New Mac Mini and Firewire 400 Peripherals

I was first informed by someone from the Moron Bar at the 5th Ave. Mac store that the Mini did not have a Firewire port. Having done my homework, I knew that it it did.I came to test my peripherals with a Firewire 400 to 800 adapter I bought cheaply on Ebay. First I tested my Canopus ADVC 110 and found that I Movie recognized it as a connected device. Next I tested my Panasonic PVDV401 Palmcorder. The battery was low but the power was on. I Movie did not recognize it. I tried to test my 2007 Sony DVD/CD Rewritable Drive DRX-830UL-T but the salesman refused to let me plug it in. Instead he tried to sell me the new USB DVD drive that replaces the SuperDrive. "Only $69" he insisted. So, I could not test the machine which both plays and records CDs and DVDs with Toast. The machine was a MacWorld Top Product but the salesman was afraid it would destroy the Mini's files. I do not know whether it works with the new Mini or not.

If your Sony drive is USB, chances are it will work with the Mac Mini. It is an older drive but it should be USB 2.0 capable. The Mini they had in the store was likely the latest model which is a Late 2012 model. (The Mini has not seen an update is quite some time.) And by the way, the Firewire port on the Mini is FW 800 not 400 so you will need an adapter for any devices that are FW 400. (Which I see that you already have.)

Try a different Apple Store. The employee should not have interfered with your testing of your peripherals, as the machines are re-imaged if anything is damaged. I would have a word with the manager about that.

chscag-- If you read my post carefully, you would see that I did come with an adapter -400 to 800, and the Sony, was Firewire 400. The problem was that the salesman would not let me plug in, telling me a power source was not available at that time. Rather, he insisted on pitching the new machine. Chas-m, thanks for telling me the employee should not have interfered with my testing of my peripherals. Maybe I'll go back there.

I noted you had the adapter (at the end of my reply). By all means, go back to the 5th Ave Apple Store and speak to another sales person about plugging the drive in. Also, Apple Store employees have to be aware at all times about what's going on with the equipment that's on display. Most Apple Stores are "Mad Houses" especially on weekends and now with students on Summer vacation.

But as I told you in my previous reply, if it's a USB connected DVD drive, then it very likely will work. I have several external DVD drives that I keep here in my home office and none are Apple branded.

Thanks for your reply. It will be helpful to quote it if I have the time to go back the 5th Avenue store. In the afternoons during the work week, it's less of a madhouse. I neglected to mention that the salesman I first encountered told me I would need to buy the machine before I tested my peripherals. I answered "Nonsense I was here last week testing" and headed for the Mac Mini. The week before I had gone without an adapter, Returning with my adapter, I met this resistance. It seemed to me they were trying to push product instead of help the customer. I am already sold on buying a new Mac so they didn't need to do that. I only needed to know if my peripherals would work with it. The DVD drive (vintage 2007) does have a USB port but it's not the size and shape of what we now know as USB. And,if Toast, which came with the drive to author DVDs and CDs , isn't installed on the Mini how could I test it? Thanks again.

And,if Toast, which came with the drive to author DVDs and CDs , isn't installed on the Mini how could I test it?

Click to expand...

Chances are if the copy of Toast you have came with the drive (vintage 2007) that it's not going to work with the newer Mac. That version of Toast was probably PPC coded (for older Macs) and will not install on a newer Mac. Mac OS X 10.6.8 was the last version of the operating system which could run apps coded for the older PPC Macs. All Macs are now powered by Intel CPUs and the latest version of OS X will not run the older software.

All that to say... that you will likely need to buy a new version of Toast or some other burning software that will work. There is freeware but none as good as Toast.

Toast and tne Minii

Toast Lite 6 came with the drive but I have been using Toast Titanium 7 which I downloaded from somewhere. The computer is an Intel Mac, the first one made, the first Mini, vintage 2006. It's still a great machine, but if I won't upgrade my OS for fear of losing valuable third party software, I have to buy a new one. I can't even pay bills on line or do an FTP file transfer in OS 10 4.11.