Internal sata vs external fw800

Bottom line which is better/ faster, adding a second internal SATA (does it slow the internal buss) or an external FW800?
Specicfically I'm looking at a internal SATA 250GB Barracuda vs. an external LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme
TIA
G5 dual core 2.3 GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

Go with the internal first.
If you do go external FW, you should pick up a FW card for the computer to give you a second bus and help avoid problems you can run into when using multiple FW devices on one bus.
rh

Similar Messages

  • Can I use an internal drive or external only?

    It seems you need a very large (1TB) drive dedicated to Time Machine.
    As internal storage is always cheaper, would an internal non-boot drive in the additional PCI slot work for Time Machine, specifically will it see an internal drive or only external firewire drives?
    And as I've read in other posts it's not recommended to partition the drive?
    Any other formatting suggestions?
    Thanks!

    You have four drive bays in the computer. For best speed for backup you should install the backup drive in one of your four bays if possible. If that isn't possible then you have the option to use an external FireWire drive. You also have two additional internal SATA connectors. However, you only have one extra bay, the one for the second optical drive. You can install a drive in the spare optical drive bay and connect it to the same ribbon as the optical drive unless you have one of the models that uses all SATA drives, even the optical drive.
    The general requirements for a TM drive are that it be partitioned using GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. A TM drive should be at least twice the capacity of the drive or drives it will back up. Over time a TM backup drive will fill up at which time it is either replaced or erased.

  • Mid-2009 MacBook Pro sees internal SATA hard drive, but will not boot from or format

    I inherited a Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53 GHz model) with a very strange issue.
    It first presented itself as not being able to boot from the internal SATA hard drive that came with the computer. Nothing I tried could get it to boot, so I assumed the file system was corrupted beyond repair and booted from a CD to try to format the drive. Disk Utility on the CD would not format the drive, giving me strange error messages like "Unable to write to the last block of the device".
    At this point I figured the drive itself must be toast, so I pulled it out and put another known-good SATA hard drive in, booted from CD, and attempted to format. Again, same error messages and an unsuccesful format.
    So I had the bright idea of formatting one of the drives in an external enclosure and then putting it in the MBP to see if OS X would even install. No dice. Get a cryptic error message before installation even begins.
    So I installed OS X on the drive in the external enclosure and put it in the MBP, and it attempts to boot, but never goes anywhere.
    So to sum up, the symptoms I'm seeing:
    MacBook Pro CAN see internal SATA hard drives.
    MacBook Pro WILL NOT boot from any internal SATA hard drive and cannot format or install OS X to any internal SATA hard drive.
    MacBook Pro WILL boot from any CD or external device and seems to work properly otherwise.
    At this point I'm thinking it's one of two things: the hard drive ribbon cable or the SATA controller on the logic board.
    Since the MacBook Pro seems to work completely fine other than this one issue, and will boot properly from both external devices and the CD (also a SATA device), I'm thinking and hoping that it's just the hard drive ribbon cable. From my searches online, I've heard that this batch of MacBook Pros is known to have issues with the hard drive ribbon cable, but it seems in most cases this manifests itself by the Mac not being able to see a drive at all.
    I've done quite a bit of troubleshooting to get to this point, but right now I'm just looking for any feedback at all. Specifically I'd love to know a way I can easily test to see whether it's the logic board or the cable.

    UPDATE: An interesting development!
    I just tried a third known-good SATA hard drive, one which I believe supports SATA I only (but I'm not sure), and unlike the other drives that the Mac sees but cannot properly interact with, the Mac can't even see this one when I put it inside.
    Frustrating as this may be, I believe I'm actually getting closer to a solution since my symptoms now appear to be closely aligned with people having SATA ribbon cable issues.
    Onward!

  • 10.5.8 to 10.6  Can I use an internal SATA drive in my MacPro for back up..

    10.5.8 to 10.6 Can I use an INTERNAL SATA drive in my MacPro for back up..
    or must I use an External hard dive.
    I prefer to use an internal for anti "desk-clutter" purposes. I am looking
    at a 2TB drive to install into my Mac Pro tower for the purpose of back up
    and time machine i guess.
    Also.. if doing a clean install of 10.6 how do i restore the backed up apps
    without re-registering all of them?

    A clone is a functional copy of the original, including the internal links & setting that makes it bootable if the original is. Time Machine will not make a clone of a volume, nor will a Finder copy. You can make a clone with the appropriate settings in the "Restore" tab of Disk Utility but many users find purpose-designed cloning utilities easier & simpler to use. The two most popular of these are SuperDuper! & Carbon Copy Cloner. Both are very reliable, easy to use, & well documented.
    I prefer SuperDuper! for reasons that are not important here. However, even if you decide to use CCC, I suggest that you download SuperDuper! just to read the extensive documentation that comes with it.

  • Internal SATA not working

    I got my Mac Mini (2012 base model) a couple of weeks ago and have since upgraded it by replacing the internal hard disk with a Samsung 840 Pro SSD. The upgrade went by without any issues.
    However, today when I booted my computer I was greeted by the dreaded "no system disk found" symbol.
    I removed the SSD and successfully booted the computer using a USB 3 drive bay. The SSD works fine; however, *any* drive placed in the internal drive bay (including the original 500GB HD) simply is not recognised by the system.
    I've had a look round but all connectors seem to be attached securely.
    Is there a chance I've damaged the internal SATA cable somehow, or could there be some deeper problem?
    Any answers much appreciated!

    Unless anyone else comes up with any other ideas, I think that's definitely the cause of the issue. Thanks for the very helpful replies!
    This is a little annoying as I was using the 128GB SSD as my main drive. It's not too much of a chore to boot from the disk in the external drive bay, but for the sake of neatness I would have preferred to keep the drive internal. Oh well, I'll have to see about getting a new SATA cable and see if that fixes the problem.

  • I need to replace my Apple HDD Toshiba MK5065GSXF Media, can I use any 2,5" internal SATA HDD for this?

    Hi guys,
    I'm in a situation where my Apple HDD Toshiba MK5065GSXF Media has completely given up on me. I cannot understand why Toshiba is being used anyhow, together with SeaGate these were assured failures back when I did IT. My question however is: can I simply replace it with any 2,5" internal SATA HDD that I'd wish to use? I tend to favour any WD HDD. I'm running my MacBook Pro off an external HDD nowadays, but it's not a useful option as I'd like to use it at school and all that.
    I'd really appreciate your answers and/or recommendations
    GJ

    I really like the HGST Travelstar 7K1000 and it would be a good fit for a 2012 model: 7200rpm, 1TB capacity and SATA III speeds. I have a number of them that I use to clone my internal SSD and have put one inside my MacBook Pro just to see how it performs - top notch!
    That's my recommendation - HGST is made by Hitachi and I've always had good luck with Hitachi drives.
    Clinton

  • Problem importing with internal drive, but external drive works

    Hi,
    I was importing a CD in iTunes and this one track refused to import, noises sounded like it couldnt read it, and i had cleaned it multiple times. Plugged in an external USB CD drive, and it worked straight away.
    Why is this?
    Thanks!
    J

    I received a new hard drive and an enclosure today. However, when I plugged the new hard drive into the computer's internal SATA slot, the computer did not recognize that new hard drive. When I connected the new hard drive to the computer externally through the enclosure, the computer recognized it. Moreover, the computer also recognized my old hard drive when I connected it externally through the enclosure. So it seems that my problem does not reside in the hard drive, but in the SATA cable.
    I wonder if there might be any probable reason other than bad cable? I am still able to install OS X to both the hard drive if I connect them externally.
    Thanks in advance!

  • Firewire or internal sata drive

    which is the better drive for recording audio using logic pro 8 on a mac pro intel 2.0 internal sata or firewire, thank you

    My experience says that internal SATA definitely is more stable than External firewire.
    Besides many other external devices (audio interface for example) also uses the firewire bus.
    Also you shouldn't find the cheapest option when buying a hard drive. Your drive is an essential device, and losing data is no fun.

  • Internal SATA ports?

    I have a 2007 Mac Pro running windows and I know apple did not initialize the two internal SATA ports for adding a Blu-Ray drive, but I am looking at the new Mac Pros and was curious if they turned these ports on in the new machines? It would be nice to not have to run my cable out the back of my computer to plug into an external card.
    Any thoughts?
    Thanks

    If I recall correctly, the 09's have only one free internal Sata port, and it's located in the optical bay. I believe the 08's have two there. I think Maxupgrades has special cabling to allow even more.
    I'm not sure this is relevant, but to fit two Sata drives in the optical bay on mine, I took the DVD player out and put it into an esata enclosure from OWC. It works just fine in it.

  • Largest Internal SATA HD for G5 1st Gen iMac ?

    I am wanting to change my internal SATA HD from the orginal 160 GB, to a 500 GB SATA Western Digital HD.
    Will my 1st Rev of G5 Imac 1.8 CPU, w/20'' moniter be able to "see" that ?
    Thank You For You Help.

    Welcome and Go Pretzels!
    It is always a good idea to start a new topic instead o piggybacking on another. That way, questions and answers do not get crossed up and your question gets the attention it deserves.
    That said, any 3.5" SATA drive will work in any G5 iMac. The 16MB cache models wil give a bit of a performance boost also.
    A very easy way to make the swap is to use a program called SuperDuper to clone the disk. Do do this, there are two ways.
    First option is to put your old HD in a FireWire SATA enclosure and the new drive in the iMac. Then startup your iMac while holding the option key down. It will give you the option to boot up from the old HD in the enclosure. Then, launch SuperDuper and clone the old HD back to the new HD.
    The other way to is to clone to your existing external drive, then install the new drive and clone it back. I do not know how much data you have, but if it will fit on the 80GB drive you say you have it is an option.
    If you choose to clone, everything will be exactly as you left it, just with a whole lot more free space on that HD. This is what I did and it went without a hitch.

  • Removing internal SATA drives from a Power Mac

    I need instructions for removing 2 internal SATA drives from a 2005 G5 tower

    Addendum - I ordered a "Macally G-S350SUA Hi-Speed eSATA/FireWire/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5-Inch SATA HDD" from Amazon to plug into my laptop to access the data. Do either of you know if I ordered a Mac Mini if it would not only connect to these SATA drives but also the external Mac monitor that I used with my old G5 tower?

  • HELP! How do I get rid of the volume noise that plays when I switch from internal speakers to external speakers?

    How do I get rid of the volume noise that plays when I switch from internal speakers to external speakers? I'm trying to watch something on my TV through an HDMi cable (& apple adapter) and when I go to switch the sound control in preferences from internal speakers to SONY TV, the annoying "popping" noise occurs on my TV's speakers.

    Go to Edit > Preferences > General > Import Settings and check the box for error correction, and then try one of the problem CDs again.

  • FW problem with Apogee Duet, Yamaha monitors, and external FW800 HD...

    Recently purchased an Apogee Duet and Logic Express 8. Love it so far but there's a cracking noise coming out of the Yamaha monitors when I turn on the external HD via FW800. The Duet is connected via FW400.
    It'll be nice to solve this issue. The digital/cracking noise is annoying. It's almost unworkable. Additionally, I use the external FW800 as my recording drive so it's crucial. I guess the FW bus is overloaded. Is an express/34 card the only option? If so, any recommendations.
    Besides this, the Duet sounds awesome w/out the FW800 HD plugged in.
    Thanks, mT.

    I'm having the same issue -- lots of crackly digital noise coming through my studio monitors (but not through the headphones). The noise, I find, is particularly loud when the 48v is on. Is that the case with you? I initially discovered the issue while trying to record with an AKG C 451 B condenser. When the mic was getting phantom via the Duet, I was getting digital crackling. However, when I put a preamp between the condenser and the Duet (in this case a UA Solo/610) and had the preamp supply the 48v, the crackling was gone. So: is this an issue with the FW or an issue with the Duet's phantom power?
    (I'm using the Duet with Logic Pro 8)

  • Using iTunes to put my CD collection on my computer and then to my iphone5, I have an older Optiplex with 40 Gb internal and an external 1.5Tb drive. Question is can I get itunes to point to the 1.5 Tb drive to store my music, and if so how?

    Using iTunes to put my CD collection on my computer and then to my iphone5, I have an older Optiplex with 40 Gb internal and an external 1.5Tb drive. Question is can I get itunes to point to the 1.5 Tb drive to store my music, and if so how?

    Looks like I solved my own problem by going to itunes, preferences, advanced, media folder location.

  • SMART failure on internal SATA drive - Can I recover data or disable SMART?

    Hi
    One of my internal SAT drives (a Western Digital RE2 500gb drive) appears to be giving up the ghost and is reporting a SMART failure. The drive is mounting and shows that it has 100gb available but I can't access the data held in the missing 400gb.
    I've run a TechTool report on it which has come back stating a failure on the following 2 points out of 15 tests:
    • Reallocated Sector Counts
    • Seek error rate
    Appreciate that the drive is on its way out but is there anything i can do do retrieve the 400gb of data on it now before is completely dies? Can SMART be disabled on that drive to allow me to access it?
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Mark

    It's not that SMART is preventing you from accessing it, the drive has had a physical failure. It may be possible to recover some data with a data recovery tool, like [Data Rescue|http://www.prosofteng.com> or [File Salvage|http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?mainpage=product_info&productsid=1], or you could send it off to a data recovery service, but there are no guarantees. If the data on that drive is not backed up, I'd guess you're about to learn a painful lesson about backups.

Maybe you are looking for