External Drive Crashing ... AGAIN

[Guest]

Firewire actually performed 30% faster than USB for me. Others have reported
roughyl the same speed in their product reviews. Too bad it does not work for
me.

 

[Brian K]

Interesting. Could you let me know the actual MB/min for large files? eg
greater than 4 MB (multiple MP3s)

 

[Guest]

Interesting. Could you let me know the actual MB/min for large files? eg

greater than 4 MB (multiple MP3s)

Not going to plug in the firewire for testing but here are some results that
show about a 35% difference between firewire and USB 2.

http://www.moddin.net/review.asp?ReviewID=165&PageNo=2

 

[Brian K]

Understand. Those figures are interesting but there's nothing like seeing if
your own enclosure does the same.

 

[Guest]

I simply assume all USB 2.0 will perform about the same rate on various
computers. I have measured the differnece in time and file transfers and yes,
firewire takes about 30% less time to transfer 20 gigs of data then USB. That
is pretty significant when you are moving bigger files. In fact, I read
somewhere that binary files (like AVI (video + auio)) firewire is going to be
even faster.

 

[Brian K]

I didn't realize the difference was so great. It's well worth getting
Firewire mode fixed if that's possible.

In my case I think I have a hardware incompatibility and a new enclosure
wouldn't make a difference. In fact using it in SATA mode is probably better
avoided as I have to restart, enable the SATA port in the BIOS, boot into
Windows, do the copy, restart, disable the SATA port in the BIOS and boot
into Windows. With USB I just need to connect the enclosure, do the copy and
disconnect the enclosure. Total time for a SATA copy is probably longer than
USB when you add these factors.

 

[Guest]

Hey Brian,

I think I have fixed the reboot issue using the firewire connection. I hope
some of this information can helps others in the future. My advice, stay away
from Vantec or any other Brand using the Prolific firewire chipset. Here are
some links that helps me fix the problem:

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk...CFw87%40jasper.org.uk&rnum=1#ef5a271f224e118f

http://www.archive.freeola.com/c.s.i.p.h.storage/fuqfPP3chd-enclosure-dwp.shtml

Here is the firmware update that had the fix:
http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/support.asp

Here is a great thread for anyone who wants to purcahse an external case.
Read this entire thread before you decide what to buy:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?start=0&catid=28&threadid=496281

Basically, the current firmware was dated Oct 2004 when the unit was
purchased in Feb 2006. Just flashed the lates firmware to Nov 2005 and it
seems to have resolved this issue. Not holding my breathe as I find out more
and more how unreliable Proflic firewire chipsets are now.

Hoep this can help someone else out there.

 

[Brian K]

Bowmah,

That's great news. I'll bet I have a similar issue but no downloads for me
I'm afraid. I guess Vantec haven't replied yet?

 

[Guest]

I'm having a similar problem, but have yet to give up on the data on my
external (firewire) HD. I had a window of files on the external open, and
all of a sudden it told me the files system was bad. I can't run chkdsk and
it's listed as "local drive." Is there any way to recover the old file
system? (I also rolled back a day with system restore, no difference)