# $99 160GB USB/FW ext drive @ CompuSmart again!



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

i just confirmed it, it's back again. for anyone that missed it the first time around. it's advertised as USB only but it's actually USB & FW, just like last time! just picked up one locally at the Kennedy Commons location. they have plenty left in store.

funny thing is when i went in to ask if it's FW or not, they all didn't know. so when one of the sales person offered to open one up to check, a whole bunch of sales ppl stood around watching. i kid you not, there was about 5 of them checking the drive out when i bought my drive and left the store!

it's a very nice upright silver enclosure. it's heavy and i believe it's a metal. has two FW ports and one USB port, as well as a on/off switch. there's a one touch backup button on the front. there's a note inside saying since the USB only got delayed, the shipped the FW/USB ones in it's place.

*edit:* drive originally shipped not Mac bootable. firmware update from AcomData fixed this problem. see this post for the firmware:

firmware update

*SALE OVER AS OF AUG 24/05*


----------



## Jacklar (Jul 23, 2005)

the main page on the comusmart.com page has it listed as 99.99 yet when you click it, it shows it as $169.99...


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

Jacklar said:


> the main page on the comusmart.com page has it listed as 99.99 yet when you click it, it shows it as $169.99...


there's $60 IR, and MIR of $70.


----------



## Strimkind (Mar 31, 2005)

its 169 before a 70$ manufacturers mail-in rebate


----------



## ColBalt (May 16, 2005)

The home page says it's $999. Haha


----------



## bighog (Jan 13, 2001)

Can anyone confirm if it uses the appropriate Oxford Chipset?


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

how do you confirm what chipset it uses? i have it hooked up to my PC at work at the moment. or do i have to take it apart?

it's cool. the one touch button is blue when on and red when accessing. btw, this thing runs QUIET!!!

can anyone tell me if i can partition it so that my Mini will boot off it, say 40-60gigs, but then the rest of the drive as FAT32/NTFS so my PC can make use of the remainder?


----------



## Jacklar (Jul 23, 2005)

Hmmm how long does it take to usually take to get the mail in rebate from these?

I'm thinking I'm going to buy one..


----------



## ColBalt (May 16, 2005)

My Dad got is rebate check for some ram back and it took about 6 weeks.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

ColBalt said:


> My Dad got is rebate check for some ram back and it took about 6 weeks.


six weeks? that's quick. i don't usually expect to see anything back till at least 3 months or more.


----------



## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


----------



## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

MacME said:


> how do you confirm what chipset it uses? i have it hooked up to my PC at work at the moment. or do i have to take it apart?
> 
> 
> > With the drive connected to your Mac, under System Profiler, Firewire, you should see your external hard drive and it'll tell you which chipset it uses, Oxford or others.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

HowEver said:


> Thanks for this...but I'm going to put together a Macally case/small FW drive instead. But this is tempting. But I bought 2 of the Iomega 80 GB USB2 drives from Dell a few months ago (less than $50 each after the rebates). I don't usually use these but:
> 
> to the OP: btw I guess you know xb0xb0y on rfd?


*shhh*, that's me!  didn't think that nick would be appropriate here on ehMac! plus that's before i owned any Apple products. i've been trying to snag one of those Dell Iomega drives for the ages. keep missing them! almost bought the Iomega Mini drives during the last Dell sales. this works out better with FW!!! 

i'd sell those two Iomega's and get one of these! well, maybe wait till someone verifies a Mac will boot from one first. hopefully i'll have time to try and figure out tonight.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

dona83 said:


> MacME said:
> 
> 
> > how do you confirm what chipset it uses? i have it hooked up to my PC at work at the moment. or do i have to take it apart?
> ...


oh ... okay, well i guess everyone has to wait till i get home. or unless someone else gets to it first. only have PCs here at work. i tried looking for info in the Device Manager with it hooked up, but all i can get is that it's a Western Digital hard drive.


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

Hi,

Please let us know! This could be a great deal if it is.

Of course, it takes about 3 and a half months to get your rebate but I have done it before. I heard that only 5% of rebates actually get submitted.

s.


----------



## stevieb (Dec 10, 2004)

I think I am going to pick one up tonight, whats the return policy like at compu-smart?


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

mr.steevo said:


> Hi,
> 
> Please let us know! This could be a great deal if it is.
> 
> ...


will do!

on a side note:

i noticed THESE at the AcomData site:

AcomData mini Pal 


> Hard drive + USB 2.0 hub + FireWire hub + PushButton™ Backup for Mac mini. Every Mac mini should have a pal like this.












these look darn similar to another Mini specific ext. drive. maybe they licensed the design???


----------



## stevieb (Dec 10, 2004)

it's for sure firewire? Even on the Acomdata website, they only show USB. :S


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

stevieb said:


> it's for sure firewire? Even on the Acomdata website, they only show USB. :S


re-read the last line in my first post CAREFULLY!


----------



## stevieb (Dec 10, 2004)

ahhh...right, I have to read more carefully...


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

excellent i'll check this baby out
thanks for the heads up
i have a good track record with mail in rebates, so i don't mind


----------



## stevieb (Dec 10, 2004)

more questions, does it come with the USB/FW cable?


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

stevieb said:


> more questions, does it come with the USB/FW cable?


that's only one question. USB cable only since it's suppose to be USB only! 

i'm itch'n for 5pm. wanna hook up this baby at home!


----------



## stevieb (Dec 10, 2004)

Yah, I can't wait till you test it too! 
Thats the only thing thats holding me back...


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

okay back to my previous question. can i partition this drive to boot on my Mini but still have a partition for when i want to use it on my PC?

also what program should i use to do the bootable backup of my current drive? i've read Lacie SilverKeeper, or SuperDuper. will both of these work for me?


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

Hi,

I think this should be possible. You would have to use a PC format (FAT32?) so the PC could read it, but it might slow down the Mac's ability to read. Also, you can only have a partition size of 32 GB in that format, so that means about 4 partitions.

There might be a second way of doing this. I think I saw somewhere a program that will double format a drive... I have to think about this.

s.


----------



## satchmo (May 26, 2005)

2mb of cache...is that kind of small? Don't most have 8 or 16?
Still looks like a pretty good deal though.


----------



## barrist (Nov 11, 2004)

hmm what are the chances of getting one with FW if i bought one online?


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

7:34 pm!
what's the news?

firewire cable?
oxford chipset?
target bootable?


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

Hi,

Yeah, what is it?

To check plug it in then click the Apple at the top left of your screen.
Click About this Mac > More Info... > FireWire 
Look at Manufacturer and tell us what it says. If it says Prolific PL3507 then it probably won't act as a boot drive. If it is Oxford then I am running down to the store to pick one up.

s.


----------



## satchmo (May 26, 2005)

MacME said:


> there's a note inside saying since the USB only got delayed, the shipped the FW/USB ones in it's place.


At the one downtown Toronto, they have lots of the USB on sale...unfortunately, the FW/USB one is $20 more and no rebate. 

Hmmm...do you think they'll give you the FW/USB one even if they have the USB only ones on hand? Or maybe I should just trek out to Kennedy Commons Mall.


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

ok here's a question

if they give you the usb/fw version, can you still get the rebate?

is there a serial number on the rebate form ?


----------



## gnatsum (Apr 10, 2005)

There is a Compusmart at Kennedy commons?!!?!

With Apple Products????


----------



## Jacklar (Jul 23, 2005)

So if I order this online I'll get the one with FW on it? Curious about this I've got one in my shopping cart and I'm waiting on this Firewire and the ability to boot my Mac with it.


Thanks guys


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

hey guys, sorry for the late reply. i know you all have been waiting for news. i came home after work ready to begin when i realized that i only had a 4pin/6pin FW cable! 

so i had to pick up the wife from the station and quickly grab a 6pin/6pin FW cable from Futureshop. what a rip ... $15, most small computer stores sell them for under $10. and the only one left was an opened one. i was desperate so i bought it anyway.

so here's the scoop. it says the manufacturer is DMI ... no idea what brand that is. anyone else have a clue? no where does it say Prolific or Oxford.

anyhow, i started using the OS X disk utility to paritition the drive. i can't for the life of me figure out how to get it to give me a primary Apple partition as well as a Windows partition on it.  can anyone point me to some info on how i should go about doing this?

maybe i'll just do a 50gb partition and mirror my Mini drive first and get it booting. then take the drive on to my PC and partition the rest. would that work?


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

satchmo said:


> At the one downtown Toronto, they have lots of the USB on sale...unfortunately, the FW/USB one is $20 more and no rebate.
> 
> Hmmm...do you think they'll give you the FW/USB one even if they have the USB only ones on hand? Or maybe I should just trek out to Kennedy Commons Mall.


uhmm ... just PICK UP THE USB. it'll have FW included! it doesn't state anywhere on the box that it includes FW, it'll have a note stating that inside the box. if you are really worried, just buy it, open it in the car, and if it's not then return it.

OR, you can do what i did and ASK if it's FW and ASK to have them open it to verify!


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

jonmon said:


> ok here's a question
> if they give you the usb/fw version, can you still get the rebate?
> is there a serial number on the rebate form ?


for all intent and purposes, it's MARKED as the USB only model. this includes the box, and the unit inside. i checked the model number on the AcomData site and took it into the store to verify. even though it was marked as the USB only model it had FW on it. PLUS it had the note stating the change. it's not like you bought something and accidently got somthing else. the company changed the product.



gnatsum said:


> There is a Compusmart at Kennedy commons?!!?!
> With Apple Products????


where have you been? they've been selling Mac products for a while! LOL!


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

dunno if this will help any but here's the info from my Mini's profiler:

FireWire:

FireWire Bus:

Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec

WD1600BB-22GUC0:

Manufacturer: DMI
Model: 0x550
GUID: 0x101005500094F9
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Sub-units:
WD1600BB-22GUC0 Unit:
Unit Software Version: 0x10483
Unit Spec ID: 0x609E
Firmware Revision: 0x310
Product Revision Level: 3.10
Sub-units:
WD1600BB-22GUC0 SBP-LUN:
Capacity: 149.05 GB
Removable Media: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
APPLE:
Capacity: 48.92 GB
Available: 48.89 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/APPLE
HID Unit:
Unit Software Version: 0x0
Unit Spec ID: 0x1430


----------



## RobTheGob (Feb 10, 2003)

PenguinBoy stopped by my desk at work and mentioned this HD deal, after reading about it here. We went down to Compusmart and bought a couple of them (PengiunBoy also bought a new 12" iBook with a bunch of freebies - quite an upgrade from his Beige G3!). 

I hadn't seen this thread - so I assumed that they were substituing FW/USB drives at the store - not in the box! I was very happy to see the FW ports - now I can use it on the old B&W that only has USB 1...

Thanks!


----------



## RobTheGob (Feb 10, 2003)

stevieb said:


> I think I am going to pick one up tonight, whats the return policy like at compu-smart?


There return policy is quite good - unless you open the package!

Restocking fee in that case...


----------



## PenguinBoy (Aug 16, 2005)

First post from the iBook, I found where I recorded the WEP keys for my router so I could configure the AirPort.

Now I think I'll go try out the rest of the CompuSmart peripherals...


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

Hi,


I guess I should have done this right from the start. This is taken from the FAQ section of acomdata's site regarding this drive:

Q: Can you make an AcomData Drive bootable?
A: If your Drive is NOT equipped with PushButton Backup, it is possible to use it as a startup disk on Mac if using a FireWire connection. If you wish to use your Drive as a startup disk, make sure you install the Mac OS on the Drive before saving any data to the Drive (follow the instructions in your Mac OS manual). Drives with PushButton Backup cannot be used as startup disks. Windows does not support using external hard drives as boot volumes."



s.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

mr.steevo said:


> Hi,
> 
> I guess I should have done this right from the start. This is taken from the FAQ section of acomdata's site regarding this drive:
> 
> ...


*ugh* … just left my Mini running all night to do a "restore" from my main HD to the FW drive so that i could try and make the FW bootable and now this! 

what's with the PushButton version not being able to be bootable? i don't get it.


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

Hi,

It isn't a big deal. You still have a great external drive that will give you extra storage or back up or both. The drive is formated with FAT32 so you can immediately use it for PC and Mac, it has a great looking case, and the capacity for the price is wonderful. Two months ago I bought a 120 GB external hard drive that is 5400RPM, has no cache, and has double the seek time for the same price that you got your drive for. And it isn't bootable. You got a good deal.

s.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

*mr.steevo*, no doubt the price is a great value for a solidly built FW ext. drive. i've been looking for a while for an ext. drive, and had my hopes up of finally being able to boot up my Mini with a FW drive instead of the stock slow notebook drive. having put in all that effort to try and get it up and running, i'm just a little let down by the lack of results. knowing what i know now, i would have still have bought the drive. but since i had expectations, i am disappointed for the moment.


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

MacME said:


> ...and had my hopes up of finally being able to boot up my Mini with a FW drive instead of the stock slow notebook drive.


Hi,

Although your mini's HD runs at a slower RPM than the new external, you probably wouldn't have seen a performance increase even if you could have booted from the external. FireWire 400 is a slower connection, I believe, than the conection your mini uses on its internal HD. You would have to have FireWire 800 to be comparable to SATA or ATA internal conection. So, you have in some distorted reality kind of a way saved yourself money by not buying a more expensive bootable drive that would have been slower anyway.

You got a great deal.

s.


----------



## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

mr.steevo said:


> Hi,
> 
> Although your mini's HD runs at a slower RPM than the new external, you probably wouldn't have seen a performance increase even if you could have booted from the external. FireWire 400 is a slower connection, I believe, than the conection your mini uses on its internal HD. You would have to have FireWire 800 to be comparable to SATA or ATA internal conection. So, you have in some distorted reality kind of a way saved yourself money by not buying a more expensive bootable drive that would have been slower anyway.
> 
> ...


no … there's a lot of testimonials, reviews and benchmarks that confirm running the Mini off of an Ext. FW drive substantially increases performance. the notebook drive is the weakest design decision on the Mini.

no denying that the fw drive is a great deal though!


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

HowEver said:


> Hello/ Have you tried booting up from the Acomdata, or are you just going by the Acomdata FAQ?


well i did a restore from my Mini drive to the AcomData drive overnight and this morning i couldn't get it to boot from the FW by selecting it in the "Startup Drive" setting. kept booting from the Mini drive. 

i can't for the life of me get the boot menu up when i start up my Mini by holding the "option" key. i even tried the "command" key just in case, since i'm using a Mac compatible logitech wireless usb keyboard that swaps these two keys in the driver. is it because i'm using a wireless that i can't get the boot menu to show?


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

okay, here's a benchmark comparision. it's that that great but it's the only one i could find at the moment. there was a better one where they did comparisions of upgrading the internal drive with two faster notebook drives, as well as an Ext. FW drive. but i can't seem to find that comparision at the moment.

http://www.budget-ha.com/index.php/content/view/22/1/


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

ah! i found it!

http://www.barefeats.com/mini01c.html


----------



## zarquon (May 24, 2005)

If I recall... You can't access the "option" boot from screen with wireless keyboards, must be a wired.

Z.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

zarquon said:


> If I recall... You can't access the "option" boot from screen with wireless keyboards, must be a wired.
> 
> Z.


sux to be me this week! 

no 1366x768 widescreen format for my Mac Mini on my new 23" LCD tv, no ipodlinux on my iPod Mini, no bootable Ext. FW drive for my Mac Mini, and now no "option" boot for my Mac Mini.

if i hook up a regular PC keyboard to my Mini, can i hit "start" or "alt" (dunno which it would be in this case) to "option" boot?


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

MacME said:


> ah! i found it!
> 
> http://www.barefeats.com/mini01c.html


Hi,

I didn't know this. Thanks!

s.


----------



## Voyager (Aug 7, 2005)

Thanks for the information MacME. I went to my local CompuSmart store and asked if they could open one of the hard drives as I had heard that inside it was both FW and USB 2.0. I think they thought I was a bit strange but, to humour me, they opened one up. One sales rep. saw only the USB 2.0 cable and said nope, only USB. I asked the other rep. to look at the HD itself and the look on his face was priceless. About the same time the first rep. found the note concerning the delay in the shipment. Needless to say, I bought one. Yes I know it's probably not bootable, but it still is a good deal for FireWire.
Also, it's always nice to be able to further people's education.  

Voyager


----------



## r2traps (Jul 10, 2002)

Picked one up at the downtown CompuSmart on Richmond street. They had a pyramid of them in the back. I took advantage of their "don't pay for 12 months and no admin fee" special. Was tempted to buy more to take advantage of the promo, but managed to get out of their with just the drive 

I was slightly nervous about this, but as others have reported, it says USB only on the packaging, but when I opened it up and it had firewire!


----------



## Melonie (Feb 10, 2005)

Not bootable? Why bother? Waste of money, no matter what the "deal", IMO.

Mel


----------



## moonsocket (Apr 1, 2002)

r2traps said:


> Picked one up at the downtown CompuSmart on Richmond street. They had a pyramid of them in the back. I took advantage of their "don't pay for 12 months and no admin fee" special. Was tempted to buy more to take advantage of the promo, but managed to get out of their with just the drive
> 
> I was slightly nervous about this, but as others have reported, it says USB only on the packaging, but when I opened it up and it had firewire!


Howdy

You can use the no pay til september 2006 for that drive?
Can you tell me how you did this?

Cheers

Chris


----------



## r2traps (Jul 10, 2002)

moonsocket said:


> Howdy
> 
> You can use the no pay til september 2006 for that drive?
> Can you tell me how you did this?
> ...


Hi Chris,

I replied to your pm, but thought I'd post the reply here too:

The "no pay til september 2006" applies to any purchases made using the CompuSmart credit card.

You first have to sign up for their card. I did it in store. An employee just took down my information (name, address, salary, employer, licence, one credit card #). He plugged all the info into the computer and then got an immediate approval. So, once approved, I took advantage of their "no admin fees" special. Usually, when you make a purchase on the Compusmart card, you get charged an admin fee of $70 per purchase. Pretty crazy if you ask me. For 3 days (yesterday, today and tomorrow), there is no admin fee for any purchases made using the Compusmart card, and you have until September 2006 to pay it off.


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

Melonie said:


> Not bootable? Why bother? Waste of money, no matter what the "deal", IMO.
> 
> Mel



Hi,

Not so. Some who purchase this drive will not need it for backing up their system, rather they would use it to expand their system memory. As you are probably aware the iBook (for example) is terribly difficult to upgrade the HD, but something like this will increase your storage potential. I use my non-bootable drive to hold my photos, music, and papers from school that I may need. This leaves my iBook's HD at only 10% full and increases performance.

s.


----------



## Ohenri (Nov 7, 2002)

OK...

I can't avoid this any longer. Can any1 post a shot of this HD? Might just dip in tomorrow. 

H!


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

Ohenri said:


> OK...
> 
> I can't avoid this any longer. Can any1 post a shot of this HD? Might just dip in tomorrow.
> 
> H!


This is what you get

Drive picture and specs


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

mr.steevo said:


> Hi,
> 
> Not so. Some who purchase this drive will not need it for backing up their system, rather they would use it to expand their system memory. As you are probably aware the iBook (for example) is terribly difficult to upgrade the HD, but something like this will increase your storage potential. I use my non-bootable drive to hold my photos, music, and papers from school that I may need. This leaves my iBook's HD at only 10% full and increases performance.
> 
> s.


I think you are mixing up 'backup to an external drive' with 'booting from an external drive'
This drive is ideally suited for backup when I read the specs on the mfr. webpage including one button back up for OS 10.2 and later.

However, I was also rather surprised when I read that the drive was not bootable - I thought all firewire drives would be bootable on the Mac. I can't even find the FAQ that is posted in this thread with that information - it sure is wqell hidden on the webpage. When I click 'here' to get to the FAQ's on this drive I go nowhere.

On the other hand, this drive looks really great in the pictures on the website. It certainly is a good deal for $100.-. The lowest price I have seen for a WD 160G drive is $80.-, so you get an aluminum firewire/USB 2.0 case and the backup software for $20.-


----------



## RobTheGob (Feb 10, 2003)

mr.steevo said:


> This leaves my iBook's HD at only 10% full and increases performance.


Unless the drive is *extremely* small - you're not gonna have a performance difference between a drive that is 10% full and one that is 50% full (or even *much* more!).


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

yes, very disappointing that the drive ended up not being bootable. but very good deal none the less. this is a cheaper solution for ppl who owns a PB, iBook, or Mac Mini who don't want to pay a premium for a notebook drive plus installation for increase in storage capacity.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

MacME said:


> yes, very disappointing that the drive ended up not being bootable. but very good deal none the less. this is a cheaper solution for ppl who owns a PB, iBook, or Mac Mini who don't want to pay a premium for a notebook drive plus installation for increase in storage capacity.


Did you actually verify that?
Somehow I think it might be bootable if you don't use the one button back up feature and the software for it; just format it as a normal Mac drive.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

given only one day with this drive, to the best of my abilities i tried! read a few posts back. since a few others have picked up the unit, i'm more than happy to hear of someone who's done it to tell me so. and especially HOW to do it on a Mini!


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

I'll be happy if mine comes with firewire.
I ordered it on the website yesterday - trying to figure out how to peek inside the box without opening it. That way I can return it without a restocking fee should I only get the USB model.

Did you buy this drive to speed up your mini? Couldn't you just move all your data to the external drive and only leave the OS on the internal one.....or would that not help.


----------



## jicon (Jan 12, 2005)

MacME said:


> given only one day with this drive, to the best of my abilities i tried! read a few posts back. since a few others have picked up the unit, i'm more than happy to hear of someone who's done it to tell me so. and especially HOW to do it on a Mini!


I just got a Maxtor 200GB firewire/usb from Compusmart just last week to work with my mini.

Simply copy the data from the mini to the external drive using the disk utility, then make the drive the startup drive in system preferences.

If that doesn't work, then I guess you're out of luck... but it would be odd if you couldn't boot off of the thing.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

krs said:


> I'll be happy if mine comes with firewire.
> I ordered it on the website yesterday - trying to figure out how to peek inside the box without opening it. That way I can return it without a restocking fee should I only get the USB model.
> 
> Did you buy this drive to speed up your mini? Couldn't you just move all your data to the external drive and only leave the OS on the internal one.....or would that not help.


the boxes are shrink wrapped, at least the ones i saw at the store. so it might be a little hard for you to "peek" in! lol

yep, that was one of my intent. as well as making my Mini a multimedia fileserver to stream audio/video to my 3 xboxes around my house! 

also thinking about using the Mini to replace my old PC that's running as my personal web and email server at home.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

jicon said:


> I just got a Maxtor 200GB firewire/usb from Compusmart just last week to work with my mini.
> 
> Simply copy the data from the mini to the external drive using the disk utility, then make the drive the startup drive in system preferences.
> 
> If that doesn't work, then I guess you're out of luck... but it would be odd if you couldn't boot off of the thing.


did just that, but doesn't boot the FW it seems, even though it's selected in the "startup drive" option. and that's after leaving the Mini on all night to do the "restore" to the FW!


----------



## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


----------



## bighog (Jan 13, 2001)

MacME said:


> given only one day with this drive, to the best of my abilities i tried! read a few posts back. since a few others have picked up the unit, i'm more than happy to hear of someone who's done it to tell me so. and especially HOW to do it on a Mini!


One other option would be to reformat the drive if you didn't already. I can't see how the hard drive itself could not be bootable. The only way is if they are causing the problem themselves in the case, in which case, no pun intended, you could also try disconnecting the button and simply use the case as a plain old case.

Just a thought. I don't know if you willing to crack open you brand spanking new drive. It's always really difficult to break the stocker saying it will void your warranty. But a little steam will remove the guilt


----------



## Gordon Eastman (Mar 28, 2003)

I bought one of these last time they were on sale. The non-booting bugged me, so I emailed AcomData customer support. They emailed a firmware upgrade (version 3.53) that makes the PushButton Backup drive bootable.


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

krs said:


> I think you are mixing up 'backup to an external drive' with 'booting from an external drive'
> -


Hi,

?. If you don't do a back up then you can't boot from the external drive. Some people will not need this drive to backup their systems, and therefore will not require it to be bootable. Come on, we are not here to pick apart everything people say. We are talking about a hard drive. (I hope)
In answer to you question about the FAQ link.
http://www.acomdata.com/hdp/fs.html

For the record, now that my hard drive is down to 10% I have seen a noticable improvement in my iBook. Other users may not see similar results.

My understanding is that Oxford 911 bridge dhips in external drives will allow bootability.


s.


----------



## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

Gordon Eastman said:


> I bought one of these last time they were on sale. The non-booting bugged me, so I emailed AcomData customer support. They emailed a firmware upgrade (version 3.53) that makes the PushButton Backup drive bootable.


WHAT!!! there's a firmware available to make this drive bootable??? would you like to share this firmware with the rest of us? or at least me!


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

hmm still seems to be a lot of confusing about the capabilities of this particular drive

i'm still on the fence. if i can upgrade the firmware and make it bootable then i'll definitely pick one up...if they're still available


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

mr.steevo said:


> Hi,
> 
> ?. If you don't do a back up then you can't boot from the external drive. Some people will not need this drive to backup their systems, and therefore will not require it to be bootable. Come on, we are not here to pick apart everything people say. We are talking about a hard drive. (I hope)
> In answer to you question about the FAQ link.
> ...


Mr. Steevo,

I'm not trying to pick things apart - I'm learning a lot from people on this site and just want to make sure my understanding of bootable external hard drives and backup is not wrong.
To me being able to boot from an external drive and backing o to an external drive are two different things and one does not depend on the other.
This purpose of this drive as defined by the manufacturer is specifically for backups even though, according to the manufacturer it is not bootable.
Booting from an external drive simply means starting the Mac with the OS on the external drive - nothing to do with back up necessarily.
Now mind you, if you have your data backed up to the external drive and your OS as well and if the external drive is bootable, thenitwill replace the internal drive if necessary. But even if the drive is not bootable, it will still do a complete data backup (one button at that) and if your main internal drive crashes you can start up from the CD/DVD and copy the backed up data from the external drive.
So you haven't lost anything - just not quite as convenient.
Anyway - that's my understanding of bootable and backup.
As to the FAQ - I eventually found it, but from a different link than the webpage I posted where this drive is shown. Maybe that link is brokenor my browser is.
I found the FAQ excellent.
And your last comment - I don't think that you need an Oxford chip to get a bootable firewire drive. Pretty much all of the combined USB 2.0 and firewire enclosures do not use the Oxford chipset and if none of those were bootable I'm sure people would be screaming.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

MacME said:


> WHAT!!! there's a firmware available to make this drive bootable??? would you like to share this firmware with the rest of us? or at least me!


Have you checked the firmware version of the one you have?
Maybe Acomdata did update the firmware on their production units but hasn't updated the FAQ. Pretty common that the documentation lags behind the product.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

Some interesting comments re booting (or not) from a firewire drive. Also read the comments to the article.
I just received a USB 2.0/firewire case with the prolific chip set....website advertized Oxford 911. I want to use it for one of my LG DVD burners. Works great so far - however I can't determine which rev. of chipset I have or which firmware.
There are a lot of negative posts on the net about this Prolific chip set, but they go back to early 2004 - sounds like the rev C chipset and the latest firmware fixed a lot of things.
I'll try to find the time tomorrow to mount a hard drive in that case and try booting from it through the Prolific chip set.
Article


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

krs said:


> I'll try to find the time tomorrow to mount a hard drive in that case and try booting from it through the Prolific chip set.
> Article


Before I rip that thing apart again to put a hard drive in I thought I'd try booting from the Tiger CD in that case with the prolific chip set and the LG burner.
To my surprise that actually worked.

Would that not prove that a hard drive would also boot in that enclosure?


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

i wouldn't be able to answer that question. i haven't even been able to figure out how to boot off the CD writer drive in my Mini yet, LOL!  

anyhow, Gordon was nice enough to forward me the firmware he received and i've successfully flashed upgrade the drive. i'm in the process of mirroring the Mini drive (again!). bloody takes forever using Disk Utility to do a restore! wish me luck!


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

**whoohooo* SUCCESS*, that firmware did the trick! *thanx Gordon!*


----------



## iMatvei (Apr 4, 2000)

euh... why hide the firmware? Share the wealth!

Please... pretty please? 

Thanks!


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

MacME said:


> i wouldn't be able to answer that question. i haven't even been able to figure out how to boot off the CD writer drive in my Mini yet, LOL!


Doesn't that work the same way as on other Macs or is the Mini different?

You know:
Turn on Mac
Quickly pop in CD and
Hold down Option key on keyboard
>All possible start up options show up on monitor
Select CD (or whichever start up option you want)
Click on right arrow

BTW - Have you figure out how to read the firmware version installed on the external drive? I'm trying to do this on the Prolific set I have but no luck so far.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

iMatvei said:


> euh... why hide the firmware? Share the wealth!
> 
> Please... pretty please?
> 
> Thanks!


And the process to install it - or is that obvious.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

hiding? who's hiding? Gordon got the firmware from AcomData. i just asked him for it since i'd probaby get a quicker response. anyway, if anyone can suggest a place i can host the firmware, i'll send it up.

firmware update is very simple, just like any other firmware update. run the program, select your device, select the new firmware file, update ... wait ... voila! 

now that i know where to look, finding the firmware version is simple. look in your system profiler under the FW device. i posted my info for the drive a few posts back here:

http://www.ehmac.ca/showpost.php?p=267567&postcount=38

anyhow, i'm heading out now. tempted to drop by CompuSmart and pick up another of these drive!


----------



## Gordon Eastman (Mar 28, 2003)

I did forward the firmware update to MacME, but don't feel comfortable sharing it further without checking with AcomData.

I expect that you can get the firmware directly from AcomData Customer Support, <[email protected]>. Ask for firmware version 3.53 to allow booting on Macs.


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

krs said:


> Before I rip that thing apart again to put a hard drive in I thought I'd try booting from the Tiger CD in that case with the prolific chip set and the LG burner.
> To my surprise that actually worked.
> 
> Would that not prove that a hard drive would also boot in that enclosure?



Hi,

If it doesn't then this firmware was written to apparently deal with revision B and C issues. http://www.argosy.com.tw/drivers/faq/english/faqhd360c.htm

If for some reason you have the original bridge there is a guy who wrote his own firmware for it. http://member.newsguy.com/~siccos/

Only problem is (in my case) is you need XP to get these programs to run. I don't have that.

s.


----------



## ender78 (Jan 23, 2005)

I am still confused at to whether or not this is a firewire or USB2 drive. As per the model number , this is USB2 only. How are people getting a firewire version? As per Acomdata, HD160UPE5-72 is USB2 only. The other drive has no rebates.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

MacME said:


> now that i know where to look, finding the firmware version is simple. look in your system profiler under the FW device. i posted my info for the drive a few posts back here:
> 
> http://www.ehmac.ca/showpost.php?p=267567&postcount=38


I did that, but on OS 10.2 the information there is not nearly as detailed as what you posted. With a mini you must be on 10.3 or 10.4


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

mr.steevo said:


> Hi,
> 
> If it doesn't then this firmware was written to apparently deal with revision B and C issues. http://www.argosy.com.tw/drivers/faq/english/faqhd360c.htm
> 
> ...


Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if I run into a problem. Right now I don't even know which revision of chip I have - I assume it's one of the later ones since I just received the enclosure yesterday and had to wait close to a month to get it....so it should be pretty recent.
Right now I have booted from the burner in this enclosure and burned both CD's and DVD's with no problem........really nothing more to try.
A lot of the prolific problems seem to be with large hard drives, but for a hard drive enclosure I would use a smaller aluminum one anyway.

I also read just recently, while googling on this prolific issue, that people actually have been able to flash the prolific chip using VP7 running XP with the enclosure connected via USB. Won't work if it is connected via firewire.
I should have bookmarked that link - but I found it interesting that one could actually use Virtual PC for that.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

ender78 said:


> I am still confused at to whether or not this is a firewire or USB2 drive. As per the model number , this is USB2 only. How are people getting a firewire version? As per Acomdata, HD160UPE5-72 is USB2 only. The other drive has no rebates.


Acomdata is simply out of USB 2.0 only drives so they substituted the combo drive *in the USB2 box*. You won't get the firewire cable since you really only bought the USB drive; I assume as soon as Acomdata has supplies of the USB 2.0 only drive - that's what you will get in the box.


----------



## imeldamac (Aug 20, 2005)

krs said:


> Acomdata is simply out of USB 2.0 only drives so they substituted the combo drive *in the USB2 box*. You won't get the firewire cable since you really only bought the USB drive; I assume as soon as Acomdata has supplies of the USB 2.0 only drive - that's what you will get in the box.


 Has anyone in Edmonton bought this drive? I am wondering if the combo drive in usb2 box is something I could count on here as well. 

Also, I am a new switcher and am thinking of buying an external hd to go with my ibook. While I have been following this thread, I don't understand what "bootable" means? Would I really need a bootable drive if I am buying this drive for extra space?

Thanks (in advance) from a newbie.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

imeldamac said:


> Has anyone in Edmonton bought this drive? I am wondering if the combo drive in usb2 box is something I could count on here as well.
> 
> Also, I am a new switcher and am thinking of buying an external hd to go with my ibook. While I have been following this thread, I don't understand what "bootable" means? Would I really need a bootable drive if I am buying this drive for extra space?
> 
> Thanks (in advance) from a newbie.


"bootable" simply means that you can start from this device (with the operating system on it), whatever it is.
On a Mac you can start from external CD/DVD drives and external hard drives, but only if they are firewire drives. Booting or starting the Mac from an external device that is connected via USB is not supported. many external CD/DVD drives do also not support booting.....if an external CD/DVD drive can boot or not is usually mentioned in the xlr8yourmac user reviews.

You don't need the external drive to be bootable to use it for additional space or even for backup. You can always boot from the OS CD that came with your Mac if your main drive should fail.

As far as I know, you cannot boot the Windows operating system from any external hard drive (correct me if I'm wrong), so this concept may be a bit foreign to former Windows users.


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

picked one up today at kennedy commons
it is indeed firewire
they have about 10 packages still shrink wrapped


----------



## comprehab (May 28, 2005)

Is there any place in the Waterloo area that has these?


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

krs said:


> Doesn't that work the same way as on other Macs or is the Mini different?
> 
> You know:
> Turn on Mac
> ...


i tried that many times. doesn't seem to work with my Logitech wireless keyboard. that's the only Mac specific keyboard i have. i also tried today with a PC PS/2 keyboard with an USB adapter, doesn't seem to work either.  

do i have to use a wired USB keyboard and/or Mac specific keyboard???


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

krs said:


> As far as I know, you cannot boot the Windows operating system from any external hard drive (correct me if I'm wrong), so this concept may be a bit foreign to former Windows users.


only way i know of that you could boot an external drive is a SCSI one.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

comprehab said:


> Is there any place in the Waterloo area that has these?


use the "store locator" on the CompuSmart website to check


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

MacME said:


> i tried that many times. doesn't seem to work with my Logitech wireless keyboard. that's the only Mac specific keyboard i have. i also tried today with a PC PS/2 keyboard with an USB adapter, doesn't seem to work either.
> 
> do i have to use a wired USB keyboard and/or Mac specific keyboard???


I can see why this possibly wouldn't work with a wireless keyboard.
But it should work with any wired USB keyboard, Mac or not. Don't know if the USB adapter plays a role her.
However, remember that the two keys next to the spacebar are reversed between the Mac and PC keyboards unless you have reassigned them in software. On a PC keyboard you need to hold down the 'alt' key if I remember right.


----------



## Mugatu (Mar 31, 2005)

I have a wireless logitech keyboard and holding down the 'alt' key works for me.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

Mugatu said:


> I have a wireless logitech keyboard and holding down the 'alt' key works for me.


Good to know. 
People were having trouble with a bluetooth mouse after waking the Mac up from sleep. Apparently it takes a few seconds for the wireless communication to be established. I thought that might be a problem with a wireless keyboard as well.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

Mugatu said:


> I have a wireless logitech keyboard and holding down the 'alt' key works for me.


i'll try again tonight! 

btw, oh my goodness! my Mini runs SO much better off the FW!  just loading apps you can tell it's much quicker!


----------



## PirateMyke (Jul 14, 2005)

i bought one today for my dad... He'll use it on his eMac and put his 13000 or so songs on it.. he has about 75GB of music .....


----------



## TimStalin (May 22, 2005)

@ imeldamac

I bought one of these drives on Saturday from the Downtown (11208 104th Ave) CompuSmart and they are indeed USB/FW.

Just ask one of the staff to open up the box just for confirmation. That's what I did and my salesperson was more than happy to oblige me.


----------



## The Great Waka (Nov 26, 2002)

I just stopped in at the Kennedy Commons store tonight and they were sold out. And so was STC. I'm going to see if I can get it online still, and just hope that they haven't replaced the drives with USB only.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

The Great Waka said:


> I just stopped in at the Kennedy Commons store tonight and they were sold out. And so was STC. I'm going to see if I can get it online still, and just hope that they haven't replaced the drives with USB only.


hi, fyi to anyone still looking to pick this up. i just called the CompuSmart at Fairview mall. they say they have a lot left, approx 20. i decided i wanna pick up another one and asked them to put one on hold me, just in case! 

cheers!


----------



## The Great Waka (Nov 26, 2002)

MacME said:


> hi, fyi to anyone still looking to pick this up. i just called the CompuSmart at Fairview mall. they say they have a lot left, approx 20. i decided i wanna pick up another one and asked them to put one on hold me, just in case!
> 
> cheers!


Excellent! I was just going to call them!


----------



## Ants (May 6, 2003)

Picked one up a few hours ago at their Toronto downtown location (Yonge/Adelaide)....they still have about a dozen or so left. I think the sale ends tonight. Did not have to open to the box, they had an open box...so I peeked in. USB cable was included but no firewire.


----------



## The Great Waka (Nov 26, 2002)

Well, I put one on hold at the Fairview store, but when I got there the dude screwed up and they didn't have any left. They called the Eaton Centre store, who did still have some, and put on hold there. So I treked down there and got it. Good thing too, as apparently, today is the last day that you can buy it to get the mail-in rebate. Well, this is it folks!

So, now onto the fun  . Reformat, partion (one for a bootable clone of my laptop, one for general other stuffs) and backup. Feels good to have a proper backup system running!


----------



## Ants (May 6, 2003)

The Great Waka said:


> So, now onto the fun  . Reformat, partion (one for a bootable clone of my laptop, one for general other stuffs) and backup. Feels good to have a proper backup system running!


I just did the exact same thing... reformatted with two partitions, updated firmware & cloned a bootable back up. Booted off the external for about 45 minutes - no problems at all. Casing became slightly warm but overall very pleased.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

The Great Waka said:


> Well, I put one on hold at the Fairview store, but when I got there the dude screwed up and they didn't have any left. They called the Eaton Centre store, who did still have some, and put on hold there. So I treked down there and got it. Good thing too, as apparently, today is the last day that you can buy it to get the mail-in rebate. Well, this is it folks!
> 
> So, now onto the fun  . Reformat, partion (one for a bootable clone of my laptop, one for general other stuffs) and backup. Feels good to have a proper backup system running!


same deal with me. i don't think they had any left to begin with. i think whoever took our orders thought the 250gb drives (which were also on sale, just not as good a deal) were the 160gb ones we were looking for. oh well, didn't get my second drive but that's okay. saves me from spending more money than i should be!


----------



## Archduke_Chocula (Aug 22, 2005)

Damn, I was so happy to see this available..................then I read the expiry date for the savings........D'oooooooooohhhhhhhh.....


----------



## Adam (Jun 28, 2003)

MacME said:


> same deal with me. i don't think they had any left to begin with. i think whoever took our orders thought the 250gb drives (which were also on sale, just not as good a deal) were the 160gb ones we were looking for. oh well, didn't get my second drive but that's okay. saves me from spending more money than i should be!


what a waste of time.. I did the exact same thing at about 4:30PM today (Wednesday).. I called at about 4:00PM and they said they had about 20 in stock.. I would've complained, but I was in a hurry and didn't get the name of the guy I spoke to.. 

Adam


----------



## Elias26 (Apr 19, 2005)

I wished I had a Compusmart near by and a 100 bucks available to me to spend on one thing.. because that's a fantastic deal! One that I'll have to unfortunately miss out on. Well, with the way computer technology moves, $99.99 Cdn will be the soon-to-be regular price and that will be without the need of rebates.

So I'll wait a few months. It'll be back to 100 or less.


----------



## Kevlar (Sep 22, 2004)

I went down to Future Shop today and they had the same drive sitting there on the shelf. All I had to do was show them the Compusmart web page and they brought the price down to $170, I think it was $260.


----------



## Elias26 (Apr 19, 2005)

Yes but 170 isn't 100. Well, do you get a 70 dollar rebate with it at 170? Plus many places will price match. Nothing new there, but that's still cool.


----------



## Kazak (Jan 19, 2004)

I picked up two today (it's still Wednesday here) at the Vancouver store. The guy behind me had one, too, but I didn't ask him if he knew what he was getting. Thanks to MacME and everyone else for sharing this deal and all the ins and outs of it.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

i notice that CompuSmart has the 250gb version on sale for $189.99 (reg. $329.99). not as hot a deal as the 160gb, right? plus i dunno if it has FW as well!  but it has a 8mb cache instead of th 2mb in the 160gb.

*edit:* i just checked last week's flyer and the 250gb was also on sale for $219.99. strange that they having it on sale again, but at an even lower price one week after!


----------



## Elias26 (Apr 19, 2005)

Where does it say on the site, store locator?


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

Elias26 said:


> Where does it say on the site, store locator?


go into the main site. right hand side, second grey box from the top (with ad boxes below it), it says "store locator" and there's a drop down menu that says "Pick a province".


----------



## Elias26 (Apr 19, 2005)

Thanks.

And to make certain this is the same site we're talking about.

www.compusmart.com correct?


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

yep! if you can find the store locator in the exact way i described! LOL!


----------



## Elias26 (Apr 19, 2005)

Sorry had to say goodbye to some friends. I am back, okay on the site it says nothing about any store locator. *sigh* Either I am blind or I am on the wrong site.


----------



## Chipper (Aug 31, 2004)

www.compusmart.com

Store Locator - second white box down on the righthand side of the page - Pick a Province


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

Elias26 said:


> Sorry had to say goodbye to some friends. I am back, okay on the site it says nothing about any store locator. *sigh* Either I am blind or I am on the wrong site.


you have to go into the site, it's not on the first page. okay i just checked. they seem to have removed the front page so you should be able to see it now perhaps?


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

well finally got my firewire cable today and i'm currently booted off my drive

seems to handle multiple applications better!

and it's just so great to have 124 gb free disk space


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

I finally got home from a trip and had a chance to try out this drive.
My firmware version is 3.06, older than everything posted here on ehMac, but I had no trouble booting off the external drive. Shows up as one of the Oss in the start up drive system preference panel.
The user guide that came with this drive shows it as being bootable on the Mac (Q&A on page 48) contrary to what it states on the Acomdata web page. 
What is odd however is that the drive does not come up as a choice when I hold down the option key during start up, maybe that's the fix in the later firmware version.

One question - I want to partition this drive to have OS 10.4 on a separate partition. How large do I need to make this partition? just a bit bigger than the required installation space requirements or do I need a chunk of extra space to allow Tiger to do its thing.
I obviously want to keep as much of the hard drive space for additional storage and backup.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

krs said:


> I finally got home from a trip and had a chance to try out this drive.
> My firmware version is 3.06, older than everything posted here on ehMac, but I had no trouble booting off the external drive. Shows up as one of the Oss in the start up drive system preference panel.
> The user guide that came with this drive shows it as being bootable on the Mac (Q&A on page 48) contrary to what it states on the Acomdata web page.
> What is odd however is that the drive does not come up as a choice when I hold down the option key during start up, maybe that's the fix in the later firmware version.
> ...


did you actually BOOT OSX off this drive? just cuz it shows up in your "Startup Disk" preference and you can select it, doesn't mean it will boot. my drive also showed up but didn't boot when selected, until the firmware was updated. if it doesn't show up in your "option" boot screen, then it's most likely not "bootable".

from what i'm reading, i could be wrong, but i think you are a little confused about what "bootable" means. just to clarify, turning on your Mac and the drive showing up for use does not make it "bootable". having OSX on the drive and being able to start your Mac up with it makes it "bootable".


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

MacME said:


> did you actually BOOT OSX off this drive? just cuz it shows up in your "Startup Disk" preference and you can select it, doesn't mean it will boot. my drive also showed up but didn't boot when selected, until the firmware was updated. if it doesn't show up in your "option" boot screen, then it's most likely not "bootable".
> 
> from what i'm reading, i could be wrong, but i think you are a little confused about what "bootable" means. just to clarify, turning on your Mac and the drive showing up for use does not make it "bootable". having OSX on the drive and being able to start your Mac up with it makes it "bootable".


Hi MacME
Yes, I definitely booted from this drive, but not in a way that's ultimately useful.
Let me explain briefly what's on my Mac and what I did.
I have two hard drives installed in the Mac; one of these has OS 10.2.8 which is the OS I normally use, the other hard drive has OS 10.4.2 on it for 'playing' and testing' that's 10.4 loaded from a CD and the 10.4.2 upissue from the web.
When I read in the Acomdata user manual that the Acomdata drive I had is bootable on a Mac, I decided to try that (especially after all this discussion here on ehmac).
I partitioned the drive into three sections, a 15G one for OS 10.4, a 40G one for backup and the rest for additional storage.
I then installed OS 10.4 from the CD I have on the 15G partition of the Acomdata drive. I did *not* 'clone' it from the 10.4.2 I already had on the Mac. The installation was done from the CD drive on the G4...ie not the mini...with the Acomdata drive connected to the G4 via firewire.
After the installation was completed, I shut everything down, then booted (started) up again. The G4 came up with OS 10.2.8, obviously.
I then went into system preferences, Start Up disk, and selected 10.4 on the Acomdata drive and hit restart. Mac booted up in 10.4.
However, since I had 10.4.2 on the hard drive in the Mac, I wasn't sure at the time if the Mac had really booted from OS 10.4 on the Acomdata drive or 10.4.2 on the Mac hard drive. After scratching my head for a few seconds, the light turned on. I went into "About this Mac" and sure enough, it came up showing 10.4 as the OS; when I boot from the internal drive it shows 10.4.2.
So I definitely booted from the Acomdata drive basically confirming what's in their manual. I reasoned that the fact that you could not boot from the Acomdata drive could be the *later* firmwar revision on your drive. Features do get broken sometimes when upissuing software or firmware.
OK, on to the next test. Shut down everything and hit the option key on start up. What ?????????? OS 10.4 does *not* show up as one of the options, only 10.2.8 and 10.4.2. hmmmm. tried it two more times, always the same.
So even though I could boot from the OS on the Acomdata drive on a restart, I could not boot off it with a cold start which is really what one needs.
I was going to email Acomdata support about his yesterday and get the firmware update but one cannot get any support unless one has registered the product with them which I haven't. I'm a bit reluctant to do that because everytime I do register a product, I get bombarded with emails to buy this that and the next thing from that company.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

guess you must have missed this. i got the firmware from Gordon, and tried to host it up. didn't work very well so TimStalin offered to host it. update your firmware and let me know how it goes. cheers!

http://www.ehmac.ca/showthread.php?t=30294


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

Thanks to the link for the firmware update. You're right, I did miss that.
My drive had been sitting on the shelf somewhere for quite a while. The manufacturing date was May 05 with 3.06 firmware.
But I tried the firmware update - worked without a hitch. It's refreshing to be able to update firmware with a Mac; pretty much all of the DVD burners I have seen (except Pioneer maybe, depends on the model) will only support firmware updates with Windows.
So now that I'm on FW 3.53. I'll try the 'booting' via the option key again, but it won't be until later today ot tomorrow. I have wiped the Acomdata drive clean and have gone back to a single partition until I decide how large a partition I *really* need for OS 10.4


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

what is the benefit of partitioning?

i just left the whole thing as one big drive and copied my system on it

i'll just create folders to store my movies, music, photos, etc.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

jonmon said:


> what is the benefit of partitioning?
> 
> i just left the whole thing as one big drive and copied my system on it
> 
> i'll just create folders to store my movies, music, photos, etc.


I think - and I may be in left field here.......

1. Each partition shows up as a separate drive on the desktop, so I can move files directly into the partition it should go into and also backup into a specific partition, but more important......

2. I can reformat each partition separately (I think) without affecting the other partitions if that ever becomes necessary.


----------



## rollee (Feb 26, 2003)

hi guys,
i cannot believe i missed "studying" this thread!!!!
i missed the incredible $99 deal now...

however @$189 the 250G model looks promising, although the deal is not as great, nonetheless it is still good.

http://www.compusmart.com/Product/Default.aspx?CatalogID=0&SupplierPartNo=230212&ShowSpecs=True

from the compusmart web site the product is described as usb2 with a 2mb buffer, but on the acomdata website, the drive is usb2&fw400 combo with 8mb buffer. which should i believe?
i consider a 8mb buffer for the 250G makes a nice difference .

can anyone here help me clarify if the 250G is FW?


----------



## Ants (May 6, 2003)

rollee,

It seems that the drive your looking at is USB 2.0 only (w PushButton Backup) - this is according to the product numbers listed on AcomData. I looked at the product # on Compusmart's site and it matched these model USB drives.

As for 8Mb vs. 2Mb - not sure but would tend to think Acomdata would be somewhat more up to date...


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

rollee said:


> hi guys,
> i cannot believe i missed "studying" this thread!!!!
> i missed the incredible $99 deal now...
> 
> ...


for the 250gb and 320gb, it should be 8mb cache. with regards to the FW, i'd suggest you go into the store if you can, and ask a sales rep to open one up to verify. when the sale was on for the 160gb, ppl had no problems getting them to do that. while you are there, you can also check the box to verify the 8mb cache.

i have a feeling that they probably packaged the 250gb drive the same way as the 160gb with the FW/USB. the enclosures are identical aside from the fact that the hard drives are different capacities. i can't see why if there's a shortage of USB only hardware that it only affects the 160gb line. fyi, the sale at FS also had the FW/USB drive substitution for the 160gb drive.

good luck and let us know how it goes!


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

I'm back on the Mac to reinstall Tiger and try the booting with the option key.
One thing surprised me - I reformatted the drive to one partition and erased it to start with a clean slate...however disk utility tells me there are 3 folders on the drive using up 46.67 MB of disk space.
Is this normal?
So it shows the capacity at 149.05G and availability at 144.99G

Not a big deal unless there is something amiss with this. I don't want to start installing Tiger and using the drive if there is a potential issue.


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

yeah i have the same issue
hidden system files?


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

jonmon said:


> yeah i have the same issue
> hidden system files?


Thanks - I'm glad I'm not the only one.

But it doesn't make much sense...why would I have hidden system files or hidden 'anything' on an *external* drive. Internal I would understand.


----------



## rollee (Feb 26, 2003)

*people go buy it now !!*

wow wow wow !!

i got the 250G with firewire! a note inside states the same reason as with the 160G. firwire/USB2 combo, not USB2 printed on the box.

there is also a mistake @ compusmart claiming the buffer is 2mb, but it is actually 8mb.

sale ends september 4th, instand rebate $60 plus mail in rebate $80. total $189 plus taxes.

now i will need to find out if the upgraded firmware gets the baby booting.

i am now looking for a firewire 6 pin cable, anyone to sell?

ps. its the compusmart in scarborough with lots in stock, the guy was really nice to open the box before my purchase.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

rollee said:


> wow wow wow !!
> 
> i got the 250G with firewire! a note inside states the same reason as with the 160G. firwire/USB2 combo, not USB2 printed on the box.
> 
> ...


good stuff! … i told ya! 

thanx for the update ... but i think two 160gb drives (for $160) are enough for me!  

MPTcomputers.com have good prices:



> Firewire IEEE 1394 cable, 4-pin & 6-pin combinations avail., $7
> Firewire IEEE 1394 universal cable kit w. 4-pin & 6-pin adaptors, $10


or you can try CanadaComputers.com for cables under $10.


----------



## kevs~just kevs (Mar 21, 2005)

I bought the 160 gig from compusmart back in June, sent in for the rebate right away and heard nothing... i'd actually forgoten about it! I came across the receipt and realzied i didn't get back the refund. if this happens to you call them, i did today and its "in the mail"...


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

I'm waiting for this rebate as well, although I don't think it's been that long, ie June.
Who did you actually call? Compusmart or Acomdata? 

If they are not sending out rebates until you call and complain...there's got to be something illegal about that.


----------



## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

ah good, i was just wondering about this myself
i'm also waiting for my rebate
but if yours is in the mail, then mine should be too


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

Perhaps people can post when they receive theirs.


----------



## mikeinmontreal (Oct 13, 2005)

I have been waiting since early September. After this rebate cheque, I am done with rebates. I like it when they say they're not responsible if the request is lost in the mail and you can't send it registered because it's a P.O. box.


----------



## MacME (Mar 15, 2005)

ppl need to be patient. you can expect up to about 6 months to get a rebate, anything after that, then you should start to worry!  fastest i've gotten one back is maybe 6-8 weeks. i've yet to have a rebate fail to show up. however, if waiting is not your thing, i suggest you reconsider your purchases if it involves a mail in rebate.


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

Hi

It usually takes about 4 months for me to recieve the rebate. This is normal, and deliberate. They want to make it difficult on you so that you won't mail in another rebate and take more money from them. Be patient and expect the cheque sometime in Feb.-March.

s.


----------



## kevs~just kevs (Mar 21, 2005)

the fine print states that they have 12 weeks to get it to you. so if it goes past 12 weeks CALL them, Acmodata that is...


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

Same here - I have also received all of the previous rebates I ever sent in for.
I don't buy the 'lost in the mail' story. The only problem I had with "loosing" mail in the last forty years was when the address was not correct, and that mail was returned because I always put a legible return address on the mail.


----------



## kevs~just kevs (Mar 21, 2005)

I recv'd my rebate yesterday! Fianally... only took them 5 months... if you sent it in June like I did, call them now if you didn't get your check yet.


----------



## mikeinmontreal (Oct 13, 2005)

5 months!!!! Darn, I bought mine in late August and sent my request in early September. What a bummer. No more rebate purchase for me.


----------



## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

That;s the idea. They dont' want you to submit the rebate so they can keep the money. The low price gets you in the door and the 12 week rebate wait keeps the money in their pockets. It's just a game. But I figure money is money, 12 weeks or not.

s.


----------

