IMac Pro FireWire 800 connection.

[AppliedMicro]

Is there any specific reason (RAID or something) that OP has to connect via Firewire rather than taking out the drives and use USB enclosure to extract data.

I second this.

Unless the drives are configured as RAID (or something similar) or lack a SATA / IDE port (very few 3.5 drives do), it doesn't seem worth it, especially if you have to buy the adapters.

Any reliable USB enclosure will be less expensive - and probably similarly if not faster with USB 3.0 or above.

 

[Banshee19]

Thunderbolt 3 USB C to Thunderbolt 2 is too wide to fit the IMac Pro Thunderbolt inputs . I have this adapter and it is bigger than the 4 thunderbolt inputs .
I understand forum members asking why the need for using the Glyph drives , the answer because they have family videos of my late parents and pictures that I need to get onto the IMac Pro machine .
I appreciate all the feedback on this adapter conundrum 👍

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Deleted... my mistake.

 

[profcutter]

If that’s a photo of the back of your imac, there’s no way the thunderbolt 3 adaptor won’t fit. Are you sure you’re using the right adaptor? Are you connecting the small end to the iMac? Can you show a picture of the adaptor itself? Maybe they sent you the wrong adaptor. USBC is USBC. The thunderbolt 3 ports on your mac work over USBC. The picture of the back of your mac clearly shows USB A and USB C ports.

 

[joevt]

Thunderbolt 3 USB C to Thunderbolt 2 is too wide to fit the IMac Pro Thunderbolt inputs . I have this adapter and it is bigger than the 4 thunderbolt inputs .
I understand forum members asking why the need for using the Glyph drives , the answer because they have family videos of my late parents and pictures that I need to get onto the IMac Pro machine .
I appreciate all the feedback on this adapter conundrum 👍

The iMac's Thunderbolt 3 ports are vertically oriented.
Your picture of the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter is horizontally oriented.
I suggest rotating the Apple thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter's Thunderbolt 3 connector 90° so that it can be inserted into the iMac's Thunderbolt 3 ports.

 

[Fishrrman]

This thread is getting into the "ridiculous" category.
OF COURSE the thunderbolt3 connector fits into the thunderbolt ports on the back of the iMac.

I'm wondering if those "plug in drive cartridges" on the OP's Glyph GT 103 can't be "broken down" into "bare" 3.5" SATA drives?

If so, just take the drive out of the "cartridge" and put each into a USB3/SATA docking station, and access them that way.

Then again, if the drives are all "tied together" logically, as in some kind of "RAID" arrangement, this probably isn't possible.

 

[Banshee19]

Fishrrman, I concur with you ( ridiculous) category. I have enough input from forum members to proceed with leads etc and I thank all for the advice . I’m not the sharpest tool in the box , hence the OP .

Thank you , your input has great 👍

 

[joevt]

Fishrrman, I concur with you ( ridiculous) category. I have enough input from forum members to proceed with leads etc and I thank all for the advice . I’m not the sharpest tool in the box , hence the OP .

I was joking or being sarcastic about the 90° flip suggestion. I was thinking this was some kind of square peg/round hole problem (except in this case rectangular peg/rectangular hole). But let's not forget the very real problem of USB Type A where a user has to flip it 180° at least 3 times for successful insertion. That is something USB-C was supposed to solve. With USB-C, a user can do insertions all day long - but now the problem is USB-C ports that don't all support all the signal types. At least USB-C won't melt your computer if you use the wrong port.

But just one point of clarification to avoid confusion:
- The 2nd picture has the Thunderbolt 3 ports labeled as FireWire. The ports are Thunderbolt 3 only. They can do USB, DisplayPort or Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt means that it can tunnel DisplayPort and PCIe signals to a downstream Thunderbolt device where the tunnelled signals can be converted back to DisplayPort and PCIe.

- The Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter will allow passing of Thunderbolt signal at 20 Gbps total (for Thunderbolt 1/2 instead of the usual 40 Gbps total of Thunderbolt 3) to a downstream Thunderbolt controller.

- The Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter contains a Thunderbolt 1 controller and a PCIe FireWire controller. The Thunderbolt 1 controller converts tunnelled PCIe to PCIe for the FireWire controller.

OWC used to make Thunderbolt docks with FireWire. Another option is to put a FireWire PCIe card instead a Thunderbolt PCIe enclosure. Such cards can have multiple FireWire ports. These solutions are probably more expensive than the simple FireWire adapter.

I suppose the FireWire label in the picture could just mean that's where the FireWire connection would need to originate (tunnelled PCIe travels down the Thunderbolt chain of devices to the Thunderbolt controller that is connected to a FireWire controller).

 

[AppliedMicro]

If the above are correct, then the cable you need is one USB to Firewire 800 cable., or a USB to Firewiree 800 adapter + Firewire 800

I don‘t believe any of this exists before I see it. No, actually not before I‘ve gotten my hands on it and tried it out. USB and FireWire are two different protocols (even though newer iterations may use the same plug) that aren’t easily adaptable from/to each other.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Link to the adapter (USB 2.0 to IEEE 1394 6-pin):

This looks like a scam - and most of the positive reviews look very fishy, if not obviously fake/bought.

EDIT: gut feeling confirmed:

I‘d never, ever let this near any of my Macs, let alone plug it in.

 

[jscipione]

I can’t believe this thread is still going on. Thunderbolt talks FireWire with the right adapter but USB doesn’t so that’s why you have to use the thunderbolt connection and not the usb connection on the same port. The two adapters listed in the first reply plus an 800 to 800 firewire cable connected to the drive will get your iMac Pro connected to the drive. Or you could possibly pull the drive out of the enclosure and put it in a usb enabled case and connect it up that way or you could try to find a third party thunderbolt multi-adapter dongle with a firewire 800 port on it.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I think the below video will help explain to OP, with all aspects of firewire covered.

 

[joevt]

Thunderbolt talks FireWire with the right adapter but USB doesn’t so that’s why you have to use the thunderbolt connection and not the usb connection on the same port. The two adapters listed in the first reply plus an 800 to 800 firewire cable connected to the drive will get your iMac Pro connected to the drive. Or you could possibly pull the drive out of the enclosure and put it in a usb enabled case and connect it up that way or you could try to find a third party thunderbolt multi-adapter dongle with a firewire 800 port on it.

There's no reason someone couldn't make a USB adapter for FireWire drives.
There exists USB to SCSI and USB to IDE and USB to SATA and even USB to PCIe (for NVMe drives).

One reason someone wouldn't make a USB adapter for FireWire drives is because a FireWire drive is just a FireWire to IDE adapter or FireWire to SATA adapter and there's already USB adapters for those so it's kind of redundant.

USB drive enclosures can support multiple drives so it could handle multiple FireWire drives chained together (like SCSI drives chained together). USB supports the SCSI command set for this purpose. For example, I have a USB SD Card reader that has two SD card slots. Each slot is a different SCSI Logical Unit Number. Another example is the AKiTiO Thunder3 Duo Pro which can connect two SATA drives.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I think the main reason here is OP want a solution without having to disassemble the Glyph GT 103, as the data inside it is precious to him.
He'd rather choose the cable + adapter solution to keed the Glyph GT103 intact before completely making a back-up for the data inside it.

 

[joevt]

I think the main reason here is OP want a solution without having to disassemble the Glyph GT 103, as the date inside it is precious to him.
He'd rather choose the cable + adapter solution to keed the Glyph GT103 intact before completely making a back-up for the data inside it.

Right, plus a FireWire port might be useful to have if you come across any other FireWire devices (cameras, etc.) or drives in the future. It can be used for FireWire Target Disk Mode from old Macs. Cable boxes have FireWire ports so you can record video from them.

 

[Banshee19]

Would the Glyph drives work in a hard drive docking device?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Would the Glyph drives work in a hard drive docking device?"

Take one of the Glyph drives OUT of the docking/enclosure.
Take some pics of it, all sides, particularly "the connections".
Post the pics here so we can see what they look like.

Then it may be possible to answer your question.
Without being able to SEE what you hold in your hands, impossible to speculate.

 

[Banshee19]

OP wrote:
"Would the Glyph drives work in a hard drive docking device?"

Take one of the Glyph drives OUT of the docking/enclosure.
Take some pics of it, all sides, particularly "the connections".
Post the pics here so we can see what they look like.

Then it may be possible to answer your question.
Without being able to SEE what you hold in your hands, impossible to speculate.

Will do , thank you 👍

 

[Banshee19]

 

[profcutter]

So those are just ATA drives in a caddy with a bridge board. If the unit as a whole isn’t talking to your computer, get an ata-usb bridge and connect each drive to the bridge to copy off the data. The only way that wouldn’t work is if they’re raided together. Did they show up as one volume or 3?

 

[profcutter]

Says it right on the specs page, they’re standard ATA drives, using a standard (old) Oxford 911 bridgeboard.

Glyph GT 103 FW400 3-bay GT Key Drive Chassis Features:

• Accepts all GT Key drive capacities
• Sustain data rates of 40 MB/sec with FireWire (IEEE 1394a/iLink)
• FireWire connectivity is hot pluggable and allows 63 devices daisy chained
• Fast 7,200 RPM, ATA/100 Seagate drives with up to an 8MB cache
• Ultra-quiet operation
• FireWire Port accessible on the front panel
• Dual internal 70w load balancing power supplies, and dual whisper quiet fans
• Includes Glyph's 24-hour advance replacement warranty and outstanding technical support
• Rotational speed: 7,200 RPM
• Bridging: Oxford 911 chip on Glyph's own bridge board

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I have an obsolete ATA (IDE) to USB 2.0 box, but those are really rare in the market now.
ATA speed is not that fast, so OP can use the simple Firewire 400 to USB 2.0 cable to connect and retrieve his data.

 

[AppliedMicro]

so OP can use the simple Firewire 400 to USB 2.0 cable

There is no such „simple cable“. FireWire to USB or vice versa would need a converter chip and electronics. I don‘t know if any company ever made some. In fact I‘m pretty sure no one did when FireWire was (kind of) popular among Mac users:

Can You Convert Firewire to USB?

Two of the most popular serial connection standards are FireWire and USB. Scroll below to learn, whether you can convert one form into another.

techspirited.com

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

There is no such „simple cable“. FireWire to USB or vice versa would need a converter chip and electronics. I don‘t know if any company ever made some. In fact I‘m pretty sure no one did when FireWire was (kind of) popular among Mac users:

Can You Convert Firewire to USB?

Two of the most popular serial connection standards are FireWire and USB. Scroll below to learn, whether you can convert one form into another.

techspirited.com

So, the conclusion is that the only option for OP is the below combo:
1. TB3 to TB2 adaptor
2. TB2 to Firewire 800 adaptor
3. Firewire 800 cable

 

[profcutter]

So, the conclusion is that the only option for OP is the below combo:
1. TB3 to TB2 adaptor
2. TB2 to Firewire 800 adaptor
3. Firewire 800 cable

I don’t think FW800 is going to work, I think it’s 400 only. So that means an 8 pin FW to 6 pin cable. I have a couple in the basement.