[DeepDish]

I keep reading about data loss on external fw hds.

I use many external firewire harddrives for several vendards.

How can I tell if I need to update the firmware?

How do I figure out what my current firmware is on each drive?

I ran the system profile and looked at my drives, but it doesn't look very informative.

Any advice?

[David Lee]

There are two types of FW drives available now, FW 400 and FW 800 (most with the Oxford 911 and 922 chipsets respectively, check with the vendor!). If your computer only has FW 400 ports, you do not need to update, unless the firmware is really old. FW800 is another story, almost all of the data corruption problems have been with FW800 drives. To find out about the current firmware, check the vendors HP (search for Oxford Semiconductor!) and download the latest firmware update, v1.40 & v1.52 for Oxfords FW400 & FW800. Running the Java app included should show the current firmware. I had a ToBE (Union Bros.) 2.5" FW400 HD that had v3.4 firmware, updated it to v3.8 ()11 chipset). Be careful using the app, it will allow you to install the wrong firmware!
Good Luck
David Lee

[DeepDish]

I remember reading about about some FW 400 drives having problems too after updating to 10.3.

But since all of my drives are 400s, I won't worry too much I guess.

Thanks

DD