WD Firewire/USB 2.0 combo external HD

[Rottie]

I know you might think I am dumb after I bought this and not sure what to do with this one so I am curious what do you guys use external hd for? backup? video?

 

[Rottie]

do i need to format ntfs? hd comes with fat32 format

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

How big is the drive? What kind of computer are you going to be using the drive with? If you are going to be using it with Windows computers exclusively then you would probably be ok with formatting it at NTFS.

 

[Rottie]

250GB and laptop has vista HP 32bit on it and desktop runs with winxp pro 32bit

 

[corkyg]

I have at present, six external drives. Two are Firewire. Two are USB/eSATA combo, and two are USB. They are primarily used for digital imagery and data, and two of the six are backups of the other 4. These are distributed between three computers. One is dedicated to laptop backup.

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: corkyg
I have at present, six external drives. Two are Firewire. Two are USB/eSATA combo, and two are USB. They are primarily used for digital imagery and data, and two of the six are backups of the other 4. These are distributed between three computers. One is dedicated to laptop backup.

wow that is alot i wanted to try hook up my laptop via firewire but i found out I need a female to male firewire cable, the one ccome with the box is female to female cable not work with my lappy....will it not damage the external hd with special firewire cable?

 

[corkyg]

Lappy Firewire ports ared generally 3-wire - they do not carry power. Therefore, any external drives connected to that small port have to be self powered.

Come to think of it, I have never seen a female firewire connector on a cable. Just two types of males - 9 pin and 4 pin. Got a picture?

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Lappy Firewire ports ared generally 3-wire - they do not carry power. Therefore, any external drives connected to that small port have to be self powered.

Come to think of it, I have never seen a female firewire connector on a cable. Just two types of males - 9 pin and 4 pin. Got a picture?

I didnt have a chance to take a picture of my laptop but I can give you a link to my laptop specification laptop ports

and external hard drive here

 

[corkyg]

OK - your laptop has a 4 pin Firewire port (non-powered.) And, the external HDD has a 6 pin Firewire port, but also has its own power brick. You can connect to your laptop's FW port with the 6 to 4 pin cable, or, a standard USB cable.

I'll add a picture of the two connectors soon.

OK - here's a quick shot of the two cable connectors. This is a 6 to 4 pin Firewire cable:

Cable

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: corkyg
OK - your laptop has a 4 pin Firewire port (non-powered.) And, the external HDD has a 6 pin Firewire port, but also has its own power brick. You can connect to your laptop's FW port with the 6 to 4 pin cable, or, a standard USB cable.

I'll add a picture of the two connectors soon.

OK - here's a quick shot of the two cable connectors. This is a 6 to 4 pin Firewire cable:

Cable

yeah that is what I am looking for and thought I ask before buying one I dont want to fried either both laptop or external hdd as I found out the external hdd is out of warranty as I bought it from local computer show so Western Digital does not offer one