PowerBoook G4 as Target to MacPro (firewire 800 bearly faster than 400)

I have a MacPro Dual Xeon w/ Firewire 800 and a Powerbook 17" G4 also w/ Firewire 800. I set the G4 as a target and transfer a 4.07gb file. Took 7.42 minute via firewire 400 and 7.10mins via Firewire 800. Should I not expect a much better result?
Anyone, thanks.
John

He could have a bad 800 cable, or it is not configured to run at 800, but any time you have a scenario like hard drive - HDD controller - Bridge (I/O) - 800 controller - 800 cable - 800 controller - Bridge (I/O) - HDD controller - hard drive...... anything in the chain can be a bottleneck if not set correctly and/or is limited by its maximum I/O. If I were him, I'd run QuickBench on each hard drive to see what max it has, then check the train above for proper operation. You may be right that it should be faster, but only measuring each part will tell you if all is kosher.
Michael

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Firewire 800 intentionally limited to 400

With nothing but a FW800 drive plugged into any fw port, the drive is listed as capable of 800 speed, but communicating at 400. The system profiler shows a "phantom" unknown/unknown device, with a top speed of 400.
I dug out the IORegistryTools from the developers kit, and found the "unknown device" to be an IORegistryEntry, in the IOFirewireLocalNote with a listed max speed of "Ox2" (400) instead of "0x3" (800).
In short, the OS is intentionally limiting the max fw speed to 400, instead of its rated 800.
Why? How do I change that registry entry?
PPC G5 Quad running 10.5.1.

Tracy, et al.,
While disconcerting, it does seem that this may be a "non-issue"...
I ran 3 benchmarking applications (AJA's Kona Test, Blackmagic's Disk Test, and the QuickBench from Intech's Speedtools) on two different FW800 enclosures. All three apps gave nearly identical results...
Single drive inside of a WiebeTech ToughTech: Average 50.3 MB/s read and 48.0 MB/s write.
(500 GB drive formatted with HFS+ Journaled)
Dual drives in a OWC Mercury Elite Pro-AL 800: Average 77 MB/s read and 54 MB/s write.
(2-400 GB drives formatted with HFS+ Journaled, in a RAID-0 Striped configuration)
The tests were done using 100+ MB test file sizes where available.
So, it seems that the speeds on my multiple-drive enclosure are reflective of those faster than FW400...
Well, at least maybe you can get Apple to consider changing the description of the "repeater device"...
Message was edited by: davemcc

Are Firewire backup drives faster than USB backup drives?

I have a USB 2.x 80GB drive that I regularly backup my ibook with Retrospect (been using it for many years and did not dare touch any shareware backup apps in my move to OSX). Yes it was much cheaper than a Firewire version and why I bought it instead. It cant boot, but when I restore I boot my Retrospect boot CD (much, much slower than the OS 8.1 version. But that the nature of OSX). OSX is a wonderful OS and MUCH SUPERIOR to OS9, but there are drawbacks no doubt. For one is that it takes forever to boot from a CD/DVD, and I dont have access to the entire finder like I did with my Performa.
Just like with my old Performa when I backup my computer I need to boot with extensions off to avoid crashes. So I do so and backup the drive. Before I was using a ORB drive, but such a drive would not work natively in OSX so this backup drive suites me fine for know.
So just out of curiousity how much faster would a FireWire backup drive be?
This is the speed I get with this USB 2.x drive.
http://johnw.freeshell.org/graphics/ibookg4.jpg
Thanks,
John

I've always been sold on FW400's 400Mbp transfer rate, but when I tested my external drives attached to my eMac (where each device was the only thing on that bus, adn the computer wasn't busy)
USB1 <0.5MB/s
FW 400 drives just over 2MB/s (2 drives on twodifferent brands of FW enclosures tested)
ATA 9->15MB/s (I attached one of the drives from a FW enclosure directly on a spare ATA bus). This speed was the only one that seemed to vary according to the test run- ie the access was limited by the drive response.
Unfortunately I haven't got serialATA or USB2 buses on the eMac to do further tests, but the take home message is that the quoted speeds must be taken with a pinch of salt.
One other thing is that the new MacBook seems to have lost FW800!

Firewire 800 - 400 , Target

Hi everyone,
simple question ( I hope ). I have an old Macbook ( Black ) & now getting a New Macbook Pro 13in, as you can now buy a cable with Firewire 800 at one end & 400 at the other is it possible to Target my Black Macbook with my New Macbook ? Does anyone know this answer ?
Many thanks
Steve

I have a Black Macbook at present, I am getting ( what is now called ) a Macbook Pro' 13in model, not the New White one. I just used the word Macbook, did not mean to confuse you, sorry about that.
Steve

Firewire 800 enclosure in Canada

It seems that TimeMachine is limited to external drives. My USB ports are tied (keyboard, iPod, printer). I don't want to connect the disk to the keyboard (i have a hanging small USB for my camera, and a free port for USB memory); so my only option is FW; besides FW 800 is faster than USB 2.0.
/RANT/
I love my iMac, but I don't get why Apple would neglect to add more USB ports, when 1) most USB devices do not like being hanged from a HUB; 2) nobody is supporting FW; 3) eSATA and NAS are now the standard for external storage, and they did not bother to add an eSATA port, or support TimeMachine over NAS.
/END OF RANT/
My question is... Does anybody know of a good, cheap and compatible enclosure for SATA drives WITH a Firewire 800 interface available in Canada? Easy, eh!
Thanks!

Adrian Vargas wrote:
... a good, cheap and compatible enclosure for SATA drives WITH a Firewire 800 interface
Good, cheap, compatible -- pick any TWO.
Don't know whether newegg.com ships to TheGreatWhiteNorth, but
here's a top-quality SATA-based enclosure with FW800 (and USB):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198006
http://www.icydock.com/product/mb559ueb-1s.html
If that doesn't work out, Google: *+Oxford OXUF924DSb+* That's one of
the most popular SATA-to-FW800 bridge chipsets, and seems to be
the favorite of many (most?) high-quality enclosure manufacturers.
BTW, if you're short of ports, be aware that a FW800 enclosure will work
fine on a FW400 port -- just use a 6-pin to 9-pin FW adapter cable.
Also, FW400 is consistently faster than USB 2; the 480 Mb/s "spec" is
is totally bogus, expect only about half of that in the real world..
Looby

Aperture - library on external drive Firewire 800 or S-ATA?

Hi
Which is the best kind of connections to store and edit images on Aperture library?
Do you suggest FW or S-ATA external drive?
thanks
Koferc

While eSATA is marginally faster in real world use than FW800, the fact that you have to retrofit it makes the calculation a little more difficult. I have a MacPro and was thinking of using the Newer Technology upgrade kit ($25) to add this to my setup. But after reading the experiences of a number of users regarding the complexity of the upgrade compared to the benefit, I decided to hold off. You can see some comments by people who've actually done the upgrade after the article.
http://www.macworld.com/article/133689/2008/05/newertechesata.html?
It seems that eSATA on a MacPro is a bit faster than FW800 on writes and about the same on reads. I was looking for a huge speed increase connecting a Nexto DI Extreme unit I use on the road, as it is limited to eSATA and USB2 (SLOWWWWW). But I only use this unit once a month, and once I factored in spending an hour taking my MP apart I decided it was better to do file transfers while I was out of the office. The cheapest way to "speed things up" - just do them when you aren't looking!

Does Target Disk Mode work between FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 ports?

Can I mount one as an external volume for the other Mac and vice versa? The one with FireWire 400 port runs on OS X 10.5, and FireWire 800 one has OS X 10.6 installed. If it works, I am thinking of buying an 800-400 adapter.

Can I mount one as an external volume for the other Mac and vice versa?
Yes.
(47103)

Can you connect Firewire 400 to Firewire 800?

Have had a Powerbook Titanium G4 and just got a new MacBook Pro. The TiBook has an 800FW port, the TiBook only a 400FW port. Can I connect the two directly? Is there a 400 to 800 adapter cable? I'd like to transfer files fast between the machines.
Currently I transfer files through an external hard drive that has both 400 and 800 ports. But it sure would be easier if I could get the TiBook to run in FW target disc mode with the MacPro. Any other suggestions for linking the machines?

Hi
There's a couple of ways to do it:
One solution is to get an Expresscard (e.g. Belkin Firewire 400 which gives you an extra two ports). I bought one of these and then went and misplaced it!
Rather than buy another Expresscard, I bought a Firewire 800/400 cable (cheapo/no name, I'm afraid) from a small computer shop - it was a quarter of the price of the Belkin and works fine. I also got a small adaptor plug so I that I can connect connect my camcorder.
Of course, I found the ExpressCard a couple of days ago...
You could connect the computers by an Ethernet cable, too.
Hope that helps.
OBG

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.

I have a Power Mac G4 (2004) and want to transfer all my files to a new MacBook Pro 15.4". Can this be done thru firewire cable or do I have to transfer to an external Firewire 800 hard drive first?

I have a Power Mac G4 (2004) and want to transfer all my files to a new MacBook Pro 15.4". Can this be done thru firewire cable or do I have to transfer to an external Firewire 800 hard drive first?

Do it with a Firewire cable (buy a 800/400 adapter if you need it) - the USB transfer takes a much longer time.
Start up your old PowerMac G4 holding down the "T" key, for target disk mode.
On your new MacBook Pro open "Migration Assistant" in your utilities folder.
Connect the 2 computers by firewire cable and follow the prompts in Migration Assistant.

Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 external drive problems

I recently upgraded from a MacBook Pro 17" early 2011 to a MacBook Pro Retina 15" (early 2013). I have a Drobo and two Seagate 4TB external drives, all connected via Firewire 800. So, I added a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter and, it seemed, life was good.
I keep my large iTunes Movie and TV show collection on the Drobo. Since transitioning to the new MacBook, I have had a number of issue with watching movies on my Apple TV 3. Randomly, and periodically, the movie appears to be corrupted - the audio track skips/loops and the image is horrible macroblocked, as if the file is damaged. When I check the movies on the Drobo, opening it with Quicktime on the MBP, it plays just fine at the same spot it appeared damaged on the Apple TV 3.
A second symptom is this: I can no longer re-encode video with Handbrake with the source and target files on the Drobo - it gets some portion of the way through and it just stops, leaving the video partially encoded; again, at random locations/offsets into the video and not the same spot twice.
My initial thought is that connection to the Drobo is dropping out and coming back, on its own, but long enough to cause the above problems.
Is anyone else seeing this issue or something related when using the Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter with large drives?
Thanks, in advance.

Update: I exchanged the Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter and the issue persists. I have a Drobo that I used with my previous system, a PowerMac G5, and never had any issues like this.
It does not matter what software I use. But at some point video playback will suddenly become garbled. If I start the video from the beginning, sometimes the garbled video will start sooner but never later. A restart temporarily resolves the issue. If I copy the file to the local hard drive the video will play back garbled. This is indeed a very strange issue. The issue behaves like a bandwidth bottleneck.
I was having this issue prior to upgrading to Mavericks.
Fred K
iMac (Late 2012), 3.4 GHz i7, GTX 680MX, Fusion Drive, 24 GB RAM, Drobo (Firewire via Thunderbolt)

Firewire 800?

Hi,
I have a MacBook Pro that I purchased in June, 2010. I also have a Canon miniDV camcorder that uses firewire 400 that I used with my old mac (that no longer works) and I'd like to be able to edit my videos on my new mac.
From what I understand, the MacBook Pro has a firewire 800 port, and according to images of the ports on the apple website, I have a firewire 800 port. But when I checked "about this mac" on my computer, and checked the firewire, it says "No FireWire ports were found."
The symbol next to the port is a firewire symbol, and the firewire cable from my very old camcorder doesn't fit, so I'm assuming I have a firewire 800 port - but I would just like to confirm this before I buy the 800 to 400 cord.
Can anyone help me out?
Thanks,
sharekoube

I have the 13 inch macbook pro and this will be the 5th unit they have replaced for me with the same issue.
The first three times they thought it was my firewire drive. So on the fourth unit, I decided not to even use a firewire drive. Once a week I was checking in System Profiles to make sure the firewire port was still there. The Morning of the 10.6.6 update was released I checked and the Firewire port was still there. After the update, I checked again but this time the Firewire port was not missing. So Now I'm on the Fifth 13 inch MBP in 6 months.
Oh and here are the two most easiest way to get your MBP replaced at the store. Number 1, Ask the Apple service tech to start up your laptop in Target disk mode. It won't work. So it has nothing to do with your OS install or what ever software you are using. Number 2, Ask them to startup your MBP with one of their Lacie Firewire drives with their OS's and diag tools on it. All the stores have one. Again they will not get it to work.
At that point they will get a manager, and start the exchange process.
Message was edited by: kkita

Available space on firewire 800 graid incorrect

I have been working in FCP 4.5 HD for the past year and a half. The drive in question has been with me through the worst of it.
It is a 500 GB g-tech raid Firewire 800 drive. When I Get Info on the drive, Mac OS 10.4 tells me it has 68.19 GB of available space. When I get summary info for the drive's entire contents, it says it is 308.53 GB. With an actual capacity of 465.65 GB, the math doesn't add up. 465.65 - 308.53 = 157.12
I've got the same drive with the same media on it on another system and the "Available space" is what I would expect it to be. I've run disk utility and disk warrior (to rebuild the directory) on the drive, and it's always the same.
I though it might be a fragmentation issue, but since mac os defragments as it goes, I'm not quite sure what to hypothesize.
Any ideas?

i was afraid some one was going to say that. I ran disk warrior. I haven't worked with it extensively, so if it goes beyond just rebuilding the directory or scavenging for lost files, I wouldn't know how to specifically target the catalog & b-trees.
I'm afraid this might be a backup and reformat situation.
I appreciate the input.

Sony J30 SDI Deck, New Mac Pro FireWire 800, Arrgghhhhh!!!!

Anyone else had this problem and got around it?
We have a new MacPro that only has Firewire 800. We usually shoot DigiBeat and capture via a Sony J30 SDI deck using Firewire (before you say it, I know, but its fine for what we need).
We have tried a FireWire 6 pin to 9 pin cable but FCP refuses to recognize the deck. Have tried another cable in case it was that.
We used a standard Firewire 400 cable from the deck to a Ext HD, then a Firewire 800 out of the HD to the Mac. Surprisingly this worked, Once!
Can you get a FireWire 400 for the new Mac Pros?

+A Mac Pro (desktop) has Firewire 400 and 800. (edit) Sorry, I didn't realize Apple dropped this from the desktops as well.+
Yup, Firewire 800 only now on the Pro macs.
+Are you referring to a new MacBook Pro? If so, only the 17" model can accept a PCMCIA card.+
John's talking about a MacPro tower, not a laptop. FWIW The 17" MBP sports an ExpressCard/34 interface not PCMCIA which is much older and slower technology. PCMCIA wont work in an ExpressCard slot without an adapter
+I think I would obtain a Firewire 800 to 400 (direct) cable (Apple store) and not daisy chain between the computer and the deck. Most Firewire problems can be traced to daisy chaining.+
I think John's first post mentions that he's already tried this ... unfortunately unsuccessfully as that would have been the obvious option.

Firewire 800 on early Pro

Im going to buy a used MB Pro from a friend, its the early style, 1.83 GHz, dont know many other specs. I heard a rumor that those dont have the firewire 800. Just a couple questions. Is that true? Is it a big deal if it doesnt have it? What would I ever use it for in every day use? I currently have a powerbook g4 and I think it does have one but I've never used it.
So even though I dont currently use it now. If I get my buddies Pro for a good deal, does anyone see a reason where I would need and not have (if in fact they dont have them) one?
Thanks

FM 800 is the new apple FW, as they don't seem to support F400, which is a standart for a lot of numerical dv camera
I will not buy a fw800 only MBP...
So, what to say about your new MBP 1.83, the same as mine.
it's a good computer, with a lot of problems, depending on luck.
But, With it, you have a decent graphic card, you can have bootcamp, crossover, parallels, all which is good to run PC applications and games. impossible on G4.
FW400 let you connect a lot of numeric camera. It didn't have the USB 2.0 bugs, it's better for an external burner, HD.
As you have a G4 with a FW 400, it will let you easy transfer using the target mode.
more and more software are intel only...
((personal opinion, : your MBP 1.83 will still be working when Apple will have take out every firewire on her computer's so 400 or 800, anyway, it will die soon, except on some PC........))
A mbp 1.83 intel is faster than a G4, if you have a 2 Go ram.
first to check is temperature, smcfancontrols. if your fans don't make noise, I suggest you to let the rpm at 2000, one of the biggest issue was the GPU over heating and slowly dying...
Keep both, as G4 can save your life while using PPC apps which are no more supported on intel .
have fun !

PowerBoook G4 as Target to MacPro (firewire 800 bearly faster than 400)

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