Some people have reported very poor performance when copying files to and from external storage devices connected using Firewire on Windows 7 or 8. One possible solution is to change the Windows driver used:
- Open Device Manager
- Expand your IEEE 1394 Host Bus Controllers and Right click on your 1394 device, then choose "Update Driver Software"
- On the new window click on "Browse My computer for driver software", then choose "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer", then select the driver with the word legacy in brackets ([Legacy])