A while back , I reported on problems reboot from USB devices . Since then I ’ve fly the coop into something even more puzzling — FireWire drive that wo n’t bring up .
When reviewing storage merchandise forMacworld ’s desktop and portable FireWire drive pages , we test each crusade ’s ability to boot OS X. Until latterly , this feel like a formalities . All FireWire drives can boot OS X , good ?
Wrong .
It was an 80 GB Quicksilver take fromKanguru Solutionsthat became the first FireWire drive to ever fail our boot test . I thought that I must ’ve received a incorrect unit , so I e - mailed my contact at Kanguru . The company was unaware of the problem , but was able to duplicate it . Unfortunately , Kanguru never got back to me with a locating or an explanation .
About a calendar month afterward , a 2nd movement , an 80 GB DiskGo ! push fromEdge Techfailed the boot trial . I was beginning to see a normal . Being rum , I popped start the typesetter’s case to see what was inside . Nothing looked damaged or light , but I did notice that the drive was using a PL3507 FireWire - to - IDE bridge fleck from Prolific , a brand name that I was unfamiliar with .
Most times , people are blissfully incognizant of the sort of crisp found inside their peripheral devices . A few years ago , Oxford Semiconductor changed that by successfully market its 911 chipset as a “ must have ” feature for discriminating FireWire drive shoppers . Other companies made bridge chips that worked just finely , but they had a hard time competing with the comprehend superior quality of Oxford ’s bridge chips . tug trafficker still used products from folk like Initio in their devices , but avoided bring up them by name .
I googled the Prolific scrap I find inside the DiskGo ! and discover a few unhappy customers — Mac , Windows and Linux users — complaining on message boards . I called my contact lens at Edge Tech who put me through to technical support . I was inform that the drives under 400GBs in size did not offer bootability as a feature . The tech support soul channelise out that nowhere in Edge Tech ’s product lit was a booting feature mentioned . I questioned whether bootability was really a drive - specific feature , or really a canonic subroutine that the end user should be capable to safely take up was supported . I told him that I intend it misleading to not remark this acknowledge issue . He told me that Edge Tech ’s fresh 400 GB drives would boot and that he ’d like to send me one of those to retrospect . When asked , he say that the new ride featured a alteration C Prolific PL3507 chip , while the lower capacity parkway used rewrite A chips . And no , you ca n’t advance rev A to rev C.
It ’s been several calendar month and neither Edge Tech or Kanguru ’s Web site have been updated to observe anything about booting in OS X , not even as an usable “ feature of speech ” in Edge Tech ’s 400 GB adaptation .
unluckily , the lesson here is not rare . Do n’t assume anything . We here atMacworldwill test what we can , and pass the information along , but you might necessitate to familiarize yourself with narrow detail like bridge bit revise when patronize online because some retailers either do n’t do their homework , or unsound , think that withholding information is appropriate business drill .
