Powerbook: Firewire Port/external Hard Drive, One Firewire Port--What to do? Options

[Tripper]

Hi,
I use an M-audio Firewire 410 to record on my computer.
I wanted to buy a Maxtor External Hard drive to record audio as I am running out of space on my built-in drive.

I only have one firewire port though--So I can't use the Maxtor and M-Audio at the same time.
Should I use the USB 2.0 cord for the Maxtor or can I get a hub to use both Firewires at the same time.

How important is the firewire vs. USB when it comes to me recording live audio onto an external harddrive?

Please help me out,
Thanks!

This post has been edited by Tripper: Sun 26 Sep 2004, 09:18

[PristineRec]

USB is designed to write to a drive in chunks, while Firewire was designed write in a constant stream, like the way audio or video is reorded and sent to be written to a drive. Firewire was developed specifically for audio/video applications. When recording audio, you'll get better performance from a firewire drive.

If your powerbook is an Aluminum, then you would have a Firewire 800 port in addition to the Firewire 400 port. If you got a firewire 800 drive, you could use that port for the drive and the Firewire 400 port for the 410 interface.

If you have a Titanium or older Powerbook, then you will have to daisy-chain. As far as I know, all Firewire drives have 2 Firewire ports on them. This allows you to plug the drive into your Powerbook, then plug your interface into the spare port on the Firewire drive. The signal will be passed through the drive into the Powerbook. If the 410 has 2 Firewire ports on it, and I don't know if it does, an even better option would be to plug the 410 into your Powerbook, then plug the Firewire drive into the 410. Some interfaces specify that they should be connected directly to the computer without being daisy-chained through another device.

[Tripper]

Thanks so much for your answer.
Can you recommend a firewire 800 drive?
Is Retrospect the best program to backup my files?
I hope to find the a drive that includes Retrospect Express.

Thanks!

[Tripper]

Okay--I realized I can daisychain my 410...
So can you recommend any firewire hard drive (not specifically 800).

[stoprunner]

I remember all the problems I've had with my 410 at the beginning, I have a LaCie D2 HD that It was connected to my powerbook thru the 800 port but it kept on fighting with the 410 for access privilege, so after many days of going crazy and contacting many times the technical support of M-audio, I did what M-Audio and prestine rec is recommending, daisy-chain my HD thru the 410, the only problem is that the 800 port is not longer in use in my PB so the HD is working at 400, but everything is being running smoothly since then and the LaCie HD is a strong product.

[PristineRec]

I have been recording via ProTools (Digi002rack) to an OWC Mercury Elite Pro drive for a few months now, with no problems at all. It is the quietest and and fastest drive I have ever used. Of course, I am using it's Firewire 800 port, so that probably helps the speed out a lot. They also have Firewire 400 setups on the same drives. From my experience, the OWC drives work great.

Their drives do include Retrospect Express, but I have never used it, so I can't say how well it works. I use LaCie's Silverkeeper, a free download from Lacie.com, and it works great for simple backups.

www.macsales.com

This post has been edited by PristineRec: Wed 29 Sep 2004, 02:13

[GitGeezer]

If you have a Titanium or older Powerbook, then you will have to daisy-chain. As far as I know, all Firewire drives have 2 Firewire ports on them.

I managed (lucky me) to find a portable FW drive that has only one port. The LaCie Mobile 7200RPM is only available with one Firewire and one USB 2 port. It is the only LaCie portable drive running at 7200RPM. My interface has only one Firewire port. I posted a question about the possibility of using a Firewire hub for this scenario. Maybe the answer will be forthcoming...