[Jennyc]

Is the firewire problem with the G5 or MacPro? If it’s the G5, try resetting the NVRAM. The firmware is different on the MacPro, and I’m not sure how to reset it or if you can- I don’t have any MacPros deployed in my facility.

As for SAN suggestions, have you looked into Terrablock? It’s a volume based SAN, but it alows for virtual volumes. Very cool. Just visited a post house that uses Terrablock with Avid, FCP and ProTools systems- they create virtual volumes on a per-project basis which is a great way to work with, and not against the volume level locking. Once a project is complete and archived, dissolve the virtual volume to add the storage back into the available pool.

I’m an Xsan admin and love the flexiblity of file level locking, however if I had to go with a volume based SAN that was easy out of the box and inexpensive, it would be Terrablock. As a matter of fact, we are bringing in a demo unit very soon to possilby implement at a small facility that does need, nor have the budget for an Xsan.

Best,
Jen

[Jennyc]

We have been using three Sonnet Fusions with Seagate drives for about two months. About a week ago we had what appeared to be two enclosure failures! Long story short, we definitely had one enclosure failure but we are still working to determine what went wrong with the second enclosure.

We didn’t lose any data, but the only way I could get the second system to work was to use two enclosures and put two drives in one and three in the other. We’ve even swapped out the Sonnet Tempo card with no effect.

Sonnet Tech support has been very disappointing to work with from the beginning- only after much hounding of our Sales rep did the tech support begin to be more responsive. They were dismissive and quick to point the finger at Seagate, but could not explain why one system has had no problems and all are using Seagate drives.

I’ve also been working with Seagate tech support. Seagate tech support has been great. They actually called me after receiving my email and sent me a firmware update I will deploy today once the system has finished backing up.

In the end this may be due to a Seagate firmware issue, but in terms of support Seagate wins and Sonnet loses.

Take from this what you will. Perhaps if we had used Hitachi drives (I fully recommend- I didn’t purchase the Seagates) we wouldn’t have had any of these problems, but that still doesn’t change the disappointing Sonnet support.

Best,

Jen

[Jennyc]

You can try booting in safe mode by holding down the shift key. See Apple Knowledge base article for more info.

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393

If this doen’t work and you have access to another Mac with a firewire port, you can connect the laptop to it via firewire and restart the laptop while holding the T key. This will essentially make it a firewire drive. You can then retreive needed files.

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

I hope this helps!

Best
Jen

[Jennyc]

Thanks for the plug-ins tip! I will give that a try.

As for the OS issue, I was able to figure that one out. No re-install needed.

Best
Jen