Using External drives with SP

This isn't a software question, just a hardware concern. I've isolated my external drive in another room so that I can use SP for voice over recording. The drive fan is a bit noisey. I'm using a 30 foot, 9 pin firewire cable to hook up my Promax e xternal media drive.

At times, my intel iMac does not recognize the drive. Sometimes it does, so it is not the cable. I hook up a shorter cable with the drive next to the iMac and it is recognized.

Are their major issues with long firewire cables? I've tried re-setting Systems Management Controller on the iMac but to no avail. The 30 foot cable doesn't work at all for capturing video but it should provide an answer to my fan noise problem.

Any help is appreciated.

I can't recall what the firewire length limit is but yes length can come into play (be a problem). There are firewire line boosters you can though.