About LaCie Ext. Hard Drives.....

[sethypoo]

Does anyone know if I buy a LaCie d2 120GB FireWire Drive, will I be able to do "FireWire Target Disk Mode" with a 12" PowerBook G4 that has logic board problems?

I ask this because I am sending my PB off to Apple to get fixed for some mysterious problem where, when you turn the computer on, it sounds its starting chime, and the hard drive starts to spin, but no video comes up. If I plug the PB into the hard drive, will I be able to back up all my data?

 

[sethypoo]

I don't mean to "bump" my thread, but does anyone have any helpful advice for me? I am at a loss here. Help!

 

[patrick0brien]

I don't mean to "bump" my thread, but does anyone have any helpful advice for me? I am at a loss here. Help!

-sethypoo

It's a little hard to follow what you are saying - how would you be able to set a target disk mode when your CPU is away for repair?

Either way, if you CabonCopyClone your CPU to the LaCie, it'll be bootable.

 

[Rower_CPU]

First off, Target Disk Mode is for mounting the internal hard drive of a Mac as a hard drive on another Mac, not for devices like hard drives.

If your PB works well enough to transfer data over firewire then the drive will work fine. If not, you don't have many options besides transferring data over network, or pulling out the hard drive.

 

[sethypoo]

-sethypoo

It's a little hard to follow what you are saying - how would you be able to set a target disk mode when your CPU is away for repair?

Either way, if you CabonCopyClone your CPU to the LaCie, it'll be bootable.

I guess I'll lookup CarbonCopyClone on Google, as I have no idea what that is.

I was planning on returning to the computer shop (Apple authorized dealer) tomorrow to get my PB back.

Rower- I am getting the feeling that the FireWire idea won't work, because I can't get into my computer. It starts up, but there is no video, so there is no way to log into my name, so thus no way to transfer files, yes?

I'll try the Ethernet idea. I hope I can use an iMac to force my way (via Ethernet) into my computer.

 

[Rower_CPU]

I guess I'll lookup CarbonCopyClone on Google, as I have no idea what that is.

I was planning on returning to the computer shop (Apple authorized dealer) tomorrow to get my PB back.

Rower- I am getting the feeling that the FireWire idea won't work, because I can't get into my computer. It starts up, but there is no video, so there is no way to log into my name, so thus no way to transfer files, yes?

I'll try the Ethernet idea. I hope I can use an iMac to force my way (via Ethernet) into my computer.

CarbonCopyCloner is a disk imaging tool. It adds some nice functionality to Apple's disk imaging processes.

If you have access to another Mac (and it sounds like you do since you mention an iMac), you can hook the PB up to it and boot it in target disk mode and view the hard drive on the iMac. All you need is a firewire cable.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

 

[SPG]

When you say "no video" do you mean no screen? or no video on an external monitor?
My $0.02: I would try to use an external monitor to see if it's just the screen and make sure the rest of the machine is good, then if that doesn't work I would try to start up in Firewire Target Disk mode hooked up to another machine to save the files.

FWIW I've never liked LaCie Firewire drives. Maybe they're better now, but a few years ago we had nothing but problems with them conflicting and crashing, and I'm still holding that grudge.

 

[Rower_CPU]

SPG-

LaCie's d2 series of drives and latest "pocket" firewire drives are great.

We've got a bunch at work and they've been bullet-proof.

 

[JFreak]

I've never liked LaCie Firewire drives. Maybe they're better now, but a few years ago we had nothing but problems with them conflicting and crashing, and I'm still holding that grudge.

they're ok and as fanless and quiet, very good choise for audio pro's. but the lacie case has VERY BAD firewire connectors, which are easy to break because they are not soldered into a logic board but rather just pressed into it. if one of the ports fail, be sure to back up immediately and send the drive back to lacie for a warranty exchange.

if both ports fail - which IS likely to happen soon after first failure - lacie will not make backups of the data for you. i know this because my friend's drive crashed totally and because there was a lot of really important data, i had to break the case (and warranty) and put the drive into another brand's working case to transfer the files safe. the drive inside lacie case was by the way a good quality hitachi drive, so no complaints other than the CRAPPY firewire connectors. they are not robust enough for road use - twist the cable a little and the connector breaks.

 

[encro]

Considering the improvements in Disk Utility on 10.3 is there really any need for CarbonCopyCloner now?

It's already so easy to Clone a drive without CCC.