Ext HD and 003 same FW cardbus!

[ktwalker76]

Hello, am running a laptop with an OWC Mercury Elite Al Pro Ext Harddrive,
and Digi 003.

Both off a TI FW400 3port type2 cardbus.

Will only start up some of the time.
Turn on the harddrive and the system recognises it, then when i turn on the 003 the harddrive cuts out and off the system, no longer recognised.

Seems they will not share the same cardbus.

Am unable to daisy chain laptop/HD/003 as well.
003 will not link through the OWC.

Seems to work fine if i run the ext HD with the USB port into the laptop.
Must be some sort of conflict going on.
Any ideas?
cheers.

[Dism]

I hope you're not turning things on and off while the computer is on...

[ktwalker76]

Yes i am!

Makes no difference if i have the units on before turning on laptop.
Still wont recognise the hard drive with the 003.

So i should have the 003 and OWC Hard Drive switched on before powering up the laptop?

[Dism]

Originally Posted by ktwalker76

So i should have the 003 and OWC Hard Drive switched on before powering up the laptop?

Very much so!

It's dangerous to switch FireWire devices on and off while the computer is also on. That's how drivers get corrupted, and actual physical damage is done to the firewire bus.

[ktwalker76]

Ok, will avoid turning on when computer is on.
Am running the Ext HD on USB at the moment.
Which is a waste as i have the OWC Mercurly elite HD.

USB is ok as i am only doing demos, a few tracks with plugins on each session.
Will do until problem is sorted.

Looks like 2 devices will not run off the type 2 FW400 cardbus i use.
Dont know whether that is a problem with the OWC or probably more my outdated laptop.

Last option, i have ordered a FW400 to 800 adapter so i can daisy chain the HD and 003.

Hopefully works.

[albee1952]

As long as the drive has its own power supply, both units should run fine together. As always, more info may help. For instance, if you are running Windows 7, then recording to a USB drive is preferred over firewire(but the Mercury still makes a fine backup drive, so its never a waste). As said, have the 003 and drive powered ON before booting the computer. Does your laptop have an eSATA port? If so, recording to an eSATA drive will yield the best performance of all.

[ktwalker76]

Hi Albee1952.

I am running a HP6710b Windows XP Pro SP3.
A bit unstable as i cannot even run a Sandra report without crashing.
Pretty reliable though for small PTools sessions.

No esata on my laptop.
Would it be worth connecting to the OWC using a USB to eSata connection cable/adapter or would it make no difference.

I am running the OWC off USB and the Digi 003 into the FW400 cardbus, which is working fine. A bit slow with large plugins but as i am only doing reference demos will do for now.

Only option left is to daisy chain using a FW800 adapter on one of the connections.

PS: Would it be worth updating to Windows 7 on this setup.

cheers.

Dont really want to spend on a new system as it is only home demo work at the moment.

[albee1952]

I doubt a USB-SATA adapter would help as the issue there is the USB driver in XP(one place where Win7 gets it right). If you sign up for newegg.com's mailing list, you would get regular emails on special deals(like Windows 7 64 bit for $79; which I just ordered to have an extra license handy). I just wish we could have had this conversation before you bought the drive as most of the Mercury drives can be had with dual FW400 ports(perfect for daisy-chaining to an interface). I'm not sure how things will work with an adapter cable(800-400) but it should be a cheap experiment

[ktwalker76]

Hi Albee, yes we have had that conversation a couple of months ago.
I would have bought the 2 FW400 port OWC but they do not have them for sale in Australia.
Only the FW400 (1) and FW800(2) port versions.
Didnt want to buy from the states for the whole warranty deal, as would have been expensive for the postage.

Have heard positive things about the adapter 400 to 800.
Will be in the mail soon.

Will check out newegg.com for that deal,how can i find out if it is compatible.

Can i run 64 bit Windows 7 on my laptop, or is that pretty standard.
Not sure, think i am running 32 bit XP Pro SP3, will have to check.

EDIT: Have checked, is a 32 bit pc. Does that mean i would have to run Windows 7 32 bit.
Would it be worth the upgrade?


cheers.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by ktwalker76

Hi Albee, yes we have had that conversation a couple of months ago.
I would have bought the 2 FW400 port OWC but they do not have them for sale in Australia.
Only the FW400 (1) and FW800(2) port versions.
Didnt want to buy from the states for the whole warranty deal, as would have been expensive for the postage.

Have heard positive things about the adapter 400 to 800.
Will be in the mail soon.

Will check out newegg.com for that deal,how can i find out if it is compatible.

Can i run 64 bit Windows 7 on my laptop, or is that pretty standard.
Not sure, think i am running 32 bit XP Pro SP3, will have to check.

EDIT: Have checked, is a 32 bit pc. Does that mean i would have to run Windows 7 32 bit.
Would it be worth the upgrade?


cheers.

I'll cross my fingers for ya on the adapter cable. As for Win7 on your machine, totally depends on the machine(posting a Sandra might help). In general, I would guess that most recent multi-core machine(with 4GB of RAM) would be able to run Win7 64 bit. But with less RAM, there may be no advantage over 32 bit Win7 In any case, if you decide to do the upgrade, have a backup plan!!!!!!!!!!! My suggestion would be to buy another hard drive and remove the system drive from the laptop(the drive with XP on it) and set it aside. Install the new drive, install Windows 7, tweak it and make sure you have updated drivers for everything in your system(no yellow flags in Device Manager). At this point, I would save a drive image(Acronis True Image Home 11 and any spare USB drive). Then I would install Pro Tools(and say a little prayer) and test. If it works, I would save another drive image and then work the system for a month and see how it goes. No matter what happens, you can always reinstall the old XP drive and be right where you are now.