Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire Adapter

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Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire Adapter

The internal hard drive on my mid-2010 Mini is failing and I'm thinking about replacing it with a bootable external drive that has a Firewire 800 port. (I'm using High Sierra.) Since I'm already using that port on my Mini for another external drive, I'm considering using the Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire Adapter to connect the Thunderbolt port on the Mini with the Firewire port on the external hard drive. Will this work? And will it perform like an additional Firewire 800 port?

Mac mini, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 2, 2020 6:09 PM

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Answer 1

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Brian Lazzara

Level 6

10,087 points

Jun 2, 2020 6:34 PM in response to kneilyoung

Yes, Thunderbolt is backward compatible to Firewire. Here is the link to the official Apple Store page: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD464LL/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapter

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Answer 2

kneilyoung Author

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Jun 3, 2020 4:29 PM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

I had no idea after all these years that you can daisy-chain Firewire devices. I looked at the back of my iOmega, and sure enough, there are 2 Firewire ports, and why else would they be there? All I have is a skimpy quick start guide which provides no specs, but a web search confirms they're both 800.

I also found out that (contrary to the drawing in the Mini technical specs that I downloaded several years ago which identifies a port as Thunderbolt), the port in question is really a Mini Display Port. And System Report confirms, no Thunderbolt hardware found.

Thanks, this really helps.

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Answer 3

kneilyoung Author

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Jun 2, 2020 7:28 PM in response to kneilyoung

Thanks

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Answer 4

Jun 2, 2020 10:11 PM in response to kneilyoung

See if you can find a drive enclosure with two FireWire ports so you can daisy-chain the drives from one port on the computer.

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Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire Adapter

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