First, I don't have a case. I'm very sorry if I didn't I'd be happy to give it to you.

I know I'm about to get thumped, because it always happens when I make statements in a public forum.

I believe that Firewire is an Apple developed system with is more than likely the reason that they require the start-up disk to be Firewire rather than USB. Also Firewire is actually faster than USB.