Why are there 2 Forewire ports on the Digi002?

[pawn3d]

Am I supposed to connect the hard drive to the other FW port or directly into the Mac?

[The Dougfather]

002 > Drive > Mac

The 002 doesn't pass data when it's switched off so thats why it's last in the chain. It's a fair question though?

Cheers

[sunburst79]

002 > Drive > Mac

The 002 doesn't pass data when it's switched off so thats why it's last in the chain. It's a fair question though?

Cheers

Doug is correct. If your Mac has 2 FW ports you could also go.

002 > Mac
Drive > Mac

The drive does not need to be chained to the 002 if that is the question.

[GunnyT]

This is directly from the 002 MANUAL:

■ If your computer has more than one FireWire
port, connect the FireWire hard drive to one
FireWire port on the computer, and connect
Digi 002 or Digi 002 Rack to another FireWire
port on the computer.
– or –
■ If your computer has only one FireWire port,
connect the FireWire hard drive directly to your
computer and then connect Digi 002 or
Digi 002 Rack to an available FireWire port on
the drive.

Connecting Other FireWire Devices to
Digi 002 or Digi 002 Rack
The second FireWire port on the Digi 002 or
Digi 002 Rack unit is available for daisy-chain-
ing FireWire devices such as digital cameras or
digital video recorders. Even when it is powered
off, Digi 002 or Digi 002 Rack supplies power
from the computer through its FireWire ports,
letting you recharge batteries in connected
FireWire devices.

While it is possible to connect a FireWire
hard drive to an available port on Digi 002
or Digi 002 Rack, if the unit is powered off,
any mounted FireWire drives will lose their
data connection with the computer. This
may result in hard drive errors or data loss.


Check out the manual first. It's very well written, and has a TON of great information in there.

[Rob0214]

I actually put the hard drive on the USB port that way I'm on separate controllers. That way I also don't have to worry about whether the Digi hardware is powered off.

I don't think I'm trading off that much performance USB 2.0 versus firewire 400 and probably making up for it by having them on separate controllers.

[GunnyT]

Rob,

Per the Digi site:

Not Supported

eSATA Hard Drives
Although there have been no reported issues with eSATA drives, these have not been tested by Digidesign, and are therefore not supported.

USB 2.0 Hard Drives
USB hard drives are NOT recommended or supported for use as recording drives. Limited testing has shown that performance with USB drives is inferior to that of FireWire drives.


However, if the USB works for you, great. If it craps out on you, you know why, and also know there isn't any support here for that.

[Rob0214]

Ah, for some reason I thought it was not recommended, not explicitly not supported.

Then again, in the software world, not supported usually means "it probably will work, but we don't want to deal with troubleshooting if it doesn't".

Actually, I think using the USB port arose when I was using XP and having a hard time getting PT to work. I had read somewhere that Microsoft crippled their firewire drivers to only do 100Mbs, and putting it on the USB port seemed to make PT more stable.

As a side note, is there any difference in performance doing

computer > drive > 002/003

vs

computer > drive
computer > 002/003 (for a computer with 2 firewire ports)?

[GunnyT]

You almost got me to say something about XP, but I won't. Happily, this is a Mac forum.

Moving on...

I can't really answer the (performance) question about computer>HD>002/003. I don't know if power/information/etc would go through the HD, to the unit, and then return. I'm just barely smart enough to read the directions and follow them. Any deviation on my part is...chaos. But you might want to try it. Post your results if you do.

As for the last set up HD<computer>002/003, that's fine...for a laptop, or a desktop (using external (FW 400) drives (with recommended/qualified/proper chipsets). You can also use AN internal HD (as long as it isn't your OS drive). Mac Pro's can have up to 4 internal HDs. Maybe even 5, if you don't have a 2nd optical drive installed.

Bottom line: If it works for you, fantastic. If you're doing something that's not recommended or supported, that's your business. If that's the case, and if/when things don't work well, expecting something other than a few 'I told you so' and 'you should have known better', is just crazy talk.

Good luck to you. *cough!* even with XP