firewire coming unplugged

[lucface]

hey guys abd girls i hope everyones having a great years end
my prob is that i got this rad 250 gb firewire/usb(2.) harddrive for christmas and it wont stay pluged in! if i dont move at all its fine but im constantly knocking it out. i wish it were a cat5 instead. does anyone have any ideas what i can do to keep it in there?
also, related; its an internal in an encloser/case. so its not powerd via firewire/usb. is there a mod i can do to change this?
ohh and i know someone is going to say return it and get one that does what i want.
i cant.

 

[topgunn]

You cannot power a 3.5" drive over firewire or USB. Both provide only 5V and your hard drive needs 12V.

As for your problem with the firewire cable coming loose, I would just try a different cable. I have never had a problem like that.

 

[stevep]

but im constantly knocking it out.

Possible solutions:
1. Don't knock it out.
2. Try a different cable.
3. If its dropping out because its loose, try deforming it carefully with a pair of pliers so that its more of an interference fit in the socket. Needless to say you risk damaging it beyond repair if you aren't careful (in which case try solution 1 or 2).

 

[CanadaRAM]

A Bad Thing (TM)

see this thread

 

[lucface]

hmm, not what i wanted to hear, but ok. thanx
i guess ill just... i dont know what i guess ill do?... ill just have to be carefull not to knock it out. maybe ill try and just use usb 2.0

so the onely way to power an external hd would be to have it be built for it(not a cased internaL)? whould it have to be 5400 rpm?

 

[California]

hmm, not what i wanted to hear, but ok. thanx
i guess ill just... i dont know what i guess ill do?... ill just have to be carefull not to knock it out. maybe ill try and just use usb 2.0

so the onely way to power an external hd would be to have it be built for it(not a cased internaL)? whould it have to be 5400 rpm?

I bought a 3.5 firewire/usb enclosure for my mom's G3 iMac for her old hard drive that had an external AC plug. I successfully booted from it a couple of days ago (it is a her old 4200rpm drive) but this is because it is independently powered from AC.

Get a new cable on that firewire. And if your PB firewire socket is damaged in some way, good luck to you replacing it -- that is now a logic board problem. I'd be very careful -- someone's PB caught fire recently with a firewire problem.

PS By the way, from what I've heard, hard drive speed on external enclosures is meaningless. if it's just for back up, get a cheap new 4200 drive because the very act of cabling slows down the drive. But that is just some information I've heard, not tested.

 

[adk]

PS By the way, from what I've heard, hard drive speed on external enclosures is meaningless. if it's just for back up, get a cheap new 4200 drive because the very act of cabling slows down the drive. But that is just some information I've heard, not tested.

Although this makes sense to me, I haven't really noticed any deals on any 5400 or 4200 RPM drives, and 7200 RPM drives are damn cheap these days.

 

[California]

Although this makes sense to me, I haven't really noticed any deals on any 5400 or 4200 RPM drives, and 7200 RPM drives are damn cheap these days.

True.