PT Hardware configuration ???

[guildchild]

i'm not new to using PT (navigating), but i am new to owning my own rig.

i have a few setup questions.

System (all components are brand new and therefore clean):

imac 24"/4gb / 2.66Ghz

glyph GT 050Q 500GB audio drive

generic 1tb backup drive

mbox 2 pro factory

Questions:
1. the glyph is pre-formatted for mac. does that means it's plug and play or do i still need to format it as an audio drive?

2. should the standard setup be: imac ---> (fw800 - fw800) glyph ---> (fw400 - fw400) mbox?

3. my thought is to not have the backup drive included in the chain during normal playback/ record. is that necessary? if acceptable, should the chain be: imac ---> (fw800 - fw800) glyph ---> (fw800 - fw800) backup --->(fw400 - fw400) mbox
or if i should keep it out of the chain, i can hook it up each night to backup like this: imac ---> (fw800 - fw800) glyph ---> (fw800 - fw800) backup
*** i have plenty of fw cables including a 9-6, so if any of the above is incorrect / less than optimal, i can swap out easily***

4. i did record (dragged in loops) a very small amount of audio to the internal drive while working through vid tutorials on groove3.com (GREAT site btw), but it was under 2 mins of audio. maybe with edits it totalled 10 mins, but i wanted to be a good boy and not muddy up a brand new imac. at first, i was getting a 6805(?) error to adjust the buffer. after adjusting the buffer, there was no improvement. i ended up removing the video stuff from the initial installation and it worked. now when i try to use the glyph, i get the same error. i'm getting about 250ms of playback before it errors. thoughts? or is this a format issue?

5. lastly, do i need to format the backup drive in the same way described to format the audio drive? i will be using the backup for full system backup as well as audio backup.

thanks to anyone taking the time to read all of this and respond. i promise that i'm not a complete PT idiot. i just want things to be setup correctly from the start.

[SBRocket]

1. No. It will work as formatted.

2. That seems right.

3. I would hook it up for backups only.

4. not sure about 6805 errors. Sorry.

5. No just format the backup drive as HFS+ like the audio drive.

Steve

[elambo]

Keep in mind that having an FW400 device (drive or interface or whatever) on an FW800 bus turns the entire bus into FW800. Everything will work, but you won't get the added speed of the 800 drives. The only way to have true FW800 is to keep 400s on a separate chain.

[brlfq]

I'm a pc guy but I have a question:
Isn't firewire 800 slower than SATA? Isn't the SATA interface and drive, even on a system drive, faster than a firewire drive?

I would think that the fastest interface would be eSATA if you needed an external drive to record to.


Chris

[guildchild]

thanks all for the responses.

Originally Posted by elambo

Keep in mind that having an FW400 device (drive or interface or whatever) on an FW800 bus turns the entire bus into FW800. Everything will work, but you won't get the added speed of the 800 drives. The only way to have true FW800 is to keep 400s on a separate chain.

elambo, i assume you meant "turns the entire bus into FW400". i do understand that will happen. the mbox pro is fw400 only so, that makes the entire rig function at FW400 even though i'm using fw800 at various points. i must admit that i don't love the FW800 ONLY connection on the imac.