What is "Dual FireWire 400" and can it act as a FireWire 800?

[ygv2000]

Hi,

I have a somewhat old Seagate FreeAgent external drive (like this).
It has a switchable port controller, one has a USB2 and eSATA and the other has two FireWire 400 ports (like this: http://news.tigerdirect.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/switchable-interface-seagate-freeagent.jpg).

Now, on the FW controller it says "Dual FireWire 400".
1. What is Dual FireWire 400? And does it implicate that I can use both ports together somehow and get FW800 by that?
2. If the first question is "NO" - can I use the 6pin FW cable I received with the drive and a 6pin to 9pin adapter on the MBP's end of the cable and settle for this? Or do I need to buy a new FireWire cable 9pin to 6pin?

Thanks guys!

 

[robbieduncan]

1) It has two firewire ports. They can be used for daisy chainging. They cannot be bonded together to act as Firewire 800

2) Yes, that should be fine

 

[ygv2000]

thanks!

1. In a sentence, could you give a little more info about "daisy chaining"?
2. So if I get FW400, is it faster than USB2?

 

[robbieduncan]

thanks!

1. In a sentence, could you give a little more info about "daisy chaining"?
2. So if I get FW400, is it faster than USB2?

1. You can use the second port to plug in additional firewire devices (like another hard drive).

2. In general yes, a little.

 

[spinnerlys]

thanks!

1. In a sentence, could you give a little more info about "daisy chaining"?
2. So if I get FW400, is it faster than USB2?

1. Daisy chaining means the connection of one device A to another B, and connecting a device C to device B, and so on, thus building a chain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_chain_(electrical_engineering)
With Firewire, than can be up to 63 devices.

2. Yes. FW400 offers 35MB/s. USB 2.0 offers 10-15MB/s on PCC Macs, and up to 30MB/s on Intel Macs.

 

[ygv2000]

Wow, thanks a lot!
I got answers, I learned something on the way.. this was the most efficient forum thread I've ever took part in.

Thanks again.