Firewire questions

Firewire questions

I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S1492 with a 4 pin firewire connection.

I just bought a Maxtor onetouch T01W300 with Firewire 800, Firewire 400 and USB-2 ports.

Only Firewire 800 cables came with the Maxtor unit.

On the back of the Maxtor there is a USB port like you'd find on the back of a printer, 1 6-pin Firewire (400/800?) 2 Firewire 800 ports (know that because they say the cable is supplied)

Can I use FW 400 & 800 interchangeable with my laptop?

How can I find out if I have FW 400/800 on my laptop.

What are my choices of the connections on the Maxtor that can be used with my 4-pin FW my laptop.

Hope I'm making some sense since I'm unfamiliar with firewire.

Looking at the specifications for the device gives the following information in regard to the two differnt firewire connections so it would eem the laptop or any other device for that matter would need to support version B to get the higher speed connection.

Quote:

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USB and IEEE 1394 ports are hot-pluggable. The latest versions of these ports, such as USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 a, and IEEE 1394 b, provide high bandwidth and data transfer performance to the external hard drive. There are also products utilizing SCSI or SATA for special applications as well. The interface is another factor that affects the performance of an external hard drive as different interfaces provide different bandwidths and data transfer speeds.

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http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1097/image03om9.jpg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Catego...eId=200#topic3

The manual for the laptop whilst it doesnt specify which firewire [i-link] it is looks to be the A version.
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/9510/toshibaxy0.png

I dont use firewire/i-link/IEEE 1394 myself but looking on the net suggests there are 4 pin to 6 pin cables and 6 pin to 6 pin.I would suggest you need the former to use the slower firewire port or you can connect wih USB cable should you desire.

WOW 104456.

I have never received a more comprehensive post.

Guess there's nothing else to say on the subject except.....thanks.