Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adaptor

Reviews for Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adaptor

Customer Reviews and Ratings

3.0 out of 5 stars

Based on 78 reviews

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Having problems with bus powered drives

    • Written by from Lyndhurst

    I am a video editor. I own many FW800 drives. None of my drives that I use in the field work unless I'm connected to power. This is a major problem for me. When I'm in the field capturing footage and need to offload data to a drive, I have to use my old laptop.

    274 of 304 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Works fine for data, is dicier for bus-powered devices

    • Written by from Chicago

    The adapter seems to work fine for devices that have their own power supply but i have had mixed results on bus powered interfaces / drives. I've tested the MOTU Ultralite Hybrid mk3 and Iomega eGo. They don't work via bus power. An old FireLite drive works fine via bus power. If you have devices that demand more, you may be SOL. It is a decent solution but isn't a true FireWire gateway.

    221 of 241 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Finally!!!!!!!

    • Written by from el cajon

    After buying the 15inch MBP and not being able to hook up my hard drives via firewire I was desperate for this...

    Better late than never. Thanks Apple

    170 of 216 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    no bus power for Focusrite Saffire Pro 24

    • Written by from Zofingen

    Finally it's here and it's a great product, however my Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 won't power up on bus power - I have to use the external power supply. 7W should be enough to power the device....

    114 of 129 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    not enough power

    • Written by from Kirkcaldy

    It does adapt the thunderbolt port to make it a firewire port, but it's not as good a Firewire port as you can find on any cheap old MBP from years ago. It lacks power, which means that some external drives and devices won't work and there is a limit to how many devices you can daisy chain.

    So we need an adaptor and this is the only one, but it's not Apple's finest hour..

    98 of 108 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Works great on Retina MacBook PRO

    • Written by from Damascus

    Works perfectly on the new Retina MacBook Pro, we wait too long till this product release

    thank you Apple

    83 of 104 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Awful

    • Written by from Hornsey

    Doesn't work with my Motu 8pre the sole reason for purchase. Rubbish

    85 of 110 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    1 step forward, 2 steps back!!!!

    • Written by from LONDON

    WARNING! Does not produce enough power to run high capacity mobile drives i.e. the G-Tech G-RAID Mini...

    Luckily I tested it is advance of playing a gig at the weekend using Serato.

    Complete JOKE!

    I can't believe that Apple hasn't considered the fact that the majority of creative professionals need high capacity fast mobile storage.

    I suppose we now need to wait for 2Tb Thunderbolt enabled SSD drives which by my reckoning will cost more than the MacBook Pro!!!!

    75 of 91 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Thunderbolt to FW 800 to FW 400 adapter does not support Hasselblad cameras

    • Written by from San Lorenzo

    Well dang... A brand new Macbook Pro Retina, new Photoshop, new Lightroom and I bought the 2 adapters recommended by Apple- Thunderbolt to Firewire 800, Firewire 800 to Firewire 400- to dump my 132 meg photographs onto my shiny new 16 GB Ram machine... Say What??
    NO GO!!! Oweeee. I called apple tech support, the guy runs a few PRAM reset programs and then proceeds to tell me to bring my new computer into an Apple store, the nearest one being about 7 hours round trip.
    Let me explain- the Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter works great on my Lacie hard drives. The Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 works great on my older MacBook Pro Firewire 800 port to run the same hard drives. So I guess the adapters are fine.
    So WHY Can't the combination work together to run a powered Firewire 400 drive???
    I am irked as the Apple tech/sales guy who helped me put this computer together told me Apple had the solution when clearly it hasn't been sorted out yet.
    As I said back up there- DANG!!

    50 of 51 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    MacBook Pro Retina to Firewire 800 Blu Ray Drive

    • Written by from TACOMA

    Wow... BluRay on MacBook Pro Retina to LaCee BluRay drive w/Toast11...50GB data storage on a DVD sized package. The Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter makes it happen. Now able to back up my 500 GB hard drive to optical media without taking up cases of DVD's. Makes My MacBook Pro even more usefull. Also great for in-house BluRay production on a Mac. Thanks Apple for the Thunderbolt GB Ethernet Adapter and now this Firewire 800 Adapter.

    51 of 55 people found this useful

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Doesn't bus power everything my FW800 did

    • Written by from Beecher

    Waited and waited for this to be released... and it doesn't give enough power to power my G-Raid Mini (Gen 3)

    Really disappointed!

    Makes me regret buying a rMBP...

    44 of 45 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Worked well for powering my external hard drive.

    • Written by from Colorado Springs

    I plugged it into my Lacie rugged HD (the one with the orange rubber cover), and it worked great. Powered it up and transferred files as it should.

    48 of 54 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Firewire drives way slower through adapter

    • Written by from Austin

    It works fine, but if you are currently using a Firewire drive with your non-retina macbook, be aware that using the adapter (required for retina macbook pro) makes the drive much slower, at least for large writes.

    I copied a 32GB file to my WD MyPassport Studio external firewire drive at it took ~30min when copied from a Macbook Retina Pro 15" SSD (via adapter), compared to ~10min when copied from a early-2011 Macbook Pro 15" SSD (which has a much slower internal drive).

    41 of 42 people found this useful

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Slow and unreliable connection

    • Written by from Bellevue

    This has proven to be a poor substitute for my years-long trusted FW800 connection to my external, self-powered, hard drives especially my Drobo drive.

    I've been simplifying my setup for my brand new iMac 27" and have kept only the Drobo drive on FW800, through this adapter. My transfer rates have been cut in half to barely USB 2 speeds, and even more problematic the connection hangs several times a day, likely when the bus goes to sleep. I therefore have to reboot my Drobo several times a day, whereas it has been running flawlessly and without interruptions for three years now.
    Needless to say FW800 is no longer an option for me. And given the very high prices, Thunderbolt is not yet an realistic alternative for mass storage.

    38 of 38 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    No Firewire 400 if bus power is needed.

    • Written by from Madison

    I have an external FireWire 400 drive that does not require a power supply when connected to either a FireWire 400 or 800 port (with 400 to 800 cable). When I try this Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter with a FireWire 800 to 400 cable, it does not work. Apple should either put this in the description, fix the issue or sell a Thunderbolt to FireWire 400 adapter.

    33 of 33 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Slower than USB 2.0

    • Written by from Baltimore

    Data transfer speeds were significantly slower using this adaptor compared to USB 2.0 to interface with an external HDD.

    35 of 38 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    works fine so far!

    • Written by from Tempe

    I used it with my MOTU audio interface. So far so good. I just noticed a little overheat of the adapter, but I don't know if it is normal.

    33 of 34 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Does what it is designed to do...

    • Written by from Irvine

    I have 3 Firewire 400 external HDs that still need to be accessed with my new Macbook Air. Two of them are La Cie and one is an Acomdata. Using the Adapter and a FW 800 to FW400 cable I am able to connect a drive to the macbook air and daisy chain another drive to the one connected to the air. So far it meets my expectations. Thanks Apple!

    32 of 33 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Not working with (at least) RAID 0 FW800 drives

    • Written by from Washington

    I'm very disappointed with this cable. For whatever reason, my Late 2012 27" iMac will not recognize the self-powered FW800 externals that I have been working with for years. I'd love to know why.

    30 of 31 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Works with all my FW peripherals, including audio

    • Written by from Craryville

    Works with OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro (twin 2.5" drives in RAID enclosure), and with an Echo AudioFire2 96 kHz audio interface. In both cases it was able to power the peripherals as well.

    30 of 31 people found this useful

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