Unable to connect FireWire hard drive to laptop; help?

[lanimilbus]

I recently got a LaCie FireWire 100GB+ external hard drive so that I could back some of my files up and free up some space on my computer, but after opening it, connecting the power supply and turning it on, I realized that the cable that connects the hard drive to the computer won't fit in any of the ports on my laptop. I thought all I needed was a USB connection to make it work, but apparently not, since it won't fit in any of the USB ports. According to the manual, the cable that comes with the hard drive is a "FireWire 6-pin to 6-pin cable." Both ends of the cable are identical, and while they fit into the port on the hard drive, they don't even come close to fitting any of the ports anywhere on my laptop, no matter what angle I try to plug it in at. My laptop is a HP Pavillion zv6000, if that helps.
So, my question is, is there some kind of 6-pin-to-USB adapter I could buy, or any other part, cable or accessory that I could purchase that would successfully get the hard drive to work with my laptop? I searched google and various other sites but didn't really come across any clear matches, which makes me think that it can't be done, but I just wanted to check here first to make sure that there's not something I can do before I give up completely and return the hard drive.
Thanks in advance for any help,

-Alec

 

[Didou]

You should have done a bit of research before purchasing the hard drive. With that being said, your best bet (other then returning the drive) would be to get a Firewire PCMCIA card such as any of these.

 

[lanimilbus]

Well, it was given to me as a gift last Christmas, so until now I assumed it would work fine with my laptop, given that the person who gave it to me is pretty knowledgable with computers. Returning it would be possible, but rather difficult, as I would have to contact the person who gave it to me, have him find the receipt, tell me where he bought it, and then try and get a refund from them, assuming it's still under warranty...so, if at all possible, I'd like to not have to deal with that and make what I already have work.
Although $75.00 for a simple adapter seems a little pricy, especially since the hard drive itself cost only about $90 - 100. Is there any other way to make it work, or any other adapter I could buy that's cheaper (say, in the under-20-dollars range?)?

 

[Didou]

Laptops are limited since you cannot add PCI cards so you're left with USB (USB to Firewire dongles do not exist to my knowledge) or PCMCIA. If you look outside newegg or go to your nearest computer shop, I'm sure you could find Firewire PCMCIA cards for something around $30 or so.