What is FireWire and what FireWire adapter do I need to use FireWire 800 for my portable external hard drive ?

Hi guys, I'm new to Mac. I have a MacBook Pro 13" (late 2011) with Lion OS and Parallels 7 (Windows 7). My understanding is that there is FireWire connection / extension built in to the MacBook Pro already. I also have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex portable external hard drive 750GB USB2.0 and 3.0 (that can be used for PC and Mac). It states that the portable external harddrive is FireWire 800 compatible. The questions are (1) how does FireWire works ? (2) how do I use or activate FireWire 800 ? (3) is there any setup / setting changes I need to on my MacBook Pro ? (4) what FireWire adapter do I need to purchase to connect my portable external harddrive to my MacBook Pro ? Is it expensive ?
I read a few articles online but they are too technical for me. They mentioned something about FireWire adapter with 6 pins or 9 pins. Not sure what that means. I'm totally confused. So any help, advise or guidance will be much appreciated. In Layman's term would be better. Thanks.
How about Thunderbolt ? Is it compatible with the above external portable hard drive mentioned ? Do I need a Thunderbolt adapter for it ? How do I activate or use Thunderbolt ?

Thanks, Clinton and Alberto.
The below link is the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex portable external hard drive (product code STAA750302) that I have. It states that it features USB 2.0 or 3.0 plug–and–play connectivity and easily upgradeable to USB 3.0, FireWire 800 or eSATA. It only comes with a 18-inch USB 3.0 / 2.0 backward compatible cable.
http://www.seagate.com/au/en/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/standard/ goflex/
Based on the above, my understanding is that I need to buy a FireWire 800 adapter to connect to the portable external hard drive so that I can use FireWire 800 with my MacBook Pro. Is this correct ? Do I need to get a separate cable as well or can I just use the 18-inch USB 3.0 / 2.0 backward compatible cable that was provided in the box ? If so, what sort of FireWire 800 cable do I need to get ? 9 pin to 9 pin ? 6 pin to 9 pin ? Or 4 pin to 9 pin ?
https://www.lindy.com.au/online/arrshop.exe?anonymous=true&cat=b1

Similar Messages

  • What brand portable external hard drive should I buy?

    Can anyone suggest what brand of portable external hard drive would be a good one to buy for storing my iTunes music and maybe photos on. My Macbook is now getting stuffed full of music and as I have an 80gig iPod I will need to move my iTunes on to a larger drive to make the most use of it and I probably need at least 100gig. I can get hold of the Lacie Porshe design ones from a local apple retailer, or order something else from the Apple store...Crossfire maybe? I want it to be really plug and go, be ready formatted for Mac, and be bus powered and fully portable.
    I would be grateful for any advice.

    I like my Acomdata too. It's 320GB and in this aluminum case...I call it "the ingot" because it's big and heavy and metal. However, it's not a treat to take places because it's so big and heavy. I'm thinking about getting an OWC Firewire drive based on a 2.5" drive because of the need for an external drive that's highly portable.
    However, don't go the USB2 route unless you have Firewire on the external drive too. USB2 requires a lot of intervention from the CPU that Firewire doesn't. You will NOT be able to vidcap to a USB2 drive. However, no probs vidcapping to a Firewire drive. I don't know why Apple is moving away from Firewire...it's a superior system. If they moved to eSATA I would understand, but that's not where they are going. It's probably a cost thing, darn it.
    Message was edited by: S. Michelle Klein-Hass

  • Using Carbon Copy Cloner which is quicker firewire 800 Macbook Pro to external hard drive or Macbook Pro to same via Airport Extreme?

    Using Carbon Copy Cloner which is quicker firewire 800 Macbook Pro to external hard drive or Macbook Pro to same via Airport Extreme?

    Firewire 800 is the fastest and most reliable. Also it's bootable if you hold the option key down on a wired or built in keyboard.  Not bootable via Airport obviously or if Filevault is used.
    It's only your first clone that's usually takes the longest, it's shorter when it updates as you only do the changes which you can control to keep a pure clone if you wish.
    Most commonly used backup methods

  • 1TB and 2TB portable external hard drives

    I have an iMac and a MacBook Air, both up to date in terms of operating system (Mavericks) and I need recommendations for portable external hard drives - one 1TB and one 2TB.
    I'm reluctant to use Western Digital because of the conflicts with WD SmartWare which comes with the hard drives.
    Looking for reliability. They will be used for Time Machine backups and I may pick up one more of each for SuperDuper clone backups as well.
    Thanks for any recommendations and buying advice.

    Funny how we all have different experiences with different drives.
    Like Thrifty One, I have had very good luck with a number of bare 3.5" WD drives, but would never own another one of there external enclosures. Currently I have a WD in my MiniStack, three in old Maxtor Firewire enclosures, three others that I use on a USB to SATA adapter and one that I put into my early Intel iMac several years ago.
    As for portable and 2.5" drives, I have one one older WD Passport, one Seagate GoFlex, the Toshiba from my Mini is in a Sabrent enclosure, plus a Samsung and a Hitachi that I also use on the USB to SATA adapter.
    Over the years I have only had one Seagate and one Maxtor that completely fail, plus one other unusable Seagate because it is really loud.

  • I got a macbook pro 2008 and can not back up using time machine. it eject my external hard drive everytime. does someone has a fix???

    i got a macbook pro 2008 and can not back up using time machine. it eject my external hard drive everytime. does anybody has a fix???

    Does your external hard drive have it's own power supply?  It should.
    Is your external hard drive formatted with the NTFS file system?  It won't work.
    It needs to be formatted either with Mac OS Extended or FAT32.
    (There are drivers available to add NTFS support to OS X but their quality is unknown, especially the "free" ones.)

  • I have just bought a hdmi tv and would like to view very high quality images, using apple tv, stored on my external hard drive. I also have blue ray movies stored on my external hd. will i be able to stream these to my tv and view them in 1080p?

    I have just bought a hdmi tv and would like to view very high quality images, using apple tv, stored on my external hard drive. I also have blue ray movies stored on my external hd. will i be able to stream these to my tv and view them in 1080p?

    sorry, why isn't correct?
    i try convert video with quick time to apple tv, import in itunes( that's ok)  but is impossible to synchronize my apple tv ( unsupported file).
    where I wrong?
    please could you explain me the correct procedure?
    i have some video ( holiday movie an photo movie in mpeg2 full HD) to convert for apple tv, and from 2 years some video editing with imovie.
    normally I prepare my video with Imovie, create a file .mov full hd (like master)  and with roxio convert file for apple TV.
    apple world is new for me, after 25 years with microsoft!
    thank so much
    mauro

  • I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

    I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

    OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
    See #E3 in  Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
    And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of  Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

  • I am using a T61 ThinkPad with an external hard drive and my itunes library keeps disapearing but remains on the external drive. Any idea how to fix this so my music doesn't disapear all the time? It's a real drag pulling music back into iTunes each week.

    I am using a T61 ThinkPad with an external hard drive and my itunes library keeps disapearing but remains on the external drive. Any idea how to fix this so my music doesn't disapear all the time? It's a real drag pulling music back into iTunes each week

    In iTunes 11 uncheck the preferences setting in in the iTunes Preferences panel "Advanced > Copy Files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library"

  • Is there anyway to export the iPod metadata from my iPhone 4? I don't need the music, I have that on an external hard drive, but my backup got wiped out and I need the metadata.

    Is there anyway to export the iPod metadata from my iPhone 4? I don't need the music, I have that on an external hard drive, but my backup got wiped out and I need the metadata.

    Okay, so I had to re-install iTunes. My iTunes library is currently empty. I can make a new back up and the location of the songs not having changed, these will be available in my library?

  • Is there a way to use the time capsule as an external hard drive only and disable the wi-fi function ?

    Is there a way to use the time capsule as an external hard drive only and disable the wi-fi function ?

    Yes.
    1) Connect an Ethernet cable from one of the LAN <--> ports on your existing wireless router to the WAN "O" port on the Time Capsule
    2) Go through the standard configuration suggested by the setup "wizard"
    3) Then manually turn off the wireless function using AirPort Utility

  • I want my i-tunes from pc to my macbook? What are my best options for this/best external hard drives?

    I recently purchased a mac book pro and my i-tunes library is on my pc.  I was told I need an external hard-drive to move my library on my own. I need affordable options on what will make this an easy transition; does anyone have any suggestions?

    Macworld - How to transfer iTunes libraries between PC and Mac

  • I'm new to Mac and I'm having a problem trying to transfer photos from Iphoto onto a external hard drive?

    My hard drive says it's locked and I don't know how to unlock it. Also i tried exporting photos but that didn't work either. Thanks so much

    No idea - you actaully have to share details
    What version of iPhoto and of the OS?
    What format is the external hard drive? What is the exact error message you get?what didn't work about exporting?  What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
    If you want the iPhoto library to operate on an external drive the way is
    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
    And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
    LN

  • I just got my first mac pro and I can't get the photos out of iPhotos moved on my hp external hard drive, I try export says unable, then I try to drag it from the desktop to the external hard drive but same problem. Thank you so much

    I just got my first mac pro and I can't get the photos out of iPhotos and move them on my hp external hard drive, I try export says unable, then I try to drag it from the desktop to the external hard drive but same problem. what to do? Thank you so much

    How is your external drive formatted? Use Disk Utility to check the volume format. If it is NTFS, you will need to reformat the HDD as exFAT in order to retain universal compatibility (RW to it on both Mac and Windows).

  • Issues with using my iPhoto library on my external hard drive.  Very slow to open and pictures disappear in thumbnail view.

    I have recently transferred my iPhoto Library to my external hard drive (WD MyBook Live) and have some questions.  Since I have done this and used the "alt + option" to select it as my default library I have been having some issues.  When using the library on the external drive as my default drive it takes a very long time to load compared to when it was on my macbook's hard drive. Is this normal?  Also, once it does load the thumbnails are only viewable when scrolling quickly through the photos and they are very blurry.  However, if I were to select one randomly (because of this problem I have no way of knowing which one I'm selecting) it brings it up in the edit view and it is a crystal clear picture.
    Is there a way to fix these issues?  I'd love to be able to use the iPhoto Library off the external drive to free up space on my macbook but if it isn't going to work as streamlined as it would on my macbook hard drive.  I have not yet deleted the original iPhoto Library from my macbook because I did not want to do so until I knew the new iPhoto library on the external drive was working properly.  Does this make a difference?
    Please help!

    The problem lies with occasional dropouts that can corrupt the library's database files if they are being written to as the time of dropout.  It's the nature of wireless networks.  If you have a very strong signal throughout and are willing to take a chance then go for it.
    But as for the speed, it must be iPhoto 11 and it's complexity causing the slowness. I had tried using a library on an EHD connected to my iMac from my laptop wirelessly with iPhoto 7 or 8 and it was pretty fast.  I think it was 7 before faces and places came into being.
    Send a feature request to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html to improve wireless performance, etc.
    OT

  • I need to get my iPhoto library off my external hard drive and onto my new Imac

    I  just purchase a new iMac.  I've been trying to get my old iPhoto library onto my new iMac from my old iMac.  I have the tower and when we tried to connect the new computer with the tower back up of course it did not work so I've had to transfer everything manually.  The latest thing I'm working on is my iPhoto library with over 22,000 pictures.  How can do this without losing the quality of my pictures.  I can open them through my external hard drive on iPhoto, but I really want them on the actual computer.  I've read several places that importing my iPhoto library would be a mess and I don't want that either.  HELP.  Everyone says it's a mess but I don't see any solutions. 

    If you have an iPhoto Library on your new Mac and it contains photos you want to keep then rename it before you copy the library from your old Mac.

Maybe you are looking for

  • How can I install iPhoto on a 10.6.8 Macbook?

    Hello all- I had a quick question regarding the newest version of iPhoto '11.  Quite a while ago, I had to replace the hard drive of my (very old) Macbook Pro, and during this process I installed 10.6.8 on the new SSD.  Everything works perfectly, bu

  • Difference in data transfer rates between winXP and Linux server?

    Hello all, I am using a winXP laptop to act as my server (all usb external hard drives are connected to it) but the data transfer rates can be really slow. Is Linux faster in that regard? Can a Linux based server provide faster data transfer rates? T

  • How to retrieve the path where AE is installed?

    Is there any code I can use that will return a string of an absolute path where AE is installed on its host? Thanks, Laz

  • SMQ2 queue

    Hi Experts , We are getting so many queue failure related to complaint , I want to know if there is any report or function module which can give me complaint ID for which the queue failing and the LUW data. Thansk & Regards, Akhilesh Bhagat.

  • Administration Port / command line /  console gui question

    In the Admin_ref.pdf doc it says "After enabling the administration port, all Administration Console traffic must connect via the administration port". Does this mean that you can no longer use the web gui console to manage the servers? I would like