SCSI vs. SATA? + cheap SCSI solutions?

Does anyone out there know of cheap and reliable SCSI storage solutions?
I'm looking into SATA drives as well, but can I get away with using one a SATA drive to edit uncompressed HD?
What's the verdict of those editing HD - any problems with SATA?
Thanks...

SCSI is OLD technology. Very expensive for small drive sizes.
SATA Raids for editing uncompressed HD? HECK YEAH.
www.caldigit.com S2VR HD
www.sonnettech.com Fusion 500P
www.macgurus.com Burly box
www.weibetech.com Silver SATA V
Raid 4-5 drives together and you can get 200-230MB/s...enough for one stream of Uncompressed HD. 8 or more gets you 400-450MB/s and is plenty enough.
And you can get this for under $6000.
Shane

Similar Messages

What is the best & cheap backup solution for a macpro laptop?

What is the best & cheap backup solution for a macpro laptop? easy & simple to use

Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components: 1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences; and, 2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the drive being backed up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

Cheap SSD solution for Pismo (and other IDE/ATA laptops)

I have a Pismo 400 that is now relegated to web surfing duties for my children and not much else. The original Fujitsu 6 Gig hard drive was sounding more and more like farm machinery, so I thought I'd try a do it yourself solid state drive instead of picking up a laptop drive that'll never be filled up and is pretty much obsolete for any other purpose.
There's a store on eBay that sells adapters for Compact Flash memory cards so they can be plugged in as a 2.5" IDE hard drive. This places sells them for $5 Canadian with free shipping from Hong Kong, whereas in Canadian stores these are around $25. I ordered one and it came in about 10 days.
I went to a computer parts store and purchased the cheapest 8 Gig CF card listed as 133x. It came to just under $30 Cdn including taxes.
The adapter seems to have one more pin on the IDE side than the original drive (or the Mac socket has holes), but the socket on the Pismo has a rubber spacer (rather than hard plastic) so you just plug them in.
After a typical for Pismo exhausting 1-2 minute installation process, I fired it up. It didn't see the drive when I booted with an OS X 10.3 install disk. I suspect if I'd used the original OS 9 CD it would have found the drive, which was formatted FAT. I pulled the CF/IDE combo out and plugged it in to a USB/IDE adapter and formatted the card on my MacBook. Back in the Pismo the drive was found and I installed OS 9 and 10.3 and updated them to 9.2.2 and 10.3.9.
The card and adapter aren't attached to the Mac and just hang off the end of the ribbon cable in the drive cage. If I were hauling the Pismo around a lot I'd make up a foam wedge to keep it from moving too much.
I haven't done any speed tests. It runs Safari and doesn't feel any slower. Waking from sleep should be a lot quicker.
The nicest thing is the Pismo is now silent.
There are bigger and faster CF cards, but they cost a lot more.

I have been wanting to try this for a while, but not on my Pismo, Lombard or Wallstreet which all run OSX but on my older 3400 or 1400.
Would they work running OS8 or 9 on the CF card ?
Stewie

Direct Attach SATA 4TB Storage Solution

I need to purchase a Direct Attach storage device. It will need to store 3-4TB of video files. I have narrowed down my search to three companies: Dulce Systems (4TB Quad), Sonnet Technologies (4TB Fusion), and CalDigit (HDPro). My budget is $5000. I am looking for any suggestions or feedback on any of these systems or advice on another system. I am finding it very difficult to find people who have worked with any of these devices other than the sales staff for each company. This is a big investment for me. I want to make the most informed decision I can. This forum has always had good advice, Im hoping a few people can help me out.

I got this Westerndigital world edition II Hard Disk 1GB. It is very slow and require mionet(WD AccessAnywhere)/internet connection to be recognised in my computer. You can use it without mionet but you have to map each folder to appear in my computer (it will appear in my network places). You also need to be consistent as everything you create using mionet you can't change without it and vice versa. It is based on SAMBA only so no NFS, etc.
Mionet is interesting if you travel a lot. It will make you be able to share your file anywhere in the world (they said securely) but it is not free. There is yearly fee.
Its transfer speed is only about 5MByte/s (around 40Mbps which explain my network utilization of around 40% on fast ethernet) because it is the limit of their internal processor (I ask WD about this so it is acurate). So it does not matter whether you got gigabit ethernet or not. Also it has limit on the file sized transfered. I have successfully transfered around 4 GB at a time (takes about 20min) but I when I transfered 12 GB (12 big files around 1 GB and few small files) it choked near the end (report error).
It's 2 TB also based on 2 1GB HD with JBOD so it does not provide safety of data redundancy. It does offer RAID 1 (mirroring) but you got only 1TB.
I use it for backup of my video (DIVX, XVID, WMV, etc) and it can stream these file OK. I have no idea how it will handle bigger data rates.
I agree the fastest way is using eSATA drives. I plan to buy another 1GB eSATA drives when the price drop to store video and use WD as other purpose. Hope it helps.

SCSI to Firewire Solution?

Man, my gear must be a lot older than I realized. I have an old HP laserprinter that still works perfectly that I'd like to hook up to my new Mac Pro. Unfortunately, there's not much SCSI support going on these days. I did find a Firewire to Ultra SCSI gizmo (http://tinyurl.com/lxvpe) , but i'm not sure that'd work with my regular SCSI printer, would it?
Any other suggestions for a Firewire to SCSI solution?
-Ray

That's the one. Their product page is here…
http://www.ratocsystems.com/english/products/subpages/firerex1.html
Also, if you look further down you'll see…
"For the SCSI-1 device with Centronics 50F connector, High-Density 50F to Centronics 50M adapter is available at RATOC Web Mall"
… which leads me to believe that it will in fact work.

Cheap monitor for my older imac

Just looking for a cheap monitor to use as a display for my older imac (g5 ppc) which has recently gone dark. I believe the display went bad but it's possibly a graphics card issue. Just would like to find a cheap temporary solution to be able to load up my iPads and iPhones with music and movies and basic computer functions until I can afford a new Imac or possibly MacBook. Is there anything that I need to know about compatibility issues or is it just as simple as hooking it up via the USB ports on the back of the Imac?

I connect my MacBook Pro at work to various different external monitors, and my daughter uses a Samsung external monitor sometimes with her MacBook Air. With our laptops, the default has been that the external monitor shows up "mirrored," which is what you want, since that means the external monitor shows the same thing that is on the built in monitor. Not so good would be to come up in the extended desktop mode since that might not give you access to various menus, the dock etc. on the external display (those things would be on the built in monitor, which isn't working for you.
I can't promise you which it will be for you, but my experience has been that mirrored is the default (which is what you need), and to get extended desktop you need to go into the Displays Preference Pane and explicitly set that up.
If you really are going to try an external monitor, I'd get one at Best Buy or Amazon or somewhere like that who offers a no questions asked return policy in the first 14 or 30 days. So if you are stuck with your Mac in a mode that doesn't allow you to use the external monitor, you can return your purchase.
I also have a G5 iMac, and frankly, if the monitor went out, I'd simply replace the computer. The other parts inside are probably wearing out also. The February 2013 issue of Macworld discusses the latest Mac Mini's, which cost only $599 or $799 and are extremely fast and capable machines. These are Apple's "low end," and they are really superb machines. And if you get an external monitor, you can use it also with the Mini. By the way, if you buy an external monitor, I recommend staying away from the cheap loss leader units that are often advertised and instead spend a little more to get a quality Samsung or other good brand name monitor, possibly an LED one. The quality of the screen and images and resolution do make a big difference in the use experience. I got my daughter a low-cost ACER monitor first, and she is a photographer and demands high quality images on her screen, eventually we traded it back in at Best Buy (Best Buy has a nice trade in policy where you get a credit) and replaced it with a high quality (costlier) Samsung LED monitor.
The G5 iMac is so limited, both in its hardware and software, that I'd say if you can afford it, look at the latest Mac Mini or iMacs. Even the low-end ones are probably x10-x20 times faster and more capable than the iMac G5 and you can do all the latest things with them.

SYS and DATA on same RAID 5 Array

I have a server now with 4 drives; 2 Mirrored SYS, 1 DATA, and 1 Backup.
(The backup one holds a copy of the DATA drive and my GRPWISE database).
I just purchased a new server with SCSI drives, and it comes with 6 73GB
U320 drives, and 2 36GB U160 drives. My question is how should I lay out
my partitions? Should I put my DATA partition on a RAID 5 of the six
drives, and then my SYS on mirrored 36GB drives, or should I just put my
DATA and SYS partitions on the RAID 5 array.
I am mostly concerned about performance, since this server runs
GroupWise, NDS, and all my files...printers...etc.
Also, currently my groupwise database is on my SYS partition, in the
grpwise\gwdom folder...should this database be put on the DATA partition,
or is it safe to have it on the SYS partition?
Thanks!
- Eric

>How many users?
20 total. At most 15 on at any given time.
>Try to keep SYS clean as bad things happen if it fills up.
Currently my SYS drive is 80GB, 1/4 full. 10GB is Mail, 5GB is ****
(Deleting it now), and 5GB is SYS Files. How large should I make the new
SYS drive if I move the GW Databases off it? (Just as a sidenote, I may
be installing ZenWorks, so I would want to have room for that as well.)
> I would keep all the "live" data on one RAID, but split it into SYS,
DATA and MAIL and have all the Groupwise (Domain and PO) on the Mail
volume and then have separate drive(s) for the Backup volume.
If I move groupwise to another partition, should I move the software
directory to, or just the DOMAIN and PO databases?
>Do you also backup to tape/offsite, or is this your only backup?
I do backup off-site incase of fire/flood etc. The reason I keep the hard
drive backup, is for an easier way for me to restore deleted files, as
well as just to have a backup on hand.
The only problem in our backup scenario, which I will admit, is that we
do not have software to backup GroupWise. We used to have Exchange and
used Win2k3 Backup, to back it up, but after recently moving to GroupWise
7, we don't have any software that will work with that, since the cost of
backup software is very expensive for a small company.
However, currently I have been going in remotly on the weekends, and
shutting down GroupWise and copying the GRPWISE folder over to the
offsite backup. I am looking into a way to automate this / a cheaper
backup solution.
> I would keep all the "live" data on one RAID, but split it into SYS,
DATA
> and MAIL and have all the Groupwise (Domain and PO) on the Mail volume
and
> then have separate drive(s) for the Backup volume. Do you also backup
to
> tape/offsite, or is this your only backup?
>
>
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > I have a server now with 4 drives; 2 Mirrored SYS, 1 DATA, and 1
Backup.
> > (The backup one holds a copy of the DATA drive and my GRPWISE
database).
> >
> > I just purchased a new server with SCSI drives, and it comes with 6
73GB
> > U320 drives, and 2 36GB U160 drives. My question is how should I lay
out
> > my partitions? Should I put my DATA partition on a RAID 5 of the six
> > drives, and then my SYS on mirrored 36GB drives, or should I just put
my
> > DATA and SYS partitions on the RAID 5 array.
> >
> > I am mostly concerned about performance, since this server runs
> > GroupWise, NDS, and all my files...printers...etc.
> >
> > Also, currently my groupwise database is on my SYS partition, in the
> > grpwise\gwdom folder...should this database be put on the DATA
partition,
> > or is it safe to have it on the SYS partition?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > - Eric
>
>

Controlling an HP MSA30 StorageWorks Array with OS X Server... Anyone?

Attempting to build an OS X Served RAID 5 storage solution with repurposed Hewlett-Packard MSA30 StorageWorks Arrays that I inherited for the job.
Does anyone have any experience driving these with an OS X Server?
The arrays have Dual U320 SCSI cards that I can access with U320 Host adapters on the OS X side, but I'm not finding any OS X-driven U320 Hardware RAID cards that might configure/control the drive arrays through the U320 channels.
Lotsa SATA RAID 5 solutions out there, but not sure how I'd get that to communicate through the U320 SCSI on the array.
Any insight appreciated,
dano
PowerMac G5 2.0 GHz Dual or 2.0 GHz Dual-Core (Potential Servers) Mac OS X (10.4.7) Have access to either config. above (PCI-X or PCIExpress)

Greg,
Thanks for your response. It turns out that my original fears were unfounded.
Installing the print server was very straight foward and after getting it working on one of my XP boxes I was able to install it on my MacBook using *Print & Fax* ---> *IP Printer* ---> Protocol ---> _Line Printer Daemon - LPD_ ---> Address ---> _Belkin Print Server IP Address_.
I checked to see if OS X provided a driver for my all-in-one printer (HP PSC 2175) and the following page http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303057 said there was one but it wasn't available in my printer pull down list. Further research through HP revealed that other drivers could be used and fortunately there were Gimp-Print 5.0.0 beta 2's available so I used the HP 500C driver.
I also had to reserve the IP address of the print server on my wireless (Netgear) router but I left DHCP on for the rest of my devices.
The end result is that the Belkin Print Server now works across my mixed Mac and PC network. Unfortunately I'm not able to use the scanner through my Macs but this isn't an issue as my priority was to share printing. I should also mention that the Belkin manual also includes instructions for Unix/Linux and OS X, although this is not stated on the box.
VP.

Firefox hangs on browser history clearing...can I do anything about it?

There's about 7 months worth of browsing history in my Firefox profile. Trying to clear it "entirely" is giving me trouble, even in safe mode. Cache, cookies, and everything '''else''' clears fine in a small amount of time. I'm writing this question in Chrome as we speak because Firefox is currently unusable.
The problem is with clearing browser history (only on time setting "everything") specifically because Firefox will hang (and entirely freeze the GUI) until I decide to manually kill it in the task manager. The firefox.exe process shows a curious, steady 13% cpu utilization during this task on a core i7-920 cpu. Same result in safe mode. Same result if I try to set the browser history clearing settings "when I close Firefox" -- Firefox will indeed close but still be listed in the task manager taking up a 13% cpu utilization and refuses to open again until I manually kill it. So far I've waited for around an hour for the process to complete but honestly though, the task of "deleting 7 months worth of browsing history" should only takes seconds...possibly "minutes" maximum on a mid-range PC, no?
Some additional info on my machine: it's custom built from 2009 but it still performs strongly. Not too long ago I upgraded to a Samsung 840 Pro SSD and this is where the Firefox profile is on. Even though I only have 6GB of RAM, I still enable "Rapid Mode" in Samsung Magician. That process will chew through 5-6GB fairly easily, but it's still a noticeable speed increase over my native SATA II chipset limitation on my motherboard. Intel's ICH10R raid controller is a bit dated, but it works (mostly) and gives me a cheap raid1 solution for a couple of existing storage drives in my system (they're not related to the OS drive anyway.) I have set the recommended amount of 10% over-provisioning on the SSD. I keep a very close eye on the software I chose to execute so I'm fairly confident that there isn't anything else (hardware '''or''' software related) "slowing down" the system. Drivers/Win7 x64/Firefox 33 are all up to date (even running on "legacy" status now with my GPU drivers.) I do have a probably "more than average" number of extensions and custom scripting via Greasemonkey...I also have quite a bit of customization on Reddit from the "Reddit Enhancement Suite" tool -- so I wouldn't be surprised if "more than average" customization somehow corrupted the '''places.sqlite''' file and this is the explanation for my current troubles. I get rid of unnecessary plugins like Java but there's some you can't really mess with like Google's "update" plugin that's automatically installed if you have Chrome installed on your system for example.
So, after talking about all of that, let's talk about some realistic options. I could "reset" back to a factory Firefox installation but I would need to backup all of my extension data so I'm hoping that's a "last resort." What do you think about these options:
1. Letting the task run all night and see if it actually finishes in the morning, even if it's only using 13% cpu.
2. Following this option: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1004992#answer-587688 where you simply manually delete the places.sqlite file (and then hope all your extensions are still intact -- considering that was posted for Firefox 29.) Backing up bookmarks is no issue but I would really feel worried that "other settings" would go with this file.
3. I '''could''' temporarily take my storage raid1 offline as Intel's raid controller and its limited bios memory is likely the biggest bottleneck in my system. However I would probably risk blue-screening on Windows startup as I don't know how the OS would react to such a traumatic change in SATA configuration type from "RAID" to "AHCI"...plus the Intel Matrix Storage Console is (I believe) no longer in development so it would probably break too and I would probably somehow end up losing the raid volume, something I'd rather avoid than "experiment with." I wish Samsung Magician was able to do more with the SSD SATA connection and not let it revert to a legacy "perhaps IDE-like" mode (it doesn't detect bios raid modes) but I guess there's only so many things a 2009 motherboard can do.
4. Your suggestions?
I think the main thing I learned from all this is to be sure to clean your history/cache on a regular basis and don't let it build up like I did. I had operated for some time knowing that it would be nice to keep a history of every site I visited because I could go back and look at specific times for when I visited associated sites as sort of "online diary" to see how I spend my time throughout the months. Turns out I paid the price for this assumption.

Hello
Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a ''Clean reinstall''. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:
'''Note:''' You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.
#Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
#After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
#Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
#*'''Windows:'''
#**C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
#**C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
#*'''Mac:''' Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
#*'''Linux:''' If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see [[Installing Firefox on Linux]]. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the [http://www.mozilla.org/firefox#desktop Firefox download page], simply remove the folder ''firefox'' in your home directory.
#Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
##Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
##Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.
More information about reinstalling Firefox can be found [[Troubleshoot and diagnose Firefox problems#w_5-reinstall-firefox|here]].
<b>WARNING:</b>Do not use a third party uninstaller as part of this process. Doing so could permanently delete your [[Profiles|Firefox profile]] data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. <u>These cannot be easily recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device!</u> See [[Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles]]. 
Please report back to say if this helped you!
Thank you.

Where to put my Airdisk/Drobo/Server/Whatever

I am looking for advice in optimizing what I want to do with my external storage to get the most out of... uh, well, out of life. Or something.
In the basement I have a Mac Mini connected to my TV that acts as my Tivo. It uses EyeTV with an external drive connected via Firewire (400). Works great.
Two floors up I have an iMac that acts as my central computer. It is connected, via ethernet cable, to an Airport Extreme base station. The base station is connected to my DSL modem via ethernet cable and to another external drive via USB 2.0. Works pretty well...
So that all laptops and the Mac Mini can access the media, my iTunes library is on the upstairs external drive (the one connected to the Airport). Generally no issue there, but lately I've noticed that movies and shows played from that drive might get jumpy when being watched on TV. I guess that may be because the media goes from the drive through the Airport, through two floors, then into the Mac Mini.
Or maybe it's because the drive was getting ready to fail (it just did).
So now I'm going to get a Drobo so that I never go through replacing a failed drive (and trying to recover it!) again. This is drive #3 for me in 5 years. (No more non-redundancy!) But the question is where to put it.
Should I move the Airport and modem to the basement and connect the Drobo to the Airport? Should I just put it upstairs and chalk the slowness up to a failing drive? Should I connect the Drobo directly to the Mac Mini and share the drive (and will that lead to a new can of worms with the Airport)? And what cable connections should I use? I just learned that the USB bus pretty much handles everything through one place no matter how many ports you have, so I'm guessing I want to limit that...? But I only have 1 Firewire connection on the Mini...
What do you guys think? And if you think there's a better forum to post this message in, let me know.
Thanks in advance,
Rick

Hey CPC Guy,
If at all possible, I'd find a way to set up your modem, router and its connected USB external drives somewhere centrally on the center floor. Then just connect wirelessly to it with the iMac.
One cheap storage solution that I've used to this point is to buy a 7-port USB hub, connect it to the Airport, and then add multiple external USB drives. You can also run a central USB printer from there as well as a ethernet connected network printer if you wanted. I've run something like this for a couple of years. All on a one level home but centralized in it nonetheless. Works great. Wireless speeds are great.
Some of these drives can serve as backup drives for the others, including your computers. I've used SuperDuper to backup over the network. A great source for dual drive enclosures is OWC (www.MacSales.com).
Another solution that I'd recommend over the drobo is an HP Media Smart Windows Home Server. Similar to the drobo, but I think it is a much better, more flexible, cost effective solution. In fact, I'm installing one as I write this. Bought it for $500 with free shipping from Newegg.com. It comes with a 750GB SATA and has three more upgradeable bays. I got the EX485. There is a EX487 and a new smaller one that would work as well. You might compare this with what the drobo has to offer.
There are supposed to have been some conflict with installing via a connected Airport Extreme, but I have not had that problem. The one caveat is that you have to initialize with a windows PC first. I run XP and Vista via VM Fusion so that isn't a problem. Then you can use it fine with a mac.
Also, a friend who does data recovery for a living and is a die hard mac guy swears by Seagate (1) Samsung (2) and Hitachi (3). The highest rate of failures he has seen for many years is WD. I buy these three and I have been fortunate to not have one fail yet. Knock on wood. YMMV.
If you're looking to expand specifically around the mini in the basement, you might try the USB hub approach mentioned above. However, I think if you can centralize all your media on the middle level then streaming distances are much shorter and backups are much easier and faster over cabled connections. I just enclose it all in a small footprint media cabinet.
Ed

Problems with NX7600GT

Will really appreciate any help on this--I'm not sure if I bought a lemon or my new MSI NX7600GT just isn't compatible with my motherboard.
Before buying this card I bought an ECS card with the same Nvidia chipset, but decided to replace it since it had slow DDR3 memory (500mhz). I got a relatively OK deal for the MSI with the standard 700mhz memory clock.
When I installed the MSI card, I started having stability problems and my display kept turning black. Note that I did not encounter any problems with the ECS 7600GT card or my original Inno3D FX5200.
Here is my current setup:
Athlon 64 3000+
ASROCK 939Dual-SATA2
SATA Western Digital hard drive
IDE DVD Writer
2x512 Dual Channel Kingston Value RAM
Huntkey 400-Watt PS (14A and 15A 12-v rails)
Power Supply?
The Huntkey is brand new, and I have experienced the same problems using a different PS, so I don't think I have power supply problems. Also, I think it's good to note that I encounter problems even before I boot to Windows--before the GPU starts sucking power from my 12-volt rails.
Here is a bulleted list of the symptoms:
- pre-Windows/Windows instability (even in BIOS)
- shaky display
- screen turns black once in a while
- motherboard fails to detect SATA drive
Any ideas?

Whew! I just resolved this issue. I had to bring my box to the shop where I bought the card, after they found that the card worked perfectly with other computers with varied configurations. They hooked my box up to their monitor and, guess what, everything was smooth and pretty. I even played a few 3D games without hitches.
I went back home to grab my monitor. We've tested everything and it was the only possible cause at this point. Thank god those LCD monitors are light--I have to walk at least 10 minutes to the nearest taxi stop. Anyway, after all the hassle, I found out that the culprit was my VGA cable. I was going to switch to DVI, but I told myself not to switch cables until I fix the problem. A new $1 VGA cable fixed everything.
The moral lesson:
Check the cheap, simple solutions first and keep spares of the cheap stuff, like cables, handy. =)

Why am I getting this error message, "Disk is too slow. (Prepare) (-10001)"

Hello all! I've been using GarageBand for a while now and I've accumulated quite a few files. Along with all of my movies and iTunes library, my internal hard drive filled up rapidly and I didn't catch it. I received a warning message on my screen one day saying that my hard drive was nearly full and I only had a few MB available. I'm using a 150 GB Solid State Hard Disk on my 2009 MacBook Pro (2.6 GHz Intel Cre 2 Duo, 4 GB of RAM). I remembered reading a while back that it's better to use an external hard drive for pretty much everything when using Garageband, so I bought one. I now have a seagate 500 GB, 5400 rpm external (USB 2.0) and I moved ALL of my movies and music over to it. I freed up around 60 GB of space on my internal hard drive in doing so.
So now that I've given you a little background, let me explain the issue I'm having. Before I noticed that my hard drive was full, I started receiving this error message:
Disk is too slow. (Prepare)
(-10001)
Upon receiving this message, I was unable to do pretty much anything in GarageBand. I couldn't listen to tracks, export to iTunes, or do anything! All I'm using GarageBand for is editing. My band and I do all our recording (and mixing) offsite at a separate studio and i just deliver a 2 track stereo signal (L/R) to my MacBook. From there, I just cut the individual tracks from a block of 30-45 minutes of recording because we just record our entire studio session and mix everything there. I pretty much never have more than two tracks and a few effects going at the same time.
After I realized that my disk was nearly full, I consulted my brother-in-law. He's head of the IT Deartpment at a major hospital here in West L.A. and he told me that I may have created a problem with the cache by filling up my internal hard drive and that I may still have issues with performance even after I free up space. He then told me that I may need to reboot my MacBook a few time to "free up the cache" (or something close to that, sorry guys I'm not that tech-savvy). It seems he may have been right, as I'm still experiencing the same issue. I rebooted around 10 times overall to no avail. I'm still using my internal hard drive to store the files that I'm working on (temporarily) because USB 2.0 is way too slow for my liking, when using GarageBand.
I've read quite a few articles on this offering solutions such as:
1. Do a complete Uninstall and Reinstall of GarageBand
2. Clone my hard drive to my external, format it, and reinstall everything back on it
3. Get a hard drive that supports Firewire 800 (The HDD I bought is USB 2.0, but it has two USB cables to increase speed, but I only have 1 port and I tried a powered USB Hub, but this HDD won't work with it for some reason).
4. Use different editing software.
5. Take it to Apple!
Will any of these things fix my problem? Are some better than others? Before I do anything, I wanted to ask this question on the furum to see if anybody had an easier (or cheaper!) solution. Any suggestions, tips, or advice would be much appreciated, as my band is starting to get on my case about finishing our CD! Thanks...

Have a look into the Preferences folder (YourUserFolder/Libraries/Preferences/) and trash all Logic preferences.
You'll have to setup the program again.
cheers
rob

HELP me with my Big MESS-- external bootable hardrive

Ok so first off, my beloved TiBook has seemingly left me. Actually the hardrive is dead, and many of my files have been backed up onto my Lacie firewire drive (there are about 15 free gb). I have also bought a intel mac mini as another system, and own the panther install discs. Is there anyway without disruptting the info already stored on the external drive, to make a bootable version of OSX? I cant seem to do it on my own..... I boot from the OSX discs and disk utilty can "see" the drive but it never comes up as an option as where to install, also for some reason disk utility wont let me mount my Lacie. I know this whole mess could have been avioded by doing a HD copy beforehand but, hindsight is a muther..... Please advise, I suppose i could just have my hardrive fixed (how difficult is this to do, could i do it myself?), but i was hoping for a "cheaper" temporary solution since i was thinking I already had all of the pieces, please advise.

Hi, bigseppi. I'm not certain that I completely understand your post or what you hope to do, so if the following comments are partly off target, excuse me.
Your internal hard drive doesn't show up as a possible place to install Panther if the drive is, as you say, dead. If there has been a hardware failure, you won't be able to solve it except by replacing the drive — an easy 10-minute do-it-yourself job (instructions are in your Powerbook Getting Started user manual).
Replacing the internal drive would enable you to install Panther on the new one and then restore your data to it from the LaCie drive.
Disk Utility should "see" and mount the LaCie drive, and your Panther installer should recognize it as a possible installation site. If neither of those things happens, that's a mystery. Did you originally format the LaCie drive with the Disk Utility that came with Tiger? If you connect it to your MacIntel Mini, does it mount normally on that machine?

Power Macintosh 7200 to Mac Mini back up and secure wipe question

Hi all, nearly figured this on my own but hope that someone here can fill in the gaps.
I have a clunky old 7200/75/16 (no upgrade card, bog standard machine) I want to sell/give/dump.
Before that, I need to back up the 500 MB HDD (hard to believe that was big once, now looking at a 500 GB HDD for the new machine!) and then secure wipe it.
I've learned that I can get halfway there with a crossover cable and Apple Talk. So far, so good.
Now, how about the secure wipe? I've had a look but I've not had any success in finding a how-to.
I have a feeling I can't use Disk Utility in Leopard for this, but maybe I am wrong.
Advice is sought from anyone here that can share their expertise on the best way to go.
A cheap/free solution (that doesn't destroy the machine) would be welcomed!
If relevant: I don't have the installer floppies for the 7200. I unwisely bought the machine without them but vaguely recall from an earlier Macintosh that Disk First Aid had some kind of format facility though I doubt it was far from secure by today's standards. I figure I can find a set of installer disks on eBay to get the 7200 operational again once I've completed this chore...

I've learned that I can get halfway there with a crossover cable and Apple Talk.
File sharing via AppleTalk cannot be used with the most modern operating systems. You should be able to use TCP/IP. A third-party program may be of interest. Also, see this article for some general information.
Now, how about the secure wipe?
One could use Drive Setup (a 1.7.3 version is available for download) for this. Under the Functions menu you will find Initialization Options, where "Zero all data" can be chosen. However, the program has to run from another disk (such as a bootable floppy). It is possible to create and modify a startup floppy on the 7200.
A third-party application such as Wipe Info (part of Norton Utilities, commercial) or Burn 2.5 (freeware) could be used, too.
If relevant: I don't have the installer floppies for the 7200.
The Disk Tools PPC (here) is one thinkable startup floppy for the Power Macintosh computer in question. If necessary, a complete System 7.5.3 (e.g., the International English version here) can be downloaded from Apple.
Jan

Dual ADC displays and a vid card w/ no ADC ?

Hi.
I've got a PowerMac G4 with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro vid. card. I bought it when I purchased my 17" Apple display not knowing that the Apple display had its own connector that required me to but a $99 adaptor that also requires a power cord!
Anyway, my old CRT (that acted as my 2nd display on the G4) finally died. I purchased a nice 15" Apple display, but apparently forgot to consider the ADC connection.
I need a cheap, fast solution.
I've got a G4 with the 9800 Radeon which has a DVI and VGA connection.
By the way, does having 128MB DDR of video ram help with rendering time??
Ok, back to the original question.
I also have the original video card that came with the PowerMac G4 1.2mhz Quicksilver. I believe it's an 9000 Radeon. It's got an ADC and VGA connection.
How can I setup a dual display on the G4 with the two Apple displays? Both are ADC and neither card has (2) ADC connections.
I've got two ADC to DVI convertors and I have the VGA to DVI convertor that came with my 17" apple display, but the DVI end doesnt match the DVI end on the 2nd ADC to DVI convertor.
Any suggestions? Is there a dual ADC video card?

Hi
As far as I'm aware, the Radeon 9000 that came as the stock graphics card in certain PowerMacs had an ADC connector and a DVI connector. It also came with a DVI to VGA adapter. If this is the case you should be able to attach one monitor directly to the ADC connector and the other to the DVI connector using the $99 DVI to ADC adapter. You'd be losing the benefit of the Radeon 9800 though.
Unfortunately there aren't any graphics cards with dual ADC connectors, as the card (and AGP slot) would have to provide enough juice to power two monitors. The options seem to be:
1. One AGP card with an ADC connector and DVI connector, which would require one DVI to ADC adapter, such as the Radeon 9000.
2. One AGP card with two DVI connectors, which would require two DVI to ADC adapters, such as the Radeon 9600 retail version. Mines worked perfectly, although there do seem to be problems with it in certain Quicksilvers and Digital Audio G4s.
3. One AGP card with a DVI connector, which would require a DVI to ADC adapter, such as your existing Radeon 9800 and one PCI card with a DVI connector, which would also require a DVI to ADC adapter, such as the Radeon 9200. An AGP card with an ADC connector would also work but seems pointless given you've already got the 9800 and adapter.
Unfortunately I'm not sure there is a really cheap solution. As already mentioned, there are VGA to DVI converter boxes on the market, but they're incredibly expensive and you'd be converting from digital to analogue and back to digital, with some loss of quality.

SCSI vs. SATA? + cheap SCSI solutions?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for