Dual Firewire

battery0069 · Post by **battery0069** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:25 pm

Hey everyone, I have one Firewire cable on my Powerbook, G4, and I am using it to get/send signal to my 828 II. I wanted to get an external hard drive, and wanted to use a Firewire to communicate with it, but I only have one firewire port. Is there any solutions? Also, two things; can you recommend me any external hard drives for mostly heavy audio/MIDI files uses, and must I look out for the different types of Firewire cables/ports (6/9/standard). I am new at this hardware and trying to get a grasp on it all. Thanks. james

chucks · Post by **chucks** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 11:24 am

You can add firewire ports via a PC Card (pcmcia/Cardbus) like the Adaptec Fireconnect for Notebooks.

http://adaptec.com/worldwide/product/pr ... 4+Adaptors

This will add three FW 400 ports. As for cables, the external drive will determine the adapter. One problem I've encountered is that I haven't been able to get a FW/USB combo card to work in my Powerbook (I've tried three different ones listed as Mac compatible). It may just be me, but if you buy one of those, make sure it's returnable.

battery0069 · Post by **battery0069** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 11:39 am

thanks, chucks, I will look into that. Also would there be a similar expansion slot for memory. I have 256 of memory lying around, and only two slots in my powerbook? Any suggestions. Thanks James

chucks · Post by **chucks** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 12:34 pm

Two slots is it for the memory. If you want to increase it, you'll have to replace one or both of the current banks with higher capacity ones.

KarlSutton · Post by **KarlSutton** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:42 pm

I've had good luck with these drives;

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20 ... 2FW7080GB/

and there are two firewire ports on them so you can run out of your laptop into the drive & then into the 828

it may be that you're supposed to run it the other way around I can't remember

chucks · Post by **chucks** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:12 am

While it is true that you can chain FW devices on the same port, this forum has several threads with problems/warnings against having audio and storage on the same port. If your usage is not very demanding this will probably not be a problem. However, as usage ramps up, some bandwidth issues develop in a chained environment (audio dropout and glitches). Try the chained config first, but if problems arise, then add the FW ports via cardbus. You can attach the drive through the 828. Also, if you have any VIs that stream from disk, this adds additional demands that need to be considered.