Will the MBox 2 Pro ever work with firewire 800 drives?

[Jperkins]

I don't notice a problem using FW 400 for sessions, but it'd be nice to not have to hook up my drive with an 800 cable just to backup at a decent speed, and then switch back to FW 400 again to work.

Whenever I have my drive hooked up FW800 and try to play a session I get the -6085 error.

[flommer]

How much faster is it to back up when connected at FW800 speed? My understanding was that the drive mechanism is slower than the bus speed..

[Jperkins]

I can't say I've measured it, but it seems quite a bit slower when I try and back up with FW 400.
I don't know if the issue is a software issue or a hardware/firmware issue with the MB2P.

[Obsidian Dragon]

I didn't see what computer you are using. If you have a MacPro, you can adda firewire card and therefore have two firewire busses. That way you can have your Mbox2Pro running at FW400 and your hard drive running at FW800. If you have the 17" unibody Macbook Pro, you can likewise get a Expresscard Firewire adapter. Earlier (pre unibody) Macbook Pros also have an ExpressCard slot. If you have a Mac Mini, Macbook Pro (other than those mentioned above), Imac, then your are stuck with daisy chaining off of the same Firewire port and buss.

[Jperkins]

I have a Mac Pro.
I didn't realize adding a firewire card would create a whole new FW buss.

The Mac Pro does have ports on the front and rear, would those still be on the same buss though?

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by Jperkins

I have a Mac Pro.
I didn't realize adding a firewire card would create a whole new FW buss.

The Mac Pro does have ports on the front and rear, would those still be on the same buss though?

All the build-in firewire ports on the MacPro are on the same buss. Adding a compatible add-on Firewire card (approx $39.00) will give you a completely separate firewire buss. It is the best of all solutions.