I bought a new computer. Went to hook up my external drive that I back up my photos to. It has firewire and the computer only has USB 2 ports. I contacted Seegate to see if I could buy the USB module that I threw away years ago. No, it's discontinued.

Before I hop over to Amazon to order one, I figured I'd better ask you guys which one I should get. The last time I bought an adapter, I ended up buying about six of them before finding one that actually worked.

I'm surprised that any USB to Firewire adapter works. The protocols are quite different. Even if you find one that works the performance is really going to suffer. You should look for a FireWire card for the computer, and add the interface the right way.

What Chris said. Either that, or buy a USB enclosure and yank the drive out of the firewire one. Card's the easiest way to go, though.

Michael, I'm sure you've checked, but on my Seagate Freeagent Pro hard drive, there is a SATA connector also, it's just not visible until you remove the plastic cover.

I doubt this is the case with your hard drive, but thought I'd mention it.

There's a USB to firewire adapter? I need to see that, I want one of those.

well the drive is just a back up and it's almost full anyway. I can always just put it on a shelf till the day comes that I hopefully never need it. i'm not feeling all that ambitious to install a card in my pc.

cam do you mean the connector between the module and the drive? my drive has two firewire ports and then the convector between the module and the drive.

costco has 2T freegate pro drives for a hundred bucks. i guess i'll just get one of them.

Mike, I didn't know if your drive also had a SATA port that was hidden. My Seagate Freeagent Pro is just like that. There's a USB port, but in order to use the SATA Port you have to remove the piece of plastic that conceals it on the back of the hard drive.

This obviously isn't the case with yours, and you only have two firewire ports.

If you do end up picking up that drive at Costco, I think you will be more than happy. They are very good external hard drives.

Get one of these: https://www.1394store.com/eshop/product.asp?dept_id=41&pf_id=1213

When it arrives you can call me and I'll walk you through every step over the phone. Easy.

Well I can hardly pass up that generous offer Chris. A link and everything!

Do I need a cable or anything else? I do have, what would appear three expansion bays in the back of the machine where that card will go. I did end up getting that zt PC from Costco I was asking about a couple weeks back. It has the AMD Phenom II x 4 955 and an Asus M4A78LT-M, 8 gig memory. Pretty basic machine. Seams to be plenty fast enough. The cooling fan is quite loud though.

Chris - Change in plans. They want $40 to ship the damn thing to me. I just can't pay $40 to ship something to me that small. It's a rip off.

Can I bug you to find one at Amazon? I just checked and they have too many to choose from.

OK, looked around a bit. This one seems good enough, one 400 Mbit port, and two at 800 Mbit. So it is actually a better card.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002S53IG8

You shouldn't need any cables more than what you already have. You will have to get something different if you want to use the 800 Mbit interfaces, but the drive you have doesn't support that anyway. (There are 800 to 400 cables, so you can make use of all the ports with legacy gear, just with a cable purchase.)

Thanks. It's orderd.

Send me a PM when you get it, and are ready for the install.

Looks like I don't need to bother you at all Chris. I feel silly for thinking installing it would be challenging. I didn't even have to install a driver. The device was recognized without so much as a window popping up when I powered the machine up. Now I just need to find a damn screw to replace the case screw I stole for the holder.

Thanks a bunch!

Yeah, that's why I didn't think twice about offering my help, it would have been so easy to walk you through it over the phone.

No problem!

I think Chris was really looking forward to helping you out. This is what I picture will happen when he reads that you didn't need him.

Well I am having other problems.... It might be better to wait till the roads dry up and send him a plane ticket so he can help me with my heel / toe techniques too.

It's uncanny!