FireWire 800 and USB bus failure

I am trying to resolve an ongoing issue with my iMac. External storage devices will not stay mounted. I have had data corruption and several drive failures that I believe are attributable to the sudden loss of connection to the computer. It can not be that all my drives – there have been five – are faulty. My newest drive, an OWC Mercury Elite Pro connected to the FireWire 800 bus, is beginning to exhibit the same behavior, and this drive is less than a month old.
What possible explanations are there for a FireWire or USB bus to suddenly drop a connected hard drive?
Thanks in advance.

Simplest explanation? Your iMac has a hardware failure. Take it in for service. It's probably NOT a software issue but a hardware failure.
Can we assume you have tried new or different cables?

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Hello Grizzly Marmot,
Thank you for the feedback. So probably my old MAXTOR enclosure is playing me tricks ....
Last night the backup on my USB 2.0 was terribly slow ??? The incremental duplication of my hard drive (372.9 MB of data from 35GB of complete data) gave me these stats:
Copied : 6232 files, 372,9 Mo
Average : 8,8 Mo/minute (4,5 copying, 148,1 verifiying)
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Thanks for helping.
Robert

When I plug in my Lacie Firewire 800 drive it causes certain apps to crash. Chrome will immediately crash when I open it, so will DVD player. It's only when I plug in my Firewire 800 drive, USB does not cause issues. What's the deal?

When I plug in my Lacie Firewire 800 drive into my Mid-2009 Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion - 10.8.2, it causes certain apps to crash. Chrome will immediately crash when I open it, so will DVD player. It's only when I plug in my Firewire 800 drive, USB does not cause issues. What's the deal?
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Contact Lacie since it's their product you are having issues with.

Mixing Firewire 800 and 400 on an iMac?

I have 2 external FW 400 drives on my late 2011 iMac. I use an 800 to 400 adapter. I've been thinking of getting a new external drive from OWC. The have both 400 and 800. The 800 case has 2 800 connectors and one 400. Does it make sense to mix? Will they all run at the slowest in the chain?
I was thinking of connecting the 800 directly to the iMac using the built-in 800 connection. Then chaining from there using the 400 connection to the other existing 400 external drives. Will I actually get 800 speed on the first drive?
Thanks

I have a mixed group of external drives, and just bought a new OWC Mercury quad interface drive.
The user manual that came with it says:
Note: If you are using FireWire 800 and add a FireWire 400 device to the chain, all devices will be reduced to FireWire 400 performance
I tested this myself, which confirmed it. I set up the following chain, with the first 2 drives connected by FW800, and with a FW400 drive either connected or not connected at the end:
HD ----800-----DRIVE1------800------DRIVE2-------400-------DRIVE3
I booted from my HD and timed the copying of a large file from DRIVE1 to DRIVE2. Although the FW400 drive was at the end of the chain and was never involved in the copying, just having it attached immediately reduced the speed of the file copy from Drive1 to Drive2. The actual speed reduction in practice was about 40%, not 50%.

WD MyBook Firewire 800 and M-Audio FireWire 1814 conflict

I have a big problem with an external HD Western Digital MyBook firewire 800 and a M-Audio firewire 1814.
When I turn on the external HD (connected via firewire 800) the sound card stops to play.
If I don't use the drive everything works, but if I use the external HD the sound stops again.
If I connect the external HD via firewire 400 or usb2 the soundcard works perfectly ...
I think there is a conflict in some driver but I do not have any soundcard (firewire) or any other external drive (Firewire800) to check WHERE is the problem.
I have the same problem in both my Macs (iMac 24 Aluminium and MacBook Pro 17")
Does anybody can help me? Am I the only one with this problem?
Do I have to complain with Western Digital, M-Audio or Apple Inc.?
Thank you for your help!
Carlo

Thank you Chris, I just wonder why Bee Jay can use the HD FW800 with the M-Audio Firewire interface without problems.
I use the ext HD for backup too, but sometimes I need to find something in my backups and I have to turn off the audio interface and copy the files on my internal HD ... then turn off the drive again and turn on the M-Audio ... it's very annoying.
In some forum I read that the problem can be the firewire chipset, but my iMac has the Lucent and the MacBook Pro has the TI (reccomended by M-Audio) ... same problem on both machines.
I did some test:
1) If I use the FW800 external HD and the FW400 with iMovie and my Video Camcorder I have no problem at all. I tried to use the HD at maximum (during a time machine backup I was copying other files and saving the HDV files in the same external HD) and everything works perfectly without loosing a single frame.
2) If I connect the HDV camcorder to the M-Audio interface I cannot even start the capture ... I have to turn off the external FW800 HD.
It looks that the problem is definitely in the M-Audio Firewire driver but unfortunatley the M-Audio e-mail support is only for US customers ... and I'm Italian.
Is there any US customer that has this problem and can insist with the M-Audio support?
Maybe they can solve it in the next release ...
Thank you in advance.

FireWire 800 and 400

Can I link up two HDD's one FireWire 800 and one FireWire 400 into one FireWire port on my MBP?
Thanks

It is just that easy. I'm assuming you have a FW800 on your MBP? Just do a search on Amazon for Firewire 800 to 400 cables and you'll find some - very inexpensive - that will suit your needs. Oh! Here are some from monoprice - all under $9.
Regards,
Clinton

Is there a difference between firewire 800 and firewire 400 besides the connectors

is there a difference between firewire 800 and firewire 400 cables besides the connectors?

Speed. 800 is up to twice the speed, and sometimes faster. You can connect the two connectors with a cable that fits both ends, but you will be left with the slowest speed.

Daisy-chain Firewire 800 versus USB

Hi. I have an external drive (drive A) connected to my MPB via Firewire 800. I have my iTunes media library on this drive (movies, TV shows, music etc). When I watch a movie on my Apple TV, the content is being streamed from this drive via my MBP to the Apple TV. This works fine.
I also have a second external drive (drive B) that I use only as a back-up for drive A. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up drive A onto drive B. I can connect drive B in one of two ways: Option #1 is to connect drive B directly to my MBP via USB (USD 2.0). This is how I currently have it connected. Option #2 is to connect drive B to drive A via a Firewire 800 cable, daisy-chaining the two drives.
Two questions:
1. Which option will give me better performance when backing up drive A to drive B?
2. If I am watching a movie on Apple TV (streaming from drive A) at the same time that I am backing up drive A to drive B, will option #2 affect streaming of the movie?
Thank you

Have you Shut down your Mac and disconnected your firewire cable from both ends and let it sit about ten minutes then reconnect and try. Also, it is important to disconnect the AC power to your Mac, this helps to reset the FireWire port(s).
Have you checked to see if Disk Utility sees it/ can mount it?
Do you have TechTool Pro or DiskWarrior, both of which you could use to try to mount it.
It is also possible that you have a bad cable or a bad port, do other FW devices work?
-mj

Firewire 800 and Iomega 2Tb External Drive

I started using an Iomega 2Tb as Time Machine just over one year ago.
Initially it connected to my iMac 27" and worked perfectly with a Firewire 800 cable.
After a couple of months it suddenly stopped working and was not recognised in Finder or Disc Utility. I contacted Iomega and they suggested I try a new cable. I did and it did not make any difference. I have no other Firewire devices to test if the problem is with the Iomega or my iMac.
I switched to USB and that worked perfectly for a while. I have subsequently had problems with the Iomega "unmounting" itself, with a Journal Error comment when I run Verify in Disc Utility.
I have reformatted and remounted the Iomega twice but it has unmounted itself again.
I rotate three external drives as Time Machine back ups. The other drives are USB Freecom and Seagate 1Tb drives. They continue to work perfectly.
Because the Iomega has also given problems when connected by USB, I suspect it is the cause of the problem.
I would hope that we have reached the stage in home computing when we can buy a device, plug it in and it works, without having to waste time problem solving.
Can any one suggest anything else I can check?

Thanks Nick. The Iomega is the only external drive with which I have experienced any problems so I guess I wasted my money and will need to try another brand.

Firewire 800 and mbp 2011

I have a new macbook pro 2011 15" i7 2.3, i'am also using a western digital USB 2.0 & FW800 external 2.5" drive that works without problems with my previous macbook pro (early 2007) and with my current iMac (2010) using the fw800 port.
Now every time i try to transfer large files to the external drive connected to the fw800 port the drive stalls during the transfer and after a while also the finder go in a loop and i have to unplug the drive to resume "normal" operation....
Using the drive with the USB 2.0 port works, also works a fw400 2.5" external drive and an external 3.5" fw800 wd drive, with its own power adapter.
Maybe a problem with the power supplied from the port to bus powered fw800 drives ?
M.

I've tested my drive several times under two configurations. I alternated between FW800 and USB 2.0. The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex is a SATA Drive in a plastic case. The SATA port is exposed on the back, and Seagate ships it with a "USB Cable" which is a USB to SATA adapter that plugs into the back. They also ship a FW800 version. I have both.
Before each attempt to use the drive, I partitioned the drive.
Run 1: FW800: Plug in drive, partition, start time machine backing up 500GB of data.
Result: Lockup after 4.39GB of data. Verified in finder, drive is not responsive. Time machine "cancels backup" for around 5 minutes before I bail.
Run 2: FW800: Plug in drive, partition, start time machine backing up 500GB of data.
Result: Lockup a bit after 6GB of data. May have been 4.39 GB of data again. Verified lockup in finder. Time Machine unable to cancel backup.
Run 3: USB 2.0: Plug in drive, partition, start time machine backing up 500GB of data.
Result: Time machine makes it to 12GB when I decide "maybe it is fixed" and want to try firewire again. Drive remained responsive, and Time Machine cancels backup immediately.
Run 4: FW800: Plug in drive, partition, star time machine backing up 500GB of data.
Result: Time machine makes it to 4.39GB of data (exactly again!) before the drive locks up. Attempt to verify lockup by copying empty folder (just created) to drive. Unable to copy folder and unable to cancel Time Machine.
Run 5: USB 2.0: Plug in drive. This time for variety, I partitioned it and started Time Machine backing up 500GB of data.
Result: 27.71GB in and I'm not stopping it. Able to copy the empty folder to the drive while time machine is running with no problems.
Overall Results: Two constants in this experiment: The drive and the Laptop. The change is the SATA adapter used to connect to the drive, and the port on the laptop where the drive was plugged in.
Consistently unable to connect via firewire, and consistently able to connect via USB 2.0.
Conclusion: Either my drives FW800 adapter is broken, or there is a problem with the FW800 port of my 2011 MacBook Pro 15" (2GHz) Since the FW800 adapter has been in regular use for the last 6 months, I believe the issue is with the FW800 port on the new laptop.
The only question in my mind is whether this is a hardware defect, a design problem, or a software problem.

VIDEO: capturing w/ firewire 400 and USB 2 on Final Cut

I didn't think of it at the time because it didn't make sense then and it doesn't still. I exchanged a PowerBook G4 for a new MBP and realized, too late, that it had one less firewire port. ARG.
I've heard 1) that USB 2 is just as good as firewire, 2) that its as good only if you're using a PC-based machine, and 3) that it should be avoided altogether when it comes to editing video.
Can I absolutly positively use firewire from my camera to capture video onto my USB 2 external HD without dropped frames or studdered video?
AND
If my HD is FAT formatted for my old Dell notebook, would that have an effect on the write speed when I use it with a Mac?
Also, it seems like a bad idea, but can I daisy-chain my camera and my external HD??

do not use usb for capturing video. the max data rate is about the same as firewire 400, but it doesn't offer as high of a continued transfer rate. in short, you'll lose some frames.
the cool thing about a firewire 400 port, though, is that you can daisy chain up to 8 firewire devices to that one port and not have to worry about it. i usually have about 3 or 4 external drives hooked up to each other and my firewire, and i just plug my camera into the firewire port on one of the hard drives. it works just as well as if i had plugged it into my computer.
there's really no need for an extra firewire port or firewire 800 unless you're doing a really involved, highly detailed project, like a feature film, that would require higher data rates and more storage space.

Hard Drive Speed Difference Between FireWire 800 and Internal Drive

Right now I have my entire 1.5 TB Lightroom photo library on an external drive connected to my new Mac Pro via FireWire 800. Will I experience dramatic or even noticeable speed improvements if I move this drive to one of the internal SATA hard drive bays in my Mac Pro?
I would likely buy a new drive and SuperDuper the external to this new drive I put in the Mac Pro.
Thanks,
Matt

SATA II 3Gb is only the controller bus and has almost nothing to do with actual individual drive speed. Confusing the bus interface with hard drive speeds is not a clear way to compare.
Just pull the drive out of the FW case is all you probably need to do. Actual FW800 is less than 80MB/sec and more like 72-75MB/sec - which is as slow as your hdd gets from slow inner tracks.
Other than green, most 1.5TB drives average minimum 75MB/sec to max 115 with average in mid-90s. And the first 1/2 of a drive is where best performance comes from.
The size of the data and media library, amont of free space, all play a role.
I think FW should be left to backups, an alternate boot volume, off line data.
If it was Aperture library, but otherwise SSD is not realistic or viable. Nobody uses RAM disks as they are inefficient.
I still find 10K VelociRaptor ($279 / 600GB) fast, smoother, more responsive, great for system and data drives, even if they are only 135MB/sec, or about what some of your 2TB drives can offer.
QUICK TAKES - A striped pair of Velociraptor 600G 10K HDDs matches the speed of one SSD. For less that the price of one 256G SSD, you can buy two 10K 600G Velociraptor HDDs. If you stripe them (RAID 0), you get the same sustained transfer speed as the SSD. http://www.barefeats.com/quick.html
If you are not already using all the internal drive bays, just nice to have them handy before going external. Also take a look at two other articles on Barefeats:
THINK INSIDE THE BOX: Internal Storage Innovations for the Mac ProOctober 6th, 2010
EXTERNAL STORAGE INNOVATIONS for Mac Pros -- (Added results for ATTO R680 SAS RAID adapter.)

Daisy chaining firewire 800 and 400 devices

I am considering purchasing a blue-ray DVD recorder that has two 800 ports and one 400 port. My sony video camera has a firewire 400 connection and I am wondering whether that camera cable may be used to import video using my 400 cable connected to the 400 port. One 800 port would be connected to the computer. Or should I purchase a firewire800 to 400 (4 pin) cable and use the second 800 port on the recorder, or go direct from the computer swapping the cables when importing video?

Hi Charles
If your using the Core Duo with 2 400 ports listed in your profile, then you might be better off just connecting the player up 400 and then using the second 400 port for the camera. If however we are talking about a newer iMac, one with a single 800 port then you will want to connect the recorder up 800 and then the camera up 400 to that.
Also see > http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26476
Dennis

Mixing firewire 800 and 400

I have an older iMac (3.06 GHz Intel Core i3). I currently have 3 external firewire 400 drives daisy-chained to it. I use a 800 to 400 adapter on the back of the iMac to convert from 800 down for my drives. I was just looking at OWC and considering a new external. Just wondering if it would be worth my while to pay extra to get a USB3/firewire 800 enclosure instead of a 400. If I hook up the 800 directly to the iMac, then use the 800/400 adapter off the extra port on the back of the first drive to run the other 4 400 drives, will I be getting the 800 speed from the first drive, or will it be downgraded to 400 (speed of the older drives). If I was starting from scratch, it wouldn't be an issue, but since I don't want to loose the other 4TBs+ on my other drives. Hope someone knows the answer. I've heard conflicting stories on how this actually works.
Thanks

Just wondering if it would be worth my while to pay extra to get a USB3/firewire 800 enclosure instead of a 400.
If you think you'll ever upgrade you Mac I'd get the FW800/USB3.0 model so it will be usable at it's intended speed with the new Mac.
OT

FireWire 800 and USB bus failure

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