What is FireWire and what FireWire adapter do I need to use FireWire 800 for my portable external hard drive ?

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What is FireWire and what FireWire adapter do I need to use FireWire 800 for my portable external hard drive ?

Hi guys, I'm new to Mac. I have a MacBook Pro 13" (late 2011) with Lion OS and Parallels 7 (Windows 7). My understanding is that there is FireWire connection / extension built in to the MacBook Pro already. I also have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex portable external hard drive 750GB USB2.0 and 3.0 (that can be used for PC and Mac). It states that the portable external harddrive is FireWire 800 compatible. The questions are (1) how does FireWire works ? (2) how do I use or activate FireWire 800 ? (3) is there any setup / setting changes I need to on my MacBook Pro ? (4) what FireWire adapter do I need to purchase to connect my portable external harddrive to my MacBook Pro ? Is it expensive ?

I read a few articles online but they are too technical for me. They mentioned something about FireWire adapter with 6 pins or 9 pins. Not sure what that means. I'm totally confused. So any help, advise or guidance will be much appreciated. In Layman's term would be better. Thanks.

How about Thunderbolt ? Is it compatible with the above external portable hard drive mentioned ? Do I need a Thunderbolt adapter for it ? How do I activate or use Thunderbolt ?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Nov 11, 2012 3:09 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 11, 2012 3:22 AM in response to Charles2Cool

If you've a late 2011, then you have a Firewire 800 port on the left side of your computer. If your drive has FW800 capabilities, use that connection over USB 2.0 as the FW 800 is faster than USB 2.0. Most of my hard drives are FW800 just now. I'll be investing in a Thunderbolt drive soon, which is the fastest port on your MBP.

FW800 is just plug-and-play, just like your USB drives. So are Thunderbolt drives. But Thunderbolt drives are much more expensive - the one I'm getting is a LaCie 2Big 4 terabyte (two internal 2 TB drives that can be configured as a RAID flavor or 'just a bunch of disks').

So, to summarize: if your drive has Firewire 800 ports, you should use FW800 instead of USB 2.0. If you want the fastest drives, you're going to have to look a Thunderbolt drives. But FW800 should serve you well.

Clinton

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Answer 2

Nov 11, 2012 3:37 AM in response to Charles2Cool

The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex is only USB as I can see on Seagate's site.

Here what a FW port looks like, with a couple of FW adapter.

To answer to your questions

What is Firewire
Firewire is already active. You just need a FW800 cable and FW capable device. I cannot tell you if FW is supported under Parallel. I use VMware Fusion and no FW support is built into Fusion, just USB.
No
See answer number 2

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Answer 3

Nov 11, 2012 3:48 AM in response to Alberto Ravasio

You can see the FW drives just fine in Parallels - although I'm running Parallels 8 and XP, I could use them just fine under Parallels 7.

Clinton

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Answer 4

Charles2Cool Author

Level 1

2 points

Nov 12, 2012 11:00 PM in response to Charles2Cool

Thanks, Clinton and Alberto.

The below link is the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex portable external hard drive (product code STAA750302) that I have. It states that it features USB 2.0 or 3.0 plug–and–play connectivity and easily upgradeable to USB 3.0, FireWire 800 or eSATA. It only comes with a 18-inch USB 3.0 / 2.0 backward compatible cable.

http://www.seagate.com/au/en/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/standard/ goflex/

Based on the above, my understanding is that I need to buy a FireWire 800 adapter to connect to the portable external hard drive so that I can use FireWire 800 with my MacBook Pro. Is this correct ? Do I need to get a separate cable as well or can I just use the 18-inch USB 3.0 / 2.0 backward compatible cable that was provided in the box ? If so, what sort of FireWire 800 cable do I need to get ? 9 pin to 9 pin ? 6 pin to 9 pin ? Or 4 pin to 9 pin ?

https://www.lindy.com.au/online/arrshop.exe?anonymous=true&cat=b1

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Answer 5

Nov 12, 2012 11:08 PM in response to Charles2Cool

Looked at the site - says "optional" Firewire, so I'm guessing that you'd have to get that option from Seagate - I don't know of any USB>Firewire 'adapters' - must be a Seagate thing?

I would contact Seagate first before buying any sort of cable - I also downloaded the little user manual and, it too, notes an 'option' for Firewire.

Looks as if they have support on the page you provided - contact Seagate and ask about the Firewire option: it would certainly be faster than USB 2.0.

Clinton

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Answer 6

Nov 13, 2012 12:35 AM in response to Charles2Cool

http://www.seagate.com/au/en/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/standard/ goflex/

Based on the above, my understanding is that I need to buy a FireWire 800 adapter to connect to the portable external hard drive so that I can use FireWire 800 with my MacBook Pro. Is this correct ?

It's all well explained, if you watch the 3 videos at the rightmost thumbnail under the picture at the page you linked.

To describe the goflex you can say

"One drive, multiple interfaces"

that are sold as an option by Seagate itself. So, if you want FW800, you must buy Seagate goflex adapter FW800 that fits as expected into a FW800 female plug present on your Mac.

Look under Accessories and you'll discover every possible interfaces available for the goflex.

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