FireWire 400 to Thunderbolt 3/USB-C?

[IceMan30]

So here’s a rabbit hole for people to get lost in... I have an old external hard drive with FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394 6 pin) ports ONLY. I need to connect to a new MacBook with Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports. How on earth do I do that? I’ve been scouring the interweb for a cable or converter box, and no luck so far.

Free Atta-Boy to anyone who can help. Thanks!

 

[Stephen.R]

The only options I know of, would be a TB3 to TB2 adapter (apple and a few others like Akitio sell these), and then a TB1 (which is compatible with 2) to FW adapter, but I think the only adapter sold was for FW800, so you'd need a further 9 to 6 pin adapter or cable

So this *should* work:

Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter

Effortlessly connect your Mac to a Thunderbolt 2 device with the Apple Thunderbolt 3 Adapter. Buy now at apple.com

www.apple.com

then

Power & Cables - Mac Accessories

Find cables, charging docks and battery cases for Mac. Charge and sync up your Mac. Buy online with fast, free shipping

www.apple.com

then

6 ft IEEE-1394 FireWire Cable 9-6 M/M

Deliver high speed data transfers between your FireWire devices

www.startech.com

 

[Boyd01]

Perhaps easier and cheaper to pull the drive out of the old firewire enclosure and put it into one with USB? I have a couple milk crates of old Firewire drives and copied all the data from them a few years ago. I ended up swapping the drives from some of the firewire-only drives into cases that had USB.

But I also have the Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter and a cable like the ones in the in the links above and they work fine. I was using a Mac without USB-C ports, so I didn't need that adapter. My only observation is that the Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter gets very hot when connected, even if no drive is plugged into it. Probably a bad idea to leave connected for an extended period, and I suspect it could drain a laptop battery very quickly if it's not connected to the charger.

 

[Fishrrman]

Like Boyd says...

Take the enclosure apart and take the drive OUT.

Then connect it using either a USB3/SATA docking station, or perhaps an enclosure like this:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

tinyurl.com

You can try the adapter route if you wish, but probably too much $$$ and there's no guarantee it will work...

 

[TheIntruder]

$94 in adapters would also buy a brand new 4-6 GB external drive with a warranty.

If it's a matter of pulling the data off the old drive, without having access to a FW host, then a $10 drive adapter cable, or a dock, could accomplish that, and be kept around for loose drives.

Doesn't make much sense to sink any appreciable amount of money into a dead interface.