1. How fast is USB?
2. What is a USB Hub? Explain Non-powered vs. powered hubs.
3. Do I need an AC adapter to power the portable hard drive?
4. What is FireWire? How fast is FireWire? Is FireWire faster than USB?
5. My computer only has a 4-pin mini FireWire port. Is the 2.5" portable FireWire drive compatible?
6. When I connect the drive to the computer, it appears that the computer recognizes the drive, but the drive is not available in 'My Computer' (PC) or the 'Desktop' (MAC). Why?
7. I don't have a FireWire 800 port. Can I use your FireWire 800 drive with the FireWire 400 port on my computer?
8. Can I use bus power with an eSATA portable hard drive?
9. How do I format the external hard drive on a Macintosh Computer?
10. Can I share my external hard drive between a MAC and PC?
11. How do I format the external hard drive on a Windows computer?
12. Why does my computer show that the external hard drive has less capacity than advertised?
13. What are some care and maintenance tips I can follow when using my external hard drive?
14. My USB powered drive intermittently disconnects and occassionally a clicking sound is heard. I have connected it to two USB ports, but the problem still occurs.
15. How do I use the external FireWire hard drive to boot in Mac OS X?
16. How must the drive be formatted in order to use it with Digidesign Pro Tools?
17. How can I create multiple partitions on a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac?

USB supports the following four transfer speeds:

• USB 1.0 (low speed) supports a speed of 1.5 Mbit/s (183 KB/s) and is used for devices such as keyboards, mice, and joysticks.
• USB 1.1 (full speed) supports a speed of 12 Mbit/s (1.5 MB/s) and was the fastest rate before the release of USB 2.0.
• USB 2.0 ( high speed) supports a rate of 480 Mbit/s (57 MB/s) and is available on the majority of computers manufactured after 2003.
• USB 3.0 ( super speed) supports a rate of 5Gbps (625 MB/s) and is the latest USB standard and was released in 2010.

A USB hub is a device that allows multiple USB devices to be connected to a computer. A USB Hub connects to a USB port and provides multiple additional USB connections. Many USB devices such as keyboards have built-in hubs. This allows the user to connect a mouse or other USB device to it.

Our 2.5" portable hard drives receive power from USB or FireWire bus power, which provides adequate power to operate properly and efficiently.

FireWire (also known as iLink or IEEE 1394) is a computer connection that provides high-speed data transfer. The majority of digital camcorders have a FireWire connection as well as most computers including Macintosh, Dell and Sony computers. Due to its robust communication and isochronous real-time data transfer, FireWire has become the standard for professional audio/video applications. FireWire supports the following transfer speeds:

• FireWire 400 supports a speed of 400 Mbit/s (48 MB/s)
• FireWire 800 supports a speed of 786 Mbit/s (95 MB/s)

FireWire uses a "Peer-to-Peer" architecture that is intelligent and negotiates bus conflicts to determine the sustained data transfer speed. USB 2.0 uses a "Master-Slave" architecture in which the computer's resources dictate data flow and the sustained transfer speed. Therefore, USB is dependent on your available system resources to determine the transfer speed. Multiple applications that are using system resources can slow down the data transfer speed of USB drives. Therefore, for the most reliable and consistent transfer speed, FireWire is often the best option.

The 2.5" portable FireWire drive is fully compatible with your computer; however, you will need to connect the drive to USB ports or an AC power adapter in order to provide power to the drive. A 4-pin mini Firewire port does not provide power.

The drive is shipped preformatted, so it should be recognized by your operating system. If the drive is a USB powered drive and you are using a desktop, please connect the drive to USB ports on the rear of the computer. In many cases, front USB ports will not be able to provide full power. If your operating system is still not recognizing the drive, it may need to be reformatted.

I don't have a FireWire 800 port. Can I use your FireWire 800 drive with the FireWire 400 port on my computer?

Yes, you can by using a 6-pin to 9-pin FireWire cable, which allows the drive to be connected to a standard 1394a FireWire 400 port.

eSATA does not provide bus power; therefore, an eSATA hard drive will require a power source in order to function. However, the Oyen Digital USB, eSATA portable hard drive uses an innovative eSATA bus power cable, which allows the drive to be powered from a eSATA/US combo port.

To format a hard drive using MAC OSX

1. Connect the drive to your computer as explained in the user guide.
2. Open Disk Utility. (Applications folder > Utilities > Disk Utility). From the list on the left, click on the external drive with the size in GB (not the indented item underneath).
3. Click the 'Partition' tab at the top of the application.
4. Select the drop down menu under 'Volume Scheme' and choose 1 partition (or select 2 or higher for more partitions).
5. Click 'Options' and select 'GUID Partition' then click OK. Enter a name for the partition and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) *.
6. Once you have selected the format and have named the drive, click 'Apply'. You will be presented with an 'Are you Sure' dialog.
7. Click 'Partition' to format the drive.

Note: * For the best performance, we recommend using Mac OS Extended format. However, if you will be transferring files between a Windows system and a Macintosh, format the drive as MS-DOS (FAT32) or view FAQ #9.

If you intend to share files between a Windows and MAC computer, the easiest option is to format the drive as MS-DOS using the MAC computer. This will create a FAT32 partition, which is compatible with both Windows and MAC.

The best option may be to use a 3rd party software product that allows hard drives formatted in the Macintosh file system (Mac OS Extended, HFS+) to be used on Windows computers. The following program allows this capability:

MacDrive from MediaFour

To format a hard drive using Windows XP/2000/Vista/7

1. Connect the drive to your computer as explained in the user guide.
2. Right-click on My Computer and select Manage. Click Disk Management in the left menu under Storage. The new drive will appear in the display window on the right.
3. Right-click the Unallocated drive and select 'New Partition' to start the New Partition Wizard. If the drive is already formatted, you will first need to click on 'Delete Parition.'  If 'New Partition' or 'Delete Partition' is unavailable, you will first need to right-click on the disk name and select 'Initialize Disk' (XP).
4. Click Next and select Primary partition and click Next. If you want to use the entire hard disk for one or more logical drives, click Next without specifying a size, and the entire free space will be converted into a single drive letter.
5. By default, Windows assigns the next available drive letter; click Next to accept it, or use the pull-down menu to choose a different drive letter and then click Next.
6. Select a format option. It is recommended to use the defaults of NTFS and default size. Change New Volume to a name you prefer.
7. Click Finish to perform the listed operations. The format operation can take several minutes to complete depending on the drive size and speed of the computer.
8. When the format process is completed, the drive is identified with a drive letter and its status should be displayed as Healthy. Exit Computer Management. You can now use the new drive.

The unformatted capacity of any hard drive will always be greater than the formatted capacity. In the hard drive industry the partitioned size will be less than the printed capacity on the label. This is consistent whether it is Western Digital, Seagate, Samsung, etc. For example, a 160GB hard drive will have a formatted capacity of approximately 149-150GB. This is due to the fact that computers calculate capacity based on 1024 bytes/kilobyte, while the hard drive calculation is based on 1000 instead of 1024. Hard drive manufacturers define a megabyte as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes, which is a decimal (base 10) measurement. Computers define a megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes. These are binary (base 2) measurements. This is why the two different industries will report different capacities for the same drive. The number of bytes is the same, but a different number of bytes is used to make a megabyte and a gigabyte.

For more information, we recommend the following resources:
Wikipedia
Acronis

Defragment the hard drive and backup your data regularly. In addition, do not move or disconnect the drive while it is reading/writing data as this can cause data loss or corruption. Finally, properly eject the drive before removing it from the system by using the following procedures:

• Mac OS: Find the Disk icon associated with the drive and drag it to the Trash icon on
  your desktop.
• Windows: Close any windows that are open and displaying the drive. Click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in your system tray (typically located on the bottom right corner) and select the drive to be disconnected.

If you are connecting to the front USB ports on a desktop, you should instead connect the drive to USB ports on the rear of the computer. In many cases, front USB ports will not be able to provide full power. Also, iIf you are connecting to a USB Hub, make sure it is a powered Hub (one that uses an AC adapter). Finally, disable USB power management if enabled. Directions for disabling USB power management.

To use any of our hard drives as boot drive for Mac OSX, perform the following steps:

1. Open Disk Utility
2. In the left panel, click the external FireWIre drive and select "Partition" in menu on the right. Choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and name the drive.
3. Click "Options" at the bottom of the window. If you have an Intel Mac, select "GUID" as the partition scheme. If you have a Power PC Mac, select “Apple Partition Map."
4. Click "Partition." It will ask to confirm, click "Partition" again and the partitioning process will begin.
5. Upon completion, you can now install the Operating System. Insert the DVD/CD and start the install. When you start the install, choose the external FireWire drive, which will install the operating system to the external drive. Upon completion, eject the external drive and reboot the Mac to your regular operating system.
6. After you reboot, connect the external FireWire drive to the computer. Open System Preferences and click "Startup Disk." In the list of disks, choose the external FireWire drive. Confirm, click restart.
7. After rebooting you'll be in the new operating system, running directly off your external FireWire hard drive.

How must the drive be formatted in order to use it with Digidesign Pro Tools?

MAC OS X: For Pro Tools compatibility with a Mac, format the external FireWire drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - also known as HFS+ using Disk Utility. See the FAQ for specific instructions regarding the formatting process. View more information and tips regarding using a Mac FireWire drive with Pro Tools.

Windows: For Pro Tools compatibility with a Windows computer, format the drive as NTFS using the steps provided in the FAQ. Note: If your Pro Tools version is 7.3 or earlier, you can also format the drive as FAT32; however, Windows is unable to create a FAT32 partition larger than 32 GB. View more information and tips regarding using a Windows FireWire drive with Pro Tools.

How can I create multiple partitions on a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac?

Please visit the following page for a excellent tutorial on formatting and partioning a drive in Mac OS X.