Firewire 600/800 question

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Firewire 600/800 question

Hi. I'm planning on getting a MacBook Pro in the near future but I have one question. I go the Art Institute and when I got my startup kit they give you I got a Firewire 60gb hard drive, and of course, niether of my PCs at home have a Firewire port so it's useless to me for now. I see the Macbook Pro has a 400 and a 800 slot, but they look like different inputs in the pics. My hard drive will work with a 400 port but it needs an 600/400 adapter and AC adapter to work. With a 600 port none of this is needed. I'm curious if 600 is compatable with an 800 port without adapters.

Posted on Apr 20, 2007 11:08 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 20, 2007 11:19 AM in response to FishHeatCats

FireWire comes in two 'flavors' - 400 and 800. There's no FireWire 600. You may be thinking of 9-pin vs. 6-pin vs. 4-pin, which are different types of plugs for FireWire.

FireWire 400 can be run over cables with 4-pin or 6-pin connectors. FireWire 800 can be run over cables with 4-pin or 9-pin connectors.

The MBP has a 6-pin FireWire 400 port and a 9-pin FireWire 800 port. You will be able to connect any external hard drive with a FireWire port to your MBP as long as you get the right cable. So, for example, if your hard drive has a 4-pin FireWire 400 port, you will need a 4-pin-to-6-pin FireWire cable.

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Answer 2

FishHeatCats Author

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Apr 21, 2007 8:05 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Ah I see. My hard drive says it needs a 6-pin port to work, I thought that meant 600 and 4-pin meant 400. Thanks for clearing that up.

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