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PowerBook on fire from Firewire Target Disk Mode?!?

sgmorr said:
OK, Trevor, I need some advice. I have a peripheral FW HD that I use to maintain a bootable clone of my iMac's internal HD for backup. I update the clone about once per week and don't use my FW HD for anything else (at present). Currently, I keep my FW HD plugged into its power supply and switched off when not in use. When I want to update my clone, I plug the FW cable from the HD into the FW port on my iMac. This causes the HD to "fire up" and mount on my desktop so that I can work with it. After updating my clone, I unmount the FW HD from my desktop, unplug it from my iMac and switch off the FW HD using its power button. Is all of this a safe way of doing things? Thanks.
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I'd go ahead with the same technique, but just leave the Firewire cable plugged in 24/7. With the drive power switch off, it is approximately identical to the OS as the drive being unplugged. It's not the powering on that's the problem, it's the inserting and pulling out of the cable.
 
The weird thing is, my Iomega 250 GB triple interface HD does not power off unless the FW cable is disconnected. I talked to their tech support and they confirmed this. Seems strange to me.

Edit: I just chatted with Iomega tech support. They said the reason you cannot power off the FW HD while it is still connected to the Mac via the FW cable is that the Mac FW bus stays powered even after the FW HD is unmounted from the desktop. As long as the Mac FW bus is powered, the blue power light stays lit on the FW HD in spite of pressing the power button. They said I must disconnect the FW cable from the Mac in order to power off the Iomega using the power button. So this means having to deal with the various issues of possible misconnection of the FW cables. Oh, well.
 
sgmorr said:
The weird thing is, my Iomega 250 GB triple interface HD does not power off unless the FW cable is disconnected. I talked to their tech support and they confirmed this. Seems strange to me.

Edit: I just chatted with Iomega tech support. They said the reason you cannot power off the FW HD while it is still connected to the Mac via the FW cable is that the Mac FW bus stays powered even after the FW HD is unmounted from the desktop. As long as the Mac FW bus is powered, the blue power light stays lit on the FW HD in spite of pressing the power button. They said I must disconnect the FW cable from the Mac in order to power off the Iomega using the power button. So this means having to deal with the various issues of possible misconnection of the FW cables. Oh, well.
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In that case I would be tempted to modify a Firewire cable to cut the power lines. Or take it 6pin to 4 pin, then 4 pin to 6 pin, as the 4 pin connector does not have the power leads.

This is just bad design. They din't bother to route the Firewire power leads through the switch. It means if you plug this puppy into a laptop and you think it is turned off, it is still leaching power from your 'book's battery.

Wanna make a bet that damage to the Firewire port from excessive unplugging and plugging isn't covered by warranty? @#^@%

Confirms why I hate iomega.
 
This is all very interesting Trevor. I appreciate it. So if I use a 6 to 4 and a 4 to 6, there will be no power transfer between the Mac and the Iomega HD?

For future reference, do you know which peripheral FW HDs have power switches that switch off the FW power also?

The more I learn about FW, the less I like it!

Edit: Not that I would want to, but I was told that one should not leave a loose FW cable plugged into a FW port on the Mac. True or not?
 
I just ordered my FW400 external HD for back up for my iBook and remember reading this about a month ago. Good info. Who knew that when I got a Apple I would become a media freak. Every cool video I see on the net I save, my iTunes collection is growing nicely, photos from my sisters wedding weigh in at over 3 gigs alone (they are all I believe 8 megapixels or so from a professional photographer) and lets not forget about all the other pics I have.

Mac OS X Tiger with iTunes, iPhoto, and Quicktime really do make people use their compters to do more purposeful work then Windows XP. It's because it is all so easy to handle different media on Mac OS X then Windows.
 
Good thread, though...perhaps it explained why my Pismo fried several months back when I plugged in a Firewire cable...

Speaking of which, I still need to tear it down again and replace the shorted capacitor. I pulled the shorted one off and the computer works fine(I haven't tested FW since then) but I also ordered a replacement.
 
On a few occasions, I've touched the FW800 on my MBP with either a paper clip or USB plug, and it lets out a blue spark and shuts the computer down in a split second. I really don't want to see if it still does it, but it spooked me when I first got my MacBook and I was playing around with a paperclip and accidentally tapped the FW800 port.
 
Gamer9430 said:
On a few occasions, I've touched the FW800 on my MBP with either a paper clip or USB plug, and it lets out a blue spark and shuts the computer down in a split second. I really don't want to see if it still does it, but it spooked me when I first got my MacBook and I was playing around with a paperclip and accidentally tapped the FW800 port.
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So the lesson here is don't stick paperclips in computers? ;)
 
redheeler said:
So the lesson here is don't stick paperclips in computers? ;)
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Yes, very good Mr. Heeler. Ok class, for your homework tonight, I want a 2 page essay on what may cause the FW port to spark when a piece of metal touches it. *Bell Rings* Ok, this concludes our class today.
 
That happened to my G5 too, it instantly powered down and restarted due to a power failure. I guess we know why FW800 cables werent made out of metal!!!
 
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