XRe Posted April 26, 2007 Share Posted April 26, 2007 So, I bought a 400GB Seagate external drive to use for backups, etc. When I have it plugged in via Firewire, I get glitches on playing audio/video files. The files are stored on other drives, or are streaming from the 'net. It happens in several different players (WinAmp, iTunes, WMP). Turn the drive off, problem goes away. Turn the drive back on, it comes back again. This happens to .wmv files, mp3, mp4, etc, etc... I can attach it to USB, as well, which will be my next step, but... I kind of liked the ability to chain stuff via Firewire, etc... Any ideas?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted April 27, 2007 Share Posted April 27, 2007 Re-format it and check to make sure it is done as NTFS instead of FAT-32 disk format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted April 27, 2007 Author Share Posted April 27, 2007 Re-format it and check to make sure it is done as NTFS instead of FAT-32 disk format. Its totally FAT32 right now - but I'd have never expected that to be the cause??? Seriously??? I was thinking major stupid driver issues, or something, but...??? FAT32?? Hmmmm..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted April 27, 2007 Share Posted April 27, 2007 If you are running a modern hardware system and XP then NTFS is the correct filesystem. FAT32 is more backwards compatable, but not robust. The main reason to re-format it though, is to make sure there is no software ghosting on it from the mfgr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmccrock Posted April 27, 2007 Share Posted April 27, 2007 Dave, Is the drive powered from the same plug as the speakers? Are the speakers' audio from mini-plug, or USB or ? I guess I am asking about physical and electrical isolation. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cking Posted April 27, 2007 Share Posted April 27, 2007 This is an Operating system glitch. It doesn't know how to prioritize data and buss is not fast enough switch. Vista has provisions to fix it. Alot depends on your motherboard, PCI bridges, RAM speed etc. What it amounts to is that the firewire is a high priority interrupt and it interferes with the streaming from the other drive. Try playing a video from firewire drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted April 27, 2007 Author Share Posted April 27, 2007 If you are running a modern hardware system and XP then NTFS is the correct filesystem.FAT32 is more backwards compatable, but not robust. But pretty darn efficient, actually, for storing lots of relatively large-ish files... The main reason to re-format it though, is to make sure there is no software ghosting on it from the mfgr. Ok.... Is the drive powered from the same plug as the speakers? Are the speakers' audio from mini-plug, or USB or ? I guess I am asking about physical and electrical isolation. Well, they are - but the speakers are hooked up to a stereo receiver, and the audio is an input from the miniplug on the sound card (well, built in to the mobo, but...). Playing the radio or something is totally unaffected - no audio problems, there... This would appear to be inside the system... What it amounts to is that the firewire is a high priority interrupt and it interferes with the streaming from the other drive. Try playing a video from firewire drive. This sounds a bit more reasonable - but playing video off the firewire drive doesn't change anything - still glitchy there... I don't have anything important on the drive, yet - in fact, just junk I put over there to test the drive. So, I'll try the reformat, if anything, just for giggles... All right - I seem to have figured it out. A combination of thoughts from you guys clued me in.... The drive came with a piece of backup software that I decided to play with, just to see if it might be useful (the thought occurs to me that maybe I should know better, but.... ). Anyhow, the "launcher" program that it leaves running in the tray is the source of the problem. Disable that sucker, and everything is hunky dorey. Playing media from the external drive, from the Internet, and from the internal array works just fine.... As an aside, any thoughts on backup software? I have the stock XP backup stuff, of course, and that will get the registry, etc, just fine. Its kind of... cave man... though.... But it works... I'm looking for free/cheap and functional, useful, etc.... But its not a big deal if I don't find it, so... Thanks for the thoughts, guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 Dave, I have always found the free Lacie Backup Software to be pretty easy to use and reliable to boot. http://www.lacie.com/us/support/drivers/driver.htm?id=10090 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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