You can still get notebooks with Firewire.  For instance, my Thinkpad T520 has one.  Although it's a Ricoh chipset, haven't used it with the FF400. 

You should have checked before buying the notebook

Anyway, you probably want something like this:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw800 … ard34.html
I'm not sure which one would be best, perhaps someone here can suggest a particular card?

You cannot convert firewire into USB, that's not possible.  Also keep in mind Windows 8 and firewire is a tricky beast, so your milage may vary.

Your laptop doesn't have any expresscard slots?

Look for refurbished or mint HP Elitebook on Ebay, 8500, 8700 series with w at the end of model number. There are bunch of i7 models. They have an expresscard slot, and I believe FW with TI chip. Or, buy USB interface like RME UC/UCX. New HP Elitebook is sold with Win 8, but downgradable to Win 7. Sounds like Vista, downgradable to XP.

Amazingly i found a high end laptop that by some fluke has firewire. i'm actually buying a crazy Sager through xoticpc. the Sager N9170. you can customize what you want in it.

still, in reviews of it everyone was surprised or even confused to see a firewire port (the smaller port size) and they refer to it as 'legacy' technology... meaning it's from the past.

this fireface (using Apple's "firewire") is the only time i've invested in Apple technology and the last time i will.
Ironically i had to buy the fireface because apogee quit supporting windows drivers - they only develop for mac. sad.

i'll get to use my fireface a few more years and then that will be it.
recently i started running my apogee mini-me through the fireface via the S/PDIF and it's amazing! the mini-me does sound better on my voice than the fireface but only a little.
they're colored differently i guess.

alright... crisis averted for the moment. RME now develops for USB (3 i assume?) as we look forward.