USB hubs and hard drive issue

[salvaticas]

So, i'm running pro tools 9 on a 2009 macbook pro, 2.8 gigs of RAM.

I'm doing a lot of post work using Ableton (w/ Rewire) pretty heavily.

I've heard that it is wise to split the hard drives that each program draws from, so I have ProTools drawing from one hard drive and Ableton drawing from another.

Problem is, as you know, the MacBook pro only has two USB inputs, so with the iLok, that is three inputs I need. Thus, I bought a USB hub.

Problem NOW is, the only USB hubs I could find transfer at 4200 or lower. I've read that protools recommends data transfer at 7200. My drives are capable of that, but not through the hub.

So my option now is to plug ONE of the hard drives into the computer directly, but then the other drive will be reduced to 4200.

Does anyone know away around this problem? Am I missing something? It seems like a pretty basic problem that no one has mentioned so i'm thinking I might be doing something wrong.

[plastikman]

Using USB for your hard drives is not recommended. You should connect them via firewire, thus you would be freeing up USB ports and would then not need a hub.

Hard Drive Requirements - Pro Tools LE for Mac OSX

FireWire Drive Requirements on Mac Systems

[Darryl Ramm]

USB transfer at 4200? 4200 is a rotational speed and does not really make sense to talk about a hub data transfer speed that way. The drive rotation does not slow down just because its connected to a hub. But yes a hub will/can add latency or slow the transfer, often just because of contention for other data flowing through the hub. If its working OK for you now it may keep working for you OK, put the least demanding disk and the iLok on one hub and see and leave the other disk (hopefully the ProTools session disk) connected directly. It should be a cheap experiment to do, and if it fails, well a USB hub is handy for other things. Do you have an external monitor with USB hub you can try using as a test?

But.... why not use a 7200 rpm Firewire 800 drive, or even two of them daisy chained. After all on a Mac Avid recommends Firewire not USB drives to start with.

Darryl

[salvaticas]

Thanks for your help. Well, my mac book pro only has one firewire 800 input and that is being used for the project mix. i'm not familiar with firewire hubs vs. firewire daisy chaining. what would be the best solution?

[Darryl Ramm]

You can hang a Firewire disk off the FW800 port daisy chained (it does not use a hub) with an interface. This is not guaranteed to be without problems but would be what Avid recommends. See other threads here about whether you chain the disk off the interface or the other way around. You may need to experiment. But that is what I would do (I don't own and don't want to ever own USB only disk drives).

But you can also just try an quick test with a USB hub and see if it works.

Darryl

[salvaticas]

actually, now that i think of it a new problem arises...

my project mix i/o is firewire 400. its running through an adapter cable. pro tools recommends NOT daisy chaining firewire 400 devices and firewire 800 devices. what should I do in this case?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

You can hang a Firewire disk off the FW800 port daisy chained (it does not use a hub) with an interface. This is not guaranteed to be without problems but would be what Avid recommends. See other threads here about whether you chain the disk off the interface or the other way around. You may need to experiment. But that is what I would do (I don't own and don't want to ever own USB only disk drives).

But you can also just try an quick test with a USB hub and see if it works.

Darryl

Oops forgot -- because the Project Mix I/O is Firewire 400 (and has no daisy chain port!) you would hang it off the daisy chain port on a Firewire 800 disk drive. With My Macbook Pro I really like the G-Tech portable drives. And always check the compatibility grids for hardware - esp. with Firewire drives as to what controller chipsets are supported.

I have no experience with the ProjectMix I/O however, maybe other people with a Mac and Firewire drives here do.

You are kind of stuck a bit, be prepared to play. Honestly I'd start with a USB hub as the "least change to make" approach.

Darryl

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by salvaticas

actually, now that i think of it a new problem arises...

my project mix i/o is firewire 400. its running through an adapter cable. pro tools recommends NOT daisy chaining firewire 400 devices and firewire 800 devices. what should I do in this case?

Typically you would go FW800 to FW400 cable to a FW400 hard drive, then FW400 out of the drive to the ProjectMix.

[salvaticas]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

Typically you would go FW800 to FW400 cable to a FW400 hard drive, then FW400 out of the drive to the ProjectMix.

so let me make sure i'm understanding this correctly: you're suggesting I plug the project mix into the hard drive, and go out of the FW400 port on the hard drive via 400/800 adapter, into the computer?

this makes sense but would this be better than running out of the hard drive straight 800?

what, if anything, will i be losing by connecting the hard drive via 400/800 adapter?

[Craig F]

a little throughput