[chasg]

Hi All,

I bought an external LaCie 8x DVD burner the other day (to solve another problem, but that's old news now :-/

One thing that really annoys me is that it won't daisy-chain an external hard drive (the hard drive is a LaCie PocketDrive, which is powered via the firewire bus). Apple System Profiler indicates that the PocketDrive is on the chain, but it won't mount.

The tech guy at the place I bought the DVD burner from says that I need to give the PocketDrive external power. I think that's a load of cr*p, 'cause the PocketDrive mounts no probs when it's connected alone. Shouldn't the DVD burner (which is mains powered, by the way) give some power to the firewire bus? I thought you could daisy-chain tons of firewire devices, do they all have to be mains-powered then?

I'm trying to bring the DVD burner back, but they're being slippery about it. If I can't daisy-chain my PocketDrive, then the burner isn't all that much use to me (it's a 30Gb drive, and it'll be the main source from which I'll be burning data). They're implying that this issue isn't enough for them to accept the drive back.

Do I have a leg to stand on with this unhelpful tech? Is the burner faulty if it won't daisy-chain this PocketDrive?

Opinions (pro or con) would be appreciated, thanks.

Chas

[Macola]

You will need AC power unless your PocketDrive is connected directly to your Mac. Another alternative would be to use a Firewire hub (which is what I have). It makes it a little easier to use FW devices independently.

[chasg]

bummer, i was hoping for some ammo! Thanks very much for the info, it's appreciated.

One thing though: the pocketdrive _would_ mount daisy-chained after a different firewire burner I used to have (and that's why I expected it to work with the new burner). Any idea why?

Thanks again,

Chas

[Macola]

I'm not sure why that would happen, although I know that FW drives are very sensitive to the voltage passed through. I believe that's why the manufacturers always recommend external power unless plugged directly into a FW port. As I said, I gave up on daisy-chaining a while back, and picked up a hub, which solved the problem. It may be something to consider if you have more than a couple of FW devices (I had 4 at one point).

[chasg]

Good info, thanks again (at the moment, I've only got three fw devices: the burner, the external HD, and a compact flash card reader).

I have _no_ idea where the external power brick for the PocketDrive is, guess I'll have to get a universal one <bummer>

A firewire hub probably wouldn't be a bad idea (cheapest I found recently wasn't cheap at �60. Any recommendations?)

Thanks again,

Chas

[Macola]

This is what I have:
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=100300

At the time I bought it (over a year ago at CompUSA) it was on sale for about US$40.

[chasg]

thanks for the forward (it's 90 bucks online! That was some sale price you got :-)

I think, once I get my G5 (99% sure I'm going to get one), that a hub'll make sense this time ('cause I think that I'm going to be forced to keep that DVD burner <sigh>).

Cheers!

Chas

[Titom]

my Ti 400 firewire blew, common I here

Sure wish I used a firewire hub

Now I use a pcmcia firewire card, a bummer cause u cant boot from it
(even tho it shows up in the startup vols)

[chasg]

bad news, sorry to hear about that (Ti 400 eh? I guess it was out of warranty).

A firewire hub sounds like it's de rigeur, I saw one for a mere �50 today (I don't even want to convert that into dollars <sigh>)

[Macola]

chasg, you can get a hub on eBay for about US$20, if you can find someone who'll ship to the U.K.

[chasg]

thanks Macola,

I've never bought internationally on eBay before, the distance kinda makes me nervous. It's something to think about though, and a good suggestion, thanks!

Chas

[memyselfandimac]

Originally posted by chasg:
Good info, thanks again (at the moment, I've only got three fw devices: the burner, the external HD, and a compact flash card reader).

I have _no_ idea where the external power brick for the PocketDrive is, guess I'll have to get a universal one <bummer>

A firewire hub probably wouldn't be a bad idea (cheapest I found recently wasn't cheap at �60. Any recommendations?)

Thanks again,

Chas

Just a thought, just because the FW won't pass enough power to run your Pocket drive doesn't mean it won't power your card reader, which I would think would require much lower power to run being as it doesn't have any moving parts.

Give it try at least and let us know if it works.

[chasg]

I should've noted that the card reader wouldn't mount a card either (I've sent back the burner now, it took them a week and a half to admit it was faulty, but they never told me how :-/

It was a good suggestion, thanks :-)

[memyselfandimac]

Originally posted by chasg:
I should've noted that the card reader wouldn't mount a card either (I've sent back the burner now, it took them a week and a half to admit it was faulty, but they never told me how :-/

It was a good suggestion, thanks :-)

Yea, I have a Smartdisk (VST) 250Zip which is buss powered and I have it connected to iMac and then another cable daisy chained out of it that I use for a 3Gig VST portable HD or my iPod and it works fine. Even though Smartdisk VST recommends that you should have power adapter for 2nd device in the chain.

Wonder why they gave you such a time about taking it back, it's no sweat off their back really. Are you replacing it or just got a refund?

[chasg]

I'm lucky, I got a refund (after pushing them over and over, and testing heavily and giving them full documentation of the testing process!).

I don't know where you are in the world, but the term "customer service" just doesn't seem to be in the vocabulary of the retail sector over here in the UK. It's more than annoying! If I could buy elsewhere and still get warranty service here, I'd definitely do so (at least Apple laptops have international warranties now! Just about the only hardware that does...)

Thanks for writing.