USB Hard Drives

[Mikkey91]

are USB Hard Drives good? Do they act like regualar hard drives?

 

[eplebnista]

Here is a link to a USB hard drive review. Below is an excerpt from page 2 of the review.



<< Out of the box, the USB hard drive is ready to go. All you have to do is install the drivers and plug it in. Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP will automatically detect the drive and assign a drive letter. It's really that easy. Heck, you don't even need to format the drive! Now that is simple! >>



hth,
eplebnista

 

[bacillus]

if you intend to get one , go for one that's usb 2 & not usb1.1, for faster transfer of data.
you'll also need a usb2 port on your pc to take advantage of the usb2 hdd! 🙂

 

[Eug]

Consider only USB 2 or Firewire. A firewire card is about US$30 and a Firewire housing with Oxford 911 chip is around US$120.

A USB 1.1 hard drive would be like pulling teeth. It's so painfully slow.

Think about it.

ATA33 drive: 33 MB/s. There are drives that are faster than ATA33 now.
Firewire drive: 35 MB/s
USB 2 drive: comparable to above
USB 1.1 drive: 1.5 MB/s

EDIT:


<< Here is a link to a USB hard drive review. Below is an excerpt from page 2 of the review. >>


Eek! That USB drive couldn't even hit 0.7 MB/s peak! That's barely faster than even the ultra slow USB zip drive. In contrast, the IBM ATA100 drive hit 42.4 MB/s, with an average read speed of 32+ MB/s. Why Firewire (or USB 2) is good: From reviews, several Firewire drives have been shown to go over 30 MB/s.

 

[eplebnista]

I am aware that the article I linked to was rather outdated(10/2001), as I meant it as an answer to the general question of ease of use and not a product recommendation.


My $.02,
eplebnista

 

[corkyg]

Agree with Bacillus and Eug. Don't spend today's money on yesterday's news. I have both Firewire and USB 2 installed . . . and as far as ease of use, drivers, and hardware availability, Firewire still rules. They even have hubs for it. 🙂 (See my query on USB 2.0 hubs, this forum.)