4-pin Firewire Connector

[Jakob Jung]

Hello!

I recently asked about finding out if I have usb 2 on my system. The reason
for this is that I am thinking of buying an external harddrive for my dell
inspiron 8200 laptop. I have discovered that my pc doesn't have usb 2, but
it does have firewire. My question is: Will an external harddisk work with a
4-pin firewire connection since this does not supply power? (I have an ipod
which I connect using firewire, but it has to run on battery power to be
able to connect to the firewire port. I have also tested it with a 6-pin
port, and then it recieves power from the pc) If so, which harddisks do you
recommend?

Thanks

Jakob

 

[kony]

Hello!

I recently asked about finding out if I have usb 2 on my system. The reason
for this is that I am thinking of buying an external harddrive for my dell
inspiron 8200 laptop. I have discovered that my pc doesn't have usb 2, but
it does have firewire. My question is: Will an external harddisk work with a
4-pin firewire connection since this does not supply power? (I have an ipod
which I connect using firewire, but it has to run on battery power to be
able to connect to the firewire port. I have also tested it with a 6-pin
port, and then it recieves power from the pc) If so, which harddisks do you
recommend?

Thanks

Jakob

It's fairly easy to find enclosures that get power from a PS2 port
pass-through cable (plugs into PS2 port alone or before the keyboard)
or a USB pass-through cable. These cables only take power from those
ports and still use firewire for data transfer.

With a 3.5" drive caddy you'd have a power supply internal to it, or
an external AC/DC adapter brick, but I'm assuming you want it portable
so that restricts you to the 2.5" laptop drives, which generally
consume similar enough power that you could buy whichever you want.

Newegg caries quite a few, with detailed pictures so you can usually
see which cables are included if the description isn't sufficient.
Granted you may have to purchase somewhere else but Newegg might
provide the best pictures to see models also available at your
preferred vendor.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?submit=list&catalog=92


Dave