Firewire 800 (Front & Back)

Does anyone know if the Firewire 800 ports on the front and back are on the same bus? This is an issue when copying movies from a camera and saving it to an external HDD on the same bus.
On a related question, what is Apple's recommended PCI Firewire of choice and what is the groups choice(s)?
Best!

OK, just to prove the point here are XBench bencmarks of a FW400 drive and a FW800 drive connected to the front ports of my Mac Pro:
FW400 Drive
Results 35.60
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6 (10A190)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacPro1,1
Drive Type Hitachi HTS722020K9SA00
Disk Test 35.60
Sequential 59.88
Uncached Write 61.24 37.60 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 59.56 33.70 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 52.48 15.36 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 68.37 34.36 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 25.33
Uncached Write 8.64 0.92 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 51.35 16.44 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 84.34 0.60 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 91.49 16.98 MB/sec [256K blocks]
FW800 Drive
Results 51.48
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6 (10A190)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacPro1,1
Drive Type ST325082 4AS P
Disk Test 51.48
Sequential 90.18
Uncached Write 97.23 59.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 101.94 57.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 63.94 18.71 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 115.99 58.30 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 36.02
Uncached Write 12.34 1.31 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 93.93 30.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 89.15 0.63 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 123.15 22.85 MB/sec [256K blocks]
I believe it's quite clear that the FW400 drive has no effect on the FW800 drive.

Similar Messages

Firewire 800 front port problem

I'm using an RME Fireface 800 audio interface, which is a Firewire 800 device. When I hook it up to the front FW800 port on my Mac Pro, it is periodically disconnecting while in use (using Logic, Final Cut Pro, etc.). To be clear, I don't mean that the cable is physically disconnecting, but rather that the interface disappears from the operating system while still attached and powered up.
When I use the rear FW800 port I'm not having this problem, at all.
Can anyone think of an explanation other than perhaps my front FW 800 port is screwed up? Has anyone else had this issue?
Thanks...

Hi John,
Yep, exactly the same problem I had with my Mac Pro's front FW800 connection and the FF800. The problem in the end turned out to be because I had my SSL Duende mini plugged into the rear FW400 port. Have you got any other firewire devices plugged in? The FF800 really dislikes sharing a bus with anything else, which is why I went out and bought a PCIe FW400 card and now all my devices have their own bus and all works just as you'd expect. Hope that helps, cheers.

Firewire 800 Port back to life after power shutdown?

I experienced a strange event and would like to share it with you for feedback and comments.
During several days the external hard disk connected to the Firewire 800 port of my IMAC caused me increasingly problems, and eventually the disk would not mount at all on the desktop. I connected the disk to the FW800 port of my portable and the disk worked quite fine. I concluded that the FW800 port of the IMAC was damaged. I was preparing myself to contact Apple to get the IMAC repaired.
Then recently we had a general shutdown of power in our town, for several hours.
When the power came back, I had the idea to reconnect the external disk to the FW800 port, and miracle, the disk mounted immediately and has been working fine since.
Is is possible that the ports of the computer come back to life after a power shutdown? How is this possible?
Can I conclude that it is recommended to disconnect a computer from time to time, just to reset some parameters?

Yep, both USB and Firewire ports can get in into a "bad state" and only complete removal of power will reset those chip sets.
Unfortunately, when you power down the computer there is always a bit of power still applied to the motherboard to keep things alive and this usually includes powering the ports to do stuff like detect when a device is plugged in or wants to wake up the computer. The downside of this is when a bus/port chipset goes into a weird state, locks up, etc., simply power cycling (shutdown & restart) the computer won't work.
So first thing to try is resetting the chipset and to do this you have to power down the computer and completely unplug the computer from the wall power (unplug the power cord to your Mac). Also unplug everything from the Mac's ports (USB, FW, Ethernet, etc.) to make sure no parasitic power is still there to keep the chipset alive. Now let it sit for a minute (give those big power caps in there time to discharge). Now plug stuff back in & start up the Mac. Now see if your USB or Firewire ports work any better.
Even Apple acknowledges this occasional issue...
What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire or USB device
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1317?viewlocale=en_US
Best of luck!
Patrick

How do I capture tape-based media to my external hard drive? There is only one firewire 800 port on the back of my I mac. The manual says to import tape footage directly into fcpx, but then I lose my external hard drive. thanks for your help.

In FCP X How do I capture tape-based media (hdv clips)- which I want to import-to my external hard drive? There is only one firewire 800 port on the back of my I mac. The FCPX manual says to import tape footage directly into final cut, which works, but then I lose my external hard drive Do I have to import it into an event, then copy it over to an external hard drive? On Larry Jordan's tutorial, he has 3 external hard drives that show up on his monitor WHILE he imports his tape based media. How is that done? I can only get either the camera to appear OR my external hard drive. thanks for your help.

Thanks for your response, but that doesn't solve the problem. Yes, the LaCie hard drive has 2 firewire ports-
I have always done what you suggest (works fine in FCP7), but in FCPX when I do that the camcorder icon
does not appear. It only shows up when I DIRECTLY import the footage via firewire. ????

Time Machine fails to backup HD and stalls computer when backing up to external HD (Western Digital WD5000MT) when using Firewire 800 but works fine using USB

I have a mid 2012 MBP (MacbookPro9,1) running Mountain Lion 10.8.2. When I start a Time Machine backup to an external Western Digital HD (WD5000MT) connected using a Firewire 800 cable, my open programs stop responding and in general my computer freezes up not allowing me to open activity monitor or the console utility. I can't even shut down or restart my computer and must hard boot to reset. Though removing the firewire cable that goes to the external HD can sometimes get my system working again. However, the WD external HD also has a usb port and when I connect it to my computer via a USB cable, Time Machine seems to backup my system fine without stalling my computer. This same external HD worked fine with Firewire 800 using my old late 2007 MBP running snow leopard. I should note that my brother has the exact same model WD external HD and he also had issues with the firewire port on his MBP running mountain lion. I have run the disk utility checking for disk/file permission errors and the drive itself seems fine. I initially formatted that drive as ExFAT but while troubleshooting reformatted to HFS+ and still had the same issue. I tested using a different firewire 800 cable but still had the same issue. Can't think of anything else to do. I don't have another firewire-compatible device to test if it is the HD vs the firewire port. I would prefer to use the firewire port for quicker transfer speeds but I'm stuck with USB for now. Any suggestions?

Maybe these will help:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11194
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275 (note - older article)
Have you tried looking at the Western Digital web site to see if you can find anything?
http://support.wdc.com

G drive mini won't mount via firewire 800. usb ok

It hasnt been too long i bought myself a gdrive mini to benefit from the firewire 800 port. It seems that once my macbook gets warm the drive won't mount. It mounts just fine via usb. I've been to the genius bar twice and it worked both times, thats when i noticed it only happens when its warm. I was convinced its a software issue, but i dont know what to think anymore.
Has anyone encounter this issue? Any ideas of whats causing this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated

WAIT WAIT EVERYONE....READ THIS....VERY SIMPLE FIX!
My G mini 750GB drive stopped mounting.....I tried a million methods to get the G mini drive to mount and searched a ton of forums but never found this VERY EASY FIX. Try powering down your computer (imac in my case), then UNPLUG the power supply from the back of the computer....VERY IMPORTANT TO UNPLUG COMPUTER FROM ELECTRIC SOURCE. Nothing else worked for me.
Wait a minute, then plug back in and re-boot....MAGIC - freakin G mini showed up on desk top!
Good Lord why is this simple fix not all over the G mini site?????? It ought to be on the front of the box when you buy this thing! Seems no one at G mini sites talk about this and people are sending drives all over for repair!
Hope this helps!

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.

Is there such a thing as a Firewire 800 Hub (like a USB hub)?

I'd like to have a firewire port "at the front" of a Mini, for easy attaching of a Camcorder-firewire line or other occasional-use Firewire devices. The one FW800 port at the back of the Mini has external hard-drive(s) attached.
Ideally, I'd like a hub that splits this FW800 into FW800 and FW400 jacks (2 of each)! But I've never seen such a hub, and am not getting clear answers from hardware vendors. USB hubs are easy to find, but Firewire?___
Message was edited by: F. Farmer

Google "Firewire hub 800" and several come up;
http://www.lindy.co.uk/3-port-firewire-800-repeater-hub/32911.html
Although I see that they all claim to be out of stock or on order. Hmmm, I see what you mean....

I currently have a MAC Mini, which has 1 Firewire 800 port. I have a 1TB external hard disk that runs at Firewire 400. Can I insert another external hard drive that runs at Firewire 800?

Here's the deal. Currently running SL 10.6.8 on a MAC Mini. Planning for eventual upgrade to ML. Have a 1TB external hard drive partitioned into two volumes, one volume for Time Machine and one volume for SL which I periodically update using Superduper. Thus I always have a point-in-time bootable backup on the external hard drive.
The MAC Mini supports Firewire 800. However, booting from my current external hard disk is pretty slow, since it only supports Firewire 400. I am considering buying an Iomega MiniMax which supports Firewire 800. Then, I would use the MiniMax as my bootable backup volume, and relegate the older hard drive to Time Machine.
So, question #1 is, can I daisychain the new MiniMax between the MAC Mini and my existing external hard drive? My expectation is that the new Mini Max would run using Firewire 800 and that the existing hard drive would run at Firewire 400 speed as it does today. If it doesn't (e.g., daisychaining in the Firewire 400 external disk with the MiniMax Firewire 800 external disk ends up running the whole leg at 400), my resolution will be to run the existing hard disk off an available USB port and have just the MiniMax running at Firewire 800.
Why am I going to all this trouble? That's question #2. I don't trust upgrades; they always break something. When I upgraded from 10.5.x to 10.6.x, the web directories got renamed, and all of my web apps 403'd until I figured out what happened. Plus, I have accounts for other family members, and in order to ensure their ability to use the computer during my upgrade process, I need to have the ability to fall-back quickly to a known-stable version of OSX. So what I'm trying to do is insulate myself from problems by partitioning the MiniMax into two volumes, taking a Superduper image of my current installation on the Mac Mini to MiniMax external drive volume 1, then upgrading to ML on the MAC Mini, and take a SuperDuper image of that to MiniMax external drive volume 2. Then, if the upgrade results in problems I can't resolve immediately, I can simply reimage the MAC Mini from MiniMax volume 1. BUT ...
... I've read that the ML installation creates a "service and support" partition that is different than the startup disk. I'm concerned that I won't be able to reimage the hard disk in the MAC Mini once I upgrade it to ML because of the partitioning changes it introduces on the startup disk. Theoretically, I +should+ be able to use the disk utility on my SL system to repartition the disk in the MAC Mini prior to reimaging it from my backup, but I'm considering the possibility that the new partition may be of a type that the SL disk utility cannot identify, and might therefore be unable to delete or even detect. So I'm hoping someone else has been down this road and can advise me. Even at Firewire 800 speeds, booting from an external disk is still going to be slow, so I want to be able to restore my SL image to the MAC Mini hard disk.
A little background on me. I work for a major disaster recovery provider. I used to have a Mac PRO G5, which I got used, and the first thing I did with it was install a second hard disk, SuperDupe an image from the first disk to the second, and made sure I could boot from the second. THEN I started using and customizing the MAC. I really feel vulnerable with the MAC Mini, since it only has the single internal hard drive - sort of like going out in public dressed only in a long T-shirt. So my whole thing is, I ABSOLUTELY MUST BE ABLE TO PUT THINGS BACK THE WAY THEY WERE before I do the migration to ML.
Obsessive-cumpulsive? Yep. Anal? You got it. That's why I'm in the DR business.

You may have overloaded the port, following the instructions below it should reset:
+1. Shut down the computer.+
+2. Disconnect all devices and all other cables, except the keyboard and mouse cable(s).+
+3. Disconnect the computer from the power outlet and wait for 3 to 5 minutes.+
+4. Plug the computer back in and turn it on.+
+5. Reconnect the device(s) (one at a time if there is more than one) and test. Test with each port if you have more than one.+
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1317?viewlocale=en_US

How do I use my iMac's Firewire 800 port to connect to my external hardrive using a USB Micro-B input?

I have a late 2009 iMac with Firewire 800 input on the back. I have a Western Digital Passport external hard drive with USB Micro-B input that I would like to connect to the Firewire (4 USB inputs aren't nearly enough on the iMac). I can't find an adapter to do this. Can someone please help?? As an alternative, is there an adapter that will convert the Firewire 800 to standard USB2.0?

USB and FireWire work in very different ways, so there is no adapter.
Instead, you should just get a USB 2.0 hub, like this one
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/USB2HB7PRO/
There are many choices, but be sure to get one that is powered (it comes with its own power supply). Cheaper hubs rely on the computer's USB port for power.

What do I need to support my FireWire 800 gear on a new iMac

I need to replace my antique mac pro 1.1
I am now retired and my needs tend more towards games than av creation so the new Mac Pro is not only overkill but the dual video I here is not optimized for games in any case.
The problem is all of my existing FireWire 800 gear and no FireWire ports on the new iMac designs
I guess I need to buy an external thunderbolt case for the 4 2 terabyte drives in the old pro do any of the external T-bolt cases offer good FireWire 800 support (full speed support) for all of my old gear?
Are there other ways to support these devices than an external t-bolt case for sata drives?
And for a game playing iMac is a fusion drive or a large solid state drive best choice bearing in mind I will have about 10 terabytes of FireWire and t-bolt external storage ( I was thinking of making the drives in the required t-bolt external case a raid array for best performance)
So what external t-bolt drive case should I buy and if it does not support a set of FireWire 800 ports what external t-bolt gadget for that support should I buy?
Thanks

Windshadow99 wrote:
I looked at those but would it not be far better to have a gadget that plugged into a t-bolt port and then had a bunch of FireWire 800 ports on it? There must be lots of folks that like me invested in FW800 gear with their older computers and need something like this.
Perhaps, though as with anything it depends on your needs. I don't know of any such device, though. All the Thunderbolt docks I've seen that have Firewire at all have only a single port. You could use a TBolt to FW adapter with Thunderbolt ports in a dock, though. A Firewire hub isn't a lot of good other than providing multiple connectors since all devices are on the same FW bus and hence not really much different from daisy-chaining. There's certainly no performance improvement and probably not much in the way of stability improvement either.
I was told a long time ago back in the mac 2fx sccsi days that daisy chaining things should be avoided and giving things their own pro was better does this advice sill hold good?
SCSI was very different (and usually wasn't a problem as long as it was terminated correctly). Daisy-chaining FW is different, though it very much depends on the devices and the sort of throughput you need. Daisy-chaining Thunderbolt should be no problem at all as long as the devices support it.
Regards.

Time Machine backup problems with firewire 800 since Mavericks

Since I installed Mavericks about a week ago, I have had problems with TM not working with my LaCie external drive. At best, it would not back up when the mac was awakened from sleep mode and in use. When I would open time machine preferences, I would see the "preparing for back up" prompt that would last forever. Not only was it doing that, I have found that it would freeze my mac. I figured this out when I was not able to get my mac to respond from the login screen. It was basically frozen and couldn't log on. I noticed the back up drive light flickering but nothing would happen even with waiting a long time. I finally figured out that shutting off the TM EHD would unfreeze the mac and it would start functioning normal again. This was happening with my external HD daisy chained to another external drive that contains my iPhoto, iMovie and Itunes files. That drive was also connected to the mac using firewire 800. I tried many different configurations, switched the order the drives were daisy chained, tried different cables and even directly connected the TM drive with firewire 800 to the mac, but the problems still persisted. The strange thing is that when I connect the TM drive through USB, it works flawlesly and no hanging up of the computer. Thats what Ive been forced to do. I have my other EHD connected directly through firewire 800 and it works fine. I only have one firewire 800 port, and since it works fine with my other LaCie drive, it makes me think its not the port or macs hardware? I can only guess this is a Time Machine issue or something wrong with my TM drive? I have been in contact with LaCie and given them all these details but I have not heard back yet on what they feel the problem is. I thought I would post this to see if anyone else had some experience with this problem.

Forgot to mention I did that. Completely erased and reformatted HD and then reconnected to TM. Didn't help. I did have the mac hang up while installing Mavericks and had to eventually shut off the external drive. It did that to me the firs time I tried to install Mavericks and I lost all my data because it did a clean install after that. I had another back up on CCC so I just restored from there. This time the update to Mavericks transferred my data. I have had TM hang up my mac in the past on occasion, but I was always able to shut down the drive and then the mac would return to normal. Perhaps I should try to erase and reformat again?

Can I Boot my PB from a Firewire 800 External HD?

I'm a going to buy a portable external HD for my mirror (clone) back-up drive.
I can buy either a Firewire 400 ("Combo case") or 800 ("Triple case") HD. My inclination is to buy the Firewire 800 ("Triple case") drive as it will be more useful in the future.
Will I be able to Boot my Firewire 400 PB from the Firewire 800 External HD as long as I have the right adapter cable? Or do I have to get a Firewire 400 instead?
The drives I have in mind come from OWC and have a port for an external power supply if it's needed.*
* http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go, to see where I'm going with this.

Moot Question.... No further need to answer!!!

Recording to external hard drives - Firewire 800 problems

Ok so i did post a similar thread on this in the "mac mini" part of the website so im very sorry for double posting but I thought since this problems pertains mostly to recording and specifically recording on garageband, that I would try posting here as well. Heres my deal:
I am a musician working with garageband and I have always been recording to my internal drive until recently. I was unaware until I read some posts here from the good people like you guys, that that is not a good idea to record to your internal drive. So, I got an external firewire 800 drive (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DGZ05A) and this cable (http://www.amazon.com/2M-Firewire-800-9PIN-Cable/dp/B000XQILWK/ref=pdbxgy_e_imgb). When I received it, I first used disk utility and reformatted it for Mac OS Extended Journaled. Then I proceeded to move a couple sample libraries and my entire "Garageband" folder (with my saved songs in it) to the external. I instantly knew something was wrong. The files were taking forever to get written over. It took about 15 mins for a 5GB folder to be moved over. I was already discouraged. Anyway, I plugged in the USB cable that came with the external (the drive has hook ups for both USB 2 and firewire 400/800) and tried moving the same files and it was MUCH faster. The same 5GB file was moved over in a matter of minutes.
I then tried recording to the drive (using firewire again) and it would hardly even PLAY the song without stopping every couple seconds (too many effects error, and yes ALL the tracks were locked). Tried to record as well and i'd get even less time before garageband would stop the song with the same error. So I disconnected firewire and went USB. Thru USB the song didnt stop once, not on playback OR recording. Then I moved the songs back to my internal and played them (and recorded) with no problem either.
I ran a couple tests on the drive using AJA system test and came back with these results:
Basic test of read/write speed using firewire 800:
write - 14/mb sec
read - 21/mb sec
then, using usb 2.0
write - 18/mb sec
read - 37/mb sec
both these connections seemed to be running slower then they should ..but at least the USB connection would actually let me play a song and record to it without stopping
I manually copied over a 2.04GB file and via firewire 800 connection it took 2 mins and 20 secs. Via the USB 2 connection it was 55 seconds! ..also, while i transfered the files i noticed that the USB transfer was nice and steady with tiny increments of the file being transferred. Firewire, however, was speedy then slow, speedy then slow. Very inconsistant transfer speed throughout the process. kind of choppy
So what gives? I cant figure out if I'm doing something wrong, or if my external HD is bad? Or the cable is bad? Or maybe the firewire port on my mac mini is bad (i've never used it before for anything other than this external drive). Or i'm thinking maybe my processor isnt strong/fast enough to record to the external firewire drive? Im working with a mac mini 120GB internal HD and the 2ghz intel core 2 duo with only 2GB ram (i know thats not ideal for recording and im planning to upgrade at some point, but i have been recording to the internal just fine with the RAM i have now and never had a problem until trying to record to the firewire drive). I was going to go out today and get a new cable and see if that was the cause of it. Anyway sorry for the book-length post! But PLEASE SOMEBODY help me here! ..as i said, im not very computer literate and only just started producing music using computers so please use dummy terms lol ..thanks in advance

Strictly my opinion, and more than happy to be educated with facts and convinced otherwise... but, there are no dangers.
Bottom line is this... does your specific computer setup encounter ANY problems during recording or editing with your chosen software and current workflow? If not, then there is nothing wrong. Simple as that. Further, if you are having problems, then its more than likely dealt with by upgrading RAM amount and internal HDD speed and size. If you have a slightly older machine that is pre FW800, you will find by bench marking your HDD's that an upgraded internal system HDD will significantly outperform any external HDD read/write spec's. Even with FW800, comparing apples with apples, your system HDD will more than likely have better spec's. Please however, do not take my word for this, but try it out for yourself. Make sure you have facts about your own system rather than believing my claims or anyone else's claims. I used Intech's Quickbench http://www.speedtools.com/QuickBench.html to get some facts about my machine.
There will be an argument made that you will be putting strain on your hard drive by recording to the system drive because it not only has to deal with this function but also with other functions related to your audio programs and OS. Apparently you may be working it on the 'hard' side and shorten its life span. Probably technically correct but practically speaking you will more than likely never even notice any such strain. If you are worried about a system HDD crash or death because you are working it too hard then the answer to this is a well planned back up regime. You should have one anyway, regardless of setup.

Time Machine won't mount Firewire 800 drive after restart / Finder crashes

I've been having problems with Finder crashes. I first suspected Spotlight might be the problem because sometimes when I started typing a search, it would display the first 3 characters and then lock up. I could force quit the Finder, but it wouldn't relaunch and required the computer to be shutdown and restarted with the power button. Once restarted, I had no keyboard and no mouse click (the mouse would move across the screen but I could not click on anything). After waiting several minutes (3-5) the mouse and keyboard worked properly.
After some research suggested the Spotlight index might be corrupt, I forced Spotlight to rebuild the index (add the drive to the exclude list under "Privacy" and then remove it from the list) and then repaired disk permissions. After that Spotlight was noticeably snappier and I thought my Finder crashes had been solved until........
Part 2: I have been using Time Machine (connected to a Fantom GreenDrive via Firewire 800) for several months now and ever since the beginning, I have noticed that the drive will NOT mount after a restart. I must turn the drive off and back on again to get it to mount. After that Time Machine picks it up and seems to work fine.....well, that is until this Finder crashing thing started several weeks ago. Anyway, I inadvertently set up an experiment last weekend when I installed some software update and forgot to remount the Time Machine drive after the restart. That was last Sunday night. The computer did not crash all week long. I thought my Spotlight fix had finally solved my problems, but now it seems I was wrong. This morning (Saturday, six days later), I noticed my Time Machine drive was not mounted. I mounted it, told Time Machine to "Back Up Now" and went away for a few hours. When I came back the Finder was locked up.
So guess my question is this: Are there any know problems with using Firewire 800 with Time Machine? and What can I do to fix this? In the meantime I'm trying another experiment - I've disconnect the Firewire 800 connection and replaced it with USB.

shaneeudy wrote:
So guess my question is this: Are there any know problems with using Firewire 800 with Time Machine?
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Not in general. Some drives don't always wake or "spin up" fast enough; often that's seen when the system wakes from sleep, though, not so much after a system Restart. Many Western Digitals do that; I don't recall seeing any posts here about yours, but you might want to search the forums for Fantom
In the meantime I'm trying another experiment - I've disconnect the Firewire 800 connection and replaced it with USB.
Good plan - that may provide a clue.
Also, check with the maker -- there may be a firmware or driver update.
And try verifying your internal HD, and repairing your backups, per #A5 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). Either might cause that.

Firewire 800 (Front & Back)

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