Ports on my Older LACIE external hard drive are not compatible with new MacBook Pro

Question

Kelly Mobley Author

Level 1

5 points

Ports on my Older LACIE external hard drive are not compatible with new MacBook Pro

I believe the ports on the LACIE are 2 firewire 800 and a USB 3.0 USB 2.0 compatible.

My new MacBook has the following ports -

Charging and Expansion

SDXC card slot
HDMI port
3.5 mm headphone jack
MagSafe 3 port
Three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports with support for:
- Charging
- DisplayPort
- Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
- USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)

Any suggestions on an adapter or cable that will allow me to get old data off of this external hard drive?

Ideally, I would love to continue using this hard drive if a cable exists that will allow me to link this HD to my computer.

In advance, thank you for any help provided.

Kelly M

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.2

Posted on Feb 7, 2022 4:43 PM

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Answer 1

steve359

Level 6

17,181 points

Feb 7, 2022 4:53 PM in response to Kelly Mobley

Apple has one. I am sure Best Buy sells one.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJ1M2AM/A/usb-c-to-usb-adapter?fnode=ab6c1ba459c162b387ff878c2e98d0c03bf695da6be0e425fddeedb977cf2231ca85802cc71dcebecf17ea1e9810d575d75000cf96cadb38a3f7a68da634aa5b0bcc53004bcaa09616503d9d76f03e6eae471eea2809d59b6a6667afcdbbd22d

Firewire may e faster but did not see USBC-Firewire on Apple site.

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Answer 2

steve359

Level 6

17,181 points

Feb 7, 2022 6:07 PM in response to Kelly Mobley

You are correct. I have a OWC like that from years ago ... 2 Firewire and 1 micro USB-B (not a repeat on that "B"). You should have the cable from the original purchase ... I would think they gave you one. "Only at Apple stroe": https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HN8D2ZM/A/mophie-usb-c-cable-with-micro-b-connector?fnode=6a9f56af6794c92942a216a13189b11c5ab995f693a49664d382d05a74dbf3a63f612d28264b5a82b19452f2ec0b523f53c6e064c25e2b19692e990bb71e289581193717e242835003565503241a255202d3ad27789c8f433443cb746294489c

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Answer 3

Kelly Mobley Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 7, 2022 5:54 PM in response to steve359

Thanks for the quick response. My concern is the LACIE doesn’t have the port you are suggesting. The port on the LACIE is

The port is more square shaped. Any other suggestions?

Thank you!

kelly

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Answer 4

Feb 7, 2022 6:33 PM in response to steve359

<< Firewire may be faster but did not see USBC-Firewire on Apple site. >>

The FireWire adapter available has a Thunderbolt-2 connector, so its use requires the US$50 ThunderBolt-3 <-> ThunderBolt-2 adapter. That extra expense in not justified if you can use USB cabling.

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Answer 5

Feb 9, 2022 7:54 AM in response to Kelly Mobley

From your picture, it looks like you may have a USB-3.1 micro-B connector on that drive (upside down from this drawing):

.

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Answer 6

Kelly Mobley Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 9, 2022 6:18 AM in response to steve359

Yes, I definitely received a cable when purchasing this external HD however I think it has been tossed! :(

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Answer 7

Kelly Mobley Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 9, 2022 6:22 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks Grant. I will check that one out. Hate the thought of purchasing this just to get data off. But I will more than likely want to keep using the hard drive too.

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Answer 8

Feb 9, 2022 7:51 AM in response to Kelly Mobley

USB-3 is as fast as FireWire-800. For rotating magnetic drives, there is no speed advantage to FireWire-800.

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Answer 9

Kelly Mobley Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 9, 2022 12:02 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

This information is very helpful, as is, the reference below. Thank you!

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Ports on my Older LACIE external hard drive are not compatible with new MacBook Pro

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