Can I use an older LaCie rugged hard drive with USB 2.0 and Firewire 800 with a new MacBook Air? This question was asked a while ago, but no one suggested USB micro B to USB 3 adapter, which works great and prevents needing to buy a new external hard drive.
Yes, of course, you can use an older LaCie rugged hard drive with USB 2.0 and Firewire 800 with a new MacBook Air, which runs slower than USB 3.0 in reading&writing data. After all, USB 1.1 is able to reach the top speeds of 12Mbps, 2.0 to 480Mbps, 3.0 to 5Gpbs, and 3.1 to 10Gbps.
If you don't mind the reduced writing&reading speed of your old LaCie external hard drive, connect it to your new-coming MacBook Air for storage work immediately!
Want to install macOS on VMware to run it from a non-Apple hardware? Here are the steps to install any macOS on VMware on a Windows PC.
This post introduces icdd, explains why it uses high CPU on Mac, and provides steps to remove or disable it.