maybe OT: Firewire transfer speed

[CharlesL]

Hi guys,

This might be OT, but I'll need some help here.

I noticed that the firewire transfer speed on my PC system is not very fast, wonder if there's anything i can tweak.

ie. to copy abt 9Gb of files from local hdd to firewire hdd, it took more than half an hour, and 11Gb of files from one firewire HDD to another firewire HDD, it took abt 45 min to an hour!! Is that normal? Coz on my "other system" (MAC OS X), the average is abt 1min per Gb to transfer from one firewire HDD to another, ie. 9Gb will take 9mins and 11Gb will take 11min..etc

I also noticed it is sharing IRQ (#5) with my graphics card (RADEON 7000 Series). If i move cards around, it might screw my Digi001 card's IRQ again, coz i moved it around before and the best "position" is now, ie. the DIGI001 is on it's own (IRQ11) except that the Firewire card is sharing with video.

PC system:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
ASUS A7V266-E Motherboard with 1Gb Ram
OS = Win XP (SP2)
Firewire card = Adaptec Fireconnect 4300
all HDDs are 7200rpm with 8Mb cache (mixture of Seagates, WD, IBM-Hitachis and mix of NTFS and FAT32 formatted with Partition Magic)

Let me know what to do.

Thanks & Regards!
[Charles]

[bb_aus]

PC system:
OS = Win XP (SP2)

are you using the SP1 or SP2 IEEE1394 driver

[CharlesL]

are you using the SP1 or SP2 IEEE1394 driver

I'm not sure. it says


on my firewire devices under "SBP2 IEEE 1394 Devices":

Driver Date = 7/1/2001
Driver Version = 5.1.2600.0

But under Driver Details, it shows:
sbp2port.sys (file ver 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)

Under "Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller", it says:
Driver Date: 7/1/2001
Driver Version: 5.1.2535.0

Under Driver Details, there are 5 files:
1394bus.sys
arp1394.sys
enum1394.sys
nic1394.sys
ohci1394.sys

all .sys shows file ver = 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) except "enum1394.sys" shows
5.1.2600.0 (xpclient.010817-1148)

I guess the "sp2" shows it's the sp2 drivers. is that the cause? should i try a "roll back"? if yes, on which one of the above? or all?

thnx!

[CharlesL]

QuickQuestion..

Is the internal IDE busses faster than external Firewire drives?

[lemix]

Common opinion supports that thought.
It is usually advisable to record onto an internal HD dedicated to audio, then back up to the FW..
cheers,

[bb_aus]

Common opinion supports that thought.
It is usually advisable to record onto an internal HD dedicated to audio, then back up to the FW..
cheers,

i would record to a dedicated internal drive where possible
IEEE1394 is faster however its another thing that the data has to go through and then still has to go to the hard disk

the SP2 IEEE1394 driver is limited to 100mbs insted of the standard 400mbs

detailed here by RME and a work around - or even better go back to SP1a
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm