External FireWire Drive Suggesions Rob D. 8.2006
FW drive enclosure failure rates and incompatibilities have continued over 2006 thus far. OWC Neptunes enclosures, LaCie array drives and MacAlly enclosures were involved with unsolvable issues. The OWC Mercury Elite models continue to receive excellent performance reviews and the peace of mind may be worth the modestly higher prices. If you want to buy an enclosure and a drive separately to save some money, I'd suggest the Mercury Elite FW only enclosure for $60-- $15-$30 more than other enclosures, but a proven unit. Check to make sure that any drive enclosure you buy meets the below requirements and always initialize and partition a drive before you use it-- this goes for any drive you buy or build-up from parts from any store-- no matter what the sales person says. I've seen many problems rising from failure to do this.
Enclosures - Best and Worst Bets
As 250-300GB "bare" 3.5" IDE Drives are selling in the $90-120 range and drive installation in a FireWire enclose is quite simple, buying the drive and enclosure separately continues to be popluar for folks who want to save about $30-$50. OWC offers many DIY FW enclosures on this page ranging from $45-120. They also sell the Newertech Ministack enclosure for $70. The reason I'm so keen on OWC is their great email and phone technical support.
I took a gamble and lost on two $35/each PHR-100AF MacAlly FW drives. Both proved to cause a complete system shutdown on my G4 when I plugged them in-- even when turned off. I tried two firmware upgrades , but nothing worked.
Several people have been using the ~$35 psychedelic Kingwin KH-350F-S enclosures with success-- but be aware that their combo USB/FW drive is problematic-- be sure to get the FW only model. Milwaukee Computing on Farwell has had the Kingwin KH-350F-S enclosures in stock lately for ~$45 and they'll mount a $80GB drive in one for about $120 total if you're in a hurry. Ask for the 10% UWM Film discount. There are a plethora of FireWire enclosures to choose from at BiG Box stores and on-line. Make sure the drive specifications state these requirements:
FireWire External Drive Requirements:
- It must have a Firewire connection with a "911 Oxford" or compatible bridge. Just saying "Firewire" or "USB" is not enough; it can still be too slow for video. Barefeats is a good source of info about firewire drive performance.
- 7200 rpm!! not 5400 or 4200 rpm.
- It must be Mac OSX10.3+ compatible, not just Windows-- more and more do not state Mac compatibility.
- Many of the bargain units have loud fans. Note that if there is adequate heat-sinking (like a metal case), a fan is not necessary at all. When you are editing, less noise = less stress.
- Recommended: Look at the warranty period. With cheaper units it is often 90 days.
- Recommended: Go to the manufacturer's or vendor's Support page on their website. Is there a phone number and email contact? Some only have FAQ's and no contact info. What is their repair/replace policy if you have trouble with the unit?
- Check the return policy at store. Many charge 20% for re-stocking if it doesn't work for your needs.
- If you shop on-line, check the vendor's rating (pricewatch.com and pricegrabber have pretty reliable rating systems). It is safer to buy from a company with a good customer relations record. There are overnight web vendors that advertise cheap prices and deliver more than $20 worth of grief,...
As always -- make sure you initialize and partition all new drives before putting them to use.
3.5" IDE Hard Drives - Best Bets
Only buy brand name drives like Maxtor, Western Digital, Seagate or Hitachi/IBM. The best value these days are the 250-300GB size. Some on-line dealers like NewEgg have numerous reviews and ratings which can help you avoid models with a poorer track record. The quiet running, Western Digital WD300FB, for example, got rave reviews and it proved to be one of the quietest drives I ever come across. I have three of these now running, quietly. Take a look at these drive installation instructions. At the bottom of the pdf doc, it specifies the jumper settings needed for the various brands of drives when installting them yourself in a FW enclosure. 5 minutes of DV video requires 1GB of storage space.
People have been using their iPods for audio editing and HiMD audio transfers, but they are not fast enough for video.
The Mac vs. PC Drive Format Delimma
Some bad news on using OSX Drive Utility initialzed drives on PC's with MacDrive6. This application has not been reliably mounting these FW drives on Windows XP Pro for some reason. The MacDrive folks worked on this for about a month but had not yet solved it as of 12/05. At this point, I do not reccomnend trying to use any external USB or FW external drive cross-platforms. Some students have been experimenting with formating some partitions for PC and some for Mac and limping very cautiously along, but it remains that once a directory problem crops-up, there's a very good chance that some files will be lost because no diagnostic program can address both formats. Hopefully, this situation with MacDrive will change. Its a shame because the Department is getting some PC platforms in B-56 and and B-18 this spring and the need to use both platforms is growing.
The below information is getting fairly out of date. Check this list for new, complete OWC FW models and this list for FW enclosures.
| FireWire Drive Pix and Manuf link | Description | Compatibility w/Mac OS9.22 ans OSX | Comments |
Tech Support
|
Warranty |
price
|
|
 |
80GB OWC Neptune 7200RPM FireWire Solution w/2MB Buffer. Includes FireWire Cable, Intech SpeedTools utility, & Dantz Retrospect Express. Firewire Only - No USB (OWCNPFW7060GB) |
Maximum
Data Transfer Rate:50MB/sec. Macintosh System Requirements: requires Mac OS 8.6 or later (including all OSX). Windows System Requirements: Windows ME, 2000 or XP. |
QUIET Comes with all the software you need for mac. For use with Mac AND PC, see here. |
Check this out! fast, Mac savy email tech support. OWC will replace if product is faulty. |
One
year Limited Warranty
|
~$104
|
|
|
250GB OWC Neptune 7200RPM FireWire Solution w/2MB Buffer. Includes FireWire Cable, Intech SpeedTools utility, & Dantz Retrospect Express. Firewire Only - No USB |
Maximum Data |
"
|
"
|
One
year Limited Warranty
|
~$180
|
|
 |
80GB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FW400 +USB2 7200RPM Combo FireWire Oxford 911 + USB 2.0/1.1 Solution. FireWire Cable, USB Cable, Dantz Retrospect Express & Intech SpeedTools and cables included! 2yr Warranty. | Compatible with ALL Apple OS Versions 8.6-9.2.x; Apple OS X 10.1 -10.4.x. Also Compatible with MicroSoft Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, and any OS that supports Firewire or USB storage devices. |
|
"
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Two
year Limited Warranty
|
~$130
|
|
|
250GB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FW400 +USB2 7200RPM Combo FireWire Oxford 911 + USB 2.0/1.1 Solution. FireWire Cable, USB Cable, Dantz Retrospect Express & Intech SpeedTools and cables included! 2yr Warranty | Compatible with ALL Apple OS Versions 8.5-9.2.x; Apple OS X 10.0.3 and higher (including OS X 'Panther' 10.3.x). Also Compatible with MicroSoft Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, and any OS that supports Firewire or USB storage devices. |
" |
"
|
Two
year Limited Warranty
|
~$199
|
|
| DO-IT-YOURSELF Firewire Enclosures | Description | Compatibility w/Mac OS9.22 ans OSX | Comments |
Tech Support
|
Warranty |
Price |
|
 |
COOLMAX 3.5" USB2.0 & IEEE1394 Aluminum Enclosure, Model "CD-309-Combo" Model# CD-309-COMBO Quiet, very easy to install drive. Mac requires no software with OSX |
Platform: Apple Macintoshô PC Computer Type: Desktop Internal/External: External Capacity: 250 GB Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM. Oxford 911 interface |
Walking Distance from UWM!! Milwaukee PC .2334 N Farwell Ave 223-2641. Ask for Robert & the 10% UWM student discount |
You can also buy a bare hard drive from Milwaukee PC and they will install it for you for free. |
90 days |
~$50 |
|
 |
OWC
Mercury Elite Pro Oxford911 FireWire + USB 2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit -
Supports all 3.5" IDE/ATA HardDrives up to 500GB. All cables included.
New, (OWCMEFWU2A6) |
FireWire 400 and USB 2.0, Oxford 911 FireWire 400 with an In-System USB 2.0 / USB 1.1 chipset creating one perfectly integrated storage solution. The power supply, which generates the most heat, is not inside the case which itself is designed to dissipate the heat of the hard drive with no fan required. So... No noisy fan to distract you from the work at hand! |
Proven case. Firmware can can be upgraded too. For use with Mac AND PC, see here. |
Check this out! fast, Mac savy email tech support. OWC will replace if product is faulty.
|
1yr
Warranty.
|
~$89.95
|
|
 |
OWC Mercury Elite Pro FireWire Enclosure with Oxford911 chipset. Supports all IDE/ATA 3.5" Hard drives up to 500GB. New, 1yr Warranty. (OWCMEFWATA6) FireWire Only. No USB |
Oxford
911 FireWire (IEE1394/iLink Compliant), 2 ports. Fully compatible with
ATA-6 drive mechanisms. Max Data Transfer Rate: 400 Mbps (or 50MB/sec) System Requirements: Macintosh with FireWire Interface and OS 8.6* and above or PC with FireWire interface and Windows 98 or other OS with FireWire Support. Compatible Mechanisms OWC Mercury Elite ATA/6 FireWire Enclosure Kit supports all brands/capacities of 3.5" IDE/ATA hard drive up 320GBs and larger. |
Proven case. Firmware can can be upgraded too. For use with Mac AND PC, see here. |
Check this out! fast, Mac savy email tech support. OWC will replace if product is faulty.
|
1yr Warranty.
|
~$79.95
|
|
 |
MacAlly FireWire 400 External Enclosure for 3.5" Hard Drives - Aluminum Construction (PHR-100AF) |
Solid Aluminum body for protection and excellent heat dissipation ;Supports any capacity 3.5" ATA Hard Drives * Works with both Mac and PC computers * Supports IEEE 1394A FireWire 400 connection * Dual 6-pin bilingual FireWire 400 ports for daisy chain * * AC adapter included System Requirements: * Mac OS 9.2, Mac OS 10.1.5, * Mac OS 10.2, Mac OS 10.3 |
The PHR-100AF model created instant shut-down when conncted to a G4 laptop. Rob D 8/06 |
MacAlly tech support was nice but had no solution. Dealer red tape prevented returning them.
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1
year warranty
|
~$35.00
|
|
 |
Software for your PC that makes your Mac formatted FW Drive mount on your PC -- See 10/05 caution above under "PC Compatibility" MediaFour MacDrive 5 OEM W/ Aladdin Stuffit Standard Edition v7.0 for Windows systems - use your FireWire drive cross platform! (requires qualifying drive purchase!) (MEDMD50EOWVQJSB) |
MacDrive5 Features: * Works with Windows Me, 98, 95, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP * Includes FREE full version of Aladdin StuffIt for Windows (a $30 value!) * Read, writes and formats Mac disks * Supports both HFS & HFS Plus disks * Installs in minutes * Works on floppies, Zip, Jaz, ORB, SyQuest, hard drives, CD-ROMs, FireWire Drives, USB Drives,multisession CD-Rs and more! * Nothing to configure, nothing new to fear, |
It just works.
|
Check this out! fast, Mac savy email tech support. OWC will replace if product is faulty.
|
~$35
|
1 GB holds 5 minutes of DV or 16 hours of CD audio.
80GB = 320 minutes of DV based on a capacity of 72-75 GB after its formatted.
You can estimate needed DV storage space by this formula: Estimated final video length X 10 X Number of In-Progress Projects