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firewire 800 to thunderbolt

I’ve bought a new IMac 24. I would like to connect my external HD with FireWire 800. Is it possible?

iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021, 2 ports)

Posted on Oct 14, 2022 8:04 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 15, 2022 12:30 AM

dgme wrote:

It’s a WD studio 2. It has FireWire, Sata connection and usb. My idea was to use FireWire because it should be faster. It’s a backup disk.

FireWire 800 will be faster, but at a cost.


You'll need these two adapters:



The connection should look like this:


USB may not be quite as fast, but the connection is a lot cheaper. You'll only need this adapter:


USB-C to USB Adapter - Apple


Additionally, since your external disk is still using FireWire 800, that indicates it is quite old. I recommend replacing external hard disks every 5-years, and anything with FireWire 800 is most likely 8+ years old and could be very close to failure. For not much more than the cost of the adapters, you can get a brand-new USB-C-enabled external hard disk that doesn't require any adapters. Here are some great options, sold by Apple:



Hope this helps!


Cheers,


Jack

9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 15, 2022 12:30 AM in response to dgme

dgme wrote:

It’s a WD studio 2. It has FireWire, Sata connection and usb. My idea was to use FireWire because it should be faster. It’s a backup disk.

FireWire 800 will be faster, but at a cost.


You'll need these two adapters:



The connection should look like this:


USB may not be quite as fast, but the connection is a lot cheaper. You'll only need this adapter:


USB-C to USB Adapter - Apple


Additionally, since your external disk is still using FireWire 800, that indicates it is quite old. I recommend replacing external hard disks every 5-years, and anything with FireWire 800 is most likely 8+ years old and could be very close to failure. For not much more than the cost of the adapters, you can get a brand-new USB-C-enabled external hard disk that doesn't require any adapters. Here are some great options, sold by Apple:



Hope this helps!


Cheers,


Jack

Oct 14, 2022 10:17 AM in response to dgme

What FireWire external drive do you have?


A lot of those external drives had both FireWire and USB connections on the back. If yours does, then you may have the original USB cable that shipped with the drive or you get one for a lot lees than the above mentioned USB-C to Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt to FireWire adapters.

firewire 800 to thunderbolt

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