Apple we have a Firewire 800 migration problem!

Apple might employ the dumbest smart people I know.
I just bought a brand new MacBook Pro. It looks awesome. And that's about all I can do with the laptop because the only way to do a migration is with firewire 800. Migrating via wireless or either net is worthless. Even though the getting started manual says it will work fine. I had to call Apple support and the person on tech support even said the migration software was horrible. It would have been an awesome idea to think about why someone might want to migrate form an older laptop. Older being 3 years old. The older MacBook Pro only has firewire 400. So now I have to go out and find a 800 to 400 firewire hub. Just brilliant.

A cable with an 800 connector on one end and 400 on the other is available...no need for a hub. The migration software can be tricky, yes Have a backup!
As well, your nearest Apple Store provides migration services with purchase I believe..give them a call.

Similar Messages

I have a Firewire 800 external hard drive and need to connect to my new MacBook Air. Where can I get the correct cable?

I have a Firewire 800 external hard drive and need to connect to my new MacBook Air. Where can I get the correct cable?

Apple has announced a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter, but not yet given a release date.

Firewire 800 general problem?

Hello, I have a BIG problem in my hands and I'm wondering if there's anyone out there to help me.
I have 3 LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Drive eSATA 1.5Gbits, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, Hi-Speed USB 2.0 that I use to backup my music. I copy my music in the first one and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the information when I turn on the second and third disks. I only turn on the disks when I'm using them, the rest of the time they're all off.
Today I came into the office to backup a new CD but got an error message when I turned on the first HD: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" and 3 options: Initialize (which takes me to Disk Utility to see the brand of my disk listed but no details about it), Ignore and Eject.
This happens with all 3 disks whether they're chained or not. Sometimes I get this error message, other times I get no message at all and just can't see the disks. I tried to plug them into 2 different twin 27" iMacs and 1 MBP 13" with different cables and power supplies. These are their characteristics:
For both iMacs:
Mac OS X 10.6.8
3.2 GHz Intel Core i3
8GB 1333 MHz DDR3
For the MBP:
Mac OS X 10.7.3
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1067 MHz DDR3
But the same problem occurs: I either get the error message or just don't see the disks at all.
Then I moved the disks to another iMac with the following characteristics:
Mac OS X 10.7.3
3.1GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
And they worked. All 3 disks with the same cables and power supplies I'd been using. So I thought "Maybe it's a Snow Leopard thing" and tried to make the disks work with the MBP (which has Lion) and they worked again! I moved the disks to their original location and once again plugged them to the MBP to finally work with them and the problem showed up again. Same error message for one of the disks, the other 2 simply don't show up.
I also tried making them work in the following Mac Pro:
Mac OS X 10.5.8
Dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5
4 GB DDR SDRAM
And I still couldn't.
This is all through FW800 which only worked that time I tried it with the third iMac. The only other time I got the HDs to work was plugging them to the Mac Pro but through FW400. I also tried plugging a Little Big Disk through FW800 and USB to the MBP and it didn't work. Then I plugged it into the Mac Pro using USB and there it is, with CCC slowly making the backup.
My workmate is telling me now that last week she plugged in a different pair of LaCie d2 Quadra to the MacPro and she couldn't make them work through FW800 and had to settle for FW400.
So my question is: Is there some kind of general problem with FW800 that I don't know about? Or is it a thing with LaCie? Like you see, my problem is not definite, I can't say "It works under these circumstances and it doesn't work under these" because it's a bit intermitent and annoying enough to not let me use the HDs at all. I sadly don't have another brand of HD to see if this occurs. I've run tests all morning in all the computers and I can't figure out the source of the problem. There are no software updates available for any of the computers.
Is there anyone out there with the same problem? If it's a general problem, are there any posts about it? I can't find one.
Sorry for the long read! I'm going to take a look at the LaCie support page to see if there's anything there.
Thanks to anyone who read all this

Well, external WD drives (or rather the cheap enclosures they use) aren't necessarily or generally a good way to rule out problems, but may be in this case.
In any case, have you tried two things: a) a different (brand new) FW cable and b) an SMC or PRAM reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Either/both sometimes help with FW or USB ports problems.

Firewire 800 connection problem

Hi!
So my warranty just expired a month ago. I went to get my mac fixed right before it and it came back with an issue with my firewire. No big deal really. I called back, they helped me fix it, but now it's doing it again.
The external hard drive I connected to the FW8 port works fine. I've tried it with other cables (FW4 and USB2) so I know it's not the hard drive. However, when I try using the FW8, it does not show up at all. I have 2 different external drives and I've tried both of them. Last time when we fixed this, it turns out my mac was trying to boot from the disk or something? I can't remember... nor do I have any idea where to start to mess with the configuration. Help please? the disk is lighting up, so it is powering on... it just isn't showing up!

I'm completely confused: you start by saying "The external hard drive I connected to the FW8 port works fine." Then in apparently complete contradiction you write:
However, when I try using the FW8, it does not show up at all.
What do you mean, "the disk is lighting up?"
And:
Last time when we fixed this, it turns out my mac was trying to boot from the disk or something?
The Mac should be trying to boot from some disk.
And then:
I've tried it with other cables (FW4 and USB2) so I know it's not the hard drive.
What does that mean? What is it in, "I've tried it....?" And, are you saying it works (which I suppose means the external does mount) using the FW4 and USB Ports?
I know you have a real problem but I really have no idea what you are asking
In case, as your topic suggests, you are simply asking about a problem with the Firewire Port, do what Roger suggested and have a look at this article.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151?viewlocale=en_US
Message was edited by: WZZZ

Why does my MyBook Studio 1 have two firewire 800 ports?

Hi, I have a WD MyBook Studio edition (version 1) that I use as a backup for my iMac (Early 2008). I'm planning to upgrade my iMac's internal drive to 1 or 2 TBs and I want to know if I can add another MyBook onto the one I currently have via its second firewire port. I'm not sure if that's why there are 2 ports, but that's why you guys are here, right? Thanks in advance and if you know any good internal drives send a link my way ;)!

Hi funman895: Yes indeed the Firewire drives can be daisy-chained. So you can add another MyBook to the second FW port on your drive.
Hope this helps
Stedman

Time Machine backup problems with firewire 800 since Mavericks

Since I installed Mavericks about a week ago, I have had problems with TM not working with my LaCie external drive. At best, it would not back up when the mac was awakened from sleep mode and in use. When I would open time machine preferences, I would see the "preparing for back up" prompt that would last forever. Not only was it doing that, I have found that it would freeze my mac. I figured this out when I was not able to get my mac to respond from the login screen. It was basically frozen and couldn't log on. I noticed the back up drive light flickering but nothing would happen even with waiting a long time. I finally figured out that shutting off the TM EHD would unfreeze the mac and it would start functioning normal again. This was happening with my external HD daisy chained to another external drive that contains my iPhoto, iMovie and Itunes files. That drive was also connected to the mac using firewire 800. I tried many different configurations, switched the order the drives were daisy chained, tried different cables and even directly connected the TM drive with firewire 800 to the mac, but the problems still persisted. The strange thing is that when I connect the TM drive through USB, it works flawlesly and no hanging up of the computer. Thats what Ive been forced to do. I have my other EHD connected directly through firewire 800 and it works fine. I only have one firewire 800 port, and since it works fine with my other LaCie drive, it makes me think its not the port or macs hardware? I can only guess this is a Time Machine issue or something wrong with my TM drive? I have been in contact with LaCie and given them all these details but I have not heard back yet on what they feel the problem is. I thought I would post this to see if anyone else had some experience with this problem.

Forgot to mention I did that. Completely erased and reformatted HD and then reconnected to TM. Didn't help. I did have the mac hang up while installing Mavericks and had to eventually shut off the external drive. It did that to me the firs time I tried to install Mavericks and I lost all my data because it did a clean install after that. I had another back up on CCC so I just restored from there. This time the update to Mavericks transferred my data. I have had TM hang up my mac in the past on occasion, but I was always able to shut down the drive and then the mac would return to normal. Perhaps I should try to erase and reformat again?

My Fantom backup drive is failing. I want to copy the time machine contents to a new backup drive and continue on as if nothing has happened. Can I do this and if so how? I have intel iMac running Mountain Lion. Fantom Drive via Firewire 800.

My Fantom backup drive is failing and I have to send it in for warranty repair. Before I do that I want to copy the time machine contents to a new drive and then use it for the backup, continuing on as if nothing had gone wrong with the first drive. Can I do this? Is it as simple as duplicating the first drive and replacing it with the second? New drive arrives Tuesday PM and both drives have dual firewire 800 ports.

I have used the Disk Utility to verify the contents of the backup drive so I don't think I have any corrupt files. The drive just takes a minute or so to spin up to speed. If I turn it off and then back on, it beeps at me for a few seconds and then starts it's slow process of trying to spin. I think it's a power problem not a data problem. I have my fingers crossed that it holds on until Tuesday PM when the new drive arrives. I'm thinking that my two options are to duplicate the bad drive or partition the new drive and put the old backups on one partition and start afresh on the second partition. Any input?
And thanks to both of you for the valuable information so far!

Firewire 800 on early Pro

Im going to buy a used MB Pro from a friend, its the early style, 1.83 GHz, dont know many other specs. I heard a rumor that those dont have the firewire 800. Just a couple questions. Is that true? Is it a big deal if it doesnt have it? What would I ever use it for in every day use? I currently have a powerbook g4 and I think it does have one but I've never used it.
So even though I dont currently use it now. If I get my buddies Pro for a good deal, does anyone see a reason where I would need and not have (if in fact they dont have them) one?
Thanks

FM 800 is the new apple FW, as they don't seem to support F400, which is a standart for a lot of numerical dv camera
I will not buy a fw800 only MBP...
So, what to say about your new MBP 1.83, the same as mine.
it's a good computer, with a lot of problems, depending on luck.
But, With it, you have a decent graphic card, you can have bootcamp, crossover, parallels, all which is good to run PC applications and games. impossible on G4.
FW400 let you connect a lot of numeric camera. It didn't have the USB 2.0 bugs, it's better for an external burner, HD.
As you have a G4 with a FW 400, it will let you easy transfer using the target mode.
more and more software are intel only...
((personal opinion, : your MBP 1.83 will still be working when Apple will have take out every firewire on her computer's so 400 or 800, anyway, it will die soon, except on some PC........))
A mbp 1.83 intel is faster than a G4, if you have a 2 Go ram.
first to check is temperature, smcfancontrols. if your fans don't make noise, I suggest you to let the rpm at 2000, one of the biggest issue was the GPU over heating and slowly dying...
Keep both, as G4 can save your life while using PPC apps which are no more supported on intel .
have fun !

No Firewire 800 Cable

I just received my Mac Pro and my 30 inch Cinema Display.
The main power cable that is attached to the back of the Display splits, and also contains a second power cable, a USB cable and a FireWire 400 cable.
The problem is that new Mac Pros have only Firewire 800 inputs. Apple says they do not make a matching cable. That's ridiculous. I connected the cables. If I keep everything as is without an attached FireWire cable, what impact will this have on viewing my video editing?

Apple says they do not make a matching cable.
If needed, purchase a FireWire 400 to 800 cable or adapter, which are also known as 6 pin to 9 pin.
If I keep everything as is without an attached FireWire cable, what impact will this have on viewing my video editing?
The only function of the FireWire ports on the display is so the display can act as a FireWire hub. If you're not connecting any other FireWire devices to the display, you don't need to hook them up. The same is true for the USB ports.
(47504)

How imortant is a Firewire 800? (imac 24" versus imac 20")

Hi,
I've been using Logic on a 1 ghtz PowerBook G4. I am ready to upgrade.
After looking over everything, I really don't feel I need to spend the $$ on the ProMac - as I think it's too much power for me at this moment. I'd rather buy a new computer when I have the need for more power - and by that time - everything is twice as fast/more bells and whistles and cheaper.
So - I was seriously considering the 24" iMac - basically because of the firewire 800. Problem is - I don't know how important that is to me. I've been holding off buying a pro audio interface (like the Ensemble or RME 800)... I mainly do MIDI (I'm a pianist), but, want to be able to record live musicians in the future as I have a couple of nice mikes.
So tell me - should I go 24" iMac or 20" iMac? For the $600 I'd save buying a 20" iMac - I could buy another 20" screen. But - no Firewire 800 on the 20".
Again - how important is the Firewire 800 for me?
Thanks!

Two reasons:
1) If you use a FW800 device by itself, you get
800Mbps (100 MBps). If you combine FW400 and FW800
devices on the same bus, the FW800 device will
operate at 400Mbps (50MBps), giving you a total
maximum throughput of 100MBps, over the two devices.
ahm. i know that the two firewire busses share the same connection to the cpu. you can see this at
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/HardwareDrivers/Conceptual/iMac0609SuperDrive/index.html
actually i assumed that apple would be smart enough to build the computer in a way that it's not the same if you connect a fw800 device to the 800bus and a 400 device to the 400 bus than if you connect a 800 and a 400 device to the 800 bus (which obviously would clock the 800 bus at 400 speed.
so you are saying that as soon as i connect a 400 device to the computer ALL fw buses become 400, even the one that's labelled fw 800?? where did you get that information?
AND...
2) The PCI bus to which both FW ports are attached
has a maximum throughput of 133MBps. Even if the
FW800 and FW400 ports operated at full-speed when
devices are mixed (they don't...see point 1), you
wouldn't be able to get full bandwidth anyway, since
100MBps (FW800) + 50MBps (FW400) = 150MBps, which
exceeds the max bandwidth of the PCI bus.
how do you know that the pci bus has 133mbps throughput max? all the information that i found is that it's a 33mhz 32bit pci bus...does that automatically mean it has 133 mBps throughput or what...?
i just ordered a 24" imac mainly for the reason that i need one 800bus for audio interface and harddrives (many tracks) and one 400 bus for dv video at the same time. if both of your statements are correct i will cancel the order immediately since i could do the same things with a 20" imac an the screen would be sufficent for me. and should any problems arise i'll sue the **** out of apple for misleading information about their products. i mean you can't label a buss 800 if it is not if you max out the capacity of the computer. that seriously ****** me off...
if you have a link to an apple tech note that clarifies things...i'd really appreciate it...
all the best...

Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 Adapter

I have a 2010 MacMini that I want to add the Pegasus Tech J4 RAID Drive to. It is Thunderbolt only. Does anyone make a Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 adapter? I know Apple makes the reverse, FireWire 800 to Thunderbolt.
Thanks for the help.

All Thunderbolt adapters are only from computer to
peripheral. There is no adapter that works in the
opposite direction.
Therefore, if you want to use the Pegasus Thunderbolt
device, you need a computer with a Thunderbolt port.

Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 Adaptors... any available?

Hi all,
I'm probably going to buy a 15" Mac Book Pro whenever they are released later this year and have a strong suspicion that Apple will drop the Firewire 800 port in favour of Thunderbolt. I guess this really comes as no surprise but hopefully I'm wrong and they keep it. Anyway, in the event that they do remove it I'd still like to be able to keep using my external FW800 HDD so was wondering if any cheap adaptors are on the market yet? I've looked around but can't seem to find anything. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Thanks in advance.

The adaptor from Sonnet is for an Express34 card and it does not read SXS cards for Sony cameras!
I do not find a Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 on the Sonnet website. Found this, however, but it won't be released until this summer:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/belkin-details-thunderbolt-express-dock/
It seems that Belkin will have the solution for all USB and FireWire devices that you will want to connect with the new 15" MacBook Pro coming out, supposedly at the end of April:
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/11861907-2012-macbook-pro-redesign-on- its-way-to-apple-stores
I'm in the same boat as you, so hopefully this helps.

NitroAV FireWire 800/1394b Express Card (34)

After some foot dragging by FireWire direct, today I finally received the NitroAV FireWire 800/1394b Express Card ordered almost a month ago.
First Impressions: Unimpressive at best.
According to the FireWire direct rep, it is supposed to work using the Mac OS built in drivers and require no additional driver....
Upon first insertion, my MacBook Pro promptly went into a kernel panic.
NOT a good introductory performance!
Upon restart, I did get the thing to work, "sort of".
First, it requires AC power even with a 2.5" external drive meant for bus power. Bummer, but so be it. However, less acceptable: it is VERY fussy about sequence, reminding me of evil SCSI voodoo rituals from the past century. Seems it only likes to work once- if I remove the card, it requires a reboot to recognize anything attached to it subsequently.
Functionality is intermittent. Sometimes I can mount and unmount a drive several times in a row, sometimes just once before it fails to recognize the drive and requires another reboot. One drive it took a long time to recognize but eventually it did- only to freeze up rock solid soon thereafter requiring an uncomfortable long push on the power button to shut down- nothing else worked. That drive was a known to be working Lacie, the first a known to be working WiebeTech and both are totally reliable on my G5 and previously completely reliable on the MacBook Pro using the integrated FireWire 400 port.
Unscientific results so far show a modest speed increase transferring a few large files, nothing like double the FireWire 800 speed hoped for. In any case if it ain't reliable it ain't gettin' used. Hoping for a driver solution in 10.4.7? (Wishful thinking)
No one likes a fussy device, much less one doomed to corrupting directories with that kind of behavior. I'm disappointed with Apple for omitting the FireWire 800 port on the 15 inch model and leaving us with this cheesy "solution".
I am not a big fan of dongles, or things like Express cards which are just asking for trouble by introducing intermediary third party connectivity issues exactly like these...
Oh yeh, and the little metal door on the Express Card slot tends to hang open and not snap closed- just to add insult to the whole process.

Well, after two days of use I have a bit of data regarding the NitroAV (and Apple's implementation of ExpressCard/34).
First some general observations: like bigwheel, there are a few too many rough edges to be fully pleased. After inserting the card, a menu bar icon appears next to the Airport icon. On mouse over, the drop down shows "Unknown Vendor" and "Firewire Controller" are greyed out, while the 3rd "Power off Card" is selectable but does NOT power down the card. Looks like I have to shut down the MBP, then eject the Nitro card.
I also can confirm intermittent unmounting and remounting. My latest experiment is to leave the drive mounted and then have it wake up after sleep. So far it's worked once, but will post if it continues to find my FW 800 drive over time.
One major design flaw of the ExpressCard implementation - to engage the card you push in until it clicks, while to disengage the card you merely push in a second time. But how are you supposed to ATTACH FW800 cables?? I find I have to try to hold the ExpressCard firmly so it doesn't go in while fumbling with the FW800 connector. WAY too fussy...
OK, here's some actual test data, involving transfers of 1,000 MB of files (147 Canon RAW files, approx 7 MB each).
I used three hard drives for various transfers -
1. Internal stock 100 GB - 5400 rpm (TOSHIBA MK1032GSX)
2. FW 800 / 400 500 GB - 7200 rpm (Seagate 3500841A in OWC Mercury Elite case)
3. FW 800 / 400 250 GB - La Cie 7200 rpm drive
All test are transfer of 1 GB of files from HD to HD-
Test 1: Internal to FW 400 - 68 seconds
Test 2: Internal to FW 800 - 65 seconds
Test 3: MBP built in FW 400 daisy-chained - 54 seconds
Test 4: Nitro FW 800 daisy chained - 43 seconds
Test 5: Nitro FW 800 port A to Nitro FW 800 port B - 43 seconds
Test 6: MBP built in FW 400 to Nitro FW 800 - 35 seconds
So it looks like there is some speed increase, but I was surprised that mixing the FW 400 and FW 800 ports gave the fastest transfer speeds! The Nitro card is dependent on Apple's implementation of buses, and this seems to be the winning combo. Not that intuitive that shifting one of the FW 800 devices down to FW 400 will speed things up, but that's what my simple test seemed to imply.
I didn't test read times only, but it would seem that these should speed up (and hopefully speed up my primary application of Aperture).
MBP 2.0, 2GB Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Firewire 800?

Hi,
I have a MacBook Pro that I purchased in June, 2010. I also have a Canon miniDV camcorder that uses firewire 400 that I used with my old mac (that no longer works) and I'd like to be able to edit my videos on my new mac.
From what I understand, the MacBook Pro has a firewire 800 port, and according to images of the ports on the apple website, I have a firewire 800 port. But when I checked "about this mac" on my computer, and checked the firewire, it says "No FireWire ports were found."
The symbol next to the port is a firewire symbol, and the firewire cable from my very old camcorder doesn't fit, so I'm assuming I have a firewire 800 port - but I would just like to confirm this before I buy the 800 to 400 cord.
Can anyone help me out?
Thanks,
sharekoube

I have the 13 inch macbook pro and this will be the 5th unit they have replaced for me with the same issue.
The first three times they thought it was my firewire drive. So on the fourth unit, I decided not to even use a firewire drive. Once a week I was checking in System Profiles to make sure the firewire port was still there. The Morning of the 10.6.6 update was released I checked and the Firewire port was still there. After the update, I checked again but this time the Firewire port was not missing. So Now I'm on the Fifth 13 inch MBP in 6 months.
Oh and here are the two most easiest way to get your MBP replaced at the store. Number 1, Ask the Apple service tech to start up your laptop in Target disk mode. It won't work. So it has nothing to do with your OS install or what ever software you are using. Number 2, Ask them to startup your MBP with one of their Lacie Firewire drives with their OS's and diag tools on it. All the stores have one. Again they will not get it to work.
At that point they will get a manager, and start the exchange process.
Message was edited by: kkita

FireWire 800 / Can't eject disk

First I was having issues with my external hard drive arbitrarily disconnecting and giving me the message that it was improperly disconnected. (When I hadn't touched it.) I read here on the forums and disconnected everything to reset the fuse. Waited 10 minutes and rebooted, then connected. It seemed to work, but now I cannot properly eject it. I get a message that it wasn't ejected "because one or more programs may be using it." But I'm not using it. What gives? Do I force eject it?

I just had the disconnect problem again. Any idea what's causing it? I have two firewire 800 cables, and I've tried them both...just in case one had a kink or a short in it. I just connected the drive, it came up, and I got the message asking if I wanted to back up to the disk using Time Machine. I said "decide later," and it suddenly disconnected and gave me an error message that the disk was improperly disconnected.

Apple we have a Firewire 800 migration problem!

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