• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  USB powered passport drive – for location editing

  Posted by David Dubois on August 14, 2007 at 3:27 pm

  Hi all.

  First off – Stop laughing at the subject title.

  I’m looking for a USB powered FW 400/800 drive to edit with whilst traveling/sitting in the garden enjoying the (terrible) British summer. I use a MBP 17″ – the new one if that helps.

  Has anyone got any suggestions, experience or advice on what to go for and what not to go for.

  I was looking at the 160 gig Lacie Rugged drive – 5400 rpm FW800, USB and FW powered.

  Cheers

  Dave

  13 replied 19 years ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  Bouncing Account needs new email address

  August 15, 2007 at 1:53 am

  While 5400 rpm drives CAN work for some video, the “preferred” speed is 7200 rpm.
• 

  13

  August 15, 2007 at 2:10 am

  [David DuBois] “m looking for a USB powered FW 400/800 drive to edit with”

  Firewire drive are powered by firewire not by USB.
• 

  Andy Mees

  August 15, 2007 at 5:56 am

  not entirely true, zrb123

  whilst that would be the obvious way to use such a device, bus-power can also be provided via USB

  whilst FW bus power is typically provided over a single 6 pin FW cable connection between the drive and the host, USB bus power is typically provided via a splitter cable, with the normal USB connection on the host side splitting to a mini-USB connector and seperate power connector for the dirive side.

  [David DuBois] “I’m looking for a USB powered FW 400/800 drive to edit with””

  not sure why you would be specifically looking to complicate your life like this, rather than using the straightforward FW bus power option, but if this is indeed your aim, then you can try Sarotech’s Cutie EX drive which can be connected as outlined above.
  https://www.sarotech.com/english/cgi/pd.cgi?cmd=view&rno=8

  the only reason I can think for doing this is if you only have a 6 pin to 4 pin firewire cable. so the bus power is lost at the 4-pin end , or if you have multiple firewire devices and not enough 6 pin ports and so have to fall back on a 4 pin port to connect your drive

  a better option worth considering tho, is to get yourself a ExpressCard34 eSATA adapter … then get the newer Cutie DX SATA based portable drive, or similar. with that setup you will get much faster data transfer speeds whilst still retaining bus power via USB as above.
  https://www.sarotech.com/english/cgi/pd.cgi?cmd=view&rno=23

  I’ve had excellent results using Sarotechs various bus powered Cutie drives over the years, as well as their HardBox line of desktop enclosures. Affordable and very reliable.

  cheers
  Andy
• 

  David Dubois

  August 15, 2007 at 7:43 am

  Thanks for the suggestions guys.

  Andy – those drive look pretty good. I’ll see if I can get them in the UK.

  Also, I said FW and USB powered as I have used passport drives before (USB only) that have needed power prom 2 usb ports to keep up the data rate. I was just backing data up to them but they kept failing unless I had 2 usb powered ports pluged in – 1 into the usb on the drive and the other from USB to the power socket on the drive – This might not be the case with FW though.

  Thanks

  Dave
• 

  13

  August 15, 2007 at 2:04 pm

  Yes i have seen USB drives that require 2 conections 1 for data and 1 for power

  But i have never seen that with firewire it only needs 1

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