Firewire Drive to Thunderbolt via Apple adapter speed issues.

Hi,
My old MBP recently died (plastic at the back started to melt) while doing lots of editing so have bought a new MBP Retina display. As it only has USB3 and Thunderbolt ports, I purchased the apple Firewire 800 to Thunderbolt adpater to connect the powered G-Tech G Drive which contains my live FCPX project files. Anyway this drive is now really slow compared to how it used to run on the old MBP. Also it seems to be constantly spinning with multiple drive accessses. Sometime FCPX stalls as the drive is too busy. I contacted G-Tech and they say their drives do no support third party adapters and at present they have not come back with a solution. I have heard that unpowered FIrewire drives using the Apple adapter won't work as the Thunderbolt port does not supply enough power (only 7W).
Does anyone have a solution to how to get more speed out of the G-Drive (It has Firewire 800, eSATA and USB2 ports) b) why it's constantly active. G-Tech thought that "It is possible that this adapter is constantly sending a signal causing the drive to keep spinning." c) I have never used eSATA, has any one had any experience with eSATA to Thunderbolt / USB3 adpaters?
I don't really want to invest in a new and very expensive Thunderbolt drive having just outlayed the expense to make this emergency purchase of my new MBP but if there are no solutions then I'll have no choice. Any suggestions greatfully recieved.

I believe this issue is caused by bad ground coupling between the two devices, some of the induced charge can spark between connectors in the thunderbolt port causing computer to basicly freeze.
To solve this issue try touching the connectors outside metal part to your macbooks body first to discharge it, then while plugging int the connector do it at slight angle so the metal of the connector touches Mac's body.
This method has been working for me.

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MacBook Pro Retina (15") intermittant freeze connecting firewire drive to Thunderbolt adapter

Since having my MacBook Pro Retina (15") I have been having intermittant (often only have 5 days or so) hard freeze on connecting firewire 800 drives to it via the thunderbolt adapter. This occurs with both powered (LaCie 2gb) and unpowered (Iomega GO 1gb) drives. After the last few times I tried connecting the thunderbolt adapter and then plugging in the drive (rather than having the firewire cable already plugged into the adapter and then plugging the adapter in). I was able to reproduce a hard freeze after nothing happened when the adapter alone was plugged in, plugging in the powered drive caused an immediate freeze.
By a hard freeze I mean that when the system reboots it doesn't even recognise a crash occured. There was no kernel panic screen.
I plug into these drives at least once a day but it usually takes up to a week before the freeze occurs. I have had no trouble with leaving the unpowered drive cnnected during sleep it appears to be when I change drives. I always unplug the adapter and make sure the computer is still running before putting to sleep and make sure it is functioning properly after wake before connecting the drive.
Using USB 2.0 there have been no problems with the same drives.
Any ideas?

I believe this issue is caused by bad ground coupling between the two devices, some of the induced charge can spark between connectors in the thunderbolt port causing computer to basicly freeze.
To solve this issue try touching the connectors outside metal part to your macbooks body first to discharge it, then while plugging int the connector do it at slight angle so the metal of the connector touches Mac's body.
This method has been working for me.

Dropping Airport connection after attaching a DVI via Apple adapter ?

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I am experiencing a strange behaviour with my new 13" MBP 2.54GHz.
Whenever I attach a DVI screen with the Apple Mini Display-Port --> DVI adaptor my Airport disconnects from the network within 2-5 min and does not reconnect.
When I connect to my old 23" Cinema Display with ADC via Mini Display-Port-->DVI(the Apple adaptor)-->ADC it works.
Any ideas ?
Cheers

I tried connecting it directly to the TV & got the same non-result. Of course, would like it to go through my receiver so I get the benefit of my surround sound system. Got any other ideas? Thanks

Going Crazy! How to force startup using firewire drive on G3

Okay, I think I'm going crazy. I have searched last night and today for my answers and still no solution.
I have an old G3 I'm trying to install Tiger on. I don't have a dvd drive in the G3, so I installed onto a firewire drive from my G4. I booted from the firewire drive and manually copied all the file over to the internal drive on the G3. Some things wouldn't copy. Obviously, this is part of my problem. Unfortunately, I did not run the disk utility, etc before restarting after doing this. Now, I get a kernel panic on a grey screen with frozen beach ball cursor. When I reboot from my Techtool 4 pro disk, I can access the program, but it's all fuzzy grey on the screen. Plus that didn't work. I have tried to reboot from my older OS10.1 install disk. But I can't do anything with it, and it won't install over the newer "incomplete" system. If I restart pushing X or C or Option button, nothing happens. The G3 has two internal drives, each with a system on it. Neither will start up. The firewire drive is hooked up, and I can't reboot from that.
Can anyone tell me the shortcut to reboot from the external firewire drive? What do I push? Or is

G3s cannot boot from FireWire drives:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58238#faq10

Trouble using firewire drives via thunderbolt adapter on bootcamped Mac Pro 2013 towers

Here at the university, we've just installed a new classroom of Mac Pro towers (late 2013). We like to use Bootcamp in said classroom, and so I (painstakingly) installed Windows 8.1 on a test machine. I've found that the brand new firewire-to-thunderbolt adapters we bought don't seem to work when booted into Windows. I have few LaCie firewire drives I use to install software packages, and the occasional WD My Book, and our students are encourage to purchase G-Drives to back up their film projects.
I have a couple of LaCie drives that I've partitioned as part Mac OS Extended and part ExFat (or even MS-DOS just in case). The Windows-friendly partitions don't mount or even get detected, so I think it's the adapter(s) not being recognized by Windoes, especially since the firewire to thunderbolt adapters work on the Mac side.
Could this be a driver problem like what's mentioned here?

Well, no one answered at all, but somehow the problem solved itself. I'm not sure if one of the automatic Windows updates cleared things up or what, but now I can connect Firewire drives with no problems. Also, as some kind of bonus, Windows 8 is able to read Mac partitioned firewire drives, which I don't think was possible in Windows 7.
The problem may also have been that I hadn't entered the Windows activation key in yet? I'm not sure that makes sense in terms of Thunderbolt adapters...
10+ years ago, I read a Microsoft tip of the day that said "Problems that go away by themselves can come back by themselves." It's haunted me ever since.

Has anyone been able to use an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire to daisy chain a dozen or more FireWire drives?

Ever since I realized that I was not able to connect my FireWire daisy chain to my brand new Retina MBP there has been problems. Four months down the road, I am still unable to use my FireWire drives and have experienced terrible problems whenever I connect my FireWire daisy chain to this new Mac.
I have bought two of these adaptors from Apple now and both do the same thing. The daisy chain has been working perfectly for years with my older MBP and still does! There are no problems until I connect to the new Mac.
I have 15 various hard drives in NewerTech and DatOptics enclosures for over 22 TB. When connected to the new Mac, I would have multiple apps just hang, sometimes just Apple apps, sometimes 3rd party. I will not be able to force quit them and they will keep relauching as you can watch them in the Force Quit window. The Finder will hang and there is no relaunching it. I am having to do a force shutdown twice an hour which leaves no time for work!
After four months of this, now I am being told that Apple will buy back my Mac at full price. But I have basically lost the good part of four month’s worth of work because of constantly fighting the new Mac. This is cost me all my savings and I am about to lose a client. It certainly seems that releasing Thunderbolt1 was a huge, huge mistake.
Does anyone know of any large Fire Wire daisy chain working with Thunderbolt?
TIA,
R

Yes, my first post is all about how darn iffy the adaptors are and I have two of them to return now.
I question your answer because I am betting that four drives that are in one enclosure NOT all RAIDed together as one drive, but as four separate drives that those four drive will count as four devices. The daisy chain that I had going had eight drives in TWO quad boxes, four drives in TWO dual drives and another drive in a single enclosure. A total of five “devices” if you will, but also a total of 13 drives that were usually in this daisy chain.
Both of the Apple branded Thunderbolt to FireWire adaptors chocked BIG TIME on this and it works no problem on my older MBP. You basically can not use a new Mac when you are connected to a daisy chain like this!
Just checked the Apple website and indeed, I can get a new MBP with FireWire 800, just not with the Retina display! I wish that I would have known this five months ago before this all started!

Old firewire to new thunderbolt drive

I have a 2010 iMac 27.
Id like to get a new thunderbolt hard drive.
How do I connect them?
Apparently the firewire to thunderbolt adaptor is one way and not the way I need.

You already know the adapter is one way. I think the logic is being able to access your firewire drives from newer Mac's as they have no firewire ports.
The other way around is counterproductive in that you won't get Thunderbolt speeds. Also the drives are more expensive. If you still want to connect it you can get a Thunderbolt/USB 3 combo and attach your Mac via USB2.
It's not as fast as Firewire 800, but you can connect.

Daisy chain two external drives via Firewire, then connect one via USB to the TC?

Hi,
I have two external drives that have both Firewire and USB ports. My 1st generation 500 gb Time Capsule (maybe all of them?) only has USB ports so up til now, I have connected one or the other drive via USB. (I've tried to connect both to a powered USB hub but one drive has problems showing up. At this point I only use the one drive that shows up and connect it directly with no hub to the Time Capsue.)
My question is: Can I daisy chain the two drives via Firewire and then connect one of them (probably the one that has no problems connecting with USB) to the Time Capsule via USB?
Second, somewhat-related problem...
I don't know why one drive isn't connecting very well when directly connected to the Time Capsule. Both are Fantom drives. One is a 1TB, the one that has prblems connecting is a 250GB. I've tried connecting directly or through a powered hub. The 1B has no problems, the 250 gb won't show up most of the time and disconnects itself fairly quickly if it does connect. I've switched cables; that hasn't helped. The 1TB stays connected most of the time but sometimes it disconnects too. I suspect the Time Capsule just isn't able to deal with external drives so I don't puch it. It would be nice to be able to have both drives accessable through the TC though.
Thanks for any help.
Cheers,
John

Doing some experimentation, connecting the drives directly to the MBP:
- Neither of the two drives Firewire daisy-chained and going through the powered USB hub connected to the MBP mount. I was using old aliases on desktop.*They don't show up on network otherwise. (Each drive self-mounts with both Firewire and USB direct connections.)
*Even after making new aliases, neither drive will mount using their new aliases when directly connected (not through hub) with USB or Firewire (and Thunderbolt adapter.) That's weird.
- Both the 240 gb and the 1TB drives going through powered hub connected to MBP mount by themselves.
- Two drives daisy-chained via Firewire and one drive connected to the MBP via Firewire (and Thunderbolt adapter) self-mount. No surprise there but that doesn't help me as I want to have the drives further away from the MBP and connected to the Time Capsule, which doesn't have a Firewire port anyway...
- All of the USB and the Firewire cables work as does the Thunderbolt adapter. I tested them.
I wonder.... I have a Firewire to what appears to be an Ethernet connector. I wonder if that would be any good. I'm afraid to try it though...

HT201338 Can I connect a firewire 400 to firewire 800 adapter and then a firewire 800 to Thunderbolt adapter(standard Thunderbolt to firewire adapter) together to digitize video from a miniDV video camcorder?

I have a 10 year Canon MiniDV camcorder that I used to connect via firewire to digitize the data. Now my IMac only has a Thunderbolt connector and my camcorder uses the older firewire 400 standard. I would like to digitize the video into my IMac. How can I do this?

I did a little looking around and found a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter, and then a Firewire 400 to 800 adapter, but no Thunderbolt to Firewire 400. Amazon and Apple stores had the Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 cable and Amazon had the Firewire 400 to 800 adapater.
Wherever you get the cables, ask them if it will work OK with what you want to try and do - if they don't know make sure you can return if there is a problem. I think it will because the Thunderbolt side is so much faster than what the camera can pump out to it. If it were the other way (Thunderbolt device to a Firewire computer I would expect that to fail since the Firewire could never keep up with the data rate of the incoming Thunderbolt device).
Maybe if you have a local Mac user group or a friend with an older mac with a firewire 400 port you could do it this way too?
Good luck

Firewire 800 to thunderbolt adapter for MBA

Anyone know about an adapter for a firewire 800 to thunderbolt, that is available now?

I've been searching for such a device too. I need to perform a data transfer to MBA from a MBP and FW800 drive. For now, I can hook it up to a MBP and use AirDrop or simple wireless transfer...
This site keeps news on new peripherals: http://thunderboltreviews.com/
The Belkin Dock looks promising, but still expensive. Simple adapters are still aways and the first ones out are going to cost a pretty penny still (~$30-$40 is my guess). The dock from Belkin may be worth the cost in that sense. Except it seems to need an external power source.
Sigh, Thunderbolt hasn't really come out with a bang, but just more of a sizzle...sorry for the pun.
Someone had come up with a concept Apple Thunderbolt Pro Display. It was pretty cool. Built-in discrete graphics card, bluray superdrive, and all the ports you would ever need (among other things). Oh how I wish Apple would be willing to build such a thing.
Anways, let me know if you find a simple TB to FW800 adapter.

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina) and a Sony HandyCam DCR-HC48 video Camera. The Sony only exports video via Firewire, which is not available on the Mac. Is there a firewire to USB or to HDMI adapter?

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina) and a Sony HandyCam DCR-HC48 video Camera. The Sony only exports video via Firewire, which is not available on the Mac. Is there a firewire to USB or to HDMI adapter?

tyler57,
it would be better to direct that question to Gary Loftis, since my MacBook Pro doesn’t have a Thunderbolt port.

Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter transfer speed

I am connecting mbp retina to the time capsule via Ethernet. What is the best cable to use, cat 5e or cat 6, would there be a noticeable difference? (I am using the thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter). What would be a normal transfer time for 100GB of data?

Although either cable will work fine with the speeds available today, you can future proof yourself a bit with a CAT6 cable.
Data normally moves over Ethernet to the Time Capsule at 25-30 GB per hour, so allow 3-4 hours for the transfer time.

Firewire 800 to thunderbolt Adapter

does the speed go down?
I got a harddisk with firewire 800 out and my mbp retina doesn't have a firewire 800 fit.
I saw the adapter from firewire 800 to thunderbolt. but do you still keep the speed that firewire 800 has?

If your disk and Mac both have USB 3.0, the disk will run faster on USB than on Thunderbolt to FireWire.
R/W disk speeds:
USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt about equal at ~110 MB/s
Firewire about half at ~60 to ~70 MB/s
USB 2.0 about a third at ~35 to ~40 MB/s
http://www.macworld.com/article/2039427/how-fast-is-usb-3-0-really-.html

Apple hardware test from firewire drive?

I can't find my restore dvds for my macbook. I have an image of the first disk copied via disk utility to a firewire drive. i can start my macbook from the firewire drive but i can't seem to get the hardware test to start. on the dvd you have to press the d key when the computer starts up. (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303081) I can't get this to work with the firewire drive. does anyone know if this is possible. don't they do it that way at the genius bar?
thanks
-jmondo

Thanks eww.
I have booted from os 9 and deleted the ati drivers of the X.4 system folder. Now it boots and Im typing on it. I didnt run a dvd yet since I did a very basic intall, but at least the genie effect works. I understand that the cpu takes the graphic tasks when the video card cant handle, so I suppose I should expect poor performance...
But still, I wanted this machine to run pro tools in os 9, so I think I will do fine, and have x.4 for internet. I just need to test a bit more so that I dont miss a live recording thanks to the weird motherboard.
Also, the screen doesnt look very good without the drivers and it cant be adjusted in any way.
Will update if I find anything new.
Pepo

Does Apple make a Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter? Not an off brand one, a legitimate Apple product.

I have a new Mac Mini and I want to connect a second monitor through the Thunderbolt port. I have not been able to find a Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter that is made by Apple. I know there are some adapters made by other companies but I would prefer to have an adapter made by Apple. So does anyone know if Apple does in fact make an adapter that is Thunderbolt to HDMI???

I use this one - it has much better reviews and you can buy five of them for what Apple charges for the Moshi:
Mini DisplayPort | Thunderbolt® to HDMI® Adapter w/ Audio Support

Firewire Drive to Thunderbolt via Apple adapter speed issues.

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