003+ ejects drives on start-up then force quit
 

I have a strange but recurring problem.
About 75% of the time when I open PT8 le, something in the communication relay from computer to 003 ejects my external drives and then fails to open for a whole variety of reasons.
Sometimes it switches the drives from Recording to Play/Transfer only, I go to the workspace and switch them back, get a neo-assertation dialogue box on one and then nothing on the other until it crashes PT.
sometimes it results in PT not being able to set a sample rate, I then close and usually have to force quit PT...

The routing is that because I have only a macbook with one FW port, I have my drives daisy chained through the 003+...my TB drive has only one FW400 (2 FW800) so i go from drive, into 003 then into computer. Is there a better way to do this. I would love to know, it's kinda [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]ty for workflow to have to FQ pro tools at least once, usually twice a day!!

thanks for any tips!

lane

Re: 003+ ejects drives on start-up then force quit
 

Yes... the approved way is definitely the better way...

Mac > hard drive > 003

Any other way, and you risk losing everything on that drive if Pro Tools loses connection with the 003 while recording to the drive.

So... you say the drive has two FW800 ports.

Thus...

Mac > 800 to 400 cable > drive > 800 to 400 cable > 003 should do the trick.

or...

Mac > 800 to 400 cable > drive > 400 cable > 003.

Always put the hardware at the end of the chain.