's and large 2TB HDD.
Some Windows Programs does not work if they are not installed on NTFS and you also have no security on both systems in filesystem because exFat has no security. Could be also a bad idea to use a exFat drive for iPhoto Library but not tested.
I use exFat for Data like Music, Pictures, and Movies. To share home made things with friends and family.
If you use "active" Files like programs or databases use the "OS Native" filesystem, you have less problems :-)

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My foundation recently recieved a donation of a number of early Intel iMacs (1.83's). I re-imaged them with 10.6.8, and they all work fine, except that the iSight camera in about 50% of them doesn't work. I checked, and they don't show up on the Profiler under usb. I pulled the front panel on one and it all seems normal. The iSight has a mini Firewire connector on it, (a bit strange for a USB device), so is there a way to spice a USB with a Firewire cord, so I can try plugging the camera into another computer to verify it's operation? 50% sounds a bit high for outright failure on these, especially since their use was prohibited at the school they came from. I am more apt to believe that this is a software issue of some kind, but i have tried all of the standard suggested "fixes" and nothing seems to help.

I think I would try a SMC Reset before pulling all those units apart.
As old as your iMacs are, have you cleaned out the dust? Dust buildup can lead to over heating issues. Remove any and all things plugged into it including the power cord, Remove the RAM access grille. Vacuum all openings starting with the RAM access area (air intake). Vacuum all ports and plugs, DVD slot and the opening across the top of the rear of the body. Blow compressed air through all your openings and vacuum again to remove any dust you loosend. Reinstall the RAM grille. Plug in the keyboard and mouse if not blue tooth. Insert power cord...
You are now in a perfect position to do a
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
It is the 5 second timing that initiates the reset.
Here is a link to a Widget to monitor your temps and other operations:
http://islayer.com/apps/istatpro/

Need new powercable for external HDD

Would be great if somebody could help me out. I need a new power cabel for my Toshiba 320GB external usb hard drive.
I can not find a serial nr on the HDD nor on the box.
The specs of the HDD are: 7200 RPM, read seek 8.9 ms, data buffer 8mb. Sofar I was not able to find a shop or an online store where I can order just the power cable.
Thanks for your help in advance, Nick.

I am afraid nobody here will be able to help. Such info you can get from someone who has access to Toshiba data base. In my opinion you should visit your local dealer or some shop with the same product and pick up info about this cable.
you didnt even offer the part number of this HDD. How to identify this product?

Partition Scheme advice for external HDD & Missing HDD

I have two single partitioned external WD My Book HDDs and I've just noticed they have different setups on the single partition - this is unintentional.
1.GUID Partition Table
2.Master Boot Record
3.Apple Partition Map
From the list above one is 2. the other is 3. What should they be? One is HFS+ Journaled while the other is HFS+. Reading the notes against the partition types I can't decide what they should be as it's not a boot disc for the iMac.
This problem may be related to the above?
I installed 10.4.8 yesterday (after the iLife update the day before) then having earlier formatted one of the external My Book's I ran SuperDuper to create a backup of User files. This morning I found I couldn't launch any apps from the dock or directly.
So I rebooted and all seemed well except I couldn't sleep or shut down the Backup My Book, the other My Book was fine and they're both on the same fw hub. It unmounted OK but wouldn't power down manually until I pulled the PSU. So an hour later I tried switching it on and it powers up OK but isn't mounting.
Any ideas? Dusk Utility reports OK and unmounted so it can be seen by OS X.
iMac Core Duo 1GB Mac OS X (10.4.7) iBook G3-800 & Airport §

Why just one?
Shopping list I can think of:
Vista: NTFS for backups and storage. Can be read by, but not written, Mac OS.
MacDrive 7: can access HFS+ from within Windows (but not x64 versions)
WinClone 1.5: to make backups of Windows from within Mac OS (requires disk image or partition to hold volume image)
SuperDuper: essential for OS X backups and bootable clone.
A drive that is used for emergency only and maybe backup partition, separate from your OS X and windows clone drive.
You can create large partitions with Disk Utility to be FAT32. Read and write in both, but not the best file system and limited to files less than 4GB.
FW800 would be fast and efficient interface. Also, eSATA if possible.

Help, I messed up permissions for external HDD

Hi people.
Here's the deal. My external 160 GB LaCie-drive (same type of drive that Emmet posted about recently) is divided into two partitions; one that I want to keep public and one that I back-up my private things to.
Now I had a whim about permissions and realized that if I would change permissions on "group" to exclude "everyone" yet still keeping myself set to "read and write", maybe I could keep other users from being able to read the files on that partition when logged in.
Well, it didn't quite work the way I wanted. Couldn't read any file on that partition (each folder claimed to be empty) and I couldn't change back the permissions. So I removed it from my desktop and now when I plug it back in, only the first partition shows up.
In Disk Utilities both drives show up, but the second one (the one I manipulated) has the standard unidentified file icon, and claims to be empty (when I click "Info"). There is nothing wrong with the drive itself, obviously, since the repaircheck says the drive is without errors.
So my question is What do I do? Is there like a UNIX-command for fixing the permissions or something?
Would appreciate help.
Sebastian
iMac G5, 1,8 mHz, 20", 160 GB HDD Mac OS X (10.4.3) 1 GB RAM, external LaCie 160 GB, additional LaCie 40 GB
iMac G5, 1,8 mHz 20", 160 GB HDD, 1 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.3) AirPort Express, external LaCie 160 GB, additional LaCie 40 GB

enigma
Not that bad I think. Start the terminal and type the following:
sudo chown -R youruser_name:your_username /Volumes/Florenz
substitute the "yourusername" part of the above with your actual user name. Press return, key in your password and press return again. Then type:
sudo chmod -R u=rwx /Volumes/Florenz
Press return and then:
sudo chmod -R go=--- /Volumes/Florenz
Press return. This should return the ownership of the drive to you with read, write and execute privileges but nothing to group and others.
You messed things up by changing the group to "everyone".

Firewire 400 or 800 for External HD

Hello. I presently have an eMac and will be upgrading to an iMac early in 2008. I am looking at purchasing a Lacie Porsche Ext. Hd 500 GB which has FW400 on it. This will suit my eMac as it has a 400 port on it and I can use it now. My question is, will the FW400 be sufficient for the iMac or would I be better advised to try and get an External Drive with both 400 AND 800? Thanks for any comments or guidance.

No one knows at this point what ports the iMac will have in early 2008. Today, just the 24" iMac has a Firewire 800 port. The time you want Firewire 800 is when you need extra speed in data transfer between hard drive and computer. This is usually when you are doing video capture or something else where live access to extra space is essential. For backing up, you just save some time. But actual video playback will improve if playing off a Firewire 800 drive. You can always change the hard drive case on other external hard drives, but LaCie's are awfully difficult to take apart. To offer maximum flexibility find a drive that offers both Firewire 400 and 800, and you should be fine.

USB and external HDD not detected by OS X

Hello.
Since last few months, whenever I plugin a USB pen-drive or an external hard disk, it seems at first that the system has not detected the disk, since nothing shows up in the finder and there is no way to access the disk also. The disk connection is complete since the lights turn on immediately.
When I remove the disks from the port, I get a message that I should first eject it and then remove the disk, which is not possible because I CANT SEE THE DISK ANYWHERE.
Now I plugin the disk the second time and IT GETS DETECTED.
I have to do this with every external storage disk EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Someone please help me find a solution to this problem.
Thanks.
Sankalp

Hi James,
The USB hub will not function on a non-Apple branded monitor without connecting a USB cable from Type-B USB port on your monitor to one of your mac's Type A USB ports. The USB host bus should be beside your Display Port output on the monitor. Generally, a Type A to Type B USB cable will be included with your external monitor.
Hope that helps.

Firewire vs. USB interfaces

Just out of interest I'd like to find out whether there are any (other than religious arguments) valid reasons for choosing Firewire over USB for audio interfaces.
Siberian

Don't know about a dumb protocol. It's true that it's host controlled but it does have it's own bus and host controller which handles enumeration as well as round robin (ala sna) polling for each device. I know USB fairly well but am not that familiar with Firewire which is why I engendered this discussion. As for being faster, well it depends for what. Isochronous traffic is not handled well by token ring (or fddi) or peer to slave networks. OTOH because it is deterministic (contrary to ethernet or csma/cd) for real time systems you can guarantee a given window to transmitt every n millisecods. So in the real world if you're doing file transfers 480 Mb/s will be faster than 400. If you're spooling audio or video it will be slower.
As far as a previous post concerning connectivity, USB allows for a theoretical 127 devices to be connected. However given current hub constraints it's not implemented. But that is not the fault of the standard or the protocol rather a lack of hubs capable of handling it.
But your point is well taken, the fact that Firewire has it's own CPU (which is probably what makes it more expnsive as a solution) is a step in the right direction to offload the host one from handling I/O related issues.
Thanx
Siberian

Recommended external HDD for MacBook Pro 2011 15"?

Hello,
I'm looking for external HDD for new MacBook Pro 2011 15". Is there any external HDD available with Thunderbolt port? Any recommended HDD using FireWire 800 port?
Since this is m first Mac, I'm not much familiar with Mac Accessories. Any further info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

That's a good drive, but not as great as those based on 3.5" hard drives. The nice thing about buying that drive is you can swap your hard drive in your MacBook Pro with the one in that case. 3.5" hard drives as desktop hard drives typically are faster, and are more suited to a desk environment. 2.5" hard drives are great for portable use. Be sure to get the DC in adapter for it to plug in the wall. There may be times you don't have enough power on the computer to keep it up.

USB port gone after ejecting external HDD

All software uptodate.
I have strange issue with USB ports. After ejecting USB drive (external HDD, powered by USB bus), which worked perfectly, USB port does not recognize anything, nor providing power. Turning MBP off and then booting back solves this issue.
Any ideas?

After some time I connected external HDD to "dead" port again. And got power. But still no devices recognized on this port. For example: iPad does not charge, not recognized.

External DVD burner, Firewire vs. USB 2?

Do external DVD burners work more efficiently with a Firewire interface or USB 2? I suspect there were problems with some third party photo imaging software (Canon USA) and the use of my Firewire DVD burner Kangaroo (NEC). Perhaps it is time to retire the old one and buy new.
Please advise.
PowerMac G4 Mac OS X (10.3)

Hi nobrandphoto,
first of all: WELCOME TO THE DISCUSSIONS!
Not only are firewire drives faster (even FW400 is faster than USB2 although in theory USB2 should be much faster), they are also bootable while USB is not a bootable interface wwith MacOS X: Don't start up from an external USB device.
There are a few reports that the new Intel-based Macs can also boot from USB-drives though.

Favoring FireWire interface over USB for external HDD

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