One of the problems we face with the increasing rapidity of computer upgrades is that some of the technology we still find useful stops working. If you have a FireWire 400 drive with song projects on it and want to upgrade to Panther while continuing to use a FireWire 400 drive, follow these guidelines:
- Back up everything on the drive to DVD, CD-R, tape, or some other medium other than another FireWire hard drive before installing Panther.
- Check your drive manufacturer’s Web site to see if a firmware update is available. If so, apply it (preferably before installing Panther) – even if the manufacturer does not mention whether the update addresses this issue.
- If you are not installing Panther on the FireWire drive itself, disconnect the drive from your computer until after you have installed Panther and updated it to version 10.3.2 or later.
- Avoid chaining FireWire devices together, especially if a chained device lacks its own power supply. If you have more FireWire 400 devices than your computer has ports, use a powered hub – or better yet, if you have a PowerBook or Power Mac, add a second FireWire bus using a PCI or PCMCIA card.
If you must use a FireWire 400 drive but cannot back it up or avoid chaining devices together, consider these additional precautions:
- Be sure the drive’s FireWire cable is unplugged when you turn on your computer.
- Before shutting down, restarting, or putting your computer to sleep, un-mount any volumes from the FireWire drive and unplug the drive’s FireWire cable.
- If your computer is set to sleep automatically, temporarily disable this feature in the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences.
- Plug in the drive only when Panther is running. Again, be sure to un-mount the disk and disconnect the FireWire cable when you finish using the drive.