Please clarify!!! Mbox 2 pro question

[TREXROCK]

I noticed when reading the compatibility page that the MBOX 2 PRO is not supported for use with Firewire 800 hard drives. I have a new unibody mac with fire wire 800 only. Question is: will a fire 400 drive work with the 400-800 cable adapter? And is there any 800 drives that have been known to work with the mbox2 pro?

Last question a bit off topic: Is there any hard drive incompatibilty issues with the mbox2 micro? can use an 800 drive?

[TREXROCK]

Anyone?

[albee1952]

Use a FW800 to FW400 cable. The best drives to use with Pro Tools are those with dual FW400 ports(so you can daisy-chain from the computer to the drive, then to the interface). It does work with the interface in between but you must be careful. If you disconnect the interface while the drive is writing, you can corrupt a session(why DIGI says put the drive to the computer).

[TREXROCK]

Upon more experimenting, I noticed my new drive which has dual 800 inputs worked with the mbox 2 pro when on my white macbook that has a firewire 400 bus/port. Then with the same drive hooked up with my MBP with an 800 bus gave me errors. Seems its the bus not the drives.

[barlevy]

Thats beacause MBOX 2 PRO doesn't support FW800 drive

use only FW400

[Dism]

Originally Posted by TREXROCK

Upon more experimenting, I noticed my new drive which has dual 800 inputs worked with the mbox 2 pro when on my white macbook that has a firewire 400 bus/port. Then with the same drive hooked up with my MBP with an 800 bus gave me errors. Seems its the bus not the drives.

Not necessarily.

The reason why it worked before, is because your drive is running at 400 when plugged into the 400 port... but it is trying to run at 800 when plugged into the 800 port. Since the FW Digi devices do not support 800, it won't work in this configuration.

That is why it is suggested to use a FW400 drive with a 400-800 cable. This will ramp the bus speed down to 400, and the overall chain will follow suit. Thus, working MBox.

[TREXROCK]

I just got an OWC mercury on the go pro drive today. 7200 rpm, 2 firewire 800 ports only. It is working 100% with my macbook pro (has fire 800) with the mbox 2 pro. Just a fluke?

[richardbe]

[QUOTE=albee1952;1556852]The best drives to use with Pro Tools are those with dual FW400 ports(so you can daisy-chain from the computer to the drive, then to the interface).QUOTE]

can you suggest any dual FW400 drives? most i seem to see have 400 + 800, or dual 800.
thanks.
rich