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Richie78



Joined: 12/07/08
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Daisy-chaining firewire devices with external drives - performance issues?
      #785235 - 06/11/09 01:25 PM
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I've recently been looking at separating my software from my projects by storing projects on an external drive. I currently only have one 6-pin firewire port on my computer, so was looking into daisychaining a drive with my interface (Focusrite Saffire). Having ploughed the intertubes for info, it seems viable. My one reservation would centre around firewire performance - would daisychaining affect either the interface or the read/write speed of the drive?

I hate it when Google fails me for technical advice, ....

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Martin WalkerModerator
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Re: Daisy-chaining firewire devices with external drives - performance issues? new [Re: Richie78]
      #785240 - 06/11/09 01:38 PM
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Unfortunately there isn't a simple answer to your query Richie

Some musicians happily run a Firewire audo interface and hard drive daisy-chained to a single Firewire port with no problems; others experience glitches and low simultaneous track counts.

It's not the Firewire bandwidth, which is quite capable of running many dozens of tracks, but sometimes the two devices conflict for one reason or another, so it's a case of suck it and see

If you've got a desktop PC I'd personally install a separate internal hard drive for your project audio, but then buy the firewire drive to store project backups.


Martin

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Richie78



Joined: 12/07/08
Posts: 9
Re: Daisy-chaining firewire devices with external drives - performance issues? new [Re: Richie78]
      #785245 - 06/11/09 01:46 PM
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Thanks for that, Martin. I think I might take your advice and install an internal drive. I suspect the firewire chipset I have in my PC isn't much above bog-standard, and the Saffire (whilst a decent interface) does tend to "throw wobblies" at the merest threat of something different happening! Best to play safe, I guess.

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Martin WalkerModerator
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Re: Daisy-chaining firewire devices with external drives - performance issues? new [Re: Richie78]
      #785334 - 06/11/09 06:02 PM
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You still need to make backups though



Martin

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