"hank alrich" wrote in message
.. .
Mike Rivers wrote:

Hal Laurent writes:

Nope, part of what's in the Alesis Firewire dock is firmware (I
guess)
to talk to the disk drive and pass the data on to the computer in
"normal" format.

Mike, if you're talking about the Alesis Fireport, that's not true.
Hardware-wise it's just a IDE-to-Firewire adaptor that accepts the same
drive caddies as the HD24. It comes with software to run on the
computer
that can read the proprietary file format.

AH, OK, so software, not firmware. At least that makes the Fireport a
little more useful. You could, I suppose, use it without the Alesis
software to interface a standard FAT16 or FAT32 disk to a computer
with a Firewire port?

And now I wonder if one could use a Wiebetech FW DriveDock along with
the Alesis software to do what the Firedock does, or if the software is
tied to the Alesis gizmo.

Sure, that will work technically. You can't legally buy the Alesis software
without the Alesis hardware, though.

The advantage to the Alesis hardware is that you can pull the caddy right
out of the HD24 and plug it into the Fireport.

The disadvantage to the Fireport is that it's a kludgy little thing that
plugs into the back of the drive caddy, and there are four separate plastic
foot thingamajigs (that's the technical term) that you attach to the sides
of the caddy to give it airflow underneath.

I don't know anything about the Wiebetech FW DriveDock, but if it just
coincidentally has a full drive bay that can accept an Alesis HD24 drive
caddy without the annoying need of attaching separate feet, then it might be
something I'd find useful, depending on its price.

Hal Laurent
Baltimore