External Hard Drive

[Mousebaby (Premo)]

Originally Posted by GWguy

Actually, if you do research these, some DO have better transfer rates than others, USB being equal. Sometimes it's significant. Combination of the drive used (Maxtor vs Seagate vs Hitachi....) and the electronics used. Different vendors use the same drives, so find out what drive is actually being used.

I have LaCie drives (Seagate HD). Been using them for years with no issue. Currently have 3 500 Gb D2 drives and a 250. And I put one of the 500 Gb drives to the acid test last night. I was moving things around and knocked one drive off the table onto the floor, 3 feet. It was not a gentle drop. Powered it up and ran diagnostics, all was fine. Didn't skip a beat. It was powered off when it fell. If it had been spinning, I'm not so sure I would have been so lucky.

I knew that was a faster way to go, but I was not sure of his/her computer knowledge. I went for the firewire because it was just easier to deal with in the long run for what I wanted it for.

[rwethereyet (Premo)]

Originally Posted by Mousebaby

I knew that was a faster way to go, but I was not sure of his/her computer knowledge. I went for the firewire because it was just easier to deal with in the long run for what I wanted it for.

I honestly don't know. I have a toshiba laptop. How can I find out if it's a firewall connection?

[dn0121]

what is the model number? or look at it and see if it has this.

[Gwydion]

Originally Posted by GWguy

Actually, if you do research these, some DO have better transfer rates than others, USB being equal. Sometimes it's significant. Combination of the drive used (Maxtor vs Seagate vs Hitachi....) and the electronics used. Different vendors use the same drives, so find out what drive is actually being used.

I am confused....explain?

[dn0121]

Originally Posted by Gwydion

I am confused....explain?

some USB drives are faster then others.

[Gwydion]

Originally Posted by dn0121

some Usb drives are faster then others.

Right, but damn near all Firewire throughput is faster than all USB throughput, regardless of drivers.

[dn0121]

Originally Posted by Gwydion

Right, but damn near all Firewire throughput is faster than all USB throughput, regardless of drivers.

but he was talking about USB and the speed of the USB interface being equal. the drives themselves can be faster.

[Gwydion]

Originally Posted by dn0121

but he was talking about USB and the speed of the USB interface being equal. the drives themselves can be faster.

Ahh, I see what happened. I was afraid the OP was assuming Mousebaby's comp was faster because of the brand, as opposed to the USB/Firewire part...so I was pointing out that it was faster because of Firewire, not the brand.

[GWguy]

Ok guys, some specs.
PC World - Mobile Computing Tips: FireWire vs. USB FAQ
Firewire is not faster. Firewire is 400Mb/s, USB 2.0 is 480Mb/s.

The point I was making about the drives was that you can buy a SimpleTech drive, but it will use a name-brand HD. LaCie uses Seagate (or is it Western Digital...) IBM uses Hitachi. Maxtor will use Maxtor. Western digital uses Western Digital. Each and everyone of these drives will have different performance specs, and some can outperform others in thruput and read/write operations. This is THE DRIVE ITSELF, not the interface. The rotational speed of the drive is highly important. The faster the drive spins, the faster it can read/write. A rotational speed of 7200 rpm will approach the boundary of thruput for a USB device. A rotational speed of 10,000rpm is usually used in servers where high throughput is critical. The home user CAN see a difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm drives, assuming the PC is up to it.

Ok, now couple the DRIVE performance with the USB and other electronics to connect the drive to your PC, and you have another point for degraded performance. Not all electronics are the same, not all devices are built to the same spec. Get a USB drive with a speed of 5400rpm and low-cost electronics, and it will be a dog.

[dn0121]

ya, thats what i said without all the geek behind it lol

but firewire is faster

FireWire vs. USB 2.0 - Speed Comparison

or

FireWire - USB Comparison

FireWire vs. USB 2.0 - Architecture


*

FireWire, uses a "Peer-to-Peer" architecture in which the peripherals are intelligent and can negotiate bus conflicts to determine which device can best control a data transfer

*

Hi-Speed USB 2.0 uses a "Master-Slave" architecture in which the computer handles all arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from and between the attached peripherals (adding additional system overhead and resulting in slower data flow control)

FireWire vs. USB 2.0 Hard Drive Performance Comparison
Read and write tests to the same IDE hard drive connected using FireWire and then Hi-Speed USB 2.0 show:

Read Test:


* 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 33% faster than USB 2.0
* 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 70% faster than USB 2.0

Write Test:


* 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 16% faster than USB 2.0
* 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 48% faster than USB 2.0