SATA or firewire 800/400

what is a better external harddrive to use with final cut pro and also as a music storage and as a backup. i had read somewher the one could not do something in final cut with a firewire external hardrive but now I can't find it, so if anyone can illuminate me on this it would also be appreciated. Thank you

Wow. I just read through this entire thread, and thanks to the flame war going on I'm sorry I wasted me time.
It's clear that FW400 is great for situations where you don't need top speed, but want the least CPU overhead.
USB 2.0 is slightly faster, but the extra CPU cycles it uses cause some concern.
FW800 is faster than the previous two, and is recommended if your PC supports it. At $80 for the Expresscard/34 solution, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it... BUT, someone on these and other forums has first hand experience and reported problems. Others had no problems, and think it's great. Who to believe? That's the question...
Then there is Serial ATA & eSATA. I went into a Fry's and a salesperson there tried to tell me FW800 was faster than eSATA. I indicated that I thought eSATA was faster with it's (theoretical) 3GB transfer speeds, compared to 800MB. He told me in no undercertain terms that was incorrect, and that FW800 was the fastest option available. Needless to say, I haven't asked for help from a salesperson again anytime soon.
That said, the Firmtek solution has been reviewed online. It's performance compared to other solutions, and it was a CLEAR winner. And it's TRUE the Firmtek card does seem pricer than it should be. But then, don't Apple products require us to pay a premium over other IBM products? Wanting the latest and greatest requires paying the price. I try to balance such purchases as best I can, waiting for the most "bang for my buck". But hey, these are computers... and unlike houses and gas they do NOT tend to appreciate.
So what did I do? I decided the performance increase I should see with Half Life 2: Episode 1, and Tomb Raider: Legend were reason to get the eSATA option. Many say Firewire is not long for this world. I don't agree, as so many computers and products use and support it. But, I do know that with computers, EVERYTHING eventually goes faster. Before too long, we may see hard drives that CAN take advantage of SATA and eSATA speeds, and with my configuration I can support that when the time comes.
Here's hoping everyone here enjoys whatever solution they purchase, and my best to all involved. Boot Camp is just AMAZING, and I'm STILL thrilled with my MacBook Pro.

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HT5299 Thunderbolt-Can you use an adaptor From a thunderbolt External drive to a firewire 800/400 Mac

Thunderbolt-Can you use an adaptor From a thunderbolt External drive to a firewire 800/400 Mac

No. The Thunderbolt to Firewire adapters only work to connect a Firewire drive to a Thunderbolt port. They do not work in reverse, to connect a Thunderbolt-only drive to a Firewire port. If the only port your drive has is a Thunderbolt port and all you have on the Mac is Firewire, you can't use that drive with that computer.
Regards.

Thunderbolt and FireWire 800 / 400

Hey gang!
I have a 2011 MacMini and a theoretical question. I have a FW800 external drive connected to it for my TimeMachine backup. I also have a FW400 audio capture box I use from time to time.
I used to chain the drive and audio device, but that slows the FW chain to 400 speeds instead of 800. If I connect the FW800 drive directly to the Mac mini, and the FW400 audio capture box to the Mac min via the Thunderbolt-to-FW800 adaptor(via a small 800-to-400 converter plug), will that slow the whole bus down to 400, or will they work at independent speeds?
I assume the Thunderbolt and FW chips are indepent and that the would NOT slow down speeds, but I would like to hear a more technical answer to my question.
Thank you in advance.

Apple sells a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 cable here. Connect directly to your external drive with this cable, and the FW400 audio capture box (with adapter) to the Mini's FW800 port.

Hub Firewire 800/400

I was surprised to find out that my new Imac (3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) has only one Firewire port (FW 800). I have one Lacie external HD which has FW 800 and 400 through which I can chain other external FW 400 HD. My problem is that I can't chain my camera or a DV recorder, neither my external DVD burner. What do you think I could do : maybe buy a Firewire Hub, but does a FW 800+400 Hub exist ?
My DVD burner is FW 400 6pin/6pin
My DV recorder is FW 400 6pin/6pin
Thanks for answering

FireWire 800 hubs are currently expensive. If that FireWire 800 drive has a FireWire 400 daisy-chain port, perhaps you can get a less expensive FireWire 400 hub and connect it to that daisy-chain port. That would give the FireWire 800 device the benefit of a direct connection, and since your other FireWire devices are currently 400, you can connect them to that hub with no 9-pin to 6-pin adapter needed.
Just an idea... Here's an example of a FireWire 400 hub
[Belkin FireWire 6-Port Hub|http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-FireWire-6-Port-Hub-F5U526-APL/dp/B0006BHCEK/r ef=sr11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1244117766&sr=8-1]
Be sure to get one that is self-powered (has its own power adapter).

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

Mix firewire 800 & 400 hard drives

I am getting a new 21.5". I now have a 20" (firewire 400).
I have a G-RAID2 with 2 800 and one 400 firewire ports. I also have a G-Drive 400 which I use for Time Machine.
On the new iMac, I will connect the G-RAID2 with a 800 cable. But then, should I connect the G-Drive into the 400 port of the G-RAID2, or the 800 port via 6 to 9 pin adapter? Or doesn't it matter?
Thanks...
Rick

Just spent quite a while in the Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro discussion group and the video guru Tom Wolsky (I hope that's the correct last name) has pretty much instilled the fear of the Lord in me with regard to daisy-chaining a Canon HV20 camcorder wiith my external Rocstor FW800 drives.
The safest thing many people say is to connect any Firewire camcorder directly to the computer and not daisy-chain it. Even adamant about removing any other Firewire connections on the same computer using the computers' Firewire ports (Firewire cards okay on Mac Pros) as they share the same Firewire bus. Also strongly recommends turning off Time Machine as well so no interruptions to the time critical importing of video. That means on the iMac, I'll temporarily remove the Firewire hard disks and import to the internal iMac drive. I don't want to risk screwing up the video import or worse, the external hard drives...

Firewire 800 & 400 ports

HI,
I have an iMac 24" which has two Firewire ports in the rear (and 800 & a 400).
I have an external LaCie 250gb drive connected to the 400 port. I also have a Panasonic miniDV camera which successfully connects via this port, however at the expense of unplugging the LaCie.
I wish to use both at the smae time via FCE.
Wikipedia seems to suggest that the 800 format is backwards compatible with 400.
So my question is, will my LaCie drive & Panasonic camcorder operate through the 800 port using the correct cable (assuming these come with the 4 pin end for the camcorder).
Thanks
Eric
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.8) white & shiny & brandnew

Hi Eric,
Ian is correct.
I have a MBP w/1 FW 400 port and 1 FW 800 port, and I use a 400->800 converter.
I think the converter was my first purchase after I got the MBP. I couldn't find info at the time if there was any advantage to use the camera or HD with either port, so I figured a converter would give me max flexibility to check it out for myself.
My experience now is that it doesn't make any difference. That matches what I've read that if two or more FW devices plugged into the Mac, the data flows at the speed of the slowest device; it doesn't make any difference which port it's connected to.
To do it again, I would just buy a cable with the 800 plug on one end, and a 400 plug (either 4-pin or 6-pin) on the other end. Reason is the converter is just one more thing to keep track of, and, because it's about 1.5 inches long, I think it puts a bit more strain on the Mac's 800 port.
MBP 17" w/max memory; and a G4 that's considering retirement Mac OS X (10.4.8) FCS, CS2 pkg

Can anyone recommend a reputable PCMCIA Firewire 800/400 cardbus?

I've already bought two of these blasted things. The first wasn't even compatible with Mac's, and the second one dropped the performance of all my firewire devices to 400Mb/s even though they were on separate buses.
I'd like to know what card to choose. Preferably from a reputable manufacturer with a website and driver/firmware updates and the like.
thanks.

This is what I would recommend:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10482
LaCie has phenominal products for Mac. Although LaCie is used by PC folks, LaCie tends to gear their products towards us Mac users. I know someone who uses that adapter and has had no problems.
When it comes to Drives, adapters and the like I tend to stick to LaCie. If LaCie makes it, I'll buy it!

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

Firewire 800 vs SATA

Are there any indications that Apple may move away from Firewire 800 on future (Intel) PowerMacs towards SATA drives?

The problem I'm seeing with the external drives is
that a few vendors (e.g., WiebeTech) offer drives
that either interface with SATA or Firewire 800, but
not both. So if I buy the Firewire 800 version now, I
cannot use it with a SATA interface in the future.
And if I buy the SATA interface version now and a
SATA interface card for my current (older version)
G5, I will need to buy a new SATA interface when I
replace my G5. Time for a decision...
If you go with FW800 you are buying expensive technology that uses a chipset that changes frequently. You need to experience losing data with a Mac OS X update - that causes problems with FireWire before you can appreciate the simplicity of external SATA.
In addition, FW800 usually marries you to old IDE drives that will be useless when you finally realize how much better SATA is for speed and reliability. You cannot use IDE drives with FW800 except with extremely expensive enclosures that perform slower than SATA.
The fact that you may have to use your SATA setup on the old system until new drivers or SATA host adapter cards are available for the new system is not much of a drawback compared to having to replace all of your IDE hard drives with SATA drives when you finally make the move to external SATA.
FW800 is where I use to be, but its slower, unreliable with upgrades, expensive and uses old IDE drives that don't make sense buying anymore. Why buy into dead end hard drive technology when SATA is the present and future?
Michael

Firewire 800 problem? cant see my Panasonic camcorder on Final Cut Express

Hi
I have a new IMAC 27 in, intel dual processor (which I love) and its running the lastest version of snow leopard. I got it for video editing (dec 09) and I'm fairly new to macs and the firewire 800.
I have a panasonic 3ccd camera nNV-GS500 and after finally figuring it out I got a new cable - a brand new firewire 800/400 cable. However nothing can be seen when I start up Final Cut pro express or imovie.
I have tried turning off mac, unplugging it, then turning on camera before turning on imac.
Looking at some of the threads it seems there are some issues for seeing camcorders with firewire 800 and that a firmware? (is this a download for hardware update) is an update is due - can anyone confirm what i should do.
thanks in advance

Cathy, welcome to the Discussions group.
Here is the list of camcorders supported by iMovie and Final Cut Express. Your camera is not in the lists but may still work.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2948
When you are using the camera are you running it from its battery power or is it plugged into its own power source (same question would apply to your external drive which may have a problem if its not using its own power supply depending upon how much power it would draw from the computer and how much power it needs to be reliable). You should be running the camera from its own power supply.
When you are having a problem, isolate the sources of potential conflict. Make sure no other devices are plugged into the computer. That means you'll be transferring your video to your internal disk. You can always copy or move it later to an external disk if that's where you want to store it permanently.
Follow the instructions in your camera manual carefully and we hope that works. If it doesn't work, then be creative. If the manual says to start the camera first in PLAY mode, start it in RECORD mode but then switch to PLAY mode to jumpstart FCE or iMovie to recognize there's a camera installed. That hint was provided in another thread on this topic and worked for that person. You can vary starting the camera before FCE or iMovie and then try starting FCE or iMovie first followed by the camera. Just a few variations and hope again one works.
All variations fail, and the vendors web site indicates it should work, then maybe your Firewire port on the computer has a problem. Look in "About This Mac" to see the status of the Firewire service with different devices plugged in. It's not a common problem but can happen.

SATA II verses Firewire 800 External Hard Drive

I want to add a 500MB external disk to a 866MHz G4. I have bought LaCie products before and had no problems so I was looking at their offerings.
The two main choices I see are:
A. 500GB Big Disk that supports Firewire 800 + Firewire 800 PCI card.
Issues
1. I can connect the disk to my iBook using Firewire 400
2. If I got a new Mac it will probably come with Firewire 800 so can be used.
3. Available now.
B. 500GB Two Big disk (shipping 2/1) that supports SATA II and comes with a SATA II PCI card.
Issues
1. Better access speed (looks like 115MB/s v 75-80MB/s)
2. The SATA II card will not work in a new Mac as it is PCI/PCIX and not PCI Express.
3. Cannot connect to my iBook.
3. Shipping 2/1.
The price difference is only $30 more for the SATA II.
I am trying to figure out if the improved performance of the SATA II drive will be significant enough to be the deciding factor. Or is the performance difference not going to be that noticeable and the convenience of Firewire would be a better choice.
Any experiences/thoughts?
Thanks,
-Tony
866 G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Thanks for all the info:-)
Both the LaCie external drives I was looking at are stripped RAIDs with two 250GB drives.
The Firewire 800 drive also has a Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 port so I am assuming that means I can use a standard Firewire 400 cable.
The LaCie SATA II card comes with the drive, has multiple ports and does claim to support booting.
I will check on the deep sleep issue with regards to the LaCie 800 card.
If I were to get a new Mac I would probably replace the desktop machine. I wondered if Apple would adopt SATA II in place of Firewire 800. I seemed to be getting the impression that Firewire 800 has not been very popular but external SATA drives are getting more popular. Plus SATA II seemes to offer better performance than Firewire 800.
I was intending to use the drive for video editing DV material using FinalCut Pro so disk performance may be more noticeable. That is why I was looking at striped RAID drives.
-Tony

How to connect an external harddrive with firewire 800 to a macbook with firewire 400?

Hello,
I just got the external harddrive "Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex USB 3.0 1TB" with a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Kabel FireWire 800. I have neither a USB 3.0, nor a Firewire 800 on my white macbook (2008). I already know, that it's possible to use USB 3.0 with an USB 2.0 port, but I would like to use it with the firewire to spare the USB port for other devices. My question: Is there an adapter or cable to use the Seagate Firewire 800 with my Firewire 400 port? I don't know, where and what to look for.
I'm glad for any advice.

There are many adaptors, try here

Print to Video does not work with Firewire 800 to 400 cable

I need to print video from a Mac Pro with only Firewire 800 port to a Sony DSR 50 with only Firewire 400 port. I'm using a Firewire 800 to 400 cable and I also tried a 400 cable with a 400 to 800 adapter attached. I'm able to control the Sony deck but I cannot get any audio/video to it.
Anyone else have this problem?

When you've got the deck connected and in fcp you go to view: videoplayback, do you see the appropriate apple firewire option available and chosen? And if you hit command-F12 (show all frames) do you see anything? If it doesn't work, try restarting the computer with the deck remaining on.

I am using IMovie 11 with a new iMac. Unable to import video from a Panasonic PV-GS400 mini-DV camcorder using a Firewire IEEE 1394 400 cable connected to a Firewire 400 to 800 adapter which is then connected to a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter.

How can I get iMovie to recognize my Panasonic PV-GS400 as a device so I can import video to my iMac? I have a FireWire IEEE 1394 400 cable connected to the camcorder. Since my new iMac has only Thunderbolt ports, I purchased a Firewire 400 to 800 adapter to connect to the cable. I also purchased a FireWire 800 to Thunderbolt adapter to connect to the computer. My camcarder is still not recognized.

I would suggest that you try a 9 pin to 4 pin Firewire Cable along with the Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter.
Those Firewire 400 to 800 adapters do not seem to work well with iMovie.
The 9 pin to 4 pin cables are available at reasonable prices here, for example.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=103&cp_id=10301&cs_id=1030104 &p_id=3541&seq=1&format=2

SATA or firewire 800/400

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