Most have 4-pin, unpowered, firewire 400 ports. There are cables that connect 6-pin to 4-pin, but you will need an external power supply for the drive - a 4-pin firewire port won't power the drive.
A 6- to 4-pin cable will do the job, as long as you have an external power supply for the drive.
Firewire is basically a legacy addition now - it's a dead technology that Apple is no longer actively supporting or developing. It could have pre-empted USB -- but Apple charged about $1 a chip/device in royalties, which basically killed its prospects.
Oh I didnt realise it was dead,. Yes most small external drives do not come with power so presumably are meant to pick it off the usb or firewire but if you only have 4 pin on the dell, then I have to use usb which is slow. Is there a better alternative?
The laptop seems to come with another type of usb but I havent figured out how to use that.
ejn63
9 Legend
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87.5K Posts
1
September 15th, 2010 16:00
There's not much difference between USB 2.0 (theoretical max 480 Mbps) and firewire 400 (400 MBps).
ieee488
4 Operator
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11.1K Posts
0
September 15th, 2010 14:00
there are 6-pin and 4-pin Firewire ports
you should be able to buy an adapter
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
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September 15th, 2010 14:00
Most have 4-pin, unpowered, firewire 400 ports. There are cables that connect 6-pin to 4-pin, but you will need an external power supply for the drive - a 4-pin firewire port won't power the drive.
Broooz1
16 Posts
0
September 15th, 2010 16:00
Thanks very much - OK that's annoying - wonder why Dell put an out of date firewire into its most modern laptop
Is it easy to change the firewire to 6 pin?
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
September 15th, 2010 16:00
A 6- to 4-pin cable will do the job, as long as you have an external power supply for the drive.
Firewire is basically a legacy addition now - it's a dead technology that Apple is no longer actively supporting or developing. It could have pre-empted USB -- but Apple charged about $1 a chip/device in royalties, which basically killed its prospects.
Broooz1
16 Posts
0
September 15th, 2010 16:00
Oh I didnt realise it was dead,. Yes most small external drives do not come with power so presumably are meant to pick it off the usb or firewire but if you only have 4 pin on the dell, then I have to use usb which is slow. Is there a better alternative?
The laptop seems to come with another type of usb but I havent figured out how to use that.
Broooz1
16 Posts
0
September 16th, 2010 12:00
So it is - thanks - will just stick with USB