i5 iMac and Firewire question...

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Level 1

5 points

i5 iMac and Firewire question...

I have a Firewire 400 external hard drive that I need to hook up to my new i5 iMac. From what I've read, I need to buy a 6-pin to 9-pin Firewire cable. Right?

If I read right, FW400 is 6-pin, FW800 is 9-pin, and the small FW connector seen on DV cameras and such is 4-pin?

Thank you for making me less of an idiot 😉

iMac 27" quad-core i5, Mac OS X (10.6.2), 4GB DDR3 SDRAM

Posted on Nov 24, 2009 7:52 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

82,941 points

Nov 24, 2009 8:06 AM in response to fnankivell

Firewire 400 can be either the small DV camera version, or the 6 pin.
The 6 pin is what has been included with most older Macs since 1998.
The 9 pin as you surmised the Firewire 800. The 6 and 9 pin are bus powered,
where the 4 pin is not.
The connection will drop to whatever is the slowest speed on the chain.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 9

77,176 points

Nov 24, 2009 9:26 AM in response to fnankivell

Yes that is right!

To go from FireWire 400 to 800 you will need either a cable or an adapter:

9 pin 800 to 6 pin 400 > http://www.firefold.com/9-Pin-to-6-Pin-C54.aspx
or this adapter > http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw_adapter.html

For a camera with a 4 pin Firewire connection you would need the following:

9 pin to 4 pin > http://www.firefold.com/9-Pin-to-4-Pin-Firewire-Cables-C53.aspx

The FireFold (cable's) and Sonnet (adapter) above are just examples that I used, thay can also be found on line at OWC, Cables to Go, Your Cable Store or at most of the larger Computer/Electronics' outlets.

Dennis

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