Official Firewire Interface Best Practice on new Macs?

[LAStrings]

What is the recommended best way to connect an Firewire 400 interface (mboxes, 002) to the new Macs, which do not have firewire 400?

I have an 002 currently chained through a LaCie drive, which is then firewire 800 to the computer. This is mixing my 400's and 800's, which according to DIGI is an official bad idea, but it's working for now.

What's the most stable solution?

800 to 400 cable?
PCI card with firewire?



Thanks!

C

[albee1952]

I believe the preffered setup is an FW800-FW400 cable to a drive with 2 FW400 ports, then on to the 002. OWC has several approved firewire enclosures with dual FW400 ports. You CAN chain with the 002 in line and the drive after it, BUT, be careful to NEVER unplug or turn off the 002 with the system on as it could corrupt data if the drive happens to be reading or writing data at the time. That could ruin the session(but it DOES work as long as you take proper care). I highly recommend a UPS unit for the computer and peripherals(like the interface and any external drives and screens. It could be the best $150 insurance policy you ever pay for.

[LAStrings]

Okay Digi-
I'm running OSX 10.5.8 on a 2x2.26 quad core Mac Pro.
Pro Tools LE 8.0.1, Waves6. DIGI 002. LaCie drives.

I have a Lacie with firewire 400 and 2 firewire 800s in the back. The 002 is going into the this drive Firewire 400, which is going into the MAC via firewire 800. As y'all know, there is no port for the 002 built into the computer.

Something tells me this isn't the best way, but what is??
Yesterday I got a "bus error at address 0x0" and the session blew up. Pro Tools wouldn't restart , hung with that same message, so I deleted prefs and that whole thing. It works again but I'd really like to set up in a more reliable way. I never used to chain the interfaces through a drive, always directly to the computer. Is it a problem?

Thanks!

Christine

[getz76]

On a Mac Pro?

Buy another internal drive and install it. Use it as your session drive. Copy over the session if necessary.

Plug in the 002 with a proper FW800->FW400 cable (Belkin makes a known-good cable).