FireWire400 - is 6pin faster than 4pin? What's the difference?

[rawdawg]

I have a FW400 external hard drive. You can attach it either by the normal 6pin FW400 adapter or a 4pin small adapter (like with digital video cameras). The other end of course would be the normal 6pin.

Is there an advantage of the 6pin over the 4pin? If not, why didn't they make it 4pin to begin with if they were worried about the size?

 

[robbieduncan]

The additional 2 pins are for power. For things like bus-powered external hard drives. They have no impact on speed.

 

[swiftaw]

4 pin doesn't provide power, 6 pin does. (I think)

 

[sushi]

4 pin doesn't provide power, 6 pin does. (I think)

Yes, that's correct.

And as robbieduncan stated, it doesn't affect speed.

 

[LouisBlack]

The two extra pins carry power so you can't charge a device through a 4 pin connection. As the other four pins are for data the speed is the same with both.

 

[yg17]

No, it's not faster. The 2 extra pins provide power. The 4 pin port is unpowered but is designed to be smaller for devices such as video cameras that already have their own battery and don't need power from the FW port. There's no speed difference.

 

[rawdawg]

thanks for the explanation!