Firewire 800 & Firewire 400: Daisy Chain or Not?

I've recently added a LaCie FW 800 to my system. Does it make any difference if I daisy chain my FW 400 drives with the FW 800 as opposed to leaving them plugged into the FW 400 port (on the front of the G5) and just plugging in the FW 800 all by itself.
Thanks,
Jeff

Thanks. BTW, after my purchase (doh!) I did a little research and read that FW 800 doesn't have the performance is should on G5s. And it's something Apple never really bothered dealing with. I believe I read that on Barefeats. Oh well, I needed more storage space anyway. For DV projects where it's simpler just to dump oodles of media onto a drive and there may be revisions or versions in the future, with the falling cost of external FW drives I've decided you might as well just put the cost of buying one in the production budget and stick the drive on the shelf when you're done. No messing around with consolidating media. Ok, it's a lazy workflow but I don't have an assistant.
Jeff

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Print to Video does not work with Firewire 800 to 400 cable

I need to print video from a Mac Pro with only Firewire 800 port to a Sony DSR 50 with only Firewire 400 port. I'm using a Firewire 800 to 400 cable and I also tried a 400 cable with a 400 to 800 adapter attached. I'm able to control the Sony deck but I cannot get any audio/video to it.
Anyone else have this problem?

When you've got the deck connected and in fcp you go to view: videoplayback, do you see the appropriate apple firewire option available and chosen? And if you hit command-F12 (show all frames) do you see anything? If it doesn't work, try restarting the computer with the deck remaining on.

Lacie 2TB Big Disk Extreme Firewire 800 firewire 400 hi-speed usb2 7200 rpm sku 301201u knocked

I have a Lacie 2TB Big Disk Extreme + Firewire 800 firewire 400 hi-speed usb2 7200 rpm sku 301201u , which I have been using with an emac ( 1ghz power pc 4 , macos 10.5.8 ) for past few years.
A couple of days ago The drive was hit rather hard on side while on and up , the computer hung as the computer was up on a mac os 10.5.8 partition on this drive . Computer was rebooted and comes up on internal drive, lacie drive just made beep and click sounds ( i am actually deaf and this was what I was told ) every couple of seconds. Attempt was made to boot on CD to use latest available disk utility ( Macos 10.5). Lacie still does not show up. 15-20 minutes into this, I powered lacie down. This is when I started noticing a burned circuitry smell.I powered lacie down and disconnected it at this point.
Most Folks just suggest data recovery which can cost as much as $3000 or more which I really don't have .
I figured I open and examine the internalsof drive . I did so. The circuitry smells
like burned near the point where power comes in and the death diode is located, otherwise circuitry looks fine. One of the two drives , when taken out did not have a burnt smell and the other had a burnt smell towards the center but it dissipated in about an hour after it was taken out. There also was one loose screw inside drives chasing which ended up being one of the 4 screws that holds the disk drive's circuitry. I dont know but I don't think this could have shorted anything out but even though slim it is possible that such happened.
While I have Three DC voltmeters, I could not find the one that would accurately measure the voltage on the external power suppy to see if the output voltage on the 4 pins is accurate . I am still looking for the one meter that can do this.
I figured if I can find the exact drive in like new condition and swap the disks, if the disks are not damaged and if the culprit is actually burnt circuitry, then the drives should come up as they were as though nothing had happened.
I talked to a friend that suggested getting other cases and swapping disks but I guess that is not possible because the two disks are raided? ( raid 0 ) . I am also not even sure if the drives are raided the way they were put into use ( only through firewire 400) as the documentation suggests that only firewire 800 denotes use of built in raid0 but I am not sure. So again assumption is made that the drives are raided .
I contacted dealership of the drive which again suggest that Unfortunately it is not possible to obtain another drive like this one because it has been obsolete and out of manufacture for a long time. It is also a risky idea because if the problem is not with the drive enclosure hardware, there is a genuine risk of making the recovery process more difficult, or impossible.
This though does not follow logically. I have been able to see the exact drive with the same sku number offered as new or excellent condition more than 1/2 dozen times in the past few weeks so I guess drive can be acquired and tested before any such swap. If drives are not the culprit , I figure after a swap with a new enclosure and everything other than drives, the thing should not even be noticed and all should work as they did before the accident. If the drives are the cause , then the thing has been on 1/2 hour after the accident so the swap should not do any more damage or cause future recovery attempts any more issues than already might be there.
Any sound advice is greatly appreciated.

I tried the two good disks in the main chasis with new cables and power supply , and I could not get them to come on or show.
I put the good disks back in the second chasis with new cable and power suppy and it again shows ( prompts telling you that it sees a readable MAc OS disk and asks if you want to Initialize it ).
I put the first set together again with new cable and power supply and the light does not come on anymore . being hearing impaired , i put my head on the drive and hear this clicking sound every one or two seconds. The fan operates . The drive does not show when rebooting and it does not show on the disk utility. The drive does not smoke but smell of burned mica ( circuitry ) is still in my throat after a couple of hours.
From what I have learned the possibility exists that each drive is calibrated and the calibration is added to the control board , So like chances are that even if the two original drives are good and connected properly and everything else is good, they might and probably just wont work with a control board of another even exact drive. There are three tables / charts marked on each drive and specific locations marked on each chart which differ between drives . These I think are from calibrating the drives.
So I guess its data recovery...
Lacie Data Recovery wants $600 ( $300 x 2 drives ) if they recover data without need for a clean room , $3000 ( $1500 x 2 drives ) if there is need for clean room. If they don't recover , you dont pay , if they recover and you do not want to pay, then they just send you the damaged disk ( or perhaps keep it , or smash it then return it to you) .
There are many other data recovery services so I guess a few days to sift through them but I guess the maker reference should be the best way ( I think its actually a sub-company that lacie forwards data recovery to.
Too many factors are involved. One that will such be a secure thing to do or 6 months later you find out that someone opened 10 accounts under your name , or emptied your bank account ( thats actually not a problem because there is almost never any money in my bank account) . So security is a concern. I have encountered individuals that make it their business stealing peoples stuff from their disks. Once I even had one Tech guy which was refered to solve a problem I had , copying disks contents right in front of me for absolutely no reason. So I ask him what are you doing, and he says , I am copying everything just to make sure they are safe ( : ) )
Then there is the dalai lama , everything happens for a reason scenario. In which case I guess I have to consider the whole thing as Good Omen. and just forget about it and go on with my life ( maybe I go work in Mc Donalds : ) )
The bottom line is I can't believe that I am such an idiot not to have a proper backup system in place .
Thank you for the links, I will check them out.

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

Firewire 800 to 400 Hub?

This new Mac (which I love) has Firewire 800. My hard drives and scanner has Firewire 400 connections. I bought a cable that connects the 800 port into my 400 port in the hard drive but since the Mac has only 1 800 port I am unable to connect my scanner. Are there Firewire hubs that can plug my other peripherals? There were none at the Apple store and I could not find any on-line. Please advise

You may be able to connect the scanner to the daisy-chain port on the hard drive, if it has one. Or, if the scanner has a daisy-chain port, connect it first and connect the hard drive second.
If your FireWire devices are 400, there are FireWire 400 hubs on the market. Connect the hub to the Mac using that 800 to 400 cable you already have. Connect the FireWire 400 devices to the hub. Be sure to get a hub that has its own power supply. Here's one hub
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-FireWire-6-Port-Hub-F5U526-APL/dp/B0006BHCEK/ref=sr11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259634281&sr=8-1

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

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%.

Firewire 800 vs 400

I have a Lexar card reader which is firewire. On my older computer, there was no firewire 800 ports however on the Mac Pro, there are. If I were to get a new cable for the card reader, I assume one end would be for the cardreader , 400 and the other end would connect to the firewire 800 port. Now, by doing this would the card reader work faster? In addition, I have external hard drives and am wondering if these two would work faster using the same type of connection.

FW 800 HD cases definitely exist (from the usual suspects - OWC, Newegg, etc.) But you're right, simply using a FW400 to FW800 adaptor cable (they exist too), isn't going to gain you any speed - in a hard drive case or card reader. It's the controller in the device that, uhm ... controls the speed.
As far as card readers - as the1sen mentioned, the speed of the card is just as important as the I/O. I don't think any current card can actually (fully) saturate the I/O transfer speed of FW400, let alone FW800. I have one of the fastest readers around (Sandisk Extreme FW800), combined with one the fastest cards available (Sandisk Extreme IV), and there isn't much difference in transfer speed when using FW400 or FW800.
In this Barefeats test, note the difference when using FW800 and different cards, and the difference when using FW800 vs FW400 with the same card.
http://www.barefeats.com/hard81.html

FireWire 800 and 400 ports??

What is the difference between these and can you plug any devices into either?

FireWire 800 rocks! It has twice the throughput of FireWire 400. 100 MB/sec versus 50 MB/sec. They do have different connectors, but you can buy adapters. And like the last guy said, a FW400 device will not run at FW800 speeds. I use a FW 800 drive, and it's pretty zippy, but without a RAID config you're not likely to spit out 100 MB/sec of data!
Hope this helps.
PowerMac G4 FireWire 800 Dual 1.25 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.5) 1.25 Gig RAM

How many firewire drives can I daisy chain on the mac mini

How many firewire g-drives can I daisy chain on my mac mini

edalexjr wrote:
How many firewire g-drives can I daisy chain on my mac mini
From personal experience, if they are bus powered portable drives,
the answer is none. For what ever reason, they are draw a lot of
power and are probably near the edge of the bus powering specs.
Then again, these were the fastest of all the portable FW drives that
I have (Iomega and Seagate being the others), which may have
something to do with it.
I had also noticed an issue with them even with USB. Plugging one
into the Mini or even a powered USB hub would be fine, but 2 would cause
both to be inaccessible, unless I used a couple of USB "Y" cables
that would distribute the power across other ports.
If they are externally powered, you could string a bunch.

Firewire 800 vs 400 for Migration Assistant

I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to move stuff from my old iMac, which has Firewire 400 ports to my new iMac which has Firewire 800. I bought a cable that has one plug type on each end, but it seems the two iMacs can't 'see each other' using this cable. Also, if I connect my external LaCie hard drive (which has both)to my new iMac using this cable, it doesn't mount, although it will using a USB2 cable. This isn't an option for Migration Assistant. Any ideas?

Well, either the cable is bad or your firewire port is bad. Firewire 800 is backward compatible to 400. Try on someone elses mac. If it works on theirs, then your port is suspect.
Glor

HT4124 Macbook Pro 10.6.8 Imovie will not recognize Sony Handycam DCR-HC38 via Firewire 800-9pin cable. Is it not compatible? It worked with previous Macbook (black) with prev. firewire version.

Have tried to connect Sony Handycam DCR-HC38 to Macbook Pro via Firewire 800-9pin to 4-pin cable. I Movie will not recognize camera. I have transferred media on old Macbook (black version) with different firewire. Does the new IMovie not support this product?
Thanks

Hi,
Did you solved this problem?
I have the same situation here...
Regards

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

Rear Firewire 800 and 400 Ports

I'm having an issue getting a new Maxtor HD to be recognized by my G5. The front FW 400 port works fine, but I can't get the two rear ports to recognize the unit.
I've tried the shutdown and power plug pull technique but that didn't work.
Any other ideas?
Or does this box have to go in for repairs?
??? Thanks

You could try the Official firewire reset
Mike Mihalik, LaCie
"Seems like the FireWire issue needs to be revisited quite often. Here is my often repeated suggestion which appears to clear up many FireWire issues: reset the FireWire ports. Panther has a Finder Preference to show mounted volumes on the Desktop. You must set this for mounted drives to be visible. Please follow these instructions to reset your FireWire port.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
Here is a summary:
* shut down and disconnect all external drives and peripherals ; make sure nothing is connected to the FireWire ports
* use Apple Disk Utility to repair permissions on your internal boot drive
* shut down and disconnect the AC power from the computer as well as the drives; if laptop, also remove battery
* let sit unpowered and unconnected for 15 minutes
* reconnect AC power to only the computer (battery too if laptop)
* restart computer
* verify that FireWire ports are visible within Apple System Profiler
* reconnect FireWire drive (only one); refresh window within Apple System Profiler to rescan the FireWire bus; confirm that drive is visible
* confirm drive is OK by using Apple Disk Utility and apply First Aid
* repeat for other drives, one at a time "
Post again if it doesn't help.

Can i use Firewire 800 and 400 at the same time?

I have a HD connected to my 800 port works fine and a GL-2 camera on the 400 and final cut pro won't see the camera. Can I have 2 devices hooked up at the same time?

Yes. But you did not say whether the camera works alone or not at all. In the latter case it could be the camera isn't compatible.
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Firewire 800 & Firewire 400: Daisy Chain or Not?

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