Granite Digital FireWire 800 Hot-Swap Series User Manual
Page 9
Granite Digital • 3101 Whipple Rd. • Union City, Ca. 94587
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USERS GUIDE
Page 9
Drivers and OS Issues - Macintosh OS 9.xx, OS X
Apple introduced FireWire with OS 8.6. Since this introduction, many
advances have been made. We recommend running OS 9.2.2 when using
FireWire. This newer version of the OS uses the latest FireWire extensions,
FireWire Enabler 2.8.6 and FireWire Support 2.8.6. These two files are
needed to run FireWire and this latest version fixes many previous bugs. If
you must run an older OS, we recommend using these two files from 9.2.2
to replace the earlier Apple driver files. Safely do this by moving the original
files that are in your Extensions Folder to your desktop and replacing them
with the newer files. After rebooting your computer the new drivers will
take effect.
When plugging in a new drive, the Macintosh will ask if you want to
initialize the drive. There are two type of file systems that can be installed,
the standard HFS or the extended HFS+. Always choose HFS+. If you do
not, the files that you copy to the drive will become very large because the
block size is designed for a small drive not a large one.
When running a third party FireWire Driver, please be aware that it
may cause this drive and possibly others not to mount. Currently, most of
the software developers have worked out the “Ownership” issues but there
are still some issues with some third party drivers. If your drive does not
show up on the desktop, then check your extension folder for third party
drivers and remove them. Leave on the Apple FireWire Drivers, which are
FireWire Enabler and FireWire Support.
When running OSX, there are a few issues to consider. To make the
FireWire drive bootable under both OS9 and OSX, you will need to initialize
the drive using the OSX CD. When it asks if you want to install OSX drives,
answer YES. After initializing the drive under OSX, go ahead and install OSX
via the CD. Then install OS9 by either using a 9.2.2 CD or just copying the
System Folder and OS9 Application Folder across.