I'm trying to find a firewire external cd drive.

Does anyone have any suggestions and where I can get one for a decent price? Do they make firewire external cd/dvd drives. I know usb is a lot slower so I was thinking that the firewire ones would be a lot quicker for burning cds and also extracting information.

My suggestion would be OWC:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/
In my experience, you probably won't see a tremendous increase in performance except for ripping DVDs. Random access of CD's & DVDs has some technical issues that cause low thoughput. In a "continuous" data stream like a DVD rip, then there would be benefit from the faster throughput of Firewire. But random access doesn't see as dramatic an improvement.
And writing DVDs, often you end up burning at a slower speed because of the quality of the blank disks or drive mechanism. (IOW, burning DVDs at 8x causes more "coasters" than burning at 2x.) So again, offsetting the speed advantages of Firewire.
So IMHO, don't expect "greatness" from a Firewire optical drive. I'm not saying don't get one, as I still think you'll see an improvement over a USB drive. Just don't be surprised if you do NOT see an improvement.

Similar Messages

Trying to back up to external hard drive (iomega). Instructions say to erase hard drive. Won't entirely erase. Can't enter iomega in Time Machine. Computer is minimac, operating system is OSx 10.6.8.

Trying to back up to external hard drive (iomega). Instructions say to erase hard drive. Won't entirely erase. Can't enter iomega in Time Machine. Computer is minimac, operating system is OSx 10.6.8.

All you need to upgrade the iBook for Tiger is another 128 MBs of RAM. It has both Firewire and USB ports. You do want to upgrade it for what you plan to do. The problem you may continue to have, however, may be due to the fact that the age of the computer is such the disk controller does not support hard drive volumes larger than 128 GBs, which is probably the reason the drive won't mount.
The reason you get DU errors is likely because the drive was formatted using the Intel Tiger version of DU, while you were using the Jaguar version. That's a definite no-no.

Why can't I drag my files in finder to an external hard drive?

I'm trying to drag my files from finder to an external hard drive--I just get the universal "do not" symbol. How do I do this?

1.youd need a program like PARAGON to write to a NTFS drive from your Mac.
2. IF you can offload that data onto your PC or other computer, THEN format same in Mac OSX extended journaled, you can just drag and drop files to it.
3. To show the HD on desktop go to Finder > preferences > General > check on "external disks" and "hard disks"
4. The "EASY" option really is to get another HD for use with your Mac, unless of course you need specific files off that drive ON your Mac.
$70 for a good cheap quality 1TB external USB HD.
5. FAT32 and (better option>) EXFAT can read/write to BOTH Mac and PC (however time machine will not use either)
6. See mac format below, HFS+ i.e. "mac osx extended journaled"
FORMAT TYPES
FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
Maximum file size: 4GB.
Maximum volume size: 2TB
You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
NTFS (Windows NT File System)
Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
Maximum file size: 16 TB
Maximum volume size: 256TB
You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.
HFS+ ((((MAC FORMAT)))) (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)
Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac internal hard drive.
To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
Maximum file size: 8EiB
Maximum volume size: 8EiB
You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC)
EXFAT (FAT64)
Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
Not all Windows versions support exFAT.
exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
Maximum file size: 16 EiB
Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.

FireWire External Hard Drive Workaround

Scenario:
1.) AirPort Extreme connected to Mac Mini via ethernet.
2.) Mac Mini connected to a FireWire External Hard Drive.
3.) MacBook Pro connected to AirPort Extreme via 802.11n (wireless).
4.) AirPort Utility is administered from the MacBook Pro.
Problem:
Considering that the AirPort Extreme does not support a FireWire External Hard Drive, I was hoping to find a work around. Is there any way to indirectly access the FireWire External Hard Drive connected to my Mac Mini from my AirPort Utility administered from my MacBook Pro? Essentially I want to access files from the External Hard Drive on my MacBook Pro without being physically tethered to my Mac Mini or the External Hard Drive. That is, I would like to define the External Hard Drive as an Airport Disk in Airport Utility so I can utilize the Back To My Mac feature.
Solution:
Your solution goes here...

That is, I would like to define the External Hard Drive as an Airport Disk in Airport Utility so I can utilize the Back To My Mac feature.
No that won't work.
If your Mac mini simply has File Sharing enabled you can get to the drive using Back To My Mac with no involvement of the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS).

Firewire external hard drives no longer mount

I had 2 firewire external hard drives connected, not always at the same time and not running all the time. Suddenly they won't mount. I have run System Profiler and it shows "No information Found". The drives themselves mount on my other Mac laptop.
An external DVD writer, when mounted, shows up in profiler though not on the desktop. I have set the finder preferences to -show all mounted drives. System profiler lists all my USB devices. It's just the 2 Firewire hard drives that show no information found. The DVD writer works in either Firewire port.The hard drives are each made by a different manufacturer.
I have re-started with everything off. I have hot swapped.
Help-I need these drives to store photo files and print publications.
Fairview
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9) G4
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9) G4

fairview:
The next step is to see if it is directory related and Repair Disk:
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report if it says anything but Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need to use a utility like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior
Good luck.
cornelius

I cannot get my iTunes library from my old computer to my new one. The old computer is so messed up that I cannot even get google to open. I tried to copy to an external hard drive and the music was there until I went to upload to the new computer.

I cannot get my iTunes library/music from my old computer to my new one. The old computer is so messed up that I cannot even open a browser.I tried to copy to an external hard drive and the music was there until I went to upload to the new computer. I disconnected my old computer so I will have to reconnect it I am sure. thank you for any help. Last time I transferred I used a product I purchased. That was a long time ago.

First of all make sure that you've definitely backed up the movies to your external hard disc.
In iMovie click on any event you don't want, go to the file menu and select 'move event to trash'. Then do the same for any unwanted projects - 'move project to trash'. Quit out of iMovie and empty the trash.
Hope that helps!

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

My MacBook Pro hard drive is almost full and I wish to store my Aperture Library on an external drive, how do I do this and is the use of USB2 suitable or do I need to use a Firewire external hard drive?

You'll get better performance if you use a Firewire hard drive (especially if you buy a 7200 RPM drive). Firewire's IO speed is significantly faster than USB 2. USB 2 has a theoretical max speed of 480 Mbps except that it has extremely high over-head. The fastest speeds you can typically get are about 300 Mbps. Firewire, on the other hand, has very little overhead. The fastest speeds you can get are very nearly 800 Mbps. You will typically be constrained by the maximum read/write speed of the drive, not the speed of the I/O on the Firewire bus. Now if you had one of those nice shiny new Macs with the Thunderbolt I/O and a Thunderbolt drive (Light Peak) ... I think they alter space and time so that your data arrives before you know you want it.
Also... unless you want to buy a solid state drive (very expensive), try to keep your hard drives from becoming much more than about 60% full if you want great performance. A nearly "full" hard drive is, on average, only about half as fast as the same hard drive when nearly empty.
USB 2 will work perfectly fine... just not as fast.
Also... it's much safer to move the entire Aperture library than to "relocate masters". Your images must be managed. You can Aperture manage them, or you can manage them. But someone has to manage them. If you "relocate" them so that they are no longer stored inside the Aperture library then you'll need to work out a system of how you decide to organize things and it's critically important that you don't start moving files around or deleting things without Aperture's knowledge. If you do, you'll break the links to your masters and start having problems with missing masters. If you have Aperture manage the library then you don't need to worry about any of that stuff.... it's safer.
Do make backups (use the Aperture Vault or use some other backup program, but make sure you back up your work if you care about it.) There are only two kinds of hard drives in the world: (1) those that have failed and (2) those that are going to fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Hard drives are cheap. Backup software is built into Aperture and into your Mac.

I try to export my Imovie and I always get the error code"Unable to prepare project for publishing...File already open with write permission" it even does it when I am just trying to export to my external hard drive to save the file

I try to export my Imovie and I always get the error code"Unable to prepare project for publishing...File already open with write permission" it even does it when I am just trying to export to my external hard drive to save the file

Thanks!!! I had same error (with -49) and the mac had an external hard drive attached.. and it was doing a backup. Stopped, disconnected and the project exported!

Editing using a firewire external hard drive and a NTSC television monitor

I have Final Cut Express 2 and use it with a firewire external hard drive and a NTSC television monitor.
I have started to use iMovie with this same set up. I save my iMovie projects to an external hard drive and also have my miniDV deck connected via firewire with the composite outputs going into a 27 inch television so that I can get a better idea of what my colors and title safe framing, etc. look like.
I have had some minor problems with this set up. Like stuttering video, audio tracks playing back when thay are "unchecked" and the "unexpectedly quit" deal.
Thanks in advance!!!
Frank

iM uses a lot of harddrive space on the "start up"/internal disk, even when the project itself is located on some external drive.. make sure, you have at last 10 - 15GB free...
.. and the goo' ol' stutter-problem, in detail discribed by Mastermind Karl Petersen: Stutter in iM5/6, causes and workarounds <<click

Trying to download from an external hard drive, no icon appears on the screen

trying to transfer files from external hard drive to mac, no icon appears on the screen

Windows uses either FAT32 or NTFS. Mac OS X uses Mac OS Extended also known as HFS+. All you really need to know is that they are just three different methods for storing information. Macs can handle some Windows formats, but Windows cannot handle HFS+ without additional software.
To see the format of the external drive, right-click on the icon and select Properties (Windows) or Get Info (Mac)
Mac OS X has been able to read and write FAT32 formatted hard drives since the very beginning. If you have a FAT32 drive you can simply connect it to your Mac and it will very easily be able to read and write to it. There is nothing special you need to do. However, there are two limitations of FAT32. 1.) It only supports file sizes of 4GB or less. 2.) Some Mac applications may not run from the drive as FAT32 does not adequately handle the permissions structure of Mac OS X.
NTFS is a different story. NTFS is a more modern Windows format but is proprietary to Microsoft. Licensing is required to use it which is probably why Apple doesn’t fully support it. Macs can read an NTFS drive, but they cannot write to one.

New Firewire external hard drive freezes

I have an external USB hard drive, and it works fine if I test it by copying and pasting 10 .jpg files (total ~ 2Meg) to the external USB hard drive from the internal hard drive. I got a new external firewire hard drive and if I try the same test, it freezes mid-copy. (It just sits there forever and I actually have to power down to get it to un-freeze).
It's a brand new Acomdata 250GB firewire external hard drive.
What could be wrong?
Thanks!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I'd return the drive. Get a drive from
Otherworld Computing
Granite Digital (they make cases to go around internal drives)
LaCie
Cooldrives
These are the only ones I know to reliably work under Mac OS X 10.3 or higher.
See my FAQ:
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html
Disclaimer: Reference to links I make to my Macmaps.com website are a for your information only type reference. I do not get any profit from this page, and it is open to the public.

Logic Pro 7. What's the best 800 firewire External H/Drive?

Irie Everyone,
I'm using Logic Pro 7. What's the best 800 firewire External H/Drive to use?
Thanks
Jalion

I am not sure, but I can warn you not to buy the Rosewill enclosure with the Oxford 922 Chip...
http://www.rosewill.com/product/product.aspx?productId=81
That is what I have with a Seagate 160GB, 8MB Cache, 7200RPM, Ultra-IDE hard drive. It's fast, but it has A.D.D. It will fall asleep, even after playing with the hard drive sleep times... Also, it has a slow response time in Logic... I click record, and it takes 3-5 seconds for it to start recording. I get the spinning beach ball of death for that 3-5 seconds... shrugs
My friend bought this drive...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/400+USB2/
And it works perfectly on my computer. No crappy A.D.D... Hope that helps.
~trevor
*Note a few of my best friends have A.D.D. and I hope no one takes offense to that reference... it just seemed VERY fitting in my situation.

Finder freezes when trying to move files to external hard drive

Whenever I try to move files from internal hard drive to my external finder freezes it. I have over 5 TBs of free space on my external, so I know it's not a space issue. This happens no matter the size of the file. It starts the copy and then will freeze before it finishes. If I try to force quit and select relaunch it acts like it is relaunching but my icons never re-appear and the command bar at the top never returns. So I end up having to hard boot.
I just reinstalled the 10.5.8 combo update and verified both hard disks, if any repairs came up I repaired and then did the same with disk permissions....it's still freezing on me. I am frustrated because there are some files I'd really like to move to my external raid hard drive but I'm not able to.
The freezing happens if I'm trying to transfer files from a disc or an additional external HD. My internal HD is only so big and the external Raid drive is for my capture scratch on Final Cut Pro and I'm even having issues capturing to that drive. Everything wants to be on my internal HD and that doesn't work for me.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sean Dale1 wrote:
Do you get any error messages and if so what are they? Do you have any problems copying files off the problem drive back to your Mac or do the freezes only occur when copying to the external?
No I don't get any error messages, the finder just freezes and when I try to relaunch finder it doesn't relaunch properly..all icons are missing and I'm not able to access the the task bar to properly shut down so I have to hard boot.
It happens only when trying to save files to the external, whether through drag and drop or within programs. I am able to access files on the external and copy files from there to my internal without problems.
Have you tried attaching this drive to another Mac and if so do you get the same issues?
I don't have another Mac to attach the drive to.
How is this RAID attached, SCSI, FireWire, SATA or what? How was the RAID created, Disk Utility or third party software and have you verified the integrity of the RAID?
The RAID is attached via SCSI. In an attempt to solve this finder issue I re-installed the drivers to the most current drivers available and in doing so updated any firmware....and there was no change. I was not the one who set up the RAID so I don't know how it was created. It's an Enhance UltraStore R16 and I've been using it without issues since January 2007 and this freezing thing has been intermittent for a few months now but now it's constant and annoying. I've verified the disk through disk utility but I don't have any software to check the integrity otherwise. Do you have any recommendations as to what software I could use to do this?
Message was edited by: Emily80

Trying to install XP on external CD drive

I've looked around, trying to find out how to fix my problem but it I haven't been successful yet so I thought I would ask for help. I have OSX 10.5.5, I have successfully used Boot Camp Assistant to create a boot camp partition. I can see and select the partition in Finder. I have a full version of Windows XP with SP2. My internal CD/DVD drive does not work well, so I am using an external CD/DVD drive. When Boot Camp Assistant asks me to insert the Windows XP Installer disc, I do so, and then the then click continue where my computer restarts. I know this is where I should be restarting in my BootCamp partition and XP should start installing. However, the first time I tried, the computer just sat at the beginning screen with the gray background and the apple logo in the middle of the screen for about 15 minutes. I turned the computer off and when I restarted, the Apple logo started alternating between a question mark, a file folder, a circle with a line through it (like the no smoking sign without the cigarette in it) and the apple. I know this means the computer is looking for a hard drive. I pressed the alt/option button which did nothing, so I restarted again and pressed the alt/control button and was allowed to select the Mac HD, but it does not show any other HD that I can select. When I am back in Leopard, I can still see the partitioned hard drive, but I can not get the computer to restart and begin the installation of XP. I have read in several places that Boot Camp Assistant should ask me what HD to install Windows on, but I have never seen that screen, it just restarts the computer immediately when I press continue. I have also tried to do with while pressing 'C' to force the computer to read the external CD drive, but that gives the same result. Is this a problem with me using an external CD drive instead of my internal one? I can not use the internal, as a label came off from a CD I had out from the library and is stuck in there, making the drive spit out any disc within 20 seconds. Any help is greatly appreciated.

You don't say which MIni though...
A PPC/G4 Mini cannot boot OSX from a USB Drive, only Firewire.
An Intel Mini can boot from a USB Drive, but will not be as fast as Firewire.
If an Intel Mini is what you have, then likely the drive came formatted FAT32, and you just need to format it GUID/MacOS Extended first.
As far as drives, any of these...
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/firewire+drives

Cannot Find Photos on External Hard Drive Using iPhoto and Time Machine

Hi everyone,
This is my first time posting on this forum and am really hoping for some help! I have a 2006 PowerBook G4 that is running iPhoto and Time Machine, and I've used an external hard drive to backup everything on the computer via Time Machine. When I plug the external hard drive into my newer 2010 MacBook Pro, I follow this path to try to access the photos:
     External Hard Drive > Backups.backupd > PowerBook G4 12" > Latest > Macintosh HD > Users > Me > Pictures > iPhoto Library
When I click "iPhoto Library", I get the following message:
     "The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Relaunch iPhoto with <option> key held down to choose another   library."
So, I do as the error message says and I hold down the "option" key and iPhoto launches and says:
     What Photo Library do you want iPhoto to use?
In this case, I choose "Other Library..." and again follow this path:
     External Hard Drive > Backups.backupd > PowerBook G4 12" > Latest > Macintosh HD > Users > Me > Pictures > iPhoto Library
When I choose this, I again get the following message:
     The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Relaunch iPhoto with <option> key held down to choose another   library.
So as you can see, I'm feeling a bit like I'm chasing my tail in trying to open these photos. I did follow another user's advice and confirm that all photos are infact on the hard drive by using the "control" button and clicking "iPhoto Library" under the pictures folder, and choosing "Show Package Contents". All looks to be in tact in the "originals" folder when showing package contents, however, I just can't find a way to actually view the photos in iPhoto. I really don't want to import all the photos to my current MacBook Pro, because I'd like them to live on the external hard drive (which is formatted for Macs) so that I can browse the photos on the external drive, rather than housing it on my computer.
One other thing I tried was opening iPhoto on my MacBook Pro and going to File > Browse Backups... which essentially opens Time Machine and shows me the photos on my MacBook Pro but gives me no option to view them from my External Hard Drive.
Any super users out there willing to lend me some help?
Thanks!

The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Relaunch iPhoto with <option> key held down to choose another   library.
You can have an iPhoto library on an external drive and use it from different machines
and you can have a Time Machine backup
The two can not be on the same volume - and iPhoto can not access the TM backup - it must be restored to use it
LN

I'm trying to find a firewire external cd drive.

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