firewire or iLink --> USB

Hi

I have been given a 20GB Freecom external hard drive by a friend who doesn't want it.

Anyway, its only got Firewire and iLInk connections. I have a laptop with USB ports - is there a simple adapter to convert either firewire or iLink to USB? Website selling them in UK?

I don't want a pcmcia adapter as I want to use the drive on other machines with USB.

Any links etc would be appreciated. It'd be a shame to let this drive go to waste.

Cheers
Phil

I've got to say, you're shooting yourself in the foot doing that conversion. You'd probably be better off selling the firewire drive and buying a USB one. You might just come out ahead on the money front.

Matthew

Well it was a long shot! Anyone fancy a swap then? Brand new, never used 20GB firewire drive for USB drive?

Well... How much do you want for the Firewire drive? You can get a USB drive with the money...

- Trevor

Freecom use a 'multi connect cable' system on many of their products. If it has a mini centronics connector on the back of the box, then you can just buy a USB cable for it for about �0„520. Not a clue where you can get it from though.

Alternatively, if you want to use it with a desktop PC only, you can get firewire PCI cards for less than �0„515 now.

Didn't know that the Freecom drives were that fancy.

Just had a look and Dabs, eBuyer and Insight all do sell the cables. I'm assuming it's a series II drive as that's the only one that does Firewire. They're all about £35 so you may need to have a dig around more to see if you can find it cheaper anywhere else though.

- Trevor

The way I see it is I have a 20GB drive for free. I'll just buy a PCMCIA card for the notebook, and a pci firewire card for the desktop. £50 tops by looking at eBAY.

Thanks for the input.

Phil