My Ex. Drive is plugged into my USB 3.0 port. I don't think it works with FireWire. Different end, right?
I've made the mistake of reading the FTM emails only sometimes and then found out they don't always contained the whole post, so I stopped doing that.
At the risk of sounding sexist, your ignoring my posts because it's too early to deal with it is such a guy thing!! But thanks for explaining silence on some issues. I AM agonizing and wish I knew so much more and didn't have to ask all the time, even after doing my research first. And when explanations don't make sense to me I feel like a dunce.
1. USB and FireWire are completely different protocols (right word?) that use unmistakably different connection ports, and since your external connects via USB you won't have to buy a FireWire to USB adaptor to go along with a new MBP.
2. I read every post at FTM, so I don't bother with emails, but I used to get them back in the MFIF (same software) days, and I stopped, because they came as "quotes", i.e. including all the [xxx] formatting, and were virtually impossible to read.
3. At the risk of sounding equally sexist, then, I'll say that lack of pragmatism and focus must, accordingly, be girl things.
I can't say that you're putting the cart before the horse, because there is no horse; you can't decide which MBP you want or from whom you want to buy it, much less bring yourself to order it, and you're totally distracting yourself from the business at hand by agonizing over what you're going to do with your current MBP and external once you've got it, not to mention that
waaay deep down inside you
maaay even be dealing with the very strong possibility that there's probably nothing wrong with your current MBP that necessitates your spending ~$1000 for a new one.
Do yourself a favor, and either get a new MBP or try to resuscitate your current one, put off worrying about anything else until you've got a fully functional machine one way or the other, and when you're past that issue you'll be far better able to focus on others.
Sorry; it's a bartender thing.
Oh, and never forget that we're all here to help and never judge anybody poorly for wanting to learn and asking intelligent questions in the process.
