External FireWire HD Ports

[infinite-loop]

This may be a silly question but here goes anyway..! I have a LaCie 120gb external hard disk with 2 FireWire ports on it. Is it possible to have 2 computers connect to these ports at the same time ? For example can I connect my G5 to one FW port and my G4 iBook to the other..? Been a bit concerned about trying this in case I blow up the FW drive..!!

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

No, that's not possible. The extra FireWire port is for "chaining" other FireWire devices off of that device: for example, you could have the FireWire drive connected to the computer, then your FireWire iPod or another FireWire device connected to the external FireWire drive in the other port so that you only use one FireWire port on your computer, but have more than one device connected.

It's not meant to connect more than one computer to the drive, and doing so will have unexpected results.

 

[infinite-loop]

I already knew that the extra FW port was intended for daisy-chaining but was curious to find out if it could be also used in the way I mentioned. What 'unexpected results' could I expect if I was to connect 2 computers to the FW drive..??

 

[fryke]

I think the worst would simply be that you lose the drive. ... But what actually happens is that nothing happens, i.e. the second computer you connect simply doesn't "see" the other devices (or ignores them). You'd have to put one of the Macs into FW target mode in order to really connect the three devices.