[CharlesS]

All right, let's begin with a little story. I got a cheap FireWire enclosure for the original 2.5" drive in my Pismo some time ago. Everything seemed to work when I plugged it all into the FIreWire port on my G4. However, the enclosure would never work with my Pismo. If it was plugged in when the Pismo was started, it would never finish booting, either in OS X or OS 9. In OS 9 it would make it freeze even if extensions were off, and the cursor would turn into a miniature version of the "bomb" icon. In OS X, it would freeze at "checking disks" or something like that. If I plugged it into the Pismo after booting was finished, it would not show up on the Desktop or in Apple System Profiler. Occasionally, it would make OS X completely lock up. However, it worked fine in my G4, so I thought I could at least use it for testing for BootCD. Well, after some particularly heavy access of the drive today, it has conked out on the G4 as well. Now, if I even try to update the prebinding on the drive, everything locks up. The Finder beachballs and won't relaunch, trying to cd to the drive in the Terminal just hangs, and nothing, even sudo reboot or sudo shutdown -h now, works. The only way to get my machine back is to unplug the FireWire drive. I know my FireWire ports are fine, since I have a FireWire CD-RW that works fine on both machines, and also FireWire Target Mode works great. Something is wrong with either the enclosure or the drive, and I suspect the enclosure since the drive worked fine when it was internal in the Pismo.

So, my question is: Can anyone recommend a FireWire 400 enclosure for a 2.5" drive which is not too expensive (it's just a 6 GB drive, no point spending more than the drive is worth) and which actually works?

I need this in order to continue work on BootCD, so your replies are appreciated.

Thanks,
Charles

[Eug]

My Sarotech Cutie works fine with my TiBook. (Pictured is the newer model, and USB 2.0, but otherwise it's the same.)

http://www.primelite.com/pic/port_cutie.jpg

Not cheap, but I'm not going to buy any more cheap 2.5" cases. My last one blew up. Literally.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/eug/Other/blownupcapacitor.jpg

By the way, your CD-RW working doesn't guarantee that your Pismo's Firewire ports are up to the task for a laptop drive enclosure. A 2.5" enclosure (usually) draws power off the ports themselves. Mind you a Pismo Firewire port should be able to provide enough power. I wonder what the power specs are of your drive...

[edit: NO HUGE INLINE PIX!! -- tooki]

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Eug:
My Sarotech Cutie works fine with my TiBook.

Not cheap, but I'm not going to buy any more cheap 2.5" cases. My last one blew up. Literally.

Eesh. Not sure I can justify over $100 just to connect a 6 GB drive so I can work on a freeware program...

By the way, your CD-RW working doesn't guarantee that your Pismo's Firewire ports are up to the task. A 2.5" enclosure (usually) draws power off the ports themselves. Mind you a Pismo Firewire port should be able to provide enough power.

No, the one I have currently has an AC adaptor, and I always leave it plugged in. It just doesn't work with the Pismo's FireWire ports, for some reason. And now, it's not working properly with the G4, either.

[Eug]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Eesh. Not sure I can justify over $100 just to connect a 6 GB drive so I can work on a freeware program...

For the record, I paid something like US$65 at the time.

Anyways, if you're willing to risk another $40 for another cheap enclosure, you can just ask if it is based of the more common chipsets like Oxford 911, Indigita, or Initio.

Or you could buy a 3.5" drive enclosure (easier to find) and get a $5 2.5" to 3.5" converter. The benefit is you can use 3.5" drives in there later too. The problem there is that you'll be forced to us an AC adapter even just for a 2.5" drive.

[SSharon]

I would look through the enclosures at newegg.com I just bought a 3.5" one and its great but I remember seeing lots of (cheaper) 2.5" cases.

[tooki]

I have an OWC Mercury to go (or whatever it is called) which works nicely.

tooki