Yes, it's Firewire vs. USB again

[Eireann]

The owners of the thrift store gave me a camcorder for Christmas.

It uses a Firewire cable.

So. What is the best Firewire-to-USB convertor out there? I'm not even going to try reinstalling that Firewire hardware, since my computer simply refuses to work with it.

[ComputerNecromancer]

I wasn't aware that there *were* Firewire to USB converters. Among other things, Firewire is *faster* than USB 2, so unless you have USB 3, there could be problems.

[emax4]

Same here. I just did a search on eBay for "FireWire to USB" and saw a few cables and adapters.

[PepperElf]

edit - i was going to say amazon had some but the reviews for those i saw said "didn't work" and that it's impossible etc. also some said their stuff got fried.


but before you start buying stuff... do you happen to have any devices already that take both?

I ask because it's a similar issue that I have. My desktop (mac mini) has firewire 800 & usb, but no 400. But instead of getting an adapter I looked at one of my external drives & saw that it has 3 connections: FW 800, 400, & USB. So, I use the external both as an extra HDD and as a "bridge" to other devices.

[Eireann]

No, my computer is a PC, and when I tried installing a FireWire card, it froze and wouldn't do anything. It runs Windows 7, which, according to what I've read, should run FireWire, but doesn't (in my case, anyway).

External devices, eh? Or, what about one of those converter plugs? Advice?

[Eireann]

Just for background info, when I check Device Manager, it doesn't list IEEE 1394 at all. I did just download a driver, but it was a .rar file that, when unpacked, contained three .sys files, one .PNF file, and one simply called "1394". What now?

[PepperElf]

i edited my above post to take out the amazon link - apparently my first instinct was correct and that there's no real way to "transfer" directly between USB & FW. at least not through a direct adapter. the formats are different so they'd ahve to be "translated" first.


So that leaves 2 ways to try:

1) Install a FW port on the computer. easiest done on a desktop of course - i don't remember if the kits come with installation software though. if it's a laptop you may be out of luck, unless you have an *old* laptop with a PCMCIA port.

2) See if you - or anyone you know - has an external HDD with both FW & USB on it. The device itself may be able to "translate" the data transfer for you. It won't be fast but it may work.


before you get anything though, look up the item on several pages perhaps... for example I found "Sima SUO-200M USB A & Firewire to USB B & Firewire Adapter" and it looks like it would let you go from USB to FW ... but over on BHPhoto's site it specifically says it will NOT transfer between USB & FW. (other sites don't give that warning).

[Eireann]

I did install a FireWire port, but the computer refused to recognize it, and just froze. I've been looking for driver downloads, and - well, come to think of it, maybe the driver I just downloaded will install when the computer is shut down, then turned on again.

I don't know.

[emax4]

Here's another idea. Even though it's FireWire, does it have a removable card slot, like that of an SD or Compact Flash? If so, you can get a card reader (USB) from cheap-o places, even from Five Below, and use that. You take the card out of thecamcorder, put it in the card reader, then transfer the files.

[Eireann]

It just occurred to me - what if I buy a more advanced FireWire card?

HOW long did it take me to think of this?????

[lordlundar]

I still think your current system's Motherboasrd might have a Firewire input on it by default. What's the computer (if prebuilt) or the motherboard (if custom rig) model number?

[Eireann]

The motherboard experienced problems some months ago, leading me to buy a new graphics card. When I look for FireWire in Device Manager, I come up with nothing. No IEEE, no 1394, zip.

[emax4]

I just bought an older Gigabyte board with two different FireWire ports on it. I noticed in the BIOS that these could be turned on or off, AND they're clearly labeled in the BIOS too. I say this because the Gigabyte board lists audio as "Azalia". When I had this turned off I had no idea why I couldn't get any audio output, but I rebooted, checked the settings & adjusted them, and it worked.

When you boot your machine, most motherboards or "mobos" will have you press F12 or Delete repeatedly to get into them. Was this a system built piece-by-piece or store-bought? If It was piece-by-piece (I remember you had one before), chances are the BIOS gives you more options and flexibility than a BIOS from a store-bought one. The store bought one limits you so you don't run the risk of damaging the board or processor.

[Eireann]

My computer is store-bought, though it has a different hard drive now, and a new graphics card due to the aforementioned motherboard problem.

What can I do in BIOS?

[emax4]

What can I do in BIOS?

Even with s tore-bought PC, you can do a lot of things. Like I said, you're still limited though. You can change the boot order (check to see if a system DVD is in the optical drive first, and if not, move on to the hard drive); change the system clock, date & time;

Do a web search on (your PC's model number) and BIOS