Non-PCI alternative—Thunderbolt 3 to FireWire 800. This takes two adapters, unfortunately, TB3 to TB2, TB2 to FW800.Does anyone make a compatible Firewire 800/Firewire 400 PCI expansion card for the new Mac Pro?
I have about 20 external Firewire Drives with old data from various clients I need to access at different times.
Non-PCI alternative—Thunderbolt 3 to FireWire 800. This takes two adapters, unfortunately, TB3 to TB2, TB2 to FW800.
Thunderbolt 3 uses a USB-C connector. The Apple Firewire adapter is TB/TB2 connector to FW800, so you need to the TB3/USB-C to TB too.why does it take two adapters? Can’t I just buy the thunderbolt to FireWire adapter?
I believe Mountain Lion (10.8) ended 32-bit kext support, so it would have to be pretty old.Generally speaking, be careful with devices that rely solely on the old FW drivers. Especially if you're on Catalina. Many are/were 32-bit based and the device apps are not updated (therefore not compatible).
The money spent trying to get that older FW hardware working correctly is often not worth the tradeoff. It's cheaper to use a standalone MP4,1/MP5,1 for those needs specifically and transfer the data to the MP7,1. Most FW-based tape decks like DV, DVCPRO/25, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO100/HD are the same. Unless component or SDI outputs are present on the deck, getting them to "work" properly with signal and deck control via FW (not through TB) in Catalina is an abysmal headache since Apple dropped a lot of the native FW tools in Catalina.
What version of Mac OS are you in?I have been using the one I mentioned in Post 11 for almost 2 years without issue.