Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Peripherals USB 3 Cable Question

I have two OWC external drives that I used for Time Machine and Super Duper backups. I had a Firewire cable from my iMac feeding one OWC drive and a short firewire cable linking the two drives.

My new machine is USB 3 with the A-Type connectors. However, the USB 3 connectors on the OWC drives are the Micro B.

I would like to stick with the idea of only using one output from the iMac so I plan to feed one drive with a cable that is A-Type to Micro B. To feed the second OWC drive I am thinking of connecting them with Firewire to Firewire. Will that work?

I tried that (or something similar) once, and I had no luck; you can daisy-chain the FireWire drives, but apparently the entire chain including the final "to computer" connection must be FW.

More: It may be time for an inexpensive hub.

I was afraid it'd be something like that....one more item on the table top. Ah well....off to the hub store.

Hmmm... This just occurred to me.

I think Thunderbolt supports daisy-chaining, so I wonder if you can connect drive to drive with a FireWire cable with the final drive to iMac connection via FireWire to Thunderbolt (if there is such a thing)?

More: Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter

You could use the Thunderbolt to Firewire adaptor Artie suggest from the iMac and simply plug your existing Firewire cable into that. The Thunderbolt to Firewire adaptor costs $30 and a good USB 3 hub costs $15, but either option would be easily fast enough to handle your drives your drives.

If you are an overachiever or a gadget freak for $219 you could get an OWC Thunderboolt 2 Dock and get

• Dual Thunderbolt 2 ports for daisy chaining
• An Ultra HD—4K display port
• Five USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports includint two high power charging ports
• Firewire 800 port

and plug in the world.