USB External HardDrive

Hi All,
First post on this forum - go easy on me!
I've just purchased my first Mac, yesterday and getting on great with it.
One question though - I currently use 2 External HDD's to Back Up my Photographs. Currently they are connected Via USB, If I bought a Firewire lead for the HardDrive's will it run at Firewire Speed's or will it not work at all? I guess it depends if the leads are the correct size?
I look forward into hearing some replies, as I can't bear working from two HardDrives running at USB Speed!
Best Regards,
Simon Nicholls

Yes, as far as I know there shouldn't be any conflict as long as you're not connected using an older type keyboard with the 1.1 ports. This is the first iMac to have USB2 ports on the wired keyboard. You also have a Firewire 800 port on the back of the iMac, which needs to connect to a 1394b device to achieve 800 speeds, although it's backwards compatible with slower Firewire 400 (1394a).
http://www.apple.com/imac/technology/connections.html
Message was edited by: myhighway
Message was edited by: myhighway

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Usb external harddrive question

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People be tellin me, must get external drive to free up power and to avoid killing internal drive from many tracks frequent recording.
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Also, because i have a firewire solo for an interface, and one firewire port on my mini, I will have good performance even tho i am going to have to daisy theM? :P

It's not necessary to get an external drive for that, but for best use it is benicifial to have the disk as empty as possible (fragmentation makes the disk slower which results in less tracks). So one option is to clean out your internal disk and move everything to an external disk. That can be either Firewire or USB, although Firewire is definitely faster.
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:-) use your room mate's and do it!
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If you are afraid you're going to be loosing some important data that you haven't backed up get DiskWarrior as this has saved me from loosing my hair a few years back when my HDD crashed.
http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
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Wow, that seems very odd to me!
Have you tried resetting the BIOS to defaults? See if that works.
If not, try updating the BIOS.
ACPI Flash BIOS version 2.00 for Satellite A215 (PSAFGU/PSAFHU) 32/64-bit(v2.00; 02-24-2010; 6.1M)
If you still can't solve your issue and no one in the community can help, contact support to speak with a tech support agent at (800) 457-7777.
- Peter

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Go to Solution.

Likely Final Update: WD Support sent me a link to download / install SmartWare and solve the problem I was having with the SmartWare software ("Drive Settings" was greyed out). Once I got SmartWare back up and running I was able to change the "Drive Settings" within SmartWare. As the last update suggested, I modified the sleep timer settings and security (password settings) and tested to get the following results:
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Sorry but the USB port on the AirPort Express (AX) does not support USB hard drives.

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Hello.. my hp dv6748us cannot boot from usb nor external harddrive.. may harddisk is already broken

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http://www.amazon.com/eSATAp-Enclosure-2-5-Inch-Aluminum-43106/dp/B007VB79JG
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Unable to boot Windows 7 Premium from an external harddrive

I recently gained an interest in playing microsoft based games, and just recently got my late 2013 macbook pro retina 15". I have been trying for several hours for the last two days to get bootcamp to boot Windows 7 Premium from a 500GB external harddrive without re-partiitioning my internal harddrive. I can get to the first screen of the Windows 7 Install asking about language, but neither my keyboard or mousepad respond with the windows installer. I assume this is because Windows 7 premium does not have USB 3.0 capability. Is there a workaround for this that doesn't involve partitioning my internal drive?

That's all fine and good, but I would strongly prefer not to have to use internal drive space for Windows. Even If I were to use the internal drive to install it, I would still run into the same problems of not having a keyboard or trackpad as I've seen other users having issues with. It stands to reason that if I had a working keyboard and mouse that I would be able to install it to an external hard drive, using a workaround method found here:
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Make sure it's not something as simple as the battery bulging up and exerting upward pressure on the trackpad, keyboard, and USB / FW ports.
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MacBook has been running just fine for months now, maybe a year.

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

USB External HardDrive

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