Will a firewire 400 external HD work in a 800 firewire port?

RE: 20" iMac MA876LL/A

Will a Maxtor 500 GB One Touch 4 Plus external hard drive work in the firewire 800 port [it is designated as a firewire 400 unit].

I need to also use an M-Box 2 Pro unit which is designated as a firewire 400 unit

Thanks for your kind assistance.

I don't think so. I believe the cabling are different between the firewire 400 and the 800.

Apart from the cabling being different as rman says, the ports and connectors aren't the same size or shape either.

There are adapters available to convert Firewire 400 to Firewire 800.
Something like this link