Anyone having firewire problems? [Archive] - SAWStudio / SAC User Group

studio-c

09-03-2005, 11:57 AM

I've started using external firewire drives to store things (I have about eight 200gig drives). I have two EzQuest Cobra drives that I got from a local Mac store, wicked expensive, not sure what value... and a half dozen build 'em yourself offshore cases and Western Digital 200 gig drives.

The main ones I'm having trouble with are the expensive EzQuests, but that's beside the point. (Yes, I did format them for PC :-) )

Every so often drives will disappear from "My Computer" and/or I will get an error message at the bottom of the screen "Delayed Write Failed .. master boot record update .. something something" (I'm not a REAL techy guy, just enough to be dangerous). I also notice the lights flashing on the drives from time to time, even when they're not being used, as if something is being updated or checked. Re-booting usually brings them back. Sometimes the table of contents is corrupted and it has to do the scanning/restoring orphan files dance.

Just wondered if this is typical FireWire stuff or what. My ProTools friends down the hall all swear by FireWire. I'm more swearing AT it right now.

MMP

09-03-2005, 12:53 PM

I have noticed similar things if I daisy chained too many FW devices. I ended up getting a second FW card for my computer & things stabilized quite a bit.

YMMV.

Regards,

MM

Pedro Itriago

09-03-2005, 03:14 PM

What system/OS?

If you have XP AND SP2, there you may have the culprit

soundtrack2life

09-03-2005, 06:11 PM

Yes every once and a while I do get the "Delayed Write Failed .. master boot record update .. something something" and occasionally the drive(s) will not show up in My Computer as well. To solve it I just reboot for the "Delayed Write Failed" and for the missing drive(s) I just turn them off and then on again and then my computer will then find them. I doesnt happen that often to really be bothersome. It happens for me on my XP systems with SP1 & 2.
Joe

studio-c

09-03-2005, 07:30 PM

It's just bothersome because I expect things to be reliable. My internal drives have always been rock solid, until they wear out, of course. But are people thinking this is okay, that it only crashes once every couple of weeks? I'd hate to think if I was actually recording directly to the drives, instead of using them as archival. I was actually hoping to use them with the same confidence as the internal drives. But they're scaring the heck out of me.
I have a 3 port firewire card, as well as one on the mo bo. No daisy chaining. Just one directly into each (I only use a couple at a time). And I regularly swap them to see if it's a bad jack/cable, etc.

Other FW things (MiniDV Cam video) work like a charm.

Oh yeah, XP SP2.

dhise

09-03-2005, 09:56 PM

Bill Gates seems to hate firewire. My experience has been that anything more than two devices plugged into a card could have problems. Separate ports on one card and daisy chaining appear to be the same thing to me. If your drive cases support usb 2, it will work just as well and windows is alot happier with it because it's the non-Mac standard....

-Doug
www.bigbblues.com

soundtrack2life

09-04-2005, 05:25 AM

studio-c, I guess why it doesn't really bother me is because I only use the FW drives archival purposes. Never really thought about that fact untill now. For my "record" drives they are internal and my archival & my samples & loops drive I use FW. I dont know if this means anything but I have not noticed this behaviour with my FW-800. Just seems to be the FW-400 Maxtor "One Touch Drives" which range between 200 & 300 Gig.
Joe

studio-c

09-07-2005, 08:38 AM

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I guess the solution is to use the drives for archiving only. Not a problem. Just weird that a universally loved technology would be crap.

Most of my drives are combo firewire/USB2, so I'll try that connection instead.

I did get a gut feeling there was kind of Microsoft/Apple pissing match going on with the FireWire protocol.

And my Mac/ProTools friends down the hall DID admit that you sometimes have to turn the drives off and on, to "shock" the system into recognizing them. They seem to think that's acceptable...

Now that's a quality design! Bob, do you think we could have something like that in SAWStudio? :-)

UpTilDawn

09-07-2005, 04:20 PM

I've been using three different 40 gig IDE drives in Firewire/USB2 cases with no problems on XPpro/SP1. Haven't chained them and also haven't tried the cases with drives larger than 80 gigs.

But, I've recorded 14 hours of almost continuos 24 track audio to them using the USB2 ports, more than 10 hours of 24 tracks using the firewire ports....... all outdoors in hot and humid conditions with absolutely no problems. One session was done using them for live, realtime duplicate files while the base files and edl went to the internal drive.

No evidence of dissapearing drives yet...... hopefully it'll stay that way.

Maybe it has something to do with the large drives you're using, or SP2.... then again if the PT guys have the same issue, maybe it's only a matter of time before I run into it myself.

Good luck with a fix.

Pedro Itriago

09-07-2005, 05:18 PM

Maybe the protools guy was testing the new winxp sp2 version for the MAC

When it comes to mac humor, there's no such thing as too much

studio-c

09-07-2005, 08:45 PM

When it comes to mac humor, there's no such thing as too much

LOL :D

TotalSonic

09-07-2005, 11:06 PM

Maybe the protools guy was testing the new winxp sp2 version for the MAC

When it comes to mac humor, there's no such thing as too much

Speaking of Mac humor - just found again this hilarious "Switch" ad spoof that I had seen first a couple of years ago -

http://members.cox.net/clyqz/macs.html

Unfortunately the video is really small on this version - but it still got rolling on the floor again.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

studio-c

09-09-2005, 10:06 PM

Speaking of Mac humor - just found again this hilarious "Switch" ad spoof that I had seen first a couple of years ago -

http://members.cox.net/clyqz/macs.html

Unfortunately the video is really small on this version - but it still got rolling on the floor again.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

God that was funny. My wife has a Mac G5 that she paid about $13,000 for (I don't think you can even PAY that much for a PC). I find it utterly useless and prefer to mess around on a thousand dollar laptop. ;)

Pedro Itriago

09-10-2005, 06:22 AM

Friggin excellent Steve.

Neal Starrett

09-10-2005, 06:58 AM

Steve,,,that was great!!,,I couldn't stop laughing,,I needed that! thanks,
niles

jeromee

09-10-2005, 07:29 AM

Thanks Steve

I'm still laughing!!!! I just sent a link to my hardcore mac user friend:D I'm sure he will find it just as funny!
J

Rail Jon Rogut

09-10-2005, 10:15 AM

Tree Leopard

09-11-2005, 05:03 AM

That video was just hilarious! ... But all too true...

I just loved that feature when you shut down your Mac your firewire drive would restart.

Andre

studio-c

09-12-2005, 08:54 AM

The "delayed write error" is because you more than likely have a non-TI chipset FireWire card. Use a FireWire card with the TI chipset and you'll be fine.

I suggest either:

http://www.adstech.com/products/API311/intro/API311intro.asp?pid=API311
http://www.siig.com/product.asp?pid=374

Rail

Rail, you are a true rock star. Thank you fo the info, and for your dedication to the SS community.

By the way everyone, if you haven't checked out rail's SS EDL Investigator, it is a fantastic tool for the SS tool box.

MikeDee

09-12-2005, 11:09 AM

TotalSonic

09-12-2005, 12:03 PM

I had bought and used the EDL Investigator for years, all the way through SAWPro. I had thought there was a free upgrade to the SS EDL Investigator when I first upgraded to SS. However, to this day, when I look in my account's downloads list on the SS website, I do not see the SS EDL Investigator; I see only the older EDL Investigator (for SPro).

Jeanne and/or Rail, would you please be so kind as to check into this for me? It hasn't been much fun having had to revert to performing a number of once-automated tasks manually.

Thanks so much! :)

Best personal regards,

Mike -
afaik the SAWStudio EDL Investigator is only available as an email attachment sent directly by Rail and would not be hosted on the RML Labs download site.

Also - the upgrade from the Pro/32 version to Studio version was not free - it is a seperate purchase available for $57.50 at http://www.railjonrogut.com/ssedlmain.htm

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Rail Jon Rogut

09-12-2005, 01:41 PM

Unfortunately it was almost a complete rewrite under the hood. You can download the full demo from my web site. Purchasing unlocks the program.

Rail

MikeDee

09-12-2005, 03:24 PM

Okee doke, Rail...I certainly can accept that. Since you've put all that time and effort into rewriting...and since I already know that the quality of your work is outstanding...it's more than fair.

Dunno what I was thinking way back when...and why I waited so long to say anything...this could've been cleared up some time ago. Oh, welp...'tis what happens when you get old and your mind starts to take longer vacations than you do. :o

Thanks for getting back to me so fast, Rail...thank you, too, Steve, for the info and the URL.

Best regards,

MikeDee

09-14-2005, 05:43 AM

Hi, Rail -

I attempted to purchase the EDL Investigator, clicking on the Buy button. Unfortunately, I was greeted by the [IMHO] "dreaded" PayPal logo.

Since I'd rather not deal with PayPal (for my own personal reasons, not worth mentioning here), I'd like to send you a personal check. I will be happy to wait until the check clears before receiving the download.

Please email me your snail mail address ===> mikedee12959@optonline.net

Thanks in advance!

MikeDee

09-15-2005, 05:09 AM

Thanks for your email, Rail. Done deal...the check's in the mail (honest! :D ).

Best personal regards,

chrille

09-17-2005, 04:45 PM

I am dealing with firewire discs in both MAC and PC daily .
My experiences is that firewire discs are way more safe under windows that under MAC OS, but still not 100 % reliable.

I had a dialoge with mediafour that do MACDrive and they highly recommend people to use the USB interface for discs instead of firewire.

And ever since I started to use the USB interface instead, my constant problems with external discs have decreased to almost zero.

Christian Christensen
Sweden