USB 2.0 Hard Drives versus Firewire

[dfusion]

I'm going to get my Mac later this week. My PC currently uses two USB 2.0 Iomega 80GB external hard drives for audio storage. In my last thread someone said to ditch the USB and get Firewire drives but I want to know why. Especially because we're talking 32 tracks (or less), why would USB 2.0 be an issue?

-d

[dfusion]

I should also mention they are 7200 RPM with an average seek time of 9ms.

[where02190]

While the top speed of USB2.0 is slightly faster than Firewire 400 (480mb/s vs 400mb/s) the continious throughput of Firewire 400 is much higher, giving better performance from Firewire.

[cliepe12]

will usb drives even work with PT and a Mac... say a 12 inch powerbook with only one firewire port running an 002R

[RMcFarland]

you are aware that you can run the firewire drive in series with the 002r. just plug it into the second firewire port on the 002r.

[cliepe12]

Any way i hook it up, i get an error. At this point, the only way to get the 002r to even run is by playing back and recording to the internal drive

[where02190]

If you tell us what that errro is we might be able to help you.

[cliepe12]

-6085 error

This is actually a friends setup that I have been trying to get working with my firewire drive. It is the latest version of the 12 inch PB

[where02190]

Check that your FW drive uses the Oxford 911 chipset, is at least 7200rpm, and is properly formatted.

Then check to see if you are in low latency mode.

those were discussed in the very first post I found searching for -6085 error using the search function of thsi forum.

If neither of these help, I suggest you use the search function fo thsi forum, searching for -6085 error, and read what others have discovered and shared.

[cliepe12]

thanks where!!

The FW drive meets all of the specs and I use it on my 001 system that is in my signature. I use it all the time and it runs without a hitch. Taking the same drive to this new Powerbook resulted in the error. I tried it again making sure I wasn't in Low latency mode and got the same results.