IMac, firewire, drobo and camera

Hi guys,
I'm currently working off an old power pc-based mac pro and need to upgrade.
I'd like to get an iMac but am running into an issue: I think I need two firewire ports
I use a drobo drive, connected via fw and if I ever need to capture video, which I do at least twice a week, via fw I'd be screwed right? I'd have to disconnect the drobo drive and capture the video to the internal drive, unplug the camera, plug in the drobo and copy the files to the drobo.
Are there any other options???

Hi Nick
FireWire devices can be daisy chained one to another, check your Drobo Drive it should have a second FireWire port to connect your camera and other devices into.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26476
Likewise if your Drobo Drive is only FireWire 400, then you will need either a 400 to 800 cable or a 400 to 800 adapter to connect it to a new iMac's single Firewire 800 port.
http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-F017-006-Firewire-Hi-speed/dp/B000AAZQLI/ref=pdbxgy_e_textb
http://www.amazon.com/elago-FireWire-400-800-Adapter/dp/B002TF0ZDQ/ref=pdcp_e2
Dennis

Similar Messages

Why an I losing contact with Firewire drives and camera back?

One of my computers suddenly won't connect to a Phase One digital back via firewire.
Tried to plug in a external drive to check the port. No contact. (Tried various cables, etc.)
Tried camera on another computer. No contact. Tried firewire drives that had been running before on this same computer, and now it won't read these drives.
My PhaseOne dealer assures me that a digital back can't possible fry or disable a port. Still. there they are.
Took one of these drives to yet another computer that connects fine with yet another drive, tried the problem drive, and there was no connection. When I checked About This Mac there was a spinning wheel, as though it were looking for something.
Any thoughts, anyone? I don't want to test more drives if they are being damaged. And if they are, can they be recovered?
Many thanks
Sean Kernan

Hi, John.
1. I presume in Finder Preferences, in the General tab, you've selected "CDs, DVDs, and iPods" under "Show on desktop." Otherwise, FireWire drives won't display on the desktop, but they should still appear in the Finder's Sidebar.
2. If you did not Eject the drive before you disconnected it or powered it off, its partition map may be corrupted. That could explain the symptoms you are seeing. Your FireWire-based digital camera back may be seen as a FireWire drive.
Disconnecting a removable storage device — FireWire drive, USB drive, etc. — without first ejecting it can result in the drive's partition map being corrupted. Before disconnecting such a device, one must first Eject it by either:
- Dragging its icon to the Trash.
- Control-clicking the drive's icon and selecting Eject from its contextual menu.
- In Disk Utility, selecting the device, then selecting Eject in the Disk Utility toolbar.
If there's data on the drive you wish to recover, see my "Data Recovery" FAQ. Once you recover the data you want to save, if any, you will need to repartition and reformat the drive.
3. Before you panic w.r.t. item 2 above, Here is some general troubleshooting advice w.r.t. FireWire devices that may help:(1) Review the AppleCare Knowledge Base document "What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire device".
(2) If this problem occurred after installing a recent Mac OS X Update, and you are also unable to mount CDs, DVDs, or disk images perform the steps in this Mac OS X Hints article.
(3) The following additional steps will often help resolve problems with FireWire devices, particularly hard drives:(a) Power-on the FireWire drive before starting up (booting) your Mac.
(b) Reset PRAM and NVRAM.
(c) Reset the PMU or SMU: Select the appropriate knowledge base item for your model of Mac from this KB search. Follow the instructions on resetting the PMU or SMU carefully!
(d) Try a different FireWire port. James Wiebe, CEO of WiebeTech, has published FireWire Port Failures in Host Computers and Peripheral Devices, a white paper providing backgroud information and technical analysis concerning the causes of failure for FireWire ports. This may provide additional diagnostic information.
(e) Check with the manufacturer of your FireWire drive or enclosure to see if any firware updates are available for such.(4) Hopefully, the partition map on the FireWire drive is not damaged. If it still refuses to mount, you may need to employ data recovery tools or services: see my "Data Recovery" FAQ.Note that some of the information above is from the "FireWire Problems" chapter of my book, Troubleshooting Mac® OS X.
PS: You've not provided any info about the computer in question, i.e. Mac model, installed RAM, installed version of Mac OS X, etc. That's always important to include in a post, and I suggest you add it to your profile: click "My Settings" in the upper-right section of the sidebar on the right side of this page.
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

IMac i7 Quad-Core firewire port and video camera

Has anybody tried to detect a video camera connected to the firewire 800 port?
I have already tried with two PRO tape-based DV video cameras: SONY PD170 and PANASONIC AG-HVX200E with no results. The same models do not have any problem with iMac 27" Core Duo 2.
Apple care protection plan has been useful only to know that if my iMac firewire port can handle an external Hard Disk, as it does, the compatibility with the camera is not a problem of Apple, but simply mine.
Any suggestion? Any help to find official pages by Apple with technical specification about firewire port and protocol of the new iMac 27" i7?
Thanks, Carlo
Message was edited by: Carlo G

Today my Mac has finally been fixed. I had to send it to Milano, to SATA srl, where they have replaced the logic board. Now I can import video from my video camera using the FireWire port. Thank SATA!!!
Message was edited by: Carlo G

Audio interface for 24" iMac - conflict between firewire 400 and 800?

So, what I have now:
2.8ghz iMac, latest model, newest firmware, running OS 10.4.11, connected to an M-Audio Ozonic Firewire 400 interface, and I was hoping to run said interface while ALSO connecting a firewire 800 hard drive for samples, or for recording to.
Alas, as soon as I turn on the firewire 800 drive, a model sold by Other World Computing and containing an Oxford chipset, all audio stops on the Ozonic keyboard and is replaced by clicks and pops. The only way I've found to get the audio back is with a complete restart of the system, with the firewire 800 drive OFF.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the M-Audio device, it's a small keyboard and firewire audio interface in one unit. Perhaps not the highest quality, but my Powerbook G4 1.67 with firewire 800 CAN run both the Ozonic and the firewire 800 drive at the same time. With no interruption in sound playback.
I did some research and discovered that in the iMac I bought, the two firewire channels, 400 and 800, appear to be on the same PCI E bus, and perhaps will NEVER work together.
Is that right? I thought the whole point of firewire was how it's able to negotiate such communications and work seamlessly with other firewire devices. I know, I know, I'm living in dreamland, it's just sad that a much older Apple product (my PPC notebook), can do something a brand new model cannot. Sigh.
Any advice? Any chance 10.5 fixes this?
If not, should my next audio interface be USB 2.0? Any thoughts from the Audio pros out there (besides 'you bought the wrong machine) would be great.

Sorry I can't help with your specific query as I have never used that Audio hardware.
I am a video man myself and went for the 24" 2.8Ghz iMac as i believe the Firewire 400 and 800 Buses are seperate. I know on older iMacs and even the MacPro the FW800 and 400 buses were on the same bus and when connecting a firewire video camera to the FW400 bus, the 800 would lower it's speed to 400 to accomodate or in some cases would lose the connection all together.
I currently have a FW800 Hard drive connected to the FW800 port and a video deck in the FW400 port and they both run at full speed 800/400 respectively.
This leads me to believe Apple have fixed the Firewire sharing problem.
I know it's no help but just though I would share my experience with the Firewire on the new iMac.

Firewire and camera Canon

hi , my iMac 20'' with iLife '08 bought in december 2008 can't see the Canon MV400 camcorder ( I use the firewire 6 pin to mac and 4 pin to camera ; I have 2 port on my iMac: FireWire 6 pin and FireWire 800);
on a Mac+iLife '06 of my friend the camera works without any drivers . why not in my new iMac??
Canon have no driver for device.
please help me!!!

Hi Jouly
appart from the Canon camcorder, do you have other peripherirals connected to your mac through firewire interfaces ?
I have a old iMac G5, and a canon Camcorder too. I had the same behaviour you've described when I was trying to connect an external hard drive and the camcorder at the same time .
Each was connected to a separated firewire (400) plug. When disconnected the external hard drive, it went okay again
Cheers
Sylvain

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%.

I migrated my old IMac to new and Aperture won't let me import from camera

I migrated old iMac to new and Aperture will not let me import from camera from. Migrating created two users and I get an error message saying I do not have permission write. I have gone to get info and it says I have read and write permissions.
iMac 10.7.5 Aperture 3.4.5

nopriors wrote:
I used migration Assistant
That's the problem. Apple doesn't make it clear that you should transfer when the new Mac starts up, not later on with Migration Assistant.
which told me to enter a new name . I had the new computer and old with same name. I called the new user my name with word "old" so not the same name as old Mac.
The problem isn't the names, it's the (mostly hidden) User ID number (UID). See the pink box in Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation of what happened.
Your best bet is to use one of the workarounds (probably #4) in the green box there, to re-transfer your account. It will have exactly the same name and permissions as before.
If you want to change the name, you can, but it takes a minor finagle. Post back if you want to do that.

I got a new iMac and my keyboard is not pairing to the iMac. The Keyboard came with the computer.

I got a new iMac and my keyboard is not pairing to the iMac. The Keyboard came with the computer.

Since it's a new machine, contact Apple's Support and let them deal with it.
27" i7 iMac (Mid 2011) refurb, OS X Yo (10.10.1), Mavs, ML & SL, G4 450 MP w/10.5 & 9.2.2

Imac wont recognize video camera through fire wire

Hey, iv got gotten a new iMac with Lion on it and my video tape camera (Canon ZR960) isnt recognized by my imac, i plug it in through firewire 800 and nothing happes? This is the only camera i have the caputres from tape and i have recently recorded a project and need it captured to Final Cut Pro X but either way no matter what i do i cannot get the computer to see it.

I don't have FCP X, but from what I know from FCE sand iMovie, those programs all have specific instructions on how to import footage. This is from your user manual (available from the Help menu or online where I found it):
It covers all sorts of options including tape based devices.

IMac firewire port is not working

iMac firewire port is not working
Hi everybody, Happy New Year.
I am a 72 years old semi-newbie in video editing, because Iedit only 1 or may be 2 movies a year since 2007 and I have only very little computer knowledge.
I received a new 27” iMac as a birthday gift 14 months ago. About 10 months ago, with help, I successfully use the Migration Assistant to transfer some datas from my old power G4 to the iMac including two Final Cut Express projects. I had one project successfully done; burned to DVD and I save it with Print To Video. Last week, I have my second project done, I burned the sequences into DVD but unable to do a Print To Videodue to the iMac is not communicating with my Sony camcorders DCR VX1000, this is the same camcorder I used on the last job which was working a couple of months ago.As a result, I try to switch the Easy Setup with different Format and different Use; I refresh the Canvas window; I did a Mix down; move the Screen Saver to NEVER as well as the Energy Saver set to NEVER SLEEP. I also trashed the preferences (plist) folders; run the Utility repair, I replaced the firewire cable (4 pines – 9 pines 800), but nothing work. Up to this point, I think that there is no signal from the firewire port to the camcorder because I understand when the sequences is ready, the firewire is connected between the computer and the recording camcorder, the Print to Video is activated, then the word DV- IN should be seen on the recording deck screen. This time, I don’tread such words on the recording screen. Therefore, I think there’s no out going signal from the iMac to the recording camcorder and the iMac is not receiving signal from the recording camcorder. At this point, I try to connect my iMac to the power G4 to see if I can do some data transfer. Follow the procedures, I hook up the data transfer cable between the G4 and the iMac, I can the fireswire icon moving on the G4 screen but no indication on the iMac screen (there should be some indications in the source bar), this shows me the iMac did not recognize the G4 which worked on previous data transfer. It looks to me the firewire port on my iMac is dead. What has gone wrong? Could I accidentally disabled the firewire port by some magic keystroke? (i.e. accidentally fat finger some thing to make it stop working? Oh, by the way, during the playing around, went to the Final Cut tool bar, I click the View >Video Out > Digital Cinema Desktop Preview – Main, the result was a black screen and the esc key was my rescuer - LUCKY LUCKY! Are there any other trouble-shooting techniques to apply before bringing to shop? Please help!
Sorry for such a long statement, forgive me for unable to make it shorter. Thank you for your patience. Thanks to all the folks in this board for being so helpful.
p.s.

Not sounding good.
If the system Profiler does not see it then there is a basic communication problem between camera and the Mac.
I'm thinking the Firewire port is the culprit as some 800 ports were faulty.
I'd suggest taking the Mac, cable and camera to your nearest Authorized Apple Service Centre and get them to diagnose the issue. eg. let them try to connect the two devices.
Right (control)click the Sequence icon in the Browser and select Item Properties, do the same for a clip.
You can also post screen shots for the Properties.
Al

Imac firewire cable

Hi all
I was given a imac CRT 600mhz and the prior owner included a cable with firewire connection at one end and the other end I'm not sure what it connects to but it has a small female port connector with apple icon. It looks like a cable for camcorder capability.
Thanks for your help
Web dude

I can't see a question above so I assume you're asking for confirmation(?)
That's a 6pin-to-4pin Firewire 400 cable.
My iMac DV 400MHz came with one and I still use it with my DV Camcorder today. Many PCs especially laptops use the 4pin "Firewire" aka "iLink" aka "IEEE1394" connector rather than the 6pin "Firewire" connector we are used to on the Mac. The 6pin is the superior connector. It's more physically robust and can power the external device (like portable hard disks); the 4pin connector cannot. I've only ever seen DV Camcorders with the 4pin version.
cheers
mrtotes

How do I find the hardware specs? (iMAC, PowerMac G3 and PowerPC)

For starters I have never used a mac before
We have some iMACs, PowerMac G3s and PowerPCs in stock which have had their HDDs erased (zero'd) so there is no OS installed.
I need to find the CPU type/speed & RAM size
Is there a boot cd I can load to determine this?
I assume there is no BIOS feature like in PCs where the hardware is listed?
Many thanks
Paul

A "boot CD" for a Mac is the Mac OS X installation disc that comes with it. You obviously don't have that... Mac's should always be sold with its original discs, but that's a pipe dream, I suppose.
The next best thing is a retail Mac OS X installation disc. These are the discs Apple sells "in a box" to owners of existing Macs in order to upgrade to the latest OS release. If you get one for Panther (10.3) or Tiger (10.4), startup from it by holding down the C key. When you get to the first Installer screen, go to the Apple menu and select +About This Mac+. That will tell you processor type, processor speed, and amount of RAM installed.
Make sure it's a retail disc. They are black with a silver X. Mac OS X installation discs that came with a particular Mac model (usually gray color) will usually not work on other models.
The current OS release, Leopard (10.5), would not be a good choice for this purpose because many G4 and below Macs cannot run it.
Tiger will work on all PowerPC Macs that originally had a G4 and have at least 256mb of RAM. It will also work on slot-loader G3 iMac (not tray-loaders), Blue and White Power Mac G3 (not beige), PowerBook G3 (only the model with FireWire) - not earlier G3 models.
Panther will work on all PowerPC Macs that originally had a G4 and most G3's that have at least 128mb of RAM, so it may be the best choice for this purpose.
There are some G3 Macs that need to have a firmware upgrade before running Mac OS X (even the installer) for the first time. This is particularly harmful to slot-loading G3 iMacs.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1395
If most of the Macs have a FireWire port, and you have an external FireWire drive, you should install either Panther or Tiger on that drive. Then you can boot each Mac from that external FireWire drive and run System Profiler to get more detailed information about the system. Mac OS X installations are generalized, so as long as a PowerPC Mac ran the installation, it should work with supported PowerPC Macs. Some Macs do not have FireWire. USB external drives are not bootable on most PowerPC Macs.

IMac, Firewire 800 issue

I am using a 24-inch iMac with 1GB RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and running Mac OS X 10.4.11. Since I edit video, I am using Final Cut Pro HD and dealing with files that take up a large amount of space. The LaCie Rugged External Drive that I am using has a FireWire 800 Port, but when I plug in this way, the drive does not show up. The drive does however, work with the regular FireWire 400 Port. This is a problem since the external camera I am using for video capture requires a FireWire to DV cable, and I only have one 400 and one 800 port on the iMac. Using the camera or an external DV deck is also a problem in itself since it is not recognized in Final Cut whenever an external drive of any kind is plugged in. This happens with the LaCie and a Western Digital MyBook that I have. Strangely enough, the Western Digital sometimes does not work with a 400 cable, but works with 800. As soon as the drives are ejected, the camera is recognized. I was curious if someone had an answer to either of these issues, since I do not wish to use the Main Hard drive for these large video files. I am thinking it is some type of issue with the ports but I am not sure. Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

I think that there are, in general, a number of issues with the FireWire drivers for the Intel Macs. I had submitted several bug reports with observations and logs of the behavior. I don't think it's the hardware since, if you, say, run a different operating system on the same machine, there are no issues with the drives or cameras (under Linux anyway, never tried Windows).
The behavior changed when I upgraded to Leopard from Tiger. In particular, I could daisy-chain the camera off a FW drive after the upgrade. However, FinalCut experiences more frame-drops on transferring DV video than it did in Tiger. iMovie does not drop any frames at all, and I suspect the two applications are using different frameworks/libraries for accessing the DV video stream. Whereas, under Linux, frames are never dropped.
I'd contact LaCie, though, about the drive not appearing. A lot of those problems stem from firmware problems on their drives (or at least have in the past). You might find a firmware update for your drive on their web-site that would fix the problem.
In the meantime, though, I still maintain that there are issues with FireWire on Intel Macs related to the FireWire drivers.

2009/2010 iMac Firewire 800 port dead - can anyone help?

My iMac i7 firewire port is dead. I've tried PRAM reset and SMS reset, and clean OS instal. I'm terrified as soemone told me it's connected to logic board and could cost £700 to replace if hardware is faulty. Need firewire port to connect to Pro Tools Digirack 003, have tested it on various other firewire devices and nothing is recognised. Any help would be greatfully appreciated x PS Running Mountain Lion.

Ok, for connecting the camera to the iMac I used a 9-4 pin cable that externally looks like the one you linked in your post and unfortunately I can't test it with other devices.
However, I tried to connect my Iomega MiniMax HDD (1 TB) via FireWire.
The HDD has a 400 FireWire port and I used a cable like this http://www.smelectronics.com/images2/FIREWIRE96.jpg to connect it to the FireWire 800 of the iMac.
Again Snow Leopard can't see the external device.

2011 Imac firewire port

I have a 2011 imac. Has anyone had intermittent connection problems with the firewire port? When I have been importing video sometimes imovie would say there is no video signal and the imovie screen would turn blue. This happened only a couple of times. Once I went back to firewire plug and push it in and it came back. Also I am getting random messeges that a device wasn't properly ejected. I do have a cheap usb hub wih a couple of drives connected but if it is that I don't see how that would effect the firewire port.
Cassini

Not real important, but what FireWire Camera or device are you using?
I'd try another > FireWire 800 to 400 9 to 4 pin Cable first and then if that doesn't work go to > Apple - Support - iMac - Service FAQ

IMac, firewire, drobo and camera

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