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Firewire 800 to USB 3.0 adapter?

I have a mid-2010 iMac that has a Firewire 800 and USB 2.0 ports (and no Thunderbolt port--though apparently I bought an iMac right before they started including them).


A lot of the external hard drives I'm buying now have USB 3.0 ports, but no Firewire ports. Is there an adapter that would connect my FIrewire 800 port to a USB 3.0 port on an external hard drive, AND take advantage of the extra speed offered by the Firewire 800 port? In other words, right now I'm just connecting the USB 3.0 external drives to the USB 2.0 ports on my iMac, and file transfers are at the painfully-slow USB 2.0 speeds. I'd like to connect them in a way that would take full advantage of the speed capability of my Firewire 800 port.


Thanks for any advice.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), Two internal drives (one SSB)

Posted on Apr 10, 2013 12:10 AM

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69 replies

Jun 26, 2017 5:22 PM in response to JDLee

Unfortunately, USB and Firewire use different protocols so Firewire to USB is not an option. You will need to keep within the USB domain to connect your external hard drives to your iMac's USB ports.


Firewire has been superceded by Thunderbolt, just in case buying a Thunderbolt-enabled hard drive would be a possibility for you, connecting them with a Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire 800 adapter cable.

Aug 2, 2017 1:34 PM in response to JDLee

There is such a device on offer from Sonnet.

It's the

Sonnet USB 3.0 + Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt Adapter.

It's a bit pricey at first sight, currently selling for 118 Euro in Germany.

And then there is another type of product that doubles the Mac's Thunderbolt 2 port and provides a USB 3.0 port that way. That's the

Akitio Thunder2 Dock Thunderbolt2/USB3.0/eSATA/FireWire 800.

Which, I am sad to say, is even pricier, going for 218 Euro in Germany as of speaking.

You might get your hands on them for less monetary output in the States, as German IT prices are on pharmaceutical levels...


Aug 4, 2017 7:35 AM in response to JDLee

Ancient original post, but the problem remains: There's no way to connect a USB-3 device (i.e., 90% of the devices being made today) to an older Mac, except through the old, slow USB-2 port. You're expected to be happy with "backwards compatibilty", and not mind that your Mac has much faster FW and TB ports sitting there unused. If you know anything about the matter, of course, you, like the OP, will mind very much. It certainly bugs the [carp] out of me.


I've struggled with this for quite some time, and the cheapest solution is to simply buy an external enclosure with Firewire sockets ($40-$50 on eBay) and transfer the HDD to the new case. If you're willing to cough up $35 for an Apple adapter (or would be, if there was such a thing), the cost of the enclosure isn't at all out of line. You won't get USB-3 speed, but you'll still get 5x-10x the speed of the USB-2 port you're otherwise stuck with. Sell the empty USB-3 enclosure on eBay for $10-$15, and you'll have spent less than the cost of the adapter that you wish existed.


Better yet, you can find used low-capacity external FW drives on eBay for $10, yank out the worthless 80 or 120 GB HDD inside, and install your larger-capacity drive. Because older chipsets have their limits, this does require that you do some homework on the enclosure if you want to plug in anything over 1 TB. (And, of course, be sure it's a SATA enclosure - an ATA/IDE drive defeats the whole purpose of the exercise.)


The only "better" option is to buy a SATA enclosure with a Thunderbolt port, but those run $80 or more. Worth it, maybe, if you're a videographer, or a photographer with folders full of RAW files, but FW should be good enough for the rest of us. The cost may come down as these trickle into eBay's "used" category, but don't hold your breath.

Aug 4, 2017 9:02 AM in response to jpdemers

FW800 is NOT 5 or 10 times the speed of USB 2.0.

FW800 is, also, NOT as fast as the internal bus speed of your computer and your computer's internal hard drive.

FW800 is only a little more than 2 times faster than USB 2.0.

USB 2.0 theoretically tops out at around 42-44 Mbps data throughput.

Real world is that USB 2.0 data speeds top out at between 36-38 Mbps.

This data throughput is also non-contiguous using USB 2.0.

Meaning with USB 2.0, data is transferred in packets and in spurts of data,

Data transfer IS slower using this method of transfer in USB 2.0 connection applications.

The somewhat "good news" with older USB 2.0 drives is that if used with a USB 3.0 interface, that USB 2.0 drive will get slightly faster and will reach/get to the 42-44 Mbps data throughput threshold when operating through a USB 3.0 data connection.

And this is when still using mechanically spinning hard drives.

With regards to mechanically spinning hard drives, FW800's theoretically tops out at between 84-86 Mbps.

The data throughput speeds with both FW400 (theoretical 48 Mbps data throughput, real world thoughout of about 40-42 Mbps) and FW800 are faster, also, as data is transferred as both one continuous and contiguous stream of data. No use of short spurts of contiguous packets of data.

FireWire transfers data a one long continuous linear stream of data.

THAT is the REAL difference between USB 1 and 2 with regards to FireWire.

USB 3.0 protocol, I believe, changed to an all continous data chain throughput, now, putting USB 3.0 and USB-C on the same data transfer throughput "level" as Thunderbolt 1/2.

Thunderbolt is still way faster, though, and can also be used for video signals and supporting other video monitors. USB 3.0 does not support using it for video monitor support.


I now run my older FW800 equipped iMac from a FW800 enclossd SSD and now see data throughput speeds through FW800 surpass this 84-86 Mbps "limitation" at an average of 90-94 Mbps, now.

This is very a noticeable and welcome surprise, if only a 10% increase in data throughput over FW800.

The old throughput limitations of USB 2.0/FW 400/800 must have been caused by delays impossd by the mechanical nature of conventional hard drives.

Delays caused by read/write head movements, spinning up and down of drive data platters, data seek times, etc.

So, such mechanical delays in an SSD.

Apr 10, 2013 5:41 AM in response to JDLee

Unfortunately, this is not possible.

A little research on your part would've revealed that FW 800/400 drives are available.

Google's your friend.

You can buy hard drives that have FireWire 800/400 connections on them.

Three that come to mind is

LaCie

OWC (macsales.com) Mercury Pro line of hard drives.

NewerTech.

I have found, in my experiences, that most users buy USB drives because they are cheaper.

USB drives do not have a consistent, continuous streaming of data that FireWire drives have.

In real life, this tends to make FireWire drives data throughput faster.

That is why drives with FireWire connections tend to be more expensive.

Apr 10, 2013 6:27 AM in response to MichelPM

Radiation Mac--Thank you for the information.


MichelPM--Of course I know that there are external drives with Firewire 800, and I knew that when I bought my external drives (and all without having to do a bit of research). That wasn't my question.


And, yes, I do buy the USB versions because they are cheaper. I'm using these drives for long-term storage of data, so spending considerably more money to get Firewire drives would not make any sense at all. However, if there was an adapter that could allow me to connect all of my USB 3.0-capable drives to my iMac's Firewire 800 port and harness its higher speed (compared to my iMac's USB 2.0 ports), it would be worth spending money on such a device because it would work with every USB 3.0 drive I've bought or will buy.


As to your last few sentences, I'm not sure what you're saying. I have a couple of Seagate Backups+ drives that came USB 3.0 enabled. But Seagate sells an adapter that swaps out the drives' USB 3.0 interface for a Firewire 800 interface. Because these are larger drives I have in continuous use, I bought the Firewire adapters, and they nearly doubled the transfer speed to these drives.

May 25, 2013 2:44 PM in response to varjak paw

This is on Seagate's accessories listfor the the Backup Plus Desktop Drive. It looks it swaps with the bottom of the desktop drive to replace the one with USB 3.0 plug with a Firewire plug.


"Upgrade the transfer and access speeds between your Backup Plus or GoFlex desktop drive and your Mac® computer with FireWire® 800 connectivity that’s up to 2x faster than USB 2.0. Features an illuminated LED capacity gauge."


Right now you can get one on Amazon for $33.99 + $5.95 shipping, or you can pay Seagate $49.99 + $9.17 shipping.

May 25, 2013 3:35 PM in response to litterbuggy

Erk, I just lost a long post correcting and adding some information. The one I linked on Amazon is the older version, which does the same thing, and which is also cheaper. The link to Seagate's website is for the new version.


It looks like the package usually comes with firewire and usb cables, but the one on Amazon doesn't have them. I've got tons of cables, so I'm going for the one on Amazon.

Firewire 800 to USB 3.0 adapter?

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