Easiest connection firewire 800 to usb for mac#
Easiest connection firewire 800 to usb upgrade#
Easiest connection firewire 800 to usb pro#

Read speed was 73 MB/s, and write speed ranged between 65-80 MB/s.

Copying our test folder using FireWire 800 onto my SSD took 9:12 minutes. It’s not possible to do precise comparisons with FireWire versus Thunderbolt or USB 3, because Apple’s lineup of computers does not include MacBook Pros with all three types of ports.

Easiest connection firewire 800 to usb pro#

My two-year old MacBook Pro has both a SSD and a conventional spinning hard drive, plus one FireWire 800 port.

Easiest connection firewire 800 to usb for mac#

If both drives were new and/or uncluttered, the 7200 rpm GoFlex Pro for Mac Ultra-portable Drive would indeed be faster than its 5400 rpm GoFlex for Mac Ultra-portable Drive sibling. MyMac’s earlier review of these two similar external bus-powered hard drives recommended the 5400 over the 7200 due to value for money relative to typical usage. We decided the reason is that my 5400 drive has a cleaner volume structure than my more crowded and fragmented 7200 drive. We expected this faster drive to have quicker transfer times, but it didn’t. We repeated the tests above with Seagate’s faster 7200 rpm GoFlex Pro for Mac Ultra-portable Drive. Remember that duration also: almost nine minutes. It appears that writing to this drive via Thunderbolt or USB 3 is equally efficient, and the USB 3 drive is slower than the Thunderbolt drive only in its reading process. The read speed varied between 70-100 MB/s, and the write speed was over 80 MB/s.

Easiest connection firewire 800 to usb upgrade#

Switching the same Seagate GoFlex for Mac Ultra-portable external 5400rpm drive to a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable USB 3.0 and copying the same file took 8:43 minutes. Remember that duration: approximately eight minutes. Activity Monitor confirmed a read speed of over 90 MB per second, and a write speed of over 80 MB/s. With a Seagate GoFlex for Mac Ultra-portable external 5400rpm drive inserted into a Seagate GoFlex Adapter “sled” and connected with a Thunderbolt cable, the transfer took 7:57 minutes. Your results in a real-world testing situation will vary, but this folder with a range of files will demonstrate typical speed differences between the three transfer protocols under discussion. Using David’s new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, we copied back and forth many times his 39GB folder containing hundreds of large and small installer files. Apple appears to be leading the pack, once again, by replacing FireWire 800 ports with Thunderbolt, and by replacing USB 2 ports with USB 3. Until recently, no stock Macintosh had Thunderbolt or USB 3 capability. Reference: Prior review of Seagate’s two GoFlex Thunderbolt Adaptersĭavid Weeks and I set up shop in his home office for a day of testing and comparing Thunderbolt, USB 3, and FireWire 800 drives, adapters, and cables. Reference: Prior review of Seagate’s two Ultra-portable Mac external drives New MacBook Pro with Retina Display and SSD internal drive, a recent MacBook Air with SSD internal drive, and a recent MacBook Pro with both SSD (solid state drive) and conventional internal drives.

Note: Use Seagate’s left column product selection filtering to locate the USB3 cable and Thunderbolt adapterÂ Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt AdapterÂ ($100) Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable USB 3.0Â ($50) Seagate GoFlex Pro for Mac Ultra-portable Drive ($130) Seagate GoFlex for Mac Ultra-portable Drive ($150) Products used for our testing and evaluation are: David Weeks and John Nemo collaborated on this user report.