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- #Firewire 800 to usb with broken usb install#
- #Firewire 800 to usb with broken usb full#
- #Firewire 800 to usb with broken usb mac#
Thunderbolt is still way faster, though, and can also be used for video signals and supporting other video monitors. 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. THAT is the REAL difference between USB 1 and 2 with regards to FireWire. No use of short spurts of contiguous packets of data.įireWire transfers data a one long continuous linear stream of data. 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. With regards to mechanically spinning hard drives, FW800's theoretically tops out at between 84-86 Mbps. 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.Īnd this is when still using mechanically spinning hard drives. Meaning with USB 2.0, data is transferred in packets and in spurts of data,ĭata transfer IS slower using this method of transfer in USB 2.0 connection applications. This data throughput is also non-contiguous using USB 2.0. Real world is that USB 2.0 data speeds top out at between 36-38 Mbps. USB 2.0 theoretically tops out at around 42-44 Mbps data throughput. The cost may come down as these trickle into eBay's "used" category, but don't hold your breath.įW800 is NOT 5 or 10 times the speed of USB 2.0.įW800 is, also, NOT as fast as the internal bus speed of your computer and your computer's internal hard drive.įW800 is only a little more than 2 times faster than USB 2.0.
#Firewire 800 to usb with broken usb full#
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 only "better" option is to buy a SATA enclosure with a Thunderbolt port, but those run $80 or more. (And, of course, be sure it's a SATA enclosure - an ATA/IDE drive defeats the whole purpose of the exercise.) 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.
#Firewire 800 to usb with broken usb install#
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.īetter 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. 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. 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. 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 know anything about the matter, of course, you, like the OP, will mind very much.
#Firewire 800 to usb with broken usb mac#
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. 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.Īncient 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.
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But Seagate sells an adapter that swaps out the drives' USB 3.0 interface for a Firewire 800 interface. I have a couple of Seagate Backups+ drives that came USB 3.0 enabled. 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.Īs to your last few sentences, I'm not sure what you're saying. 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.
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That wasn't my question.Īnd, yes, I do buy the USB versions because they are cheaper. 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). Radiation Mac-Thank you for the information.