[MacDV] Re: Maxtor Maxline Plus II 7200 rpm in G4 or externals?

[Richard Brown]

I have several Maxtor Maxline Plus II's in external ADS Firewire cases 
all working fine for DV capture/editing.

Caveat: Maxline drives are very sensitive to power fluctuation (lose 
ALL data, possibly damage drive) thus make sure all connections 
internally and externally are sound, plus use a UPS for consistent 
power beyond the typical switching power supply.

When a Maxline is turned on, it's a good idea just to leave it on. 
These drives are not designed for intermittent use, but rather are born 
of an enterprise level fiber channel heritage, now sporting ATA (IDE) 
interface. The Mean Time Between Failure is typically a million hours, 
unlike all regular Maxtors, all regular Western Digitals, etc. Maxline 
is a good thing for the shaky at best dependability of IDE drives, 
being much more like their higher end SCSI brethren in terms of "hockey 
puck" durability and performance.

As mentioned, we did have a Maxline go down from a loose AC cable in 
the back of a newer ADS Pyro case (firewire/USB 2.0 with built-in AC.) 
There was an audible crackle of an AC arc, and bingo, drive died. The 
moral: avoid loose cables, even when in a rush!

Richard Brown




On Dec 17, 2003, at 7:18 AM, R B Williams wrote:

> You might first move one of the current Hitachi drives into the 
> external Firewire case
> and see if it has reliable throughput. I have found various situations 
> where a drive was
> fine mounted internally on a 33 PCI buss but dropped when moved to 
> Firewire. Remember
> that the external case has an ATI to Firewire interface too which can 
> cause a
> bottleneck, though some are better than others.
>
> Robert
>
> animal wrote:
>
>> In 18 months, I'll upgrade to a G5 or G6, but right now I need more
>> space in my G4 400 with an ACARD A Hard PCI Ultra ATA/66 and 2 Hitachi
>> 120GB hard drives.  I also have two older empty firewire cases (120GB
>> or less)
>>
>> I'm looking at the Maxtor Maxline but they are ATA 133 - does this 
>> mean
>> they won't work or will work slower with the ATA/66?  (I've stuck to
>> Hitachi after incompatibility problems with capturing video from a
>> Canon dv camcorder to an internal Western Digital hard drive.)
>>
>> Or would I be better off buying 2 180GB Hitachi ATA/6's to put into 
>> the
>> G4?
>>
>> Thanks for any advice
>>
>> Lynn
>>
>> ----------
>> <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/MacDV.html>.
>> Send a message to <MacDV-DIGEST at themacintoshguy.com> to switch to the 
>> digest version.
>>
>>  XRouter | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers!
>> Dr. Bott | Now $139.99      <http://www.drbott.com/prod/xrouter.html>
>>
>>    Cyberian   | Support this list when you buy at Outpost.com!
>>    Outpost    |         http://www.themacintoshguy.com/outpost.shtml
>>
>> MacResQ Specials: LaCie SCSI CDR From $99! PowerBook 3400/200 Only 
>> $879!
>> Norton AntiVirus 6 Only $19! We Stock PARTS! <http://www.macresq.com>
>
>
> ----------
> <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/MacDV.html>.
> Send a message to <MacDV-DIGEST at themacintoshguy.com> to switch to the 
> digest version.
>
>  XRouter | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers!
> Dr. Bott | Now $139.99      <http://www.drbott.com/prod/xrouter.html>
>
>    Cyberian   | Support this list when you buy at Outpost.com!
>    Outpost    |         http://www.themacintoshguy.com/outpost.shtml
>
> MacResQ Specials: LaCie SCSI CDR From $99! PowerBook 3400/200 Only 
> $879!
> Norton AntiVirus 6 Only $19! We Stock PARTS! <http://www.macresq.com>
>