End of the Line for my cheapo CompUSA OS X drive enclosure: Prolific PL3507 Combo Firewire Device

julian/blog � Prolific PL3507 Firewire Device

I bought a cheapo $50 usb/firewire enclosure at CompUSA, stuck in a very cheap Maxtor 200GB drive and started having problems.

I couldn't identify the chipset on my Mac, but XP did well with the properties tab on the drive manager utility. It's a

Prolific PL3507 Combo Device (1394-ATAPI rev1.10) IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device

The Taiwanese vendor site has been rumored to have firmware updates in the past, but as of today there are none listed.

Searching the net I found several similar loooking enclosures sold under different names, typically from $50-$80.

Other web searches found bad news on every front with both the Maxtor drive and this chipset. The Maxtors don't seem to work that well in Firewire enclosures, and this ATA-Firewire bridge chipset is notoriously problematic under every possible OS. So the enclosure is going back to CompUSA.

When I pulled the drive from the enclosure, the enclosure felt cool to the touch. The drive, however, was too hot to hold. It even smelled slighly burnt. Although the enclosure has an aluminum exterior, the innards are plastic. There is no conductive channel between the drive and the enclosure. The extereme heat alone may have caused the problems I was seeing. I suspect the drive would have died within a few weeks.

Firewire is clearly problematic. I wonder if the technology is fundamentally flawed -- Apple has had problems with these drives under OS X since day one. Maybe that's why the new iMac only supports Firewire 400 and not Firewire 800. Perhaps Apple is resigned to switching to USB 2 or a future alternative.

PS. After scanning the Macintouch Firewire report I'm thinking I don't want to attach anything but the most costly and exotic blessed firewire device with cables from heaven to my lowly iBook.

The firewire bug website for OS X

Original Firewire Bug

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So how do I figure out which chipset is IN my cheapo firewire case? Hmm.

Firewire Direct 3.5 inch drive enclosure

Ultra III 800 FireWire 800 USB 2.0 hard drives and enclosures for DV, Digital Audio, Digital Video & Graphic Pros

They bundle MacDrive.

Orange Micro FireWire 800/USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure

FireWire 800/USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure

I've bought from them before and they provide firmware updates. The drive probably requires a Firewire 400/800 adapter to use with a Firewire 400 device.

Firewire vs. USB power supply

Review: WiebeTech FireWire DriveDock and Super DriveDock: " USB's power rail is good for a flyweight half an amp at five volts - 2.5 watts. This pretty closely matches the needs of laptop hard drives; they all run from five volts natively, which is why they can work in single-wire external USB enclosures. But it's no good at all for running more demanding devices.

Full-spec FireWire can deliver serious voltage and hefty current. All the way to 40 volts at 1.5 amps, from the original spec. That's 60 watts, baby, and even after losses in DC-to-DC conversion to the 12 and 5 volt supplies that desktop drives use, it ought to be plenty to run two or three full sized drives. 3.5 inch hard drives, CD or DVD readers or writers; no problem."

Sharing a drive between Mac and PC. Sigh.

File Systems Overview

In theory, FAT32 volumes can be about 8 terabytes; however, the maximum FAT32 volume size that Windows XP Professional can format is 32 GB. Therefore, you must use NTFS to format volumes larger than 32 GB. However, Windows XP Professional can read and write to larger FAT32 volumes formatted by other operating systems.

Arghh.

I bought a 200 GB Maxtor for $100 and a firewire/usb enclose for $50. Handy way to move data around, extend my iBook, etc. (Enclosure is crummy, I'll buy a better one later.)

I figured I'd format the beast as FAT32, which both XP and Mac can read and write, and store my Mac data on OS X disk images (which I love).

Except XP/2K can't format FAT32 beyond a measly 32GB.

And OS X can't write to NTFS formatted drives. There's a way to create large FAT32 formatted drives using OS X, but there's a further limitation. FAT32 formatted drives are limited to 4GB files -- so a large image won't work.

Microsoft is really pushing to move to NTFS. Great file system, but it's totally closed. Hmm. Coincidence?

I wonder if XP can read NFS formatted drives?

iMac details: it's sounding more and more interesting ...

Joswiak: 'True to What an iMac Has Always Been About'

Q: How do you remove the back?

There are three screws, and they're captured so they don't come out at all, so you don't need to worry 'Oh my God, where did that screw go?' Loosen the screws, and the back will simply come off, downward first, and the back is off -- you now have full access to the machine. AirPort is easy to add. The antenna are embedded in the computer, so all you have to do is get your AirPort card, plug it in, push the antenna jack in, and you're off and running. You can put up to 2GB of RAM inside, with standard 400MHz DDR memory.

Q: What about the rest of the machine's insides?

The power supply isn't a brick left out on the floor, it's all integrated inside. It's really amazing, because this is the most compact design we've ever done for an iMac, yet it's the most accessible. It's very easy to service this, which is why you see tabs, because it's easy enough for a service person or even a customer to self-service on this product. There are even four indicator lights on the motherboard that an Apple Care person will tell you to look at the lights, and depending on what's lit up, can tell you the state of different sub-systems.

Q: Anything special about the ports?

You have standard analog audio out, but it's also one of the combo jacks like we have on the AirPort Express that allows you to do digital out as well, so you can do 5.1 surround sound, for example, from DVD Player.

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The best article on the new iMac so far. I like the power brick being internal -- the main cord is a standard plug.

The strangest omissions are no GB ethernet (would have cost very little) and having to build-to-order for Bluetooth and pay $50 extra. Bluetooth is integral to its elegant design and minimal cords. This is so odd I have to figure it was a desperate attempt to hit a price point. Bluetooth added after purchase is external only!

The 400 MB/sec rather than 800 MB/sec firewire may be related to technical issues. It does include USB 2.0. This doesn't give one a warm feeling about the future of firewire.

It's easy to add an Airport card, so that needn't be an initial purchase.