Daisy-chain order Firewire 800 via Thunderbolt on iMac

[macgabe]

Hello there - first post!

I'm transferring data from one Western Digital Firewire 800 drive to another (1TB bought 2008 and 3TB bought 2011, respectively), using a new (thin) iMac, which has no Firewire ports and two Thunderbolt ports.

I want to know if it makes any difference which Firewire drive is closer to the computer.

I'm using a Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter and the two Firewire drives are daisy chained.

It's acceptably fast (about 3hrs for 500Gb) as I have it now: iMac - Drive A - Drive B; where A is copying to B.

But would it be any faster if I swapped A and B around? What if I got a second Thunderbolt adapter for the second port on the iMac?

 

[justperry]

Hello there - first post!

I'm transferring data from one Western Digital Firewire 800 drive to another (1TB bought 2008 and 3TB bought 2011, respectively), using a new (thin) iMac, which has no Firewire ports and two Thunderbolt ports.

I want to know if it makes any difference which Firewire drive is closer to the computer.

I'm using a Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter and the two Firewire drives are daisy chained.

It's acceptably fast (about 3hrs for 500Gb) as I have it now: iMac - Drive A - Drive B; where A is copying to B.

But would it be any faster if I swapped A and B around? What if I got a second Thunderbolt adapter for the second port on the iMac?

It probably won't make much of a difference, you got ~46 MB/s = 370 Mb/s, you probably won't get it to work faster than this.

 

[macgabe]

It probably won't make much of a difference, you got ~46 MB/s = 370 Mb/s, you probably won't get it to work faster than this.

Thanks justperry. Kind of what I figured but thought I'd just check to see if there was a special way of doing it.

Two more questions. I have third new WD 2TB USB3 drive. I intend on backing up the 1TB FW800 and the 2TB USB3 to the 3TB FW800 drive, which I have partitioned accordingly.

Still OK if I daisy chain the 2 FW drives as currently set up, and plug the USB3 drive into the iMac? Or might it be a bit faster if I only have one (the backup drive) FW drive plugged in when I'm backing up from the USB3 drive?

Finally, I have a fourth 1TB FW400 drive (bought 2009) which I want to use to backup (clone, not Time Machine) my iMac. Is it OK if I stick this at the end of the firewire daisy chain (so there would be 3 FW drives daisy chained), or might it slow the other two drives down?

The 1TB FW400 also has an eSata connection, as does the 1TB FW800 drive. Can one daisy chain these with eSata? Never used eSata before.

 

[justperry]

Thanks justperry. Kind of what I figured but thought I'd just check to see if there was a special way of doing it.

Two more questions. I have third new WD 2TB USB3 drive. I intend on backing up the 1TB FW800 and the 2TB USB3 to the 3TB FW800 drive, which I have partitioned accordingly.

Still OK if I daisy chain the 2 FW drives as currently set up, and plug the USB3 drive into the iMac? Or might it be a bit faster if I only have one (the backup drive) FW drive plugged in when I'm backing up from the USB3 drive?

It won't make a difference.

Finally, I have a fourth 1TB FW400 drive (bought 2009) which I want to use to backup (clone, not Time Machine) my iMac. Is it OK if I stick this at the end of the firewire daisy chain (so there would be 3 FW drives daisy chained), or might it slow the other two drives down?

A firewire 400 won't work with the TB to FW Cable!

The 1TB FW400 also has an eSata connection, as does the 1TB FW800 drive. Can one daisy chain these with eSata? Never used eSata before.

Don't know but I am pretty sure it won't work, different protocols.

Answers in Bold.

 

[MCAsan]

Finally, I have a fourth 1TB FW400 drive (bought 2009) which I want to use to backup (clone, not Time Machine) my iMac. Is it OK if I stick this at the end of the firewire daisy chain (so there would be 3 FW drives daisy chained), or might it slow the other two drives down?

Remember that drives natively use SATA (or previously PATA) externatl interfaces. It is the enclosure around them that does FW, USB, or thunderbolt externally. So you can easily move the drive in the FW 400 enclosure to a FW 800, or USB 3 enclosure. You can get then empty enclosures at Newegg, MicroCenter or other computer parts stores.

 

[macgabe]

Remember that drives natively use SATA (or previously PATA) externatl interfaces. It is the enclosure around them that does FW, USB, or thunderbolt externally. So you can easily move the drive in the FW 400 enclosure to a FW 800, or USB 3 enclosure. You can get then empty enclosures at Newegg, MicroCenter or other computer parts stores.

Wow, didn't realise that. That sounds great - I'll look into moving my old FW 400 to a USB3 enclosure then. Could I also move an old 1.5TB USB2 to a USB3 enclosure? It's also one of those WD MyBook style stand-up drives, bought 2010. I don't see any screws, do I just crack it open?

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Answers in Bold.

Thanks!

 

[MCAsan]

Gently pry it open. You can destroy the enclosure....just has long as you are gentle with the drive inside.

Remember that drives these days are dirt cheap. You can 3TB drives for less than $150. So moving an older and smaller drive to a new enclosure may simply not be worth the time and cost.

 

[macgabe]

Gently pry it open. You can destroy the enclosure....just has long as you are gentle with the drive inside.

Remember that drives these days are dirt cheap. You can 3TB drives for less than $150. So moving an older and smaller drive to a new enclosure may simply not be worth the time and cost.

Thanks. In fact, I've just bought one and they're about double that price/TB (€160/2TB USB3) for the ready-made plug-and-play WD drives where I live. The enclosure, which I've now ordered, is only €30, so it's worth a try. I have several of these big drives I could potentially recycle. If it works I might save several hundred dollars.

 

[macgabe]

Hey, I just got the enclosure today and gently cracked open the WD USB2 1.5TB external drive. The drive came out easily but it doesn't fit in the enclosure because there's an extra bit screwed (with circuit board, esata port, power and usb2 port) on to it. This extra bit looks like its just screwed on with 2 or 4 Phillips screws, and then probably plugged into the drive port. Should I remove this whole thing (it's about 2 inches by 2 1/2 inches and 1cm deep) and see if I can strip the drive down so that it will fit in? Thanks for any help.

 

[justperry]

Hey, I just got the enclosure today and gently cracked open the WD USB2 1.5TB external drive. The drive came out easily but it doesn't fit in the enclosure because there's an extra bit screwed (with circuit board, esata port, power and usb2 port) on to it. This extra bit looks like its just screwed on with 2 or 4 Phillips screws, and then probably plugged into the drive port. Should I remove this whole thing (it's about 2 inches by 2 1/2 inches and 1cm deep) and see if I can strip the drive down so that it will fit in? Thanks for any help.

Doesn't fit, those enclosures are made to fit a Hard drive, how can it not fit?

Make a picture and post it here, don't post huge Images please, few hundred KB is OK.

 

[macgabe]

Doesn't fit, those enclosures are made to fit a Hard drive, how can it not fit?

Make a picture and post it here, don't post huge Images please, few hundred KB is OK.

Hey no worries! I just unscrewed "the extra bit" and works sweet as a nut! I'm very chuffed as that USB2 drive was going straight to landfill, now I've got me a really fast external for my Time Machine. It didn't keep the data - I had to reformat - but that's not really a problem. Will convert all the others too. Thanks again people.