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HBOC

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
2,497
234
SLC
ok, so i just upgraded from a base model mid 2011 iMac to a mid 2015 15" MBP. so. much. faster!!!

anyways, over the last year, i bought several FW 800 drives since i couldn't utilize USB 3.0.
Well now that has come back and kind of bit me. The FW drives have no USB 3.0 and my new macbook doesn't have FW. :)

so the thunderbolt adapter will still be FW800 speeds, correct? it will only be as fast as the slowest interface? meaning it will still be the same speed as it was before, or will there be a bottleneck? if it is, it might be worth it to just get a couple of USB 3.0 drives?

i am asking because my SSD is 500GB, and i have like 1TB in RAW photos alone.
 

Richdmoore

macrumors 68000
Jul 24, 2007
1,973
368
Troutdale, OR
I just emptied two FireWire 800 my book cases and installed the drive (one had failed, the 3tb worked) into a generic usb 3 enclosure for my xbox.

While you may try the adapter with your current set up, who knows if a tb3 to FireWire will exist in the future. It might be worth the pain of recasting the drives.

The only issue reusing the mybook drives I had was that the drives had to be reformatted, I think the mybook case had some kind of encryption that forced me to reformat to reuse the drive. I would copy the data before pulling the drives from the external FireWire enclosures, just in case you run into the same issue.
 
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OverSpun

macrumors 65816
Sep 12, 2006
1,121
82
California
On the same topic with the new MBP w/ USB-Cs... What would be the best option to use FW800 enclosures w/ 3.5" drives? The enclosures also have USB 2.0s but those are basically worthless at this point.

Following this thread, so far I would have to use 2 dongles to make it work but it doesn't look like the best way. Thoughts?
 

Richdmoore

macrumors 68000
Jul 24, 2007
1,973
368
Troutdale, OR
On the same topic with the new MBP w/ USB-Cs... What would be the best option to use FW800 enclosures w/ 3.5" drives? The enclosures also have USB 2.0s but those are basically worthless at this point.

Following this thread, so far I would have to use 2 dongles to make it work but it doesn't look like the best way. Thoughts?

I would still make the same suggestion as before. Open up the FireWire enclosures, then recase them into USB 3 drive enclosures with compatible cables.

EDIT: You could probably get an external 3.5 USB 3.0 enclosure and a small convertible dongle cheaper than a native USB-c 3.5 enclosure, if they make one. (I only found usb 3 cases for 3.5 hard drives with a quick google search.)
 
Last edited:

matreya

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,286
127
Given their age, I would REPLACE the FW800/USB2 drives with NEW USB3 drives.
 

OverSpun

macrumors 65816
Sep 12, 2006
1,121
82
California
Given their age, I would REPLACE the FW800/USB2 drives with NEW USB3 drives.
I would still make the same suggestion as before. Open up the FireWire enclosures, then recase them into USB 3 drive enclosures with compatible cables.

EDIT: You could probably get an external 3.5 USB 3.0 enclosure and a small convertible dongle cheaper than a native USB-c 3.5 enclosure, if they make one. (I only found usb 3 cases for 3.5 hard drives with a quick google search.)


You are both correct, thanks. They are definitely dated. I suppose I would need a dongle for the for the USB-C too in that case.

I'm wondering if this new OWC dock would be worthwhile since it has a FW800 port but it's fairly pricey.

https://eshop.macsales.com/preorder/owc-thunderbolt-3-dock/
 
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