Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with firewire

Help me find a external drive that doesn't plug in for power

Thrillhouse — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:16:42 -0800

Help me find a non-AC-powered external drive. I'm looking for a 750GB or 1TB external drive that is either firewire (preferable) or USB2.0 and somewhere in the $125-150 range AND is of quality. No Maxtor or Iomega.
The kicker is that I do NOT want to have to plug it into AC as well. It must be powered via the USB/Firewire port.
It doesn't have to be small. It's mostly going to be used around the house but I just don't want to have to plug it into AC.

I'm on a Mac.

Thanks!

How does one hook up a sixteen channel firewire mixer to a mac?

johannahdeschanel — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:36:10 -0800

How does one hook up a sixteen channel firewire mixer to a late 2008 mac? No firewire input. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you.

I Ch-Ch-Charge you

gensubuser — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:10:49 -0800

Where would you go to get a cheap iPhone/iPod wall charger and/or USB cable? From looking at amazon and a couple other vendors, it seems there is a very popular tactic of ramping down the product quality in successive batches. By the time an item has 4star reviews, the next shipment could very well fry your device. I have a 2G Touch.

Can you recommend a vendor that either: A) has a large inventory in stock of the same device, such that I can rely on the reviews, or B) is semi-branded such that their reputation matters?

Or, some other tactic.

USB or Firewire for Maximum Efficiency?

j-dawg — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:55:41 -0800

I'm video recording a long event through software on my Mac, and am using a USB-connected Panasonic camcorder. Since I'll need an external drive for the files, should I choose a USB disk or Firewire disk, or does it matter? I can talk myself into either, but I have no idea. Is USB better since the throughput is going USB-USB? Or is Firewire better so both devices aren't hogging the same controller? Or does it not matter at all, particularly given the software layer in between the capture and the recording (Screenflow, in this case)?

Thanks!

Do slower transfer speeds reduce the total amount of data transfered?

oddman — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:15:01 -0800

Do I really need firewire for mini-DV to computer transfers? I have a mini-DV camera and I am horrible at making movies on my computer at home. They all come out blocky with indistinct lines. That's not what this question is about (although if you know of good tutorials feel free to give them a shout-out).

I am thinking of buying an HP dv4t notebook computer, but I noticed that it has no firewire ports. Here is my question: do I need a firewire port to make good quality digital movies?

I know that firewire is just a technology for transferring data (relatively) quickly from camera to computer and it seems to me that using USB shouldn't affect anything other than the data transfer speeds.

However, I've heard that having what is essentially a "smaller pipe" will lead to transferring less data from camera to computer and thus to lower resolution movies. (i.e. the camera/computer detect that you are using a slower transfer method and compensate by providing less data for the transfer.) Is this true? Common sense says "no" that USB will just make it take longer to transfer the data, but computers can do funny things. So, I'm not certain.

mac to mac

andywolf — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:10:11 -0800

how do i have my working macbook connect to my non functioning macbook's harddrive? when i did it in the past a firewire symbol was floating around the screen. for the life of me i can't find or remember how it's done. all i remember is while i pressed the power button on the old macbook i held down a key, then a firewire symbol was visible on the screen and the drive was visible on my working computer.

i just got data recovery in the hopes of saving whatever i can.

My ExpressCard slot is too wide.

frenetic — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:12:28 -0800

How do I secure a FireWire ExpressCard/34 that jiggles around inside an ExpressCard 34/54 slot? I have a Dell Vostro 1310 with an ExpressCard 34/54 slot. I also have this SIIG FireWire ExpressCard/34. (All the other FireWire ExpressCards I can find are all 34.) It works fine in my laptop but there's all this slot space to the right side of it and it's not secured in place. A cable pull or even catching it on a shirt sleeve will move it and potentially disconnect it, which is no good for a live show laptop situation.

Is there a solution to this problem? I've found a few 34/54 adapters in obscure online stores overseas but I have to believe there's a more obvious and easy solution available locally. Or is everyone cool with their FireWire adapter rattling around in their laptop?

4-bay Firewire/USB2 RAID enclosure for OS X?

xmutex — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:23:08 -0800

Looking for recommendations on a 4-bay Firewire/USB2 RAID enclosure that works well with OS X. I'd also like to see recs for a eSATA equivalent, though I'm definitely leaning towards Firewire/USB2. Thanks!

Installing Windows 7 on a MBP with a non-working DVD drive

N2O1138 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:22:32 -0800

How can I install Windows 7 (via Boot Camp or rEFIt) from an ISO? I think the Superdrive on my Macbook Pro (10.5.6) is on its last legs, because it ejects almost anything I put in it. (Meaning blank DVDs, and the DVD I burned of the ISO on my Windows XP desktop with ImgBurn). It's not extremely old (I got it refurbished on Christmas 2007), but still old enough to be out of warranty (at least I would think so). What I have available: 1tb My Book Firewire External Hard Drive 4gb 1st gen iPod Nano, that isn't even formatted as an iPod right now, so it's basically just a 4gb USB flash drive. I know I can boot from it if it's set up right, because I've been using it with this What I've tried so far:
I can't restore the iPod to the ISO in Disk Utility, so I tried to convert the ISO to a DMG (in Disk Utility and using a program called Converso), getting errors both times.

I tried mounting the ISO, erasing everything on the iPod, and copying everything straight out of the ISO to the iPod, but it doesn't appear as anything bootable.

Please help if you can

Transfering FireWire data to a new MacBook?

jed — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:56:30 -0800

My white MacBook is in its death throes, and it's time to upgrade. Unfortunately, all my data is backed up to a FireWire drive, which the new MacBook doesn't support. What are my data transfer options, other than buying a MacBook Pro?

Caputuring HDV from a mini-DV cassette: what are my options?

adipocere — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:08:49 -0800

Caputuring HDV from a mini-DV cassette: what are my options? I would like to capture HDV, in one or more of the three variants, a source which will be coming in on a mini-DV cassette.

1) What is an inexpensive deck which:

A) can capture DV, HDV 720p, HDV 1080i, and HDV 1080p?
B) can direct the output to a Firewire (or equivalent, see below) card?
C) can step-down video (this is a bonus) from HDV to DV?

2) Do I need a new Firewire/DV card? Is it a hardware difference (I don't imagine it is) or a simply new software which comes with a new card that knows how to handle these new formats? If I do need a new card, what's a good one for Windows XP?

Help my MacBook make sound again!

zacharyseibert — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:00:50 -0800

Possible solution to getting sound back on my MacBook? I have an original white MacBook, Core Duo 2 ghz. The sound card on the logic board died awhile ago, and I have yet to get it fixed. It is out of warranty, and the people at the Apple store have informed me that it will cost $250 to get it fixed through Apple. I was hoping there was a way around spending $250 on an older laptop I might replace fairly soon.

My real question is, if I were to buy an external sound device, that would go through USB or FireWire, would that solve my problem of no audio input/output without needing to repair the internal onboard sound card? Also, if this is a plausible solution to my problem, any recommendations on an external device that works well with OSX (Leopard, if that matters) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

give us firewire or give us death!

dithmer — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 04:39:31 -0800

why are people freaking out and bemoaning the "removal of firewire" on the new macbooks and macbooks pros? they both still have a firewire 800 port. but nobody is specifically saying "they removed firewire 400!!". it's all "well now i'm never buying one of those since they totally killed firewire." and buying a firewire 400 to 800 cable or converter is under $20. am i missing something?

Do I have to get a new computer to get an iPhone?

mccxxiii — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:23:43 -0800

Is there some kind of adapter I can get that will let me plug a USB 2.0 item into a Firewire slot on a Mac Powerbook G4? I have a Powerbook G4 with a Firewire 400 plug-hole and only a USB 1.0 plug-hole, and I want to get a new iPhone. The new iPhone requires USB 2.0.

Is there something I can get that will turn my Firewire 400 into a USB 2.0, or at least let me plug one thing into another? I don't care if the speed is degraded just a bit. (I understand that USB 2.0 goes to 480, where my Firewire only goes to 400.)

Or could I somehow take out the USB 1.0 innards and replace them with a USB 2.0 card? Would that be crazy expensive?

There's so much life left in this PB, and I've got plenty of RAM and an upgraded hard drive. I don't want to get a whole new computer just to get an iPhone.

On the other hand, I really want an iPhone ...

How many hard drives does it take, before WinXP can see them?

jadepearl — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:42:29 -0800

External hard showing "weird". Better known as, sharing an external/portable hard drive between osx and winxp. I have tried out no less than 3 of these Lacie external hard drives.

They are formatted FAT32 and register perfect on my macs at home. However on 2 WinXP machines they register as a regular drive, are listed as "full" and nothing can be loaded or read from them. This all started because they initially could not be found on the winxp though device manager "saw" them just fine and disk managment found it "healthy". I got it enabled and allocated a drive. Now it does not show in disk management. This is what I have done so far:

1) Reformatted one on a mac for pc -- still not "mounted" though seen by device manager. Forced allocation using disk management. Unable to format on the PC to NTFS after it mounted. Unable to read or write because "full" or not recognized;

2) Plugged in a "virgin" FAT32 drive after forced allocation and it can be seen but now only registering as a drive with no further info and again, "full" cannot read nor write nor found by disk management;

3) MacDrive 7 unable to find or read the drives initially until I forced allocation and again, no read nor write nor formatting. App keeps asking where the mac drive is;

WinXP service pack 2 on my machine; hard drives connected via USB 2.0; Novell Zenworks and network drives are a part of my environment.

The drives are new and Lacie is generally a reputable firm. FAT32 should be able to be read by a WinXP machine. This is a consistent problem after trying 3 drives. Any advice would be nice.

Speaker vs Hard Disk

armoured-ant — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:23:20 -0800

I have an external firewire hard disk sitting on top on a powered monitor speaker on my desk here. Is this a terrible idea? Will it shorten the life of the drive? What's a safe distance? The drive is a MyBook, and the speaker is a Tapco S5. Thanks folks!

Firewire Won't Detect Camcorder

muckster — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:48:53 -0800

Totally boring firewire question: I had to reinstall windows xp, and now the system won't see my camcorder. It's a Panasonic GS-120 connected through firewire to an HP desktop running a slimmed-down version of SP2. In the device manager, I see a "Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller" with up-to-date drivers, but plugging the camera into either of the firewire ports doesn't bring up the plug-and-play notification. I'm using a 6-to-4 pin cable. The same camera is detected without problems when I connect it to a Vista laptop with a 4-to-4 pin cable.

I searched pretty hard for drivers etc but googling this stuff is a complete mess. Thanks for any ideas on what to try to fix this.

Can I output my screen display via firewire?

razdrez — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:43:26 -0800

Can I display my screen output via firewire? It'd be nice if I could play, say, netflix on-demand movies just by hooking up a firewire cable between my pc and my "converter box". I just bought a tablet pc that I'll be using as a direct-to-disk recorder for my video camera. So, I'll be able to play DV video over firewire to my tv, using an old camcorder as a converter (which I'll later rewire into a firewire-to-video converter box).

It seems like Macs can at least convert other videos to a firewire stream using some Quicktime magic:
Exporting QuickTime Movies with Simple Video Out X

But is there anything like that for XP? Or something more advanced, like a video driver that automatically converts your screen display to a firewire stream?

Firewire for laptop

TigerCrane — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:36:28 -0800

Can I put firewire on a laptop if I don't have a PCMIA slot? I have a laptop (PC) that has a weird card slot. I think its called a "mini PC" card. It has a big notch in the card. In anycase, its not PCMIA. All the firewire cards are PCMIA. Is there anything I can do?

If I get an external harddrive enclosure that has a firewire port, can I go from the video camera directly to the external drive?

How to daisy-chain an iPod to my ext. FireWire drive?

kchristidis — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:17:29 -0800

Daisy-chaining my iPod to my ext. Firewire drive -- I can't seem to get this to work. I've got an external Firewire drive hooked directly to the MacBook. When I connect (daisy-chain) my 3G iPod to the external drive, the iPod powers up for a second and then abruptly shuts down.

Is it a case of not enough power throughout the chain? If so, which one's to blame, the MacBook (for not giving enough power from the start) or the ext. drive (for consuming too much power)?

Is there something I can try to have the two working together simultaneously, or do I have to buy a Firewire hub?

(And a rhetoric question: if you can't daisy-chain two Firewire devices on a modern computer, how are you supposed to connect up to 63?)

Thanks in advance for your help!

How to share loads of peripherals between two or more computers.

swift — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:36:56 -0800

I'm trying to simplify my computer wiring situation, and could use some strategic advice. I have a bunch of devices, and 3 machines. How can 2 (or preferably all 3) machines share all the peripherals? My little KVM doesn't quite cut it. Here's the list:

USB keyboard
2 VGA monitors
USB mouse
USB printer
USB scanner
Speakers (mini-jack)
Firewire webcam
USB microphone
USB card reader
Firewire iPod
periphals as yet unpurchased..

Mac Mini
Dell Precision
and bonus, PowerPC

Why are transfers to my external firewire drive so slow?

Venadium — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:14:03 -0800

What kind of transfer speeds should I be expecting from my new external Firewire 800 drive? I just hooked up my new WD MyBook Pro (the one with 3 different interfaces) to my Macbook Pro. After deleting all the junk that came installed on the drive, I started transferring over some of my stuff, starting with about 8gigs worth of backed-up DVDs (it was actually 2 DVD disc images). It took less than 5 minutes to transfer, but crapped out on me right before it finished giving me some cryptic error. I looked it up a bit and it seems to have something to do with the fact that the drive was still formatted in FAT32, which I would have changed anyway had I noticed that. So I reformatted the drive to HFS+ using Disc Utility, and started the transfers over again. This time it took about 20 minutes to transfer the same amount of data. After that was finished, I transfered about 3.5gigs worth of pictures and again this took longer than I would have expected, about 10 minutes.

Also, even after the transfers completed, the circular LED thing on the front of the enclosure is still rotating, which according to the manual means the drive is in use. Could this be related? Does anyone have any ideas as to what's going on?

Video capture on a ThinkPad T42?

stleric — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:03:03 -0800

Is my ThinkPad laptop capable of video capture? I've got a ThinkPad T42 laptop that's getting a bit long in the tooth, but since I've got a DVD+/-R drive, I've been curious if it could handle video capture well enough to convert some old VHS tapes to DVDs without having issues with dropouts, poor frame rates, or errors.

It's a Centrino (Pentium 4-M) 1.6 GHz processor, currently 512 MB of memory (I'll probably upgrade to 1.5 GB soon), 5400 RPM 80 gig hard drive (I've got an external 7200 RPM 250 GB that I'd probably store the video on), Radeon 7500 video card (32MB), two USB 2.0 slots, but no built-in Firewire ports.

So my main questions are:
1. Can my computer handle TV/DVD-quality video capture, or would I just be disappointed attempting it?
2. Are there any worthwhile USB 2.0 video capture peripherals with RCA plugs (and possibly others) available, or should I stick to Firewire peripherals?
3. If I'm stuck with Firewire, would video capture through a PCMCIA card with Firewire ports be a reasonable solution?

Thanks, everybody!

Help me configure the ultimate Mac OSX backup solution.

drgonzo2k2 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:04:57 -0800

Help me configure the ultimate Mac OSX backup solution! I just received two very nice external firewire hard drives for Christmas. My plan is to place my music collection on one drive and use the other drive to have a perfect copy of all my music in case the original fails. As I add to my collection every couple of days or so, I'd really like to automate this to create regular backups. My plan was to have both drives connected and powered on, with the backup drive unmounted. The OS would mount it when needed to do the backup and then unmount it again when it was finished. I thought I could accomplish this with SuperDuper! and its scheduling function, and for the most part it works. The only problem is when my wife logs in the system mounts the backup drive. Then spotlight wants to index it, and if I log in it seems to get stuck in this weird phase of mounting and unmounting.

If anyone could tell me step-by-step how to make this work and have the drive ONLY be mounted when it is needed to perform a backup, I would greatly appreciate it. If I can get this to work I'd like to do the same thing with my system drive and a 3rd firewire drive that I have.

Need to transfer lots of data from old internal drives to new external drive.

arnicae — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:04:59 -0800

I have two IDE hard drives in my closet, and I need to get the info on them into a new external drive. What's the best way to do this? Upon selling my old Mac G4/400 desktop in 05/2006, I took the hard drives out and put them in static-proof bags. These drives have about 200gb worth of mp3s and 250gb worth of movies on them. My ideal world would involve an external ESATA (SATAII) drive connected to my new MacBook Pro via ExpressCard that would house all of this old info.

To recap: two IDE drives -> one ESATA drive (intended for right now to be a 750gb Seagate FreeAgent) via ExpressCard

Is there any easier way than to find someone with a desktop tower that has spare bays open and the internal hardware available to xfer this data? My other option I guess would be to house the two existing drives in an external fw800 enclosure and xfer the data through my laptop to the new drive.

Are there any better options? Thanks!