USB vs FIrewire drive

I'm wondering if there is a huge difference or benefit to using USB vs Firewire for Time Machine backup. I need to purchase a drive (either 500 gig or 1 TB) and didn't want to spend a lot. I'll never 'work' from this drive, it will only be used for Time Machine.
thanks in advance

Self powered drives will not make a difference in speed. However if you do have other USB devices attached, they might slow down your transfer speed. If you have a Mac Pro, you could add a separate USB PCI card. But otherwise, if you do encounter speed issues, then you can temporarily unplug the other USB devices to give your hard drive as much of the USB bandwidth as possible.
One other issue with self-powered drives is that some USB hubs do not provide enough power over the USB port. You may have to plug the drive directly into the computer. If you are short on available directly connected USB ports, and if as your profile says, that you have a Macbook Pro, this may give the Firewire drive an advantage as you'd not use up one of the limited USB ports, as most Firewire drives can daisy chain other devices so you can add multiple Firewire devices in the future even if you only have one Firewire port on the computer.

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How to prevent USB or firewire drive from mounting?

If I have a USB or firewire drive connected to my mac at startup, but I don't want the Finder to mount it at startup, how would I go about it? If I can't prevent it from being mounted, is there a way to have it unmounted as soon as possible?
TIA
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Eject the drive and disconnect the cable to the USB or FW port.

Mount external (USB or Firewire) drive BEFORE login?

It appears that 10.6 is no longer referencing the fstab file (what I would normally expect to modify.)
I have two external drives that I want mounted for a file backup (rsync cron job) but I do not want the system to have to be logged in to do this.
Other than using cron to "mount" can I set this to happen at boot?

Open the Terminal in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and run:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount
AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin 1
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Monitoring USB and Firewire Activity

I'm in need of a tool that monitors USB and/or Firewire ports of a Mac, the Mac in question is a Mac Pro running Leopard, I just need to be able to monitor activities of the ports and any other information allowed by the tool.
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Please Help! - Cannot Access Or See External USB/Firewire Drive

Can anyone help or advise me as I’m really at a loss as how to fix a problem I have with my external hard drive and OX 10.4.6.
I had just completed a fresh install of OS X on my PowerPC iMac G5 using the “Erase & Install” feature.
Everything had gone extremely well, all my applications and settings had been re-set as I normally have them (I made backups) and was able to access my external hard disk, which is a Maxtor OneTouch USB/FireWire 250 GB model.
I then setup a second account for my brother, which I setup as a “Standard” account.
When I then went to access some of the files on my external disk and tried to copy them over to my Desktop, it refused me permission and said that I had to ask the permission of the “Owner’ which it said was Steve (my Brother) which was strange because as I said his account was only setup as a standard account whereas I had an administrator account (and am the main user of the computer).
I went into the Steve's account and looked at the Permissions information using the “Get Info” dialogue box. This showed that the owner was indeed Steve, so I changed it to my Name (Andrew) went back to my account, and found could no longer see the external disk at all.
Returning to Steve’s account I checked the permissions again, and asked it to ignore permissions.
But now I cannot see or access the disk at all in either account, it just does not show up on the desktop or in the Finder Sidebar.
The strange thing is I can see it in “Disk Utility” but when I ask it to either verify or Repair the Disk permissions, it reports that they are all or OK and “no repairs were necessary”.
I have tried connecting the disk with both types of connection - USB2 and the Firewire drive, and the results are exactly the same, the drive is not visible on the Desktop or the Finder Sidebar, but is visible to Disk Utility.
The disk is formatted as a ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled) drive
Can anyone please tell me how I can get my external disk to show on my computer again, as ALL my backup documents and programs are on the disk, and most of the data cannot be replaced.
Would doing a complete fresh install of the OS X operating system fix this as a last resort?
I hope someone can advise, as I really am desperate.
Thanks
Drusus
20' iMac G5 PowerPC (iSight) 1.5GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.6)
20' iMac G5 PowerPC (iSight) 1.5GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Yes, I didn't think it was very good either!
You are correct in I should have said "Repair Disk" - Verify Permissions is not available on the maxtor drive ( it is dimmed) in Repair Disk.
Until now, the drive has worked perfectly, and I did not install any of Maxtors software when I originally connected the drive to this system, I just formatted it as a Mac Extended and it worked great. It was only after the fresh Erase & Install - even then it worked fine. It was only when I created a new account that the problem started.
What I have done is get hold of a demo version of a program called "Mac Drive 6" which allows you to read any Mac formatted disk or drive on a Windows system, - fortunately i still have my Windows XP Pro system which I have also connected to my home network.
So for the next four days (the length of the demo) I can access all of my files on the disk and copy them to my Windows system.
This is really great because I have all my data and images back which were my biggest concern.
I thought I might get another drive anyhow, and when I have everything backed up on a new drive and on the Windows system, I can then reformat the Maxtor drive and start afresh with it.
Thanks for all your help anyhow.

Mount USB/Firewire drive from shell or cron job

Is there a way to mount a USB/Firewire drive from the shell or possibly mount it using a cron job? Here's the situation. I have a user that keeps all of her data on her desktop or in her Documents folder. I have attached a firewire drive to her PowerMac G5 (OS 10.4.6) and successfully created cron jobs to backup her entire user folder every night. The problem is that she logs off of her computer before she leaves work. When she logs of the firewire drive unmounts and the cron job fails because it cannot find the drive. I was hoping there was a way to mount the drive using a script so that it will mount, let the cron job run, and then possibly unmount the drive afterwards. Any help with this would be much appreciated.
MacMini, PowerMac G5, iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Try adding the following line to the beginning of the job:
mount -a
You may need to add u and/or w to the command after the a without any additional spaces for the mount to work properly.
(13951)

Changing external USB hard drive into a FireWire Drive???

I have been reading in some of the other discussions about how it is possible to change a USB external hard drive into a FireWire external hard drive. Is this true ??? I recently pruchased an external USB hard drive only to now find out that I cannot use it to boot from. Apparently OSX will only boot from a FireWire drive ??? Is there some way to change my current external USB hard drive into a FireWire compatible drive or do I have to purchase a FireWire drive ??? Thanks.

All I can remember was an internal USB/firewire hub (for PCs, by the way), I haven't seen external adapters like cables; but you may simply ask in your local computer store about.
Yes, you can boot only from firewire drives. I was told that it is possible the new Intel Macs are able to boot from USB drives, but haven't had the time to verify this so far.
A possible solution may be to remove the harddisk from the USB enclosure and put it into a firewire case. This should work and you just need to buy the firewire case without the need for another harddisk. Just ensure that the case is able to take your harddrive (2.5" / 3.5" drives, connection interface).

Verbatim 320GB FireWire/USB Portable Hard Drive Won't Mount

Hello ... I have a Verbatim 320GB FireWire/USB Portable Hard Drive that won't mount. The drive has only been used a handful of times ... it is self powered. I accidentally disconnected the drive without dragging it to the trash first .... so I got the "improper disk removal" error. Now the drive won't mount at all. Is it dead or in some kind of frozen state? Any ideas how I can get it back up and running??
Thanks

Might try Data Rescue II...
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
(Has a Free Demo to see if it could or not, but you'll need another drive to recover to).
Or FileSalvage...
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?%20mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
to recover what you can.

I just added two external firewire drives and they keep going to sleep. I did not have this problem when USB. I have turned off "put disks to sleep" in power preference.

I just added two external firewire drives and they keep going to sleep. I did not have this problem when using USB external drives. I have turned off "put disks to sleep" in power preference.

It is not clear if these are the same drives, just connected
differently, or different drives?
One thing that may be happening is that the drives firmware
itself is putting it to sleep when inactive. Many drives on
the market have ths feature and it is turned on by default
and require a drive utility from the manufacturer to disable it.

USB or Firewire for a hard drive to store my photos

Hi, I am a new Mac user. I have a new iMac 20 incher, with 1Gig of Ram (soon to be 2 Gigs when the extra memory arrives), and a 128 mg video card.
The primary purpose for the Mac will be to serve as a digital darkroom. I will run PhotoShop CS3 on it, and, in the future may use LightRoom or Aperture. I think both products still need a bit of 'seasoning' before I am willing to make the jump. I will also use the iMac for itunes and to store my music.
I have a Windows XP laptop that handles all my other work such as e-mail, spreadsheets, etc. I am reserving the iMac for photography and Music.
Previously, I stored my photos on my DELL Windows XP machine and backed them up to a USB2 drive.
Because of the number of photos I take, I plan to store them on a drive that I attach to the iMac. I will probably get a 250 Gig or 500 Gig drive and use it to store the photos. I will NOT be storing photos on the iMac drive as it will become filled up in less than a year.
In terms of speed and ease of use, is there a difference between a Firewire drive and a USB 2 drive? Does either type of drive have an advantage over the othter? Any significant disadvantages of one type?

hi.
if you're just backing up then usb2 would be fine. basically in the real world on mac's usb1.1 is slowest, usb2 is faster, firewire 400 is faster still - good for audio and other media and firewire800 is even faster (good for video).
For some reason usb2 is faster on pc's than mac's. usb was a system developed for pc and by pc makers(?) and firewire developed as mac equivalent.
Firewire is faster than usb2 on mac's. if you're going to be working with your media from the external disk drive then go for firewire 400 or 800. Though fw400 will be plenty enough. Also important is the ext. drive speed. 7,200rpm is the standard and fast enough. Slower than that you'll find a 5,400rpm which are typically used in laptops and portable ext. hard drives.
If price isn't an issue go firewire and 7,200prm. Also, i understand that you won't be storing the photos on your imac drive. cool....just remember to back up your important photos onto separate media!
hope that helps
rounik

USB vs. firewire hard drives

So USB connected HDs aren't that great? Firewire is the way to go? I just bought a MyBook, USB connected. Should I be regretting this already?
Thanks.

Hi schmoel,
I generally prefer Firewire even when I had a PC.
The nice thing when having a Firewire drive is, that USB almost always comes with it.
I also came to the conclusion, that the Apple implementation of USB is always way slower than Firwire on a Mac.
Other than that I think you won't regret ist (if you really do).
But if you can give the USb drive back and get a Firewire one, I would say do it.
Have Fun
Stefan

External Hard Drive...USB or Firewire 400

I just purchased a new iMac (I'm coming from the P.C. world) and would like to purchase an external hard drive for backup purposes. I was wondering whether to purchase a USB, Firewire, or a drive compatible with both. Which runs faster on Macs? I was looking between the following drives:
Western Digital MyBook 250GB (Combo): http://www.compusa.com/products/productinfo.asp?productcode=338216&pfp=compare&
Western Digital MyBook 250GB (USB): http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Customer-reviews-for-Western-Digital-External-Har d-Drive-WDG1U2500N/sem/rpsm/oid/145402/rpem/ccd/productDetailReview.do#tabs
LaCie 250GB (USB or Firewire versions): http://www.compusa.com/products/productinfo.asp?productcode=310799&pfp=compare&
I also read about the different chipsets, but since these are all compatible with Mac OS X, they should have the proper chipset. Any help would be appreciated.

I recommend getting an external HDD with both firewire 400 and usb2. First off firewire is faster in real work operation than usb2. Is also good to have both if you decide to take some files and hook the drive up to a PC. Alot of PCs still don't have firewire.
I like this drive from OWC. It uses the latest Seagate drive and very good chipset.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MAU4F7320G16/
lenn

10 3.9 - external drive crashes PB when connected by USB or FireWire

Subject says most of it... "10 3.9 - external drive crashes PB when connected by USB or FireWire"
Details: I have one external drive which, when connected to my PowerBook via either FireWire or USB, causes the computer to lock up with the message: "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button." The same thing happens whether the drive is there on bootup or if it is connected later.
The drive worked fine until yesterday, when I stupidly installed Windows Media Player even though the internal drive was almost full. It took a while, but I discovered that disconnecting this particular external drive made everything work again, though slowly.
Then I freed up 15GB on the internal drive, and everything works normally _unless that drive is attached. Another drive connected the same way works fine.
I have searched around on this message but have yet to find the way out. I did figure out what the first question will probably be, so here's the answer:
The "kernel panic message" each time seems to be the date and time and then "localhost /usr/libexec/panicdump: Error (-1) setting variable - 'aapl,panic-info'"
Where should I start?
Thanks.
15" Powerbook Mac OS X (10.3.9) External drives connected via USB or FireWire

Still hoping for some sort of advice here... Have tried many approaches but can only confirm that simply connecting that particular drive (or enclosure?) always gets an immediate shutdown.
Thanks for anything,
Steve

Firewire drives do not show up on network

I have a G5 with 2 external drives, 1 firewire, 1 USB
I have a G4 with 2 external drives, both firewire.
When these computers are networked,
The G5 sees the internal drives from the G4.
The G4 sees the internal drives from the G5, as well as the connected USB drive.
But neither computer sees the external firewire drives of the other computer.
I used to see these drives and made aliases for them, but they do not show up now.
I am using the admin accounts from each computer.
G5 running 10.4.5
G4 running 10.3.9
What is the cause of this problem? How can I mount the firewire drives on the networked computers?

I need to modify my question. I also have a G3 running 10.2.8
Yesterday I noticed that the Network icon in the G5 sidebar had an eject symbol next to it. That seems strange, upon reflection, as if something was not right.
I shut off all the machines for the evening.
Today, I restarted all the machines. Chose Finder->Go->Connect to Server->Browse
From each machine, I was able to see the external drives on the other machines, as well as the internal drives, over the network. I did not use nor install sharepoints. It just works (with an admin account).
However, on the G5, there is an external firewire Firelite drive. It is formatted as Fat 32.
It does not show up in the Browse window when I connect to the G5 from any computer. If I move it to the G4, it also does not show up when I connect to the G4 from any computer. So it does not seem to be related to the OS version.
In other words, it seems that since the Firelite is Dos formatted, I cannot see it on the network, even though it is a firewire drive.
So how can I fix this problem?
iMac G5, TiBook, G4 MP 500; G3 beige 333, iMac 333, others Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Can I use USB external DVD Drive to boot up my G4?

My G4 (PCI Graphics) internal drive DVD-ROM is not working, its dead. I want to replace it with an External USB or Firewire Lacie DVD Drive.
According to Apple document http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58606, my computer cant boot up from Firewire devices. I think that means, I wont be able reinstall my Mac OS or install future systems or start my DiskWarrior from the CD. Using a external Firewire DVD Drive. Let me know if I am wrong?
Can I use a USB external DVD Drive to boot up?
G4 (PCI Graphics) 400 mhz, 488Mb Memory, 50GB, 9.2.2 & 10.3.9. USB 1.0 & Firewire 400 Ports
G4 (PCI Graphics) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi, Harold -
Bad news - your G4 (PCI) model can not boot to either a firewire drive nor to a USB drive.
Although the G4 (PCI) models do have native firewire, they (and their cousins the B&W G3) are specifically exempted from firewire booting; there is no workaround for this -
Article #58606 - FireWire Booting
Relatedly, a G4 (PCI) machine can be the Host machine in a Firewire Target Disk Mode setup, but can not be the Target machine.
Article #58583 - Firewire Target Disk Mode
USB booting was introduced first on the G4 (AGP) model, and is not available on earlier Mac models -
Article #58430 - USB Info and Benefits of Dual-Channel USB
The only external drive your G4 (PCI) can be booted to is a SCSI drive - but that requires that the machine have an appropriate SCSI PCI card installed.
Replacing the internal optical drive might be the best choice, particularly for ease of maintenance and OS installing in the future.

USB vs FIrewire drive

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