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WheelSpinners
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Joined: 25 May 2007
Posts: 743
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 Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 11:16 pm Post subject: Re: Looks Nice |
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| ESUNintel wrote: | I really like the way the USB cable hides in the back, it really helps when you want portability and don't want to carry around an extra cable. It matches Mac's in color too  |
That cable looks a little short, but it would be handy for on the go. I mean instead of carrying around another cable. I'm also the type of person that can never find a cable when I need one. It also seems to be reasonably priced. I'll keep these in mind for down the road. |
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dungeon92
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Joined: 01 Mar 2006
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Location: St. Louis/Rolla, MO
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| Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 7:51 am Post subject: |
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| Bandit Bill wrote: | | Chris..S wrote: | | Its a single cable with a 6pin firewire at the computer end and two connectors, presumably 4 pin firewire and usb at the disk end, at least according to the pictures in the quick install guide (pdf) and User Manual (pdf) |
Yup it sure looks that way. That's alright then.
Just don't lose that cable  |
And if you do the cable only costs a low low $4000 and you must do the chicken dance to your newly proclaimed Western Digital gods  .
Also, I looked and the cable isn't for sale from their web store, yet.
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devo
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Joined: 23 Jan 2005
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Location: Dunwoody, GA
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| Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm not fan of proprietary cables, but the actual design doesn't bother me. |
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dahl
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Joined: 19 May 2006
Posts: 15
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| Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 12:04 am Post subject: |
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Crap disc. Whats the point having a FW drive when you need USB to power the drive? Stupid.
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dungeon92
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Joined: 01 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 1:55 am Post subject: |
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| dahl wrote: | | Crap disc. Whats the point having a FW drive when you need USB to power the drive? Stupid. |
You don't as long as you have the special cable (supplied with the drive) you can power the drive and use FW off of a single 6-pin FW400 port since it powers it via the USB port and most likely has a selector that when the FW400 4-pin is plugged in as well it switches to that connection.
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JohnnyBoy
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Joined: 13 Jul 2007
Posts: 3954
Location: West Sussex, South-East England
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| Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 2:56 am Post subject: |
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| dungeon92 wrote: | | You don't as long as you have the special cable (supplied with the drive) you can power the drive and use FW off of a single 6-pin FW400 port since it powers it via the USB port and most likely has a selector that when the FW400 4-pin is plugged in as well it switches to that connection. |
Yeah, that's the important point here - "USB powered" means that it makes use of the drive's USB port, but not the Mac's. I think it's really quite clever.
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Fox
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Joined: 01 Feb 2006
Posts: 2630
Location: Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 3:06 am Post subject: |
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Interesting, but I know from experience with my PowerBook that you need a two-ended cable running that drive from usb, except with the dual connection is to the two Mac usb ports. I assume from this that either the Mac's FW port must supply some power or that this drive uses less power when connected to FW.
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JohnnyBoy
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Location: West Sussex, South-East England
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| Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 3:20 am Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: | | I assume from this that either the Mac's FW port must supply some power or that this drive uses less power when connected to FW. |
I think you were right first time, Fox...
| Wikipedia wrote: | | FireWire can connect up to 63 peripherals in a tree topology (as opposed to Parallel SCSI's Electrical bus topology). It allows peer-to-peer device communication — such as communication between a scanner and a printer — to take place without using system memory or the CPU. FireWire also supports multiple hosts per bus. It is designed to support Plug-and-play and hot swapping. Its six-wire cable is more flexible than most Parallel SCSI cables and can supply up to 45 watts of power per port at up to 30 volts, allowing moderate-consumption devices to operate without a separate power supply. (As noted earlier, the Sony-branded i.LINK usually omits the power wiring of the cables and uses a 4-pin connector. Devices have to get their power by other means.) |
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dungeon92
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Joined: 01 Mar 2006
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Location: St. Louis/Rolla, MO
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| Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 8:18 am Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: | | Interesting, but I know from experience with my PowerBook that you need a two-ended cable running that drive from usb, except with the dual connection is to the two Mac usb ports. I assume from this that either the Mac's FW port must supply some power or that this drive uses less power when connected to FW. |
Another possibility though is that the drive is low power consumption allowing for the drive to run off of the power supplied from USB, also the port has to be able to accept power from the cable so other versions may not have the ability to be powered due to internal connection.
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Pleiades
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Joined: 14 Oct 2006
Posts: 3237
Location: California
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| Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:11 pm Post subject: |
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I wonder why they didn't include a standard 6 pin firewire connector on it and use a non-proprietary cable...
I have two enclosures that are five years old, and they both have 6 pin FW connectors, and one enclosure that's two years old and it has a 6 pin FW and a mini USB connector. It's not like this is a technological impossibility.
To me, it smells like WD is trying to squeeze out a few extra dollars when someone loses that proprietary cable and has to replace it.
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dungeon92
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Location: St. Louis/Rolla, MO
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| Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:50 pm Post subject: |
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| ClunkClunk wrote: |
To me, it smells like WD is trying to squeeze out a few extra dollars when someone loses that proprietary cable and has to replace it. |
Call tech support for a replacement and be told, "Assume the position, and get out your credit card" (and listen carefully and you might hear some sniggers in the background).
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"You must control your future by taking command of your present, and fixing and learning from your past."
"When history is forgotten people don't realize when it repeats."
Going to Missouri S&T!! |
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