Please Please Help Me I Beg of You

[scarsdaleand]

Ok so last week i finally caved in and pulled away from logic and decided to take the big plunge into pro tools

So i go online and buy the 003 rack interface with the factory bundle,
That has two Firewire 400 outputs on it.

and with it i purchased the new-

iMac 27inch 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
with 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
and 1TB Serial ATA Drive

Alas in this lies my problem
This new computer only comes with ONE, I repeat ONE Firewire800 port.

So I figure, "okay i'll just buy a Firewire 400 to 800 converter cable"

which I did.

In this lies another problem, Pro Tools recommends that i use an external hard drive with speed of 7200 rpm and uses Firewire 800.

But I CAN NOT FIND A FIREWIRE 800 HUB!

so what do I do?!?!?

The only solution i can think of is:

-Buy a regular Firewire 400 hub
-Use the Firewire 400 to 800 converter to connect that hub to my new imac
-Connect the 003 rack into the hub
-And connect external hard drive to hub at old firewire 400 speed

Do you think this will work???

should i just connect the external hard drive to my imac with a usb 2.0???

please please please help me, I BEG OF YOUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

[Jim Lad]

Can't you just install a Firewire PCI card?
From what I've read, hubs are dodgy.

 

[pezking]

The Digidesign website explains exactly what to do.
It gives two configuration options for your setup:

Configuring Newer Mac Models with FireWire 800 Ports

MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini FW800 Models
The FireWire 800 ports on these computers are backwards compatible* with FireWire 400 devices, but require one of the following configuration options:
1) FW800 port —> FW800 Drive (912 or 924 chipset) —> Out FW400 port on Drive —> Pro Tools LE FireWire audio interface

2) FW800 port —> FW800 to FW400 converter cable —> FW400 Drive (911 chipset) —> Multiple FW400 Drives (911 chipset) as needed for maximum track count —> Pro Tools LE FireWire audio interface

http://digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100&navid=54&itemid=36933