Does the drive pass through the firewire signal when the drive is off?
510901
If the drive is off you can't access the drive through the firewire connection or any other type of connection. It has to be on to read the drive.
510902
Don't know, since I am using it as Time Machine on my Mac... I never turn the drive off.
510903
I wish I could say I knew but I don't. That might be a good question to ask the company directly... I leave the MacBook plugged in as the default and working as our backup drive so I leave both on to backup in the background. Sorry I can't help more than that.
510904
yes it does... the power to the drive has no effect on the firewire signal... however there is no power button on the device...so it will stay on unless you turn of the power to the adapter or unplug the power cable... the rest of the time it automatically sleeps depending on inactivity :)
581982
It likely depends on the drives enclosed, mine sits behind my monitor and is quiet. I can barely hear it when it is writing or reading from the mirrored drives. I used Seagate drives.
1620567
Use Caution if you knock over the drive especially when it's in use you could kill the drive or at least lose data. This can easily happen if you use laptop and forgetfully pick it up or move it. The USB cable is not that long.
173978
Yes, behind the red slider. It slowly blinks when the drive is plugged in and idle.
730633
Not sure if I understand the question but there is an on off switch. I have 7 external drives and they're all off unless I'm using them.
1317646
I'm using two of these, one with a Toshiba drive the other with a Seagate drive, both using Firewire on an iMac. I have had no problems with either one.
817426
Looks like the drive is set up to go to "sleep" after a period of time. That affects a lot of operations, and there's no direct fix for it.
457431
I only notice some noise when the drives spin-up which is only momentary and not an audible problem at all. The unit sits on my desk approx. 3 feet from me. I don't notice it while backing up except for the initial spin-up of the drives.
1016624
If the drive is powered from the computer's USB ports, it will turn off with the computer. If the computer is turned off it's safe to disconnect the drive anyway because there is no data transfer.Any external drive should be safely removed using the Windows icon in the tray if the computer is running.
1584495
Theoretically, USB 3.0 should smoke Firewire. You may be running USB 2.0 and not realize due to drivers not installed or any number of reasons. In particular, are you sure the port you are using is actually a 3.0 port? Connected via a working 3.0 the transfer bottleneck is literally the drive itself, not the connection.
2235950
not sure which way you are going but... I have this thunderbolt drive connected directly to thunderbolt connection on my computer and then about 5 firewire800 drives daisy chained to it with an adapter.
2274706
Unfortunately I do not recall hearing or seeing the hard drive power down or stop when idled for an extended period. However, a power switch is available to manually shut down when necessary.
1812053
I don't believe the box has any internal power save feature, but it does pass any OS sent power saving commands through to the drive. So if your OS has a spin down timer configured in its power options, then the external drive will share that spin down function and turn off and on with the OS requests.
2222795
You got it! Can't turn the @#$% thing off once it is connected. Have to shutdown the computer and then unplug it. I plug it in and do a weekly backup, then shutdown and unplug it. A pain, I'd rather just reboot before my backup then eject the thing.
701789
Correct. FireWire is only used for connecting a camcorder or external hard drive.
1362538
It's unlikely. Firewire is controlled by a specific chip that doesnt exist in USB
1444637
this hard drive allows you to do it. i have daisy chained it to a lacie external drive. it is easy to do. the wd comes with 2 firewire cords and 2 ports. the first cord goes into one of the wd's ports and then into your laptop's firewire port. the second one goes from the second firewire port in the wd into the firewire port of your other drive. then they both will show up on your desktop. to eject them, just drag both icons to the trash and unplug. i always remove them before i start my powerbook. soometimes the powerbook gets confused and doesn't know which hard drive to recognize for start up. easier to plug them in after i have booted up my mac. hope this helps. this hard drive allows you to do it. i have daisy chained it to a lacie external drive. it is easy to do. the wd comes with 2 firewire cords and 2 ports. the first cord goes into one of the wd's ports and then into your laptop's firewire port. the second one goes from the second firewire port in the wd into the firewire port of your other drive. then they both will show up on your desktop. to eject them, just drag both icons to the trash and unplug. i always remove them before i start my powerbook. soometimes the powerbook gets confused and doesn't know which hard drive to recognize for... » Read More this hard drive allows you to do it. i have daisy chained it to a lacie external drive. it is easy to do. the wd comes with 2 firewire cords and 2 ports. the first cord goes into one of the wd's ports and then into your laptop's firewire port. the second one goes from the second firewire port in the wd into the firewire port of your other drive. then they both will show up on your desktop. to eject them, just drag both icons to the trash and unplug. i always remove them before i start my powerbook. soometimes the powerbook gets confused and doesn't know which hard drive to recognize for start up. easier to plug them in after i have booted up my mac. hope this helps. « Show Less