Add FW to usb external HD

[drewsof]

i have a silver/black seagate usb external and i recently opened it up to swap out the drive. i noticed that along with the usb-B port, there were also two spaces for firewire ports cut into the back, hiding under the cover. there are also open holes in the board just begging me to solder. so i was just wondering if this would be worth pursuing, as i am occupying two full usb hubs with peripherals, so a fw device would help lessen the usb conglomerate that is my desk. thanks in advance,
drewsof

 

[DeltaMac]

You might find that the controller board inside that drive case is also lacking the FireWire controller chip, and not just the firewire ports. The drive is available with a FireWire option at the time of purchase, and it's a simple matter to replace the USB-only board with the USB/FireWire controller board. If you engineer one case to take either, then that makes good sense at the manufacturer's level.
You can purchase a drive-less case with FireWire ports, and move the drive out of the Seagate case into that one.

 

[symphonix]

An empty firewire & USB external hard drive case can be picked up for less than the price of a pizza. I'd save the mucking around and just pick one up, put your hard drive into it, and enjoy.