Help setting up external drive???s at DVinfo.net

Jonathan Levin · March 19th, 2009, 10:25 AM

Greetings.

I am about to purchase my first gigantic external HD. LACIE D2 QUADRA V2.1 QUAD-INT 1TB.

My mac is a G5 1.8 with a FW 800 port on the back, and two 400 ports, one on the front and one in the back.

I am leaning toward using the FW800 for the Ext. HD. My first question is about formating the drive. I can't remember if it should be formatted as "journaled" or not. Do I need to really install Lacies software, or is it just plug and play?

And most importantly, I plan on capturing video from my Canon HV30 (AIC 1080/60).

Normally I plug the FW cable from camera to G5 computer in the front FW400 plug. But the LaCie instructions state that you can plug the camera via FW400 directly into the back of their hard drive. Is there any advantage/disadvantage to this? Would it even work?

Or do I capture as normal, through the G5's FW400 and point Final Cuts "capture scratch" prefs to the Lacie.

Also Sata boards don't seem to be all that costly. Any great advantage of that over FW 800, or should I save my money to go toward an HPX170 someday?

Your help as always appreciated.

Jonathan

Mitchell Lewis · March 20th, 2009, 12:35 PM

LaCie is plug-in-play. Don't format external drives with Journaling turned on. Only use Journaling for your internal system drive.

EDIT: Don't forget to buy something like a Drobo to use for backing up your "gigantic external HD". It's nice to just turn on TimeMachine and forget about remembering to back up your stuff all the time. I'd buy a 2.0TB Drobo setup to run along side your 1TB LaCie......if you can afford it. :)

Daniel Epstein · March 20th, 2009, 02:30 PM

Jonathan,
By all means use the Firewire 800 port on the Mac but remember on most Macs there is only one firewire bus shared by the connectors you speak of. If you have any Firewire 400 devices connected as well as the 800 device the bus will run at the 400 speed. If you want to run both types of Firewire devices get a Firewire 800 card installed so you will have a second Firewire bus which will let you run the 800 devices at 800 and the 400 devices. I did this recently for my dual PowerMac G5 and the difference was startling good. hth

March 19th, 2009, 10:25 AM	#1
Jonathan Levin Major Player Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Chicago, Illinois USA Posts: 692	Help setting up external drive???s Greetings. I am about to purchase my first gigantic external HD. LACIE D2 QUADRA V2.1 QUAD-INT 1TB. My mac is a G5 1.8 with a FW 800 port on the back, and two 400 ports, one on the front and one in the back. I am leaning toward using the FW800 for the Ext. HD. My first question is about formating the drive. I can't remember if it should be formatted as "journaled" or not. Do I need to really install Lacies software, or is it just plug and play? And most importantly, I plan on capturing video from my Canon HV30 (AIC 1080/60). Normally I plug the FW cable from camera to G5 computer in the front FW400 plug. But the LaCie instructions state that you can plug the camera via FW400 directly into the back of their hard drive. Is there any advantage/disadvantage to this? Would it even work? Or do I capture as normal, through the G5's FW400 and point Final Cuts "capture scratch" prefs to the Lacie. Also Sata boards don't seem to be all that costly. Any great advantage of that over FW 800, or should I save my money to go toward an HPX170 someday? Your help as always appreciated. Jonathan

March 20th, 2009, 12:35 PM	#2
Mitchell Lewis Trustee Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Kennewick, WA Posts: 1,124	LaCie is plug-in-play. Don't format external drives with Journaling turned on. Only use Journaling for your internal system drive. EDIT: Don't forget to buy something like a Drobo to use for backing up your "gigantic external HD". It's nice to just turn on TimeMachine and forget about remembering to back up your stuff all the time. I'd buy a 2.0TB Drobo setup to run along side your 1TB LaCie......if you can afford it. :) __________________ Sony EX3, Canon 5D MkII, Chrosziel Matte Box, Sachtler tripod, Steadicam Flyer, Mac Pro, Apple/Adobe software - 20 years as a local videographer/editor

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March 20th, 2009, 02:30 PM	#3
Daniel Epstein Trustee Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: New York, NY Posts: 1,267	Jonathan, By all means use the Firewire 800 port on the Mac but remember on most Macs there is only one firewire bus shared by the connectors you speak of. If you have any Firewire 400 devices connected as well as the 800 device the bus will run at the 400 speed. If you want to run both types of Firewire devices get a Firewire 800 card installed so you will have a second Firewire bus which will let you run the 800 devices at 800 and the 400 devices. I did this recently for my dual PowerMac G5 and the difference was startling good. hth