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Please note, this area is for Enclosure support only. All hard drive support is supported directly by the manufacturer.
Frequently Asked Questions Phone/Email Support Firmware Updates Return Address Easy 5 Step HotSwap Setup .
Frequently Asked Questions 1. Why am I dropping frames?
2. Why doesn't my hard drive plug and play?
3. Why doesn't my fire wire storage system give me 35 mb/s speeds?
Why am I dropping frames? Are you using a Maxtor hard drive? Maxtor drives are notorious for bad drive mechanisms and may need to be returned. That is why we only recommend the IBM drives. Even though IBM drives may cost a little bit more, they consistently provide the best reliability and the best performance. The slightly higher price saves a lot of headaches.
Why doesn't my hard drive enclosure "Plug and Play"? Things to try:
Set drive jumpers to "master" setting. The drive jumpers are pins located at the top of the drive. Setting the jumpers is easy. To learn the correct position of the jumpers to enable master settings, consult the drive companies website or the instruction manual of your drive.
Update your FireWire(IEEE1394) drivers. It may necessary to downloaded updated drivers from the Microsoft website. Also keep in mind that Windows 98 Second Edition is supported, however the original Windows 98 is not supported.
Pre-Format the hard drive. New drives that come from a manufacturer come "unformatted." In some instances on Windows computers, it may be necessary to "pre-format the drive" in a computer before placing the drive in the enclosure. If your drive already has data on it, then it is already formatted and does not need to be reformatted.
Why doesn't my fire wire storage system give me 35 MB/s Speeds? You may have a bottleneck somewhere, and it's not coming from the enclosure system. The bottleneck could be coming from a number of other areas: Your computer, or the hard drive you placed in the enclosure.
Computers with slower system buses, and slower FireWire ports can slow down the transfer rates. For instance, tests reveal that a G4 Titanium Powerbook doesn't deliver the same bus performance as a dual 733 processor G4 tower.
Sometimes your hard drive can slow things down as well. Hard drives work like 4 year old kids, they just throw stuff down in the first available place they can find. But after throwing things all over the place, things can take a little more time to find. The technical term for things being thrown all over the place in your hard drive is called fragmentation. Luckily there are programs on the market for both Mac and PC to organize the behind the scene data(defragment). The use of these programs can speed up your drive.
Phone Support Was your question not answered? For technical support or additional questions on products please call:
510.471.6442
(Make sure to tell the operator you wish to speak to Ken Tusant, regarding DVvideo.com products.)Or email:
Return Address The return address is:
Relax Technology, Inc. Returns
CO: DVvideo.com
3101 Whipple Road
Union City, CA 94587
Firmware Updates (Provided by Relax Technology) Download
Bridge Board Firmware Update Utility v3.0d for Windows - Full Setup - 5.5 MB
(XP Compatible)Download
Bridge Board Firmware Update Utility v1.2 for Macintosh (OSX) - Full Setup - 1.2 MB
(10.2 Compatible, NOT COMPATIBLE WITH 10.1.X)
Download
Bridge Board Firmware Update Utility v2.1c for Macintosh (OS9) - Full Setup - 425 KBMar 23, 2003
Firmware version c8_012703.rrf:
c8_012703.rrf adds support for Granite Digital's SMARTVue application. SMARTVue is a suite of disk utilities which can monitor the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) status of hard disks, benchmark hard disk performance, and perform hard disk data integrity testing.Relax Technology has developed proprietary technology that allows the SMARTVue application to monitor the S.M.A.R.T. status of hard disks installed in SMART Drive FireWire enclosures. In order to take advantage of this feature you must upgrade your SMART Drive FireWire enclosure to c8_012703 or later firmware.
S.M.A.R.T. features are available when using Relax Technology's C8, C11, and C14 FireVue 1394-IDE bridges. S.M.A.R.T. features are not available when using Relax Technology's older C3 and C4 FireVue bridges.
Sep 6, 2002
Firmware version c8_082902.rtf:
c8_082902 adds SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) to Relax Technology FireVue 1394-IDE bridges equipped with LCD+keypad user interfaces. Products with these bridges include Granite's SMART Drive lines of external FireWire enclosures and hot-swap FireWire bays.The SMART firmware adds a new "SMART status/test" menu under the "Diagnostic/Utils" menu. Using the SMART menu, the user can enable/disable SMART operation, view the drive's SMART parameters, view the drive's SMART error logs, and initiate short and extended SMART self tests. If the user enables SMART, then the bridge will automatically check SMART status each time the unit is turned ON and then periodically re-check SMART status during periods when the drive is idle.
c8_082902 is compatible with older Relax Technology FireVue 1394-IDE bridges, including the C3 and C4 models, but the SMART features are not enabled on these older models. Some early C8 bridges need a factory update to support SMART. If your C8 bridge requires this update, you will see the message "Bridge needs update for SMART support" when you try to invoke SMART features.
Aug 5, 2002
Firmware version c8_080502.rrf:
c8_080502 fixes a firmware bug first observed with Windows 2000 Service Pack 3. This firmware bug would cause Windows to appear to hang when trying to mount partitions on hard disks connected to FireVue 1394-IDE bridges. Windows 2000 SP3 appears to hang because it is repeatedly trying to communicate (unsuccessfully) with the FireVue bridge.Windows 2000 SP3 is not truly "hung" in this situation. Turning off or disconnecting the FireVue bridge allows Windows to continue normally.
This firmware bug is triggered by new 1394 drivers in Windows 2000 SP3. The firmware bug is never seen with earlier versions of Windows 2000, nor has the firmware bug been observed with other Windows or Macintosh operating systems.
We does not believe this firmware bug can cause the loss or corruption of data. However, Relax Technology recommends that all customers upgrade to c8_080502 to avoid potential problems.
IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to prevent Windows 2000 SP3 from "hanging" (as describe above) when using the Granite Field Update Utility, please adhere to the procedure outlined below. Users of other operating systems do not need to follow this procedure.
1. Connect the FireVue product to the computer's FireWire/1394 port, but leave the FireVue product turned OFF.
2. Boot the computer.
3. Run the Granite Field Update Utility.
4. Press the Browse button in the Field Update Utility to select the new firmware file (c8_080502.rrf).
5. Turn ON the Granite FireVue product.
6. Press the Scan button in the Field Update Utility until the Granite FireVue product is detected.
7. Press the Update button in the Field Update Utility to update the firmware.For Windows 2000 SP3 users It is important to Browse for the desired .rrf file before turning ON the FireVue product (steps 4-5). Alternately, you can disconnect the cable between the FireVue 1394-IDE bridge and the hard disk(s). Doing so eliminates the possibility that Windows 2000 SP3 will "hang" will you are trying to update the firmware.
NOTE: Firmware versions dated 022802 (Feb.. 28, 2002) and later require v2.0 or higher of the Relax Field Upgrade Utility. As of the 022802 release, the RRF file format has changed. The new format cannot be read by versions of the upgrade utility older than v2.0. However, v2.0/higher of the upgrade utility can read both new and old RRF file formats.
