FireWire HD Enclosure

[dav]

I just received a 160 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive for use with my iBook. Problem is I cannot boot off it for backup purposes. Is it realistic for me to buy a firewire enclosure and use the drive in the USB enclosure? Can anyone recommend some decent ones? Will I have to reformat?


Thanks


dav

 

[iMeowbot]

I just received a 160 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive for use with my iBook. Problem is I cannot boot off it for backup purposes. Is it realistic for me to buy a firewire enclosure and use the drive in the USB enclosure?

Yep.

Can anyone recommend some decent ones?

Nope. There are at least 85,000 recent threads on that topic. Please search.

Will I have to reformat?

Probably not.

 

[dav]

Good call. Thanks a ton.

 

[BlueT]

I bought this:AMS Venus and it works extremely well. Not too expensive, very quiet, and simple to use.

 

[homerjward]

I bought this:AMS Venus and it works extremely well. Not too expensive, very quiet, and simple to use.

i have that one. it's great. i use it for all my storage stuff. it gets a bit hot on top of my tower but on my desk it doesnt get hot at all.

 

[yellow]

I have that one too..

PLEASE NOTE:

This drove me NUTS.

It doesn't work with anything except the FW cable it comes with. I have multiple "normal" (6 to 6) firewire cables that I use without issues on multiple other firewire volumes, but not this baby. It would allow me to copy about 200MB of data and then die every time. Tried it on multiple computers, tried it with multiple disks. So either there's a problem with the firewire controller on the one I have, or you have to use the firewire (4 to 6) cable that it comes with.

Once I just used that cable, it's been working great for months.

 

[homerjward]

I have that one too..

PLEASE NOTE:

This drove me NUTS.

It doesn't work with anything except the FW cable it comes with. I have multiple "normal" (6 to 6) firewire cables that I use without issues on multiple other firewire volumes, but not this baby. It would allow me to copy about 200MB of data and then die every time. Tried it on multiple computers, tried it with multiple disks. So either there's a problem with the firewire controller on the one I have, or you have to use the firewire (4 to 6) cable that it comes with.

Once I just used that cable, it's been working great for months.

wow...that sucks, as the included cable is very short glad i've never tried
it works with other usb cables, though. just thought i'd note that.

 

[dav]

Couple other questions..

All FW drives are bootable on OS X, correct?

Can I use Disk Utility to make a RAID with daisy chained drives? Will I notice any speed increase?


Sorry, I am new to all of this

 

[kugino]

Couple other questions..

All FW drives are bootable on OS X, correct?

Can I use Disk Utility to make a RAID with daisy chained drives? Will I notice any speed increase?


Sorry, I am new to all of this

most FW drives should be bootable.

yes, you can use disk utility to RAID any # of drives (well, i suppose there's a theoretical limit)...you can RAID usb drives, too...or floppies...or zip drives. speed increase for fw400 drives will be minimal, IMO.