[Imagine]

I'm curious to whether or not a Firewire unit such as a DVD burner can be connected and disconnected while the computer is On. Will it damaged either the DVD burner or computer, and is it better to turn the computer Off first?
What about turning the DVD burner Off while the computer in On?
Thanks
Dean

[JohnVL]

Firewire is supposed to be "hot swapable" however I had some problem with a firewire drive. I later learned that my problem was a driver problem but in the process of researching the issue, I found a good number of people who recommended plugging and unpluggging such devices when the system is off even though it's supposedly fine to do so while the system is running. That's what I do for safety. And if you do that, I don't think you have to worry about whether the unit is turned on or off. Being safe is always better than being sorry.
Maybe others have more experience.
John VL

[Grant_G]

I have been using Firewire for at least 3 years, and haven't had any trouble with hot swapping. I even leave a Firewire cable eternally connected to the front G5 port that has nothing connected to the other end most of the time. It's for my DV Camcorder. Plug it in, turn it on with iMovie open, and it's ready to download. I also have an external CD-RW and a hard drive connected in series to the back Firewire 400 port. Their normal operating condition is "off," but I never worry about turning them "on" when I want one of them. I use the burner once or twice a week and the hard drive several times a week and haven't had any trouble with either of them.
G

[Philbert]

Same as Grant. (even have the "permanent" open-ended cable hooked up!) Been using FW ever since my old B/W G3 days (1999) and I've never worried about turning things off/unplugging while on. Shut the machine down before disconnecting a FW device? Never once.
One caveat though ... before disconnecting or turning off a device, make sure you "eject" it first. Otherwise, you risk data loss (if it's a writable device). At the very least, you'll receive an annoying nag. Just make sure the device is unmounted before turning off or unplugging and you'll be fine.
[edited to add the bit about unmounting ...

[moose_n_squirrel]

No problems with FireWire here, I never turn off the computer. However, I do peripherals like this:
Connecting:
1) Turn on device
2) Connect to Mac
Disconnecting:
1) Unmount (eject) device from desktop
2) Unplug or turn off device
It's been pretty foolproof that way. As long as things are done exactly in that order.

[dougster]

Same as -moosensquirrel,
No problems when done in a proper order, and with USB peripherals.

[Rugby]

Only problems (ever) with my Firewire devices is that once when plugging a new Firewire drive AND Scanning the Nikon Scanner aborted and claimed "there was no device connected". I restarted the scan and it worked fine. So as all the others have mentioned, do not have any ongoing while plugging / unpugging /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[Shane]

we had a fireware hardrive get hosed by unplugging it without throwing it away first. it completely messed up the file structure, and the drive had to be completely wiped and redone, and it took our guy about 2 hours to get osx to even read it again. 9 had no problem reading it.

[Grant_G]

Discussed above, by Philbert. Never (in OS 9 either) unplug a device from your computer without ejecting it properly. This can be done by using the Eject command from the File menu, highlighting it and typing Command-E, or dragging it to the trash, which changes to an eject button if you do it this way. Data, as you have found, can be irretrievably lost if you don't -- although it is rare. I have accidentally done this at least twice that I recall, and lost nothing as a result. Better safe than sorry however.
G