IMac internal HD vs Firewire 800 RAID1 external HD

Please excuse if this has been discussed before.
My setup is a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with 4 GB RAM, 320GB internal and1.5TB external firewire 800 RAID1.
Since the internal drive has faster data transfer speed but the external has faster seek/read/write speed, what should go where?
I use mostly Aperture, Photoshop, browser. System files on the internal with apps on the external?
What's optimal?

Your system is very similar to mine. I have the same size internal HD and use FW 800 drives for storage and backup. I keep my Aperture and iTunes libraries on one of the EHD's. Performance seems great, I also recently upgraded the RAM to 6GB, if your machine will accept 6GB that would help performance too. On my machine (late 2007 24 iMac) Apple doesn't officially support 6GB however it has been known for about 2 years it works fine.

Similar Messages

  • New imac has only one firewire 800 port?

    Is there a hub or repeater you can use instead of daisy chaining. Can't figure out why my old imac has two firewire ports and the new imac has one. How are others managing multiple hard drives? I wish to use a hub for my firewire connections. What is the best way. thanks

    You can locate Firewire hubs however they are expensive. I have had 3 Firewire 800 external HD's daisy chained together for 3 years that work flawlessly. The drives I have come with 2 FW 800 ports so this is quite easy, there are several top quality external HD's that are similar including:
    OWC Mercury Pro line
    Lacie Quadra D2 line (this is what i have)
    G-Tech G series line
    All of these drives have similar specifications and are all high quality products. I think you will find them to be the most recommended on these forums.
    BTW your old iMac had 1 Firewire port and 1 Firewire 800 port not 2 firewire ports.
    Regards,
    Roger

  • Firewire 800 + many external drives

    Hi there,
    I have 3 existing WD external drievs running from my Firewire 800 port. They are currently daisy chained and work fine.
    I bought another one today, and starting to feel there might be a problem if I was to plug another drive in of a total 4.
    Can someone tell me what is the limit to this and if there is any danger of short circuiting or losing data if I added more drives?
    Thanks
    C

    Hi The Mac Clam,
    FireWire can technically support up to 63 devices in a daisy chain but I can't imagine you'd get any sort of reasonable data throughput at that range. With that being said, 4 will absolutely work with the understanding that the more you keep adding on the overall data throughput will being degrade.

  • IMac G5 and firewire 800 between external drives?

    I have a iMac G5 running 10.4.7 which has two firewire 400 ports.
    One FW400 port has a Seagate external drive connected, and an iSight is connected to this drives second FW port.
    The second FW400 port has a LaCie 250Gb triple interface drive, which has one USB, one FW400, and two FW800 ports.
    I'm looking to add a third firewire drive, a duplicate of the LaCie.
    I am wondering (before I buy the new drive) if I can connect the new LaCie drive to my existing LaCie with a FW800 cable and have my iMac recognize it.
    I'd rather not buy a firewire hub (if such a thing exists) if I can get all three drives and the iSight to mount simultaneously without it.
    iMac G5 17" 1.8   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

    It did work - chaining the external drives together via FW800, and then connecting one to the iMac via FW400.

  • Firewire 800 2 External Hard Drives, 1 w/800, other w/400

    Backstory:
    My current External Hard Drive has both USB & Firewire 400. I've just purchased another, larger, that has both 400 & 800. The original I'll call the 400 is set w/Time Machine. I'd like to switch that to the new 1, "800", but still keep the old connected as a secondary back up device for specific items.
    All that being said, how do I go about doing this?
    With the 400 already installed on my computer, it IS visible on my Desktop as it should be. When I attempted to start the new 1, 800, it does not show.
    Due note, I was unaware only 1 firewire item shows at a time. Should I be concerned about my computer, or is this common? Both show properly in my "System Profiler", but ONLY 1 AT A TIME.

    Strange. I have seen posts claiming certain Macs don't recognize 2 firewire ports at the same time.
    That is nonsense. I have two FireWire drive connected to two separate ports. Please provide a link to such a post.
    When I unmounted my 400 (old), then it showed in the profiler, but still not on the desktop.
    If the 800 drive's volume does not mount when the other drive is disconnected, there is something wrong with the drive.
    Connect the 800 drive by itself (no 400 drive connected). Run Disk Utility. Does the drive show up in the sidebar? If so, is there a volume indented under the drive in the sidebar? If not, you may need to go to the Erase tab (or Partition tab) and format the drive. If there is an existing volume, select it in the sidebar and click the Mount button in the toolbar.
    So the first step is getting the 800 drive to be recognized properly by itself.

  • FIREWIRE 800 and External HDD

    I have two WD MyBook Studio Edition from at least 1 year. They always works fine. They are working with HFS
    But yesterday I put it one with time machine and when i get up the HDD was off.
    Today i powered on again when i transfer some files, the system randomly ejects the HDD and it switched it off.
    Mac OS X shows me a message like when you ejects a USB without unmounting.
    And prove with other wire, i reset the PRAM, i switched off the iMAC more than 2 hours with all wires disconnected but it alwyas fails.
    What more can i do ?

    I have same issue with my Seagate... is it an update issue?
    The HDD gets connected after a while or if you reconnect the power source to it.

  • Focusrite Saffire does not show up when connected to Imac by Firewire 800

    When I connect my focusrite saffire to my i7 imac 27" via the firewire 800 port, the device does not show up on the computer, however it does light up indicating it is being powered off the firewire. When I click on "about this mac<more info<firewire", all I see is this " Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec", I have checked and my "AppleFWAudio" file is up to date. The Focusrite uses Firewire 400 but I use an adaptor which converts it to 800, I have tried different adapters and cables from a number of companies which were suggested by Focusrite themselves and none of them worked.
    Any ideas on what the problem could be?

    I too was having problems connecting my Focusrite Saffire to my new iMac 27" i7.  It would light up and click several times, but it would never be in a ready state w/ both LINE indicators being green.  The Saffire Control software would say the the Saffire DSP didn't load and to unplug it and re-plug and wait for the lights to turn green, but that never happened.  I called Sweetwater (where I bought the unit) and they didn't seem to know of any prevailing issues, BUT the tech did suggest to reboot the iMac in 32 bit mode (hold down the '3' and '2' keys during startup).  I did that and replugged the Saffire but it exhibited the same problem.  I unplugged it and left it for like 3 minutes then reattached the firewire cable and it mounted.  I opened up the Sound preferences and was able to select it and get sound out of it.  I then opened DP and ran a quick test and it worked as well.  The next test was to reboot into 64 bit mode.  I did that while the Saffire was still connected and it actually stayed mounted and connected upon reboot.  I have my System Sound output running through it right now and its still working.  I haven't tried DP yet, but will do that later.  I'm not going to reboot again until I hear back from Focusrite.  I sent in a help request last night. 
    Hope this helps someone.

  • Capturing Video on New iMac with only 1 FireWire Port

    Using one of the new Apple iMacs, what is the best way to capture digital video footage (Mini DV) into Final Cut using an external drive as your scratch disk? The iMac offers only one FireWire 800 port. Is it advisable to connect the camcorder to the FireWire port and use a USB 2.0 to connect the external drive? Or can you connect the drive via FireWire 800 and connect the output of the camcorder to one of the other Fireiwre ports on the drive? In this instance I am using a Lacie Rugged Hard Disk that has one FireWire 800, one FireWire 400, and one USB 2.0 port.

    They often do not play well with other firewire devices on the same bus. And since all the firewire ports on a Mac are on the same bus, it can lead to incompatibilities during capture. On some computers they work fine, on others they collide.
    Try it and see if it works for you. If it does, be happy. If it doesn't, you'll have to do the external drive/camera shuffle.
    It goes like this:
    • turn off the computer and all connected devices,
    • disconnect the external drive
    • connect the camera using a FW800 to FW400 cable
    • turn on the camera
    • turn on the computer
    • launch FCP, set the capture scratch folder to the system drive then capture
    • shut down the computer and the camera
    • disconnect the camera and connect the external drive
    • turn on the drive
    • turn on the computer
    • launch finder and move the captured files from the system drive to the external
    • launch FCP and reset the capture scratch folder to the external drive
    • open your project and reconnect the media.
    Or, use a different (non-Canon) capture device.
    Or, get a computer that has multiple internal drives or has expansion capabilites so you can add a firewire card to create a second independent firewire bus for the camera.
    Good luck,
    x

  • Upgrading my intel iMac to internal SSD and running 1TB external drive from firewire 800 for mass storage while still using a second external drive for backups...my goal-speed with a SSD, to still have 1TB of room for everything i have now..possible?

    I seem to kill HD's every two years...the last two i've installed were WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200rpm 3.5" drives. The speed gains over  stock drives have been remarkable. I don't blame the drives for the failures, my machines are up and running 16 hours a day, every day, year round. They die from 'mileage' so to speak...i assume...there's no viral acvtivity or questionable downloads to gunk things up...just lots of work.
    I have my third new drive ready to install in my intel based iMac...but i've had a thought...I want to install a SSD in my iMac for the speed gain (and recent price drops)...for standard storage i want to use this new WD Caviar Black 1TB in an external drive bay and connect via firewire 800 for storing everything except the OS and my most commonly used software...am i crazy? will the firewire 800 external drive negate the speed gained with an internal SSD??
    I have four iMacs in my office, and one at home. I buy second hand and install new drives and boost memory. I'm going to do this on my 'home' machine...if it works out well i want to upgrade the other three this way...but first i need to know if i'm just dreaming, or will it really make a difference? or even possible??
    Thanks!
    2.66 intell core2duo
    2009 iMac
    8gig ram
    1 gig hd
    OSX ver. 10.8

    The SSD gives great bootup and Application launch speed. I think it also speeds up the video rendering a bit, I do all that on the SSD and then move the finished project to the external drives. As far as the speed for the external drives they are quick enough for viewing video and the file transfer rate is good. I had initially put the SSD into an external cradle (FW800) and the system was faster than on the internal drive. I only got a 1.5GBs SATA drive, perhaps yours could benefit from the 3GBs. I know the 6GBs would be too fast and costs a lot more, even the MacPros need special hookups to make use of the 6GBs.

  • IMac drive failure? Consider running off a Firewire 800 external

    This is an informational post, but worth sharing I believe.
    My 2009 iMac 1TB Seagate (ST31000528ASQ) has failed.
    For the SECOND time. When the first one failed at 1.5 y Apple charged me $200+ ($40 service, which is a bargain, and $160+ for the drive which was excessive) to put this one in. I was later reimbursed when Apple extended its recall range.
    Now, at age 1.5 y, the second one of this wretched line has failed. I could pay another $200+ to Apple, assuming they'd still service my 4 yo iMac. Or I could bit the bullet, pay $650 for an SSD, and then pay $240 for an independent to work on the disgustingly unserviceable iMac. With the SSD I'd probably extend the machines useable lifespan another 2 years, and I'd get far higher reliability. The latter is very important to me.
    Except, there's another option. One that is much cheaper.
    My drive wasn't quite dead, so I was able to use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable external drive. It sits in a Firewire 800 cradle, I used a 7200 rpm 1TB Samsung - one of my offsite backup rotation drives. I booted off this drive and use Disk Utility to unmount my internal. I figured I'd do this while I decided which option to pursue.
    Weird thing is, the iMac 2009 works rather well this way. If anything, it's FASTER than it was running off the internal drive. Aperture is MUCH smoother.
    If your internal drive fails in this old machine, I think switching to a fast, big external drive is a good option to consider.

    Since the Mac is set to boot off the external, i was suprised a complete failure of the internal would make a difference. How does that happen? (I unmount using Disk Utility, it presumably remounts when I restart. But I supposed if it died it couldn't remount :-).

  • DVD-R/R+ ATA Internal vs DVD-R/-R Firewire 800 external?

    Looking to add another DVD burner... Which is faster? Internal ATA or external Firewire 800? Does it really matter?

    You can burn a DVD just as fast on a ATA connection as on a FireWire connection. My Mac Pro has a internal Pioneer DVR-111 ATA drive. My iMac has a external FireWire Pioneer DVR-111 Drive. On both i can burn dvd's and cd's with the same speed.
    Hopefully this is the info you where looking for. Exact the same drive's on different connection's, same performance.

  • 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.

  • Daisy chaining external hard drives and a video camera from a single firewire 800 port on my imac

    I have only a single firewire 800 port on my imac and want to know if I can daisy chain two external hard drives and my video camera, please? If not is there another solution using USB 2?

    Are the external HDs self powered or powered by the FW port?  If they are self powered there should not be a problem. If they are port powered they may put a strain on the port's power output but I'n not positive on that. 

  • Can iMac iSight (2 firewire 400 ports)  use a Firewire 800 external drive?

    If I don't get more than 400 data transfer speeds I don't mind- I may buy a new iMac next year anyway but will it work at all now?
    I'm looking lustfully at a Western Digital My Passport Studio Firewire 800 320Gb poertable external HD.

    Thanks guys, I've attributed points accordingly, bonus smugness goes to anyone who might point me in the direction of an "appropriate cable". Oh... and I'd like the moon on a stick please. Seriously though, thanks for the advice, I'm going to wait for the Western Digital Firewire 800 version of their My Passport Studio portable external hard drive to become available in the UK.

  • 5400RPM internal drive vs 7200RPM external drive (firewire 800) faster?

    Which is faster?
    13" MacBook 320GB 5400RPM stock internal drive
    LaCie d2 quadra 1TB 7200RPM external hard drive connected via FireWire 800.
    Thanks,
    Scott

    Need to know exactly what the drives are to understand their data transfer rates & buffer sizes.
    The 13" MB uses a 5400rpm SATA drive. Don't know if it's SATA-I or SATA-II. Don't know the manufacturer or model of the drive.
    The Lacie d2Quadra uses a 7200rpm SATA-II drive. Don't know the manufacturer or model of the drive.
    However, you could compare a 2.5" Seagate Momentus 5400.6 (commonly used in laptops) ... against a 3.5" Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (common in external enclosures).
    The 5400.6 has a peak read throughput of 83.2MB/sec (see Tom's Hardware).
    The 7200.12 has a peak throughput of nearly 130 MB/sec (see Viperlair)
    But hold on, the 5400.6 would be operating on a SATA bus, so it can probably achieve that 83.2MB/s. The external 7200.12 operating over FW800 would be limited to FW800's maximum throughput of about 100MB/sec.
    Even so, it would appear the FW800 drive can potentially deliver 20% better throughput. But the performance of all drives declines as you fill up the drive, so take that into consideration.

Maybe you are looking for