Resolved [UPDATED] External Firewire enclosure => CF Card Reader

[Lastic]

I'm looking for a portable FireWire enclosure to use as a backup disk and/or mobile storage.

Since portability is a huge factor, a bus-powered device is preferred.

I will be using it on my 12" & 15" Powerbook G4 and preferably also like to boot from the external Firewire disk.

Anybody got any experiences they can share with the following runner-ups or any other suggestions ?

OWC Mercury On-The-Go

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MSTG800U3K/

Oyen Digital MiniPRO

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1062431-REG/oyen_digital_cb3_sl.html

Akitio Neutrino U3+

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...trino_u3_portable_enclosure.html/prm/alsVwDtl

For the 15" Powerbook G4, I also considered using a fast Micro SDXC card in a Cardbus adapter

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SD-SDHC-SDX...ader-for-256GB-128GB-/371129508743?rmvSB=true

But I'm guessing it is not bootable ? Plus speed-wise it won't be as performant as FW800 or am I wrong in my assumption ?

 

[flyrod]

I guess the first question is what you want to use for a drive. Then do you want 400 or 800. Wibetech used to make a really nice FW800 for PATA drives. I have one of these that I use a lot.

OWC has SATA enclosures, but I've not had great luck with them. It took them 3 tries to send me one that worked, and I still can't boot from it. So add $30 in shipping (plus time/headaches to RMA it). Plus, their aluminum enclosures are pretty bulky to hold a 2.5" drive. There are smaller/lighter options if you're after portability.

If you already have a spare drive, you can get empty enclosures pretty cheap. The newer SATA drives are a lot bigger, so for backup or bulk storage they're probably a better option. For enclosures, there are plastic ones, and G-tech makes some nice aluminum ones. There are even a couple raid enclosures that use two 2.5" drives, and they're still bus powered. I've seen 3 different brands of those.

Get on ebay and put in something like: 2.5" firewire to get some ideas of what's out there. I think Lacie has a good reputation.

 

[Lastic]

Since I would use it for both my 15" and 12" , I need FW800 and backwards compability with FW400 for the 12".

I have lots of spare drives ,PATA, SATA I/II/III HD & SSDs so no preference there except 2.5" drives otherwise it gets too bulky and I need to carry a power adapter.

Had a look at the G-Tech Mobile one ,also looks good , thanks for the tip

 

[Lastic]

Just wanted to post some feedback on which solution I choose.

I realised that I still had a Micro SDXC High speed 64 GB laying around from my Raspberry Pi and with the 80 MB/s of FW800 being the bottleneck, I looked at a local store and bought a FW800 Compact Flash Card Reader and a Compact Flash to SDXC adapter.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extre...d=1463162623&sr=8-1&keywords=SDSDQX-064G-U46A

http://www.amazon.com/Card-Reader-F...7&sr=8-1&keywords=delock+firewire+card+reader

http://www.amazon.com/Compact-Flash...r0&keywords=delock+compact+flash+sdxc+adapter

Booting up to the login screen takes around 45 sec, and all drive activity ends after 2 minutes after booting up.

System feels snappy enough, I ran a few Xbench tests , bizarre enough the results on my 15" ( FW800 ) are slower than my 12" ( FW400 ) and not even in the 50 MB/s ( Micro SDXC card limit ) or the FW800 80 MB/s speed but I'm glad I have a small , portable , bus powered, bootable , snappy solution.

If I ever get around to buying a Compact Flash card with decent specs, I'll run Xbench again .
[doublepost=1463164514][/doublepost]And I just found the reason for the 25 MB/s bottleneck, the Compact Flash to SDXC adapter specs on the box

 

[Lastic]

So the paycheck came in and I bought a Sandisk Extreme 128 GB Compact Flash card with
R/W speeds of 120MB/s to use together with the Firewire CompactFlash reader.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extre...flash 128GB&qid=1464461576&ref_=sr_1_5&sr=8-5

Overal the results are better than the stock HD but not equal to the PATA SSD , only in certain areas.

Should however give me some extra space , a spare disk to experiment configurations on , a portable backup solution without a power supply.

 

[128keaton]

So the paycheck came in and I bought a Sandisk Extreme 128 GB Compact Flash card with
R/W speeds of 120MB/s to use together with the Firewire CompactFlash reader.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-CompactFlash-Memory-SDCFXS-128G-X46/dp/B00EZE813K?ie=UTF8&keywords=sandisk extreme compact flash 128GB&qid=1464461576&ref_=sr_1_5&sr=8-5

Overal the results are better than the stock HD but not equal to the PATA SSD , only in certain areas.

Should however give me some extra space , a spare disk to experiment configurations on , a portable backup solution without a power supply.

Get a cheaper X300 Sandisk SSD, and there is a 'hot' PATA->SATA laptop adaptor, remove the innards from the SSD, and place, with adaptor, inside of laptop. Boom!

 

[Lastic]

Get a cheaper X300 Sandisk SSD, and there is a 'hot' PATA->SATA laptop adaptor, remove the innards from the SSD, and place, with adaptor, inside of laptop. Boom!

I already got an PATA SSD in my 12inch Powerbook , the 15inch still has a HD .

I just wanted a backup solution or 2nd boot option which was bus powered and portable.

 

[128keaton]

I already got an PATA SSD in my 12inch Powerbook , the 15inch still has a HD .

I just wanted a backup solution or 2nd boot option which was bus powered and portable.

Ah, sounds good!