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New Apple MacBook Pros Lack Firewire 400 |
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Written by JT Koffenberger
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Oct 23, 2008 at 01:25 PM |
 We've been plodding along over here... working on what was the latest generation of MacBook Pros.. and being relatively happy with them.. and their quality. Sure, we've had a couple of issues with this one machine, but Apple remedied the issues and all is functioning well.
All was going relatively well, until the new MacBook Pros were released. We love everything about them... with one major exception. The lack of Firewire 400 could be a significant problem. See, firewire 400 has been around so long that many people have these drives all over the place. Upgrading to to a new MacBook Pro means either replacing the external drives with FW 800 devices.... or... well... having to finally use that ExpressCard/34 slot.
Wired's Brian Chen elaborates....
"Specifically, the problem is that the new MacBooks are unable to start up in FireWire Target Disk Mode, which enables users to connect to the computer from another Mac, turning the target computer into an external drive. That's especially useful for diagnosing problems when the targeted computer won't even run. Without Target Disk Mode, the only alternative for troubleshooting a corrupt MacBook is to physically remove the drive, which increases the risk of losing information, said Koch. It's also more time and trouble." - Brian X. Chen
While we've been unable to determine if the loss of target disk mode is really happening, as there remains a firewire 800 port on the machine, we're left to wonder how it or if it's being replaced. Which brings us to the design of the new unibody enclosure. (NOTE: upon searching the Apple Forums, we have determined it IS possible to use FW800 for target disk mode... obviously, it runs much faster too! )
Primarily, target disk mode is used to access the data on the drive. Combine that with the apparent ease of access to the hard drive on the new MacBook and MacBook Pros... and the ultimate need can be met by removing the drive, dropping it into an external enclosure and going at it that way....
That will, however leave us longing for the simplicity of target disk mode. Aren't simplicity and ease of functionality two of the reasons we chose Apple hardware?
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