USB drive into Firewire ports - doesn't work

MrGallacher wrote:

My iMac has three USB ports - 2 are fried, one works. So, I bought male to male Firewire to USB adapters and connected female to male USB cables into my usb external hdd. Sadly this doesn't power or read the drives. Any advice to resolve this other than opening the machine for repairs or just using firewire drives? Thanks

There is no such thing as a USB to Firewire adapter. You may find purported "adapters" that consist of a USB connector glued to a Firewire connector, with a few random wires connecting the pins. Don't use them! At best, they won't work. At worst, they will connect pins in a way that will damage your equipment.

You have a couple of choices:

• Buy a powered USB hub. These are cheap and readily available.
• Use Firewire drives. Other World Computing sells drives and enclosures that support FireWire 800 and USB 3.0, so you can use Firewire with an older Mac, then switch over to USB when you take the drive to a newer one.

So, you have one working FW port and a working USB port?

Why not get a USB dock and see if you can connect all your USB devices to it. And if you want to use the FW port, you will have to get FW drives, which may be difficult.

Also note, that any new Mac will have a *lot* of trouble attaching FW drives.

What year model is your iMac...?

see > Identify your iMac model - Apple Support

FireWire does not convert to USB.