Some are designed as Firewire to USB cables. Thus, the most common use case for an adapter is to connect a Firewire device to a USB port.Īdapters are typically dongles, small devices with a short wire that plugs into the USB port and an integrated Firewire port. It is significantly more likely for a computer to have USB ports and potentially Thunderbolt ports than it is to have a Firewire port. USB has enjoyed significantly wider adoption than Firewire. Both technologies support Plug-and-Play and hot-plugging (hot-swappable). If you cannot purchase a Firewire® to USB adapter, using a hub allows you to use devices that are compatible with either technology.

The combination hub is actually two separate ports combined into a single form factor for convenience there is no conversion between Firewire® and USB taking place when you use one of these hubs.

This type of device has two ports in a single hub, which may be either external or internal one port is used Firewire® and one for USB, allowing either type of device to function.

A Firewire® to USB adapter cable for transferring digital video (DV) is available from at least one manufacturer, but it can be expensive and difficult to find.Ī USB cable to the left of two Firewire® cables.Įven if you don't have a Firewire® to USB adapter cable, it doesn't mean that your Firewire® devices are useless if you have a USB port, or vice versa. The two technologies are not integrated, meaning it is not possible to connect a USB device to a Firewire® port directly. But not all adapters are known to work correctly in Target Disk Mode, so if you can, connect directly to the same port type.Firewire® ( IEEE 1394) and USB (Universal Serial Bus) are two separate high-speed bus technologies that allow multiple devices to be connected to a computer. Using adapters to connect Thunderbolt to FireWire will usually work, as will Thunderbolt to USB-C. Ideally, you should connect similar ports that is FireWire to FireWire, Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt, or USB-C to USB-C.

An appropriate cable to make the connection.

We recommend shutting down both Macs before proceeding, however. All of the connection types (FireWire, Thunderbolt, and USB-C) support hot connecting, meaning you can connect a cable between the two Macs while they are powered on. That may seem obvious, but it makes sense to point out that Target Disk Mode only works between two Macs you can’t chain multiple Macs together. I can't find a specific Apple KB reference, but the consensus seems to be that you need Firewire, Thunderbolt or USB-C USB 2 doesn't appear to be supported.įrom the MacSales blog - Mac OS 101: How to Boot and Use a Mac in Target Disk Mode

Connect firewire to usb c