USB hubs and hard drive issue

[necjamc]

a FW 400 drive will faithfully playback 24 tracks of audio,(probably more) so you don't need a FW800 drive.

[salvaticas]

Ok so this is the external i'm using:

http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm

I tried last night computer<external hard drive via 800 to 800 cable<project mix via 400 to 800 adapter.

it did. not. work. project mix was recognized by computer but couldn't produce sound and kept making a repeated clicking sound.

anyone know what i'm doing wrong here?

i also looked into esata expansion cards for the macbookpro and i couldn't find a single one that had a good reputation. most seem unreliable and prone to crashing the computer.

[necjamc]

you could always get a FW400 expansion card and use that to run your PM. Like this. if it will fit your mac. I use one of these on my pc laptop and it works like a charm.

[flommer]

Originally Posted by salvaticas

i also looked into esata expansion cards for the macbookpro and i couldn't find a single one that had a good reputation. most seem unreliable and prone to crashing the computer.

I'd be curious to know where you are seeing the info that these cards are unreliable.

Go here, check out their offerings, then call them for their advice. OWC is much beloved and trusted in the Mac community..

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by salvaticas

Ok so this is the external i'm using:

http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm

I tried last night computer<external hard drive via 800 to 800 cable<project mix via 400 to 800 adapter.

it did. not. work. project mix was recognized by computer but couldn't produce sound and kept making a repeated clicking sound.

anyone know what i'm doing wrong here?

i also looked into esata expansion cards for the macbookpro and i couldn't find a single one that had a good reputation. most seem unreliable and prone to crashing the computer.

Did you try my first suggestion for using a USB hub with your current drives that are working?

Does the FW 800 drive work fine without the interface attached? It could well be that Avid support was trying to get you to use a real FW400 port on a drive - but the drive you have does not have that. If that is what support wanted, you could force the entire chain down to FireWire 400 -- but no guarantee this will work. One idea is try plugging FW800 to FW400 adapter into the disk drive and another adapter into the Mac FW800 port and connecting with a FW400 cable (or some permutation of adapter cables as long as somewhere in the chain the signal goes to FW400). I would use the Sonnos Firewire adapters, I've had others not work.

Yes I would avoid eSata. Unless you really needed the extra performance, which you don't here. And if you do go with the high-end Sonnos card (same company as above). But Avid won't call that a supported config/drive either.

Remember I mentioned that what I would try first is a USB hub with the least I/O busy external drive sharing the hub with the iLok.

You've never actually said how much IO is going on on these drives, if its not a lot then another option would be to put the samples on the system drive. Again not as good as a separate drive but it may work.

Did I mention that what I would try first is a USB hub with the least I/O busy external drive sharing the hub with the iLok.

Darryl

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by flommer

I'd be curious to know where you are seeing the info that these cards are unreliable.

Go here, check out their offerings, then call them for their advice. OWC is much beloved and trusted in the Mac community..

He was talking about eSATA and you seem to be linking to a page on Firewire cards. If you think there are not often problems with eSATA cards in MacBook Pros I have a bridge for sale. But the high end Sonnos card (not the cheaper one) is the one I would use if needed, but I would not go there for a Pro Tools system.

Darryl

[flommer]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

He was talking about eSATA and you seem to be linking to a page on Firewire cards. If you think there are not often problems with eSATA cards in MacBook Pros I have a bridge for sale. But the high end Sonnos card (not the cheaper one) is the one I would use if needed, but I would not go there for a Pro Tools system.

Darryl

You're correct, I didn't read correctly... I was thinking FW as he already has a FW HD...

[necjamc]

i still like my idea better. Get the FW400 card for the PM, connect the FW 800 drive to the 800 port on the Macbook and leave the USB ports for what ever you needed. Then use a hub for iLoks and other peripherals. You could then chain 2 FW 800 drives or and a FW400 drive to the card. more possibilities.

[salvaticas]

Originally Posted by necjamc

i still like my idea better. Get the FW400 card for the PM, connect the FW 800 drive to the 800 port on the Macbook and leave the USB ports for what ever you needed. Then use a hub for iLoks and other peripherals. You could then chain 2 FW 800 drives or and a FW400 drive to the card. more possibilities.

would a FW400 card be more reliable than an eSATA card? I bought an eSATA card but, just as people complained about, it crashed my computer right in the middle of a session. LUCKILY both the drive and session were in tact, but clearly this card is not worth messing with. I'll keep it for the occasional data transfer, but its just not worth running the risk of having sessions crash.

Anyways, i'm left with two options: 1) tinkering with the daisy-chain thing (it didn't work before) or 2) getting a FW400 card and hoping it is more reliable than the esATA card. Does anyone have any suggestions for a RELIABLE FW400 card?

Concerning the daisy chaining, I realized that the reason it probably didn't work is because i'm using a g-technology drive that doesn't have any FW400 ports. So what I was doing was running the PM via a 400-800 adapter into the G-tech drive, and then out of there 800-800. Clearly this isn't how it should be done, i must need a drive with a FW400 port. Would you agree? Anyone have any suggestions for one of those that is good for pro tools?

I can't believe it is such a hassle to connect an interface and a hard drive to my mac book pro!