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Firewire to USB Adapter
Let's say that you have a firewire device but only USB ports available on your computer - what do you do? Here are some of your options.
Unfortunately there is no simple adapter that will convert firewire to USB (or vice versa). Recently there was a company out of Japan (Pixela Corporation) selling a Firewire to USB converter that let you connect a Firewire digital video camera to a USB port on a computer, but the product was not stable and was discontinued. To our knowledge nobody is still manufacturing such a product.
The easiest way to get around this is to actually just add a firewire port to your computer. It's easier than you think. Your other option, which might not be cheap but might be more palatable in the long run, is to simply replace the device with a USB device. We know that's not an option for everybody though.
For a desktop
To add firewire ports to your desktop computer you will need to add a Firewire PCI card. You will need to open your computer up, plug this card into an available PCI slot and then put the case back together.
Going into the case can be intimidating for some people, but don't worry - as long as you make sure you are grounded (touch something metal, such as the chassis, after opening the case), you aren't going to do any damage. If you are really worried about static, which can damage the circuits, you should wear an ESD wristband. These are available at places such as RadioShack and shouldn't cost more than a couple of dollars.
For a laptop
To add firewire ports to a laptop you will first need to figure out if your laptop has PCI ports or ExpressCard. Based on the available slots, you will want to add either a FireWire PCMCIA Card or a FireWire ExpressCard. Note that usually you won't have to install any drivers - the operating system should recognize the card and automatically install default drivers which should work great for you.
External Resources
Firewire Cards
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