OK to connect a firewire device to two computers?

Is it OK to connect a firewire device to two computers? I have a DVD burner sitting between two computers that I have been connecting to each of the computers, but it just occurred that it might be OK to connect it to both of them at once. What about connecting a firewire hard drive to two computers at once?

John Link wrote:
I'm actually more interested in connecting a DVD burner with two firewire ports to two computers. Is this connection possible?
It might be possible, at least from a connection standpoint the Firewire standard is such that doing so won't create any smoke and sparks. I don't see any harm in trying as long as you've taken precautions to back up your important data, which you ought to do anyway.
Roxio Toast has a feature that enables you to share a burner across a network. That might be more in line with what you want to accomplish. This excerpt is from Toast Titanium:
The ToastAnywhere feature helps you share CD, DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray recorders across a network or the Internet with other users. An entire office or home network can use a single recorder.
Toast Titanium doesn't address sharing a burner over FireWire. Perhaps for that you'll have to wait for Toast ReardenMetal.

Similar Messages

I cannot connect any firewire device.

When I go to firewire on the profiler it returns "warning, unable to list Firewire devices." Any ideas?

OK,
It looks like you have one of the original Intel iMacs, an early 2006 model. What I first try to do is a SMC reset, please follow:
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Seagate Ex-HD with IMac - How to connect 2nd Firewire Device

I just bought a new Seagate ExternalFree Agent HD to use with my IMac on a Firewire 400 but was wondering if I keep the HD connected what can I do to connect another device (video camera) at the same time with another firewire? I thought my IMac had 2 Firewire ports but it looks the 2nd port is for something else. Is there some kind of Hub I could buy or could I connect the camera through the HD, it appears there is another Firewire connection there? Thanks and any advice would be helpful?
Message was edited by: 27993buck

If yours is an early through late iMac G4 LCD flat panel computer
which shipped between 2002 and 2004, they all have the same
number of FireWire ports: 2 - 400 MBit/s (8W total power.)
You may need to look into a FireWire Hub, one that is self-powered
from an external AC power adapter and not use limited FW port
power from the computer, as that is limited.
' firewire hub, powered ' - google search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=firewirehub+powered&aq=3&oq=FireWirehub
{If you have a different configuration of iMac than the one with
the half-dome white base & chrome display arm, you may need
to compare your machine with either the iMac G5 or Intel iMac
forum areas, since the hardware did change over the years.}
Be sure to not overload the FireWire, or other ports on the Mac;
no matter which model or version you may have. In the case
of USB, a self-powered (uses AC adapter) hub is recommended
and in the case of FireWire, some products may have a port in
them, but to daisy-chain these is a mistake. Underpowered
device issues, or overtaxing the Mac power supply may result.
An external firewire enclosed hard disk drive with accessory FW
port may have been supplied with that port given extra power;
if the FireWire drive uses an AC power supply and not port power.
If the external FW drive is in heavy use, you may be able to tell
if the port on there can support a camera. It probably won't.
By the Mid-2007 Intel iMac, there was a difference in the FW
port configuration: 1 - 400 MBit/s, & 1 - 800 MBit/s (7W each.)
So, you may have an iMac with two different FireWire ports.
Some towers also have or had support for both FW types;
and Ethernet, USB ported devices, and audio options.
For those machines with a less than desired FireWire
support, there are FireWire Hubs, in both specifications;
and retailers or online store links show them in both
Mac and more general PC listings. These would be
self-powered Hubs and not rely on the Mac port power.
These are a bit different and not all peripherals that say they
may work with one or the other will necessarily do so in both.
An example maybe if you buy a FW 800 external HD enclosure
and it says it also supports FW400. It may not boot OSX in 800.
The computer specifications should be available in Apple Support
in that section; and a current version of the MacTracker download
database of most things Apple computer should; see: mactracker.ca
In any event...
Good luck & happy computing!

Seagate External Hard Drive with Imac - How to connect 2nd Firewire Device

I just bought a new Seagate External Free Agent HD to use with my IMac on a Firewire 400 but was wondering if I keep the HD connected what can I do to connect another device (video camera) at the same time with another firewire? I thought my IMac had 2 Firewire ports but it looks the 2nd port is for something else. Is there some kind of Hub I could buy or could I connect the camera through the HD, it appears there is another Firewire connection there? Thanks and any advice would be helpful?
Message was edited by: 27993buck

Any reputable brand name should do the job.
Here's one: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=193393
A Google search will turn up loads more.

HT3503 i have a macbook air and I need to connect my firewire device to it. Where can I find the correct adapter?

I am trying to connect my presonus firebox that uses firewire to my new macbook air, but I need an adapter. If anybody knows of one please help.

@Christoph: Um, no there aren't. The only thing I know of is the Belkin TB hub, which is $300 & way more complicated (& bigger) than just an adaptor.
http://www.hardwarezone.com/tech-news-belkins-new-thunderbolt-express-dock-revea led-ces-unveiled-2012
If anyone knows of something with TB in and simply one or two FW ports out, that would be extremely useful for this audio guy.
~peter in oakland

How to connect my firewire device to my retina macbook?

I bought a new MacBook Pro Retina display, with the SSD. Awersome, but now I regret getting the smaller 500 GB drive, as it is now full. I will move all my photos and video to my spare LaCie external drives, but they are only firewire I/O. As far as I know, my MacBook does not have a firewire port. Is there an adapter, like the one for ethernet-to-Thunderbolt, that I can get so I can still use my external drives?

Thank you Niel. I had taken a browse at the Apple site but I guess I missed this little gem. I'll head to my local Apple store over lunch.
Kind regards,
Mike

Connecting one printer directly to two computers.

Hello -
I have an Epson Stylus Color 860 printer which has BOTH parallel and USB inputs.
I have a PC connected to the parallel input of the printer and the printer is working FINE.
I would like to know if there would be any harm done, and would the printer work, if I connect the USB input of the printer to my Mac G4 USB output ?
I would NOT try to print from both computers at the same time.
The G4 is running OS X 10.4 and the PC is running Windows XP.
Looking for knowledge.
T.O.M.

TB X -
Success ! It worked. Connecting the G4 DIRECTLY to the USB input of the Epson Stylus Color 860 and connecting the PC DIRECTLY to the parallel input to the Epson allows printing from EITHER computer as long as you ONLY print from one computer at a time.
Thank you once again for your interest and HELP.
T.O.M.

How can I edit a "mobile" picture across a mobile device and TWO computers (phone, desktop and laptop)?

Works fine between the phone and 1 computer. When I try to sync the second computer I get a message that there is already a Sync Catalog, and if I Start Syncing it will replace all previously synced data in Lightroom mobile.
I don't understand a second computer is any different than a second phone? or least I should be able to treat a second computer like a second phone with the same restrictions if any.

The Lr Mobile sync between multiple desktop machines is not yet supported. - Guido

Trying to use FireWire devices with a W540 through a Thunderbolt adapter

We have a camera that we need to use that has FireWire 800 as its sole interface, and because it needs to be mobile we had to use it with a laptop. After some research we decided that the best course of action was to purchase a ThinkPad W540 and connect the camera to the Thunderbolt port with a Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter, as this should give us plenty of bandwidth for the camera.
Unfortunately, we haven't been able to connect any FireWire devices to the laptop in this way. We have tried connecting both the camera and a FireWire hard drive through the adapter, and while the power lights will come on for both devices the computer resolutely refuses to even acknowledge their existance.
I have tried everything that I can think of to get this to work, updating all of the dirvers on the laptop, checking all of the settings in the BIOS, and searching the forums for similar issues, but now I have run out of ideas. What can I do to get this laptop to play nice with my FireWire devices?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Good afternoon and welcome to the community.
Sorry you're having issues using a Thunderbolt-2-Firewire adapter.
Not much I can offer on that as I've never used one, but an alternative might be to try an Expresscard Firewire adapter. A number of them I've seen offer 2 ports, so that might be useful also.
Regards.
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How do i u acsess my bluetooth settings thru my phone to change name etc. Also cant connect to any devices

How do i u acsess my bluetooth settings thru my phone to change name etc. Also cant connect to any devices

What devices are you trying to connect to, and are they in pairing mode? Is the phone in pairing mode? The iPhone only connects to audio devices and to computers for tethering. You cannot use BlueTooth on an iPhone for file transfers to other phones or computers.

Can I connect two firewire devices?

Ideally, I need two firewire devices running at the same time: One camera to capture footage and one firewire external hard disk for the media files (about 160 GB).
a) I've been told that I need a firewire external disc, because a USB hard disk would slow down the editing in Final Cut. Is this true?
b) If so, can I connect two firewire devices to my MBP (74.53 GB internal hard disk), which has only one 400 Firewire port?

1. Yes, FireWire is faster than USB. However, it would be better to edit on your main hard drive. Use the external drive just for storage and backup.
2. You can chain up to 255 FireWire devices provided the total power requirements did not exceed the port's capabilities. A single FireWire drive and a camera shouldn't be a problem. However, you should know that some FireWire cameras may not play well with other FireWire devices. If you find apparent problems when both are connected to the port, then you may need to use each separately. In this case you may need to put the hard drive on a USB port while the camera is connected to the FireWire port unless the camera also supports transfers on USB 2.0.

Problem connecting Firewire device and external HD at the same time

Hi. I'm attempting to record digital audio through a Presonus Firepod A/D interface via a Firewire 400 to 800 cable connected to one of the Firewire 800 ports on a mid-2010 Mac Pro running Snow Leopard.
The problem is that if I have an external HD connected to one of the other Firewire 800 ports on the computer and powered on at the same time, the connection to the Presonus Firewire device is not recognized by the Mac Pro. Not only that, performance of the Mac Pro is affected adversely and System Profiler is unable to list any Firewire devices. If I turn the external HD off, the Presonus device is recognized and listed in System Profiler and the machine runs fine. I'm able to connect two external hard drives via separate Firewire 800 ports on the Mac Pro and both drives mount w/ no problem. It's only when I try to connect one of the external HDs and the Presonus audio device at the same time that the problem occurs.
I used this same arrangement on a PowerMac G5 running Tiger w/ no problems whatsoever. If the 400 to 800 cable is bad, I would think it wouldn't work at all, but it does when only the Presonus Firepod is connected and powered on. Any ideas?

Have done more research and apparently this is not an uncommon problem: overloading the Firewire bus when connecting an audio device along with an additional device like an external hard drive. As I understand it now, audio signal is a bandwidth hog and the solution is to get a Firewire PCIe card which will have its own independent Firewire bus and which I'll use exclusively for my audio device.

Unable to type in password if firewire devices are connected

I've just upgraded to Lion, and have this odd problem. When Lion boots on my Mac Mini, it prompts to type in my password. If I have my Firewire devices connected (two external storage device, a Seagate and Drobo), I can't type in password or click on any of the buttons (such as reboot or shut down).
If I disconnect Firewire cable from my Mac Mini, I can type in the password, then reconnect Firewire cable and everything works fine from that point on!?
Looking around, I saw few reports of frozen login screen. Though, my problem looks a bit different. For example, the cursor in my case is still normal cursor, not the beach ball.
If it makes any difference, the keyboard is Apple's wireless (bluetooth) keyboard.
Wondering if anybody else run into same problem?

For now, I simply connected it via USB, and it seems to be happy. It's just a DVD drive, probably not getting too much benefit for being on Firewire port.
As for firmware, last firmware update for it was back in 2005 (it's an older DVD drive, LG GSA-5163D, however still does its job very nicely), which I think I might have installed long time ago (not sure how to get what version the drive runs). Anyhow, LG provides only Windows exe for flashing the firmware, and I don't have any Windows boxes at home. There's at least one open-source flasher for Mac which claims it can extract firmware from LG's Windows exe and flash it onto the drive. However, I'd rather not trust it not to fry the drive in the process if I really don't have to ;-)

Firewire device looses connection when external screen is inserted into the thunderbolt port? HELP

HI
I am a recording studio engineer. Ive got a Firewire AD/DA Converter (Focusrite Saffire Pro 56) running from my Firewire port of my MacBook Pro, which is running OSX Mavericks. I've also got an external Screen I want to use as an extended display. I'm using a HDMI cable from the screen to a HDMI to Thunderbolt Converter which I then plug into my Thurderbolt Port.
As soon as I plug the screen in, the Firewire Port looses connection completely and I cant use or even choose the Saffire Pro 56 as audio driver. Another thing happens where the Thunderbolt port replaces the Saffire Pro 56 Driver with the screen as the audio output source.
Please help, there's nothing I can find to fix this.
Thanks Maurice

You don't mention which model you have, but this is from the M-Audio Firewire 410 Manual Troubleshooting section:
The FireWire 410 has been designed to give you high performance and professional quality audio. It has been tested under a wide range
of systems and operating conditions. In the real world, however, there is a nearly infinite number of possible operating scenarios, any of
which could affect your system’s performance. Much like owning an automobile, “your mileage may vary.” This section can not begin to
cover all possible issues you may encounter, however we want to give you some suggestions on common problems you may experience.
One thing to avoid is connecting too many devices. The FireWire bus is a dependable, high-speed, high-bandwidth protocol which is ideally
suited for digital audio. Nonetheless, it’s important to remember that audio and multimedia streaming places considerable demands on
your processor and the FireWire bus. Although it is theoretically possible to chain many multiple FireWire devices in series, doing so may
potentially degrade your audio performance.
I guess this degradation could also affect the Firewire HD. Maybe there is a simple fix, but it sounds like the M-Audio people have been down this road before.

Final Cut Not Recognizing Camera/Devices Connected Via FireWire

I have a Macbook and a Macbook Pro and I'm having the exact same issue with both of them. I'm trying to capture DV footage into Final Cut Pro 5 via a Sony Digital Video Cassette Recorder GV-D1000 NTSC, I've also tried capturing into iMovie with the firewire device not being recognized there either.
Device control is "FireWire NTSC Basic" and Capture/Input is "DV NTSC 48 khz" I've captured footage plenty of times and never had a problem until now. I've tried just about every audio/video setting there is including anamorphic as I saw suggested in a similar thread and nothing has changed. I've also tried different firewire cables, different devices including canon/sony and a panasonic cameras. When I connect a new device it shows "vtr ok" for a few seconds and then switches to "no communication". I've tried trashing my preferences and repairing permissions. I've updated quicktime/restarted the macs/unplugged the devices etc. I've also tried playing the tape on the sony box first and then opening FCP and attempting to capture, the footage stops playing and I get an error message that "video is not available". I'm capturing to a 500gb external harddrive that I've used before with no problems and is connected via usb. At one point it did allow me to start the capture now process, but it kept dropping a million frames and aborting, now it won't even let me get that far. I'm literally pulling my hair out, can some one PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME??!!?

Exactly what version of QT are you running now?...and FCP5.?
Have you tried the Guiness solution yet?..shut everything down and unplug, wait 15 minutes, plug all back in, then turn on camera/deck first.
Confirm that System Profiler recognizes the camera/deck and the deck is set in VTR mode (not camera mode), then open FCP.
Could be a bad FW port (have you tried other ports on the mac?)
Or, could be QT incompatibility...
http://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/cats/28/index2.html
http://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/listof_quicktimedownloads.html
K

OK to connect a firewire device to two computers?

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